How do other Civic Societies recruit members? We have a wide approach and will do almost anything to persuade people to sign up but I would be interested to learn of any “success stories” or case studies perhaps to show us any innovative ways. I am sure we are not the only group who have a slightly older membership than we would like.

Decide whom you want and need to recruit. Identify who is likely to join your group and who is missing that you would like to attract. Try to be as specific as possible. For example: young people, African Americans, recent immigrants. To build the most powerful movement possible your Civic Society should represent all of the diversity in our communities. Does your group include young and old members? Once you have defined your target audience, set specific goals in terms of how many new people you want to involve, and brainstorm strategies that might reach those groups of people and make your group more inviting to them.

This may sound a lot of work but I would encourage any group who is about to start a membership drive to have an appropriate strategy in place. Your results will significantly improve if you do so. I am speaking from experience the membership numbers in our group have increased for the 3rd year running.

Thanks susanw for your thoughts on this important topic.

We are also struggling to recruit anyone under 50 and our membership is starting to fall.

The OP asked for any “success stories”, so would we.
I did spot an good article in a recent Grass Roots.

However, any other contributions to this discussion would be most welcome.

Barry Thomas
Melbourne Civic Society, Derbys.