RETENTION

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RETENTION

• Presented by the MD-21 MERL Team

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Why do Members Drop?

• Lengthy/Boring Meetings
• Club Politics/Cliques
• Lack of Involvement
• Not Working Together

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MEETINGS

• Significant part of a Lions Club
• Important for efficient functioning of club
• If you hold effective meetings you will
• Keep members interested
• Keep your club running successfully

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Evaluation

• Start with honestly examining your club
• Dont want to fix what is not broken
• Are your meetings well attended?
• Actions of members
• Interested? Enthusiastic? Bored? Impatient?
• What is atmosphere of meetings?

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Evaluation continued

• Do you have an agenda? Follow it?
• Know some parliamentary procedure?
• Can you handle interruptions?
• Are you enthusiastic?
• Do members participate?
• Are you open for suggestions?

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Listen to your members

• Get opinions from your club members
• Give out a questionnaire to solicit input
• Learn where the problems are
• What are strengths and weaknesses?
• Was your perception the same as your club
  members?
  
• Identify problems and look for strategies to help
  solve.
  

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Good Meetings do the Following

• Accomplish their goals
• Are relevant and interesting for attendees
• Start and end on time

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Basics for efficient, productive meetings

• Being prepared
• Knowledge of parliamentary procedure
• Ability to deal with difficult behavior
• Ability to assert yourself when necessary

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Agenda

• Detailed agenda is crucial for successful
  meeting
  
• Only a few items are necessary
• After basics, include elements that make
  interesting
  
• Make sure to write down time allotment for each
  item
  

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Typical Agenda

• Call to order by president
• Pledge Invocation
• Introduction of guests
• Program
• Reading approval of minutes
• Old business
• New business
• Adjournment

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Analyze your agenda

• Does your agenda reflect your clubs personality?
• Are reports and business kept short?
• Prepare for unexpected
• Dont forget the questions and discussions
• Keys Brief and Relevant

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Club Programs inform or entertain

• Recipients of club service
• Local community leaders
• Local business people
• Cultural organizations
• Club partners LensCrafters, Habitat
• District Lions Committee Chairmen
• Speakers Bureau Service

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Program Pointers

• Consider relevant timing of program
• Always have backup ready
• Let speaker know about your club
• Let speaker know how much time available

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Keep Meeting on Track -President

• Presidents job is keep meeting on track and
  moving
  
• Parliamentary procedure can help to run smooth
  and make fair for all
  
• Maintain control demonstrate your leadership
  skills use gavel
  
• Stay calm and focus
• Refer discussion to a business or board meeting

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Attitude is Infectious

• Your attitude will affect attendees
• Do you enjoy it?
• Are you excited about being a Lion?
• Your feeling will be mirrored in your members
• Enthusiastic and positive vs. Bored and negative

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Presentation Pointers

• Get comfortable with public speaking
• Know parliamentary procedure and your clubs
  Constitution and Bylaws
  
• Project confidence and enthusiasm and you will
  inspire and motivate your club members
  
• Keep things fresh, change order, encourage
  camaraderie

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Implementing Changes

• Involve and inform members about changes
• Explain reason for changes and how it affects
  functions of club
  
• Communicate changes in newsletter, website and
  by phone
  
• Be positive, confident, flexible demonstrate
  concern for members

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Retention

• By having more effective meetings by overcoming
  the lengthy and boring aspects of meeting will go
  a long way to retaining your club members
  
• The second way to retain members is by overcoming
  

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CLUB POLITICS/CLIQUES

• Focus on Club Dynamics

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Retention Challenge

• Are politics getting in the way of club
  business?
  
• Do cliques within the club snub new members,
  making it difficult for them to feel a part of
  the group?
  
• Negative cliques and club politics can leave
  members feeling left out and resentful.
  
• It is a chief reason members drop from clubs.

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Unattractive

• How people fit and how comfortable they feel has
  big impact on club functioning.
  
• Splintered groups or proceeding mired by politics
  can cause members to have a negative experience.
  
• Club is unattractive to new members and does not
  obtain goals

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Start with club evaluation again

• Are there well-defined groups within your club?
• How do these groups interact?
• It is a positive relationship?
• How does it effect club functioning?
• Are new members welcomed warmly?
• Do members feel a part?

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Cliques are not all bad

• Cliques form in large groups typically
• Not all cliques are bad
• People naturally gravitate to those they feel
  comfortable with or know.
  
• If the sub-groups are making some members feel
  left out, they could be detrimental.

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Ways to minimize cliques

• Make members feel like part of whole group
• Keep members focused and involved
• Make members understand goals and objectives of
  club
  
• Implement team-building strategies

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Handling Club Politics

• Build your team need cohesive and productive
  group to help members stay interested and
  involved
  
• Exercise open communication, shared goals, and
  positive reinforcement
  
• Members must know and trust one another work
  together of service activities
  
• Kudos to Club Members Thank you in front of
  other club members builds pride

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Brainstorming Sessions

• A terrific team-building exercise
• Promotes free flow of ideas
• Use in committees or club as whole
• Brainstorm any aspect of club membership
  recruitment, retention, service activities, etc.
  
• All members should participate
• Keep positive, no idea bad, take notes

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Communication

• Open communication is vital
• Team members need to feel that they will be heard
  and input is valued
  
• Members need open forum to discuss issues
• Working through problems helps bring members
  closer together

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Keeping Things Fresh

• Cliques usually form in clubs where things remain
  the same like committees that never change
  
• Cliques become tighter over time making it harder
  for new people to become a part new ideas are
  not accepted
  
• Old members become bored and complacent and new
  members become frustrated and unimportant
  
• There is a need to keep things fresh

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Combat the Cliques with Change

• Rotate committee members every year where
  possible to give people new opportunities
  promotes fresh perspectives
  
• Evaluate club projects and service activities
  after completed to identify areas of improvement
  make notes for next years committee
  
• Change seating arrangements

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Make New Members Feel Welcome

• Warmly welcome new members
• Make sure there is follow up after initial
  introductions
  
• Most new members need period of nurturing to
  really feel a part of the club both socially
  and their involvement (make them greeters)
  
• Proper Induction and orientation is crucial

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Sponsors

• Sponsors must take job seriously
• Job not over after sign up
• Make sure inducted and orientated
• Sponsors must continue to monitor recruits and
  help with problems
  
• Have sponsor report their findings concerning new
  members
  
• Responsibility of all members to involve new
  members and make feel in team

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Use Secret Lion

• Have some fun while encouraging members to mix
  with their fellow members
  
• Before club meeting begins, select a member to be
  Secret Lion. Everyone is to mingle. As the
  meeting nears close, you ask the Secret Lion to
  identify those members who never made contact.
• Tail Twister fines in humorous way.
• Gets no-cliques message across

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Getting Back To Basics

• Clubs that are letting politics interfere with
  proper functioning of the club and causing the
  club not to meet goals, then club is not filling
  service objective.
• Reacquaint club with goals, objectives and
  mission. Create mission statement.
  
• Exercise helps club members to refocus efforts to
  serve community

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Be Strong and Communicate Change

• Call on your leadership skills to exercise
  authority and navigate through the politics of
  the club
  
• Get training in leadership if necessary
• Communicate changes and help them understand
  reasons to gain support which is critical for
  success.
  
• Make that visit or phone call to show you care
  about them and club.
  
• Keep eyes open, club dynamics change.

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FOCUS ON INVOLVEMENT

• Keeping Members Involved in Club

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Retention Challenge

• Lack of meaningful involvement is one of the
  primary reasons members drop out of Lions Clubs
  
• Many reasons Lions join, but chief among them and
  reason most stay, is to volunteer time to help
  those in need.
  
• If dont get, they will look elsewhere to fill
  their need to volunteer.

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Begin With Evaluation Again

• Does your club warmly welcome new members?
• Does your club involve new members in activities
  immediately?
  
• Are important activities and responsibilities
  reserved for certain members?
  
• Have club members held the same committee
  positions for a number of years?

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Club Evaluation Continued

• Do you encourage members to actively voice their
  opinions?
  
• Do you encourage members to become involved in
  activities that interest them?
  
• Do you know your members interests and skills?
• Are club members excited and enthusiastic when
  performing their duties?

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Club Evaluation Continued

• Do any of your members seem bored or restless?
• Has attendance at your meetings dropped?
• Has participation during your service activities
  dropped?

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What are your members interests?

• The key to meaningful involvement is to give the
  members opportunities to serve that they are
  comfortable with.
  
• What are you members skills, interests, and
  goals?
  
• Have members complete a Skills and Interest Form
  and discuss results.
  
• Show you are concerned about their interests.

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Harness New Recruit Enthusiasm

• Get new members involved immediately
• Dont make them feel like they need to wait
  before actually participate
  
• Create atmosphere that encourages diving in and
  participating fully.
  
• (Be careful dont overwhelm and frustrate)

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New Member Involvement

• Identify responsibilities that are important to
  the club, but dont require vast knowledge of
  club functioning to successfully perform.
  
• Match new members skills with task to help them
  get involved.
  
• Communicate with new members, and get sponsors to
  check on them.
  
• Solicit their ideas and get committee chairs to
  do the same.

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Build a Team

• If members feel significant and important part of
  team the will respond positively.
  
• Team building fosters cooperation, enthusiasm,
  and gives your club direction.
  
• Team building requires shared goals, cooperation
  and communication.
  
• Work on develop goals together and socialize
  together to build a stronger team.

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Keep Interest Level High

• Periodically ask members for input
• Rotate committee assignments
• Encourage members to try new challenges
• If small group, put assignments in hat to draw.
• Encourage members to seek leadership roles.

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Encourage Input

• Create a suggestion box
• Hold brainstorming sessions
• Evaluate activities at conclusion
• Have members visit other Lions clubs and get new
  ideas.
  
• Hold a Summit on a topic or area to encourage and
  involve members ideas

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Focus on Working Together

• Smart Strategies for Club Cooperation

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Retention Challenge

• Clubs that are unable to bridge differences and
  unite for a common goal will create dissatisfied
  members.
  
• Is your club providing the needs of your
  members?
  
• Start by analyzing your club

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Observe Your Club

• Do you have a diverse membership base?
• Is there friction between club members? Is it
  hurting club?
  
• Are members comfortable voicing opinions?
• Does your club feel like a unified group? Do you
  have common goals?

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Work Together for Success

• Club members need to work together if club is
  going to be successful.
  
• Most clubs sharing common goal helps members work
  together easily.
  
• In some clubs, clubs must try hard to work
  together effectively.
  
• This is especially true in clubs where the
  membership is evolving.

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Evolving Clubs

• If a club has had many long-standing, dedicated
  members, and there is an influx of eager new
  members, the existing group can feel threatened
  by the likely redistribution of power.
• Allowing this behavior to fester will lead to an
  us vs. them atmosphere the will cause
  resentment and split group which will result in
  effective service.

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Dealing with Diversity

• Diversity is at the heart of LCI
• Men and women is 192 countries
• They are from different backgrounds and are
  various ages, professions and ethnic
  backgrounds.
  
• The associations diversity should be embraced
  and celebrated.

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Appreciating Differences

• All people approach things in different ways, no
  matter whether man or woman, young or old, etc.
  
• We need to take a look at the others point of
  view. (deliberate vs. aggressive and detail vs.
  casual)
  
• Accepting differences will make more cohesive and
  better functioning club.
  
• Approach differences with understanding and
  patience is key to success.
  

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Work Together by

• Avoiding Stereotypes dont make blanket
  assumptions based on gender, race or age.
  
• We need to learn about individual.
• Accepting Change some are threatened by change
  and uncertainty.
  
• Need to reassure that changes are meant to
  strengthen the club.

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New Members

• Its vital that club members attitude toward new
  members be positive
  
• If new members feel unwelcome, they will likely
  drop out and share their negative experience with
  others
  
• The fear of change should not keep you from
  recruiting new members
  
• New members may change composition of club, but
  new members mean new and better ideas for service
  (i.e. Women)

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Establishing Meeting Manners

• Create positive atmosphere by establishing ground
  rules for personal conduct
  
• Guidelines allow members to express themselves
  freely and set the stage for constructive
  discussion.
  
• Ideas for meeting conduct guidelines include

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Meeting Conduct Guidelines

• All members should be treated as equals and
  peers
  
• All members are encouraged to voice their
  opinions on subjects
  
• All members should be encouraged to ask questions
  to clarify what they do not understand of if they
  want further elaboration

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Meeting Conduct Guidelines (cont)

• Members should be allowed to express themselves
  openly and candidly, however, all members must
  understand that personal attacks are not
  acceptable and all members should be treated with
  respect
• When brainstorming no idea considered bad
• Officers should not show favoritism

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Benefits of Diversity

• Fresh Ideas and Perspectives different
  collective life experiences
  
• Better Ability to Serve reach broader spectrum
  of people in need
  
• Develop Personal Relationships develop
  friendships with people not otherwise able to meet

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Finding Common Ground

• No matter what your members backgrounds or
  beliefs, they all have one thing in common the
  desire to serve those in need.
  
• While there are many reasons to become a Lion,
  commitment to community was among them.
  
• Draw on this common ground to solve differences
  in opinions

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Setting Common Goals

• Organizations success clear goals
• Develop a mission statement for your club and set
  yearly goals to help meet the mission
  
• Communicate mission to club members on a regular
  basis to help to bridge the gap of differences
  between members

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Idea Member of the Meeting

• Randomly draw one persons name and that person
  becomes your Member for the Meeting.
  
• The other members need to state one thing they
  appreciate about the member being recognized, and
  no one can repeat what another person has said.
  
• It is a simple way to make a member feel special,
  and stimulates others to think about what they
  admire in this person.

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Dealing with Conflict

• All clubs have conflict at one time or another
• Essential to handle in timely manner
• Broad base comments at meeting will not solve it
• Discuss with parties in relaxed, non-threatening
  manner
  
• Avoid putting anyone on defensive
• Listen and mediate dispute to come to mutually
  satisfying conclusion

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Encouraging Input

• Making all club members feel that they have a
  voice in the club is vital for stimulating
  cooperation among members.
  
• Members should feel free make comments and feel
  that they are valued
  
• Encouraging input with no follow up will create
  frustration

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Ideas for encouraging input

• Create suggestion box
• Hold brainstorming session
• Evaluate activities at their conclusion
• Have members visit area Lions Clubs to get new
  ideas

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Conclusion

• Focus on Meetings and make effective
• Focus on Club Dynamics and handle cliques and
  politics
  
• Focus on Involvement of members
• Focus on Working Together and avoiding conflict
  among members
  
• Then you can retain your members and avoid the
  drops

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THE END