Attendees: NC Ira Novoselsky MA; Membership Chairman Bob Richter NJ; Marshall Baker NJ; Hannah Deutch NY; Elliott Donn CT; Irving Finver NV; Henry Frank PA; Judge Sol Gothard LA; Larry Holman PA; Lawrence Kauffman NY; Jack Mandell NJ; Donald Rothman OH; Bob Teitlebaum NV; Al Udell FL; Helene Van Clief NY; Herb Zemble PA
Staff: NED Herb Rosenbleeth; Larry Richardson; Mrs. Bailor; Cheryl Waldman
Subject:Membership
Introduction
As a short personal introduction for those of you who were not on the previous membership teleconference, I am Bob Richter, I am a past NJ Department Commander and a Past National Chief of Staff. I am now the National Membership Chairman. The comments you are going to hear are not some theoretical concepts. Colleagues or I have personally implemented whatever you hear from me, and the results were extremely positive. A little background: A few dedicated JWV'ers and myself took a dormant Post with about 6 inactive members and in a little over 5 years made it the largest and probably most active JWV Post in the country.
When we started, we heard the same laments that you hear today, that veterans are no longer interested in joining; that we are getting too old; that no one wants to be active, and that there are no more available veterans to join. That is what we heard 10 years ago. Sound familiar!!
What made our Post prosper? The answer is that it took lots and lots of work. It can be repeated over and over again if one is serious about getting and keeping members.
We can change all the rules to make obtaining and retaining members easier, but, if you do not work at doing it, nothing will bring sufficient members in to keep us from being irrelevant in the not too far future. However, I would like to limit tonight's discussion to RETAINING MEMBERS. I have spent considerable time in the past on how to obtain new members but have not spent much time on retention.
At this point I am going to review a few statistics, and I ask that you hold off making comments until I open the floor.
I will start off with a summary of our 2009 membership status as of the end of April 1st, which is 4 months short of a full year, as compared to a full 12-month membership year for 2008. Average current membership strength is about 90% of 2008's membership. This is over 2% higher than in past years, and if a last minute effort is made to get more delinquent members to pay, we can finish the 2009 year close to previous year's numbers which is quite an achievement.
The best showing is from the Department of Nevada, which is up 1.6% and is the only department to show a membership growth. The poorest showing is from the Dept of Missouri/Kansas which is down 16%, with Illinois, Florida, Michigan, and New Jersey down ranging from 15.9% to 12%. It behooves each Department and Post to verify their membership strength, as our records at National are sometimes unwittingly flawed, i.e., being delinquent in showing some payment records.
Now this is an ideal time for me to talk about retention:
You need to have interesting meetings with a compelling speaker so members will want to attend. Meetings also have to be interactive, that is have a audience involvement; such as having a veterans' benefit expert available with all necessary forms and then have members identify their problems so they can be assisted with whatever problem they may be having.
Make sure a member of the post is assigned to sit with a new member and engage him or her in conversation to make them feel welcome and wanted. Convince new members to chair a committee and quickly elect them to some office. Let them move up the chairs so that no one has the feeling that a new person can not advance until the old guard dies off.
At the start of a meeting, give everyone a name tag so that people will quickly get to know one another.
I earlier spoke about membership renewals getting close to last year's numbers. Now I will tell you a sure fire way to get payment from a good deal of the dues delinquent members. My Post has over 300 members with at least 75 on average not having paid their dues for 1 to 3 years prior. A special personalized mailing (without labels) is made to those members only.
The letter is personalized, compelling and contains a pre-addressed return envelope to the Post Quartermaster. The return envelope even has the member's name and address in the upper left corner. The return envelope and personal letter are key to success!! For our Post, within a few weeks, over 20% of the delinquent dues are received and in some cases from members who had not paid for 2 or 3 years.
A sample of this letter will be available as part of the minutes of this call. The letter should come from someone known and respected in your Post. TRY IT!! Calling those who have not responded to the letter will get a few more returns. Like anything else that is effective, it takes effort.
Discussion
- For growth and retention Posts can be successful with minimum of protocol and expanded social activities
- Must send letter to all who haven't paid dues
- Important to scrutinize alpha roster and distribute information in usable format to Post commanders
- Good to include e-mail addresses on rosters if possible
- Need ideas to be able to attract younger members
- Should contact military bases to see if have Shabbat services; put up posters
- General announcements at synagogues and ads in paper are often not effective - need more personal touch
- Successful in NJ in sending letters to people with veterans tax exemptions
- Important to assign someone to sit with and mentor new members so they feel at home
- Need to have assignment for new members right away to get them into Post activities quickly
- Must personalize letters to delinquent members and include pre-addressed return envelope
Sample Letter
April 14, 2008
Dear Gerald,
To date, the Post has no record of receiving your membership renewal dues for the year 2007/2008. If you have paid, please call Bob Richter at 856-854-3153, so that Post records can be updated.
If you have not already paid your dues, please do so as we urgently need your membership support, even if you are inactive. With your membership we can more effectively lobby on behalf of our troops and veterans. In the past our voice went mostly unheard, but with the highly publicized needs for our wounded warriors, we now have a more receptive ear.
Without your membership support, JWV looses much of its "Clout" because our politicians understand the power of voting "blocs" or the lack thereof. There is strength in numbers and the numbers are needed at this time (while we have a greater chance of being heard) to keep the pressure on our legislators to provide the best possible treatment for our active duty heroes and to improve the VA health care system.
Please send a Tax Deductible check made out for $45 to JWV Post 126, in the enclosed return envelope. Your dues are a very small price to pay to help those who depend on our Military and Veteran health care systems. Please renew your membership so that we can maximize our leverage while we can. If your dues payment is a financial burden, call Bob Richter for confidential assistance.
As a side note, our Post has been very successful in raising funds so that we have been able to material help our returning soldiers in distress. We are in the process of purchasing $7,000 worth of aquatic rehab equipment for use by those troops. We continue to take wheelchair residents of the Vineland Veterans Memorial Home to the ballpark, we make large donations to families of activated National Guard troops in financial need, and we regularly send "care packages" to our troops in harms way. We also support the Veteran community in many other ways.
I am looking forward to receiving your membership renewal, thus allowing us to do all of the above more effectively.
Sincerely Yours,
Bob Richter (856-854-3153)
National Membership Chairman
