recruitment of new fencers

[mlr2fence]

Our club is looking to recruit new fencers. Any innovative ideas that work for your club?

[CvilleFencer]

Some things that have worked for us or others.

Contact all the weekly/daily newspapers in your area and see if they list events or classes. If you spin it right, you can get a write up in a paper and that brings in a good amount of business. I would recommend against trying to get several articles done at once, as you want to be able to have an article run for the next time you need to bring up numbers as well so try to space them out.

Do a web search for local community calendars and get listed on every one that you can.

Contact the local NPR and radio stations, and follow the advice for newspapers above.

Contact local TV stations and follow the NPR and newspaper advice. Local media is often hungry for community interest storys.

Contact local shopping malls and see if you can have a small tourney or demo on a weekend. Most will let you use the space for free, so you just need to have people standing around to hand out info on your club and answer questions in addition to fencing.

Contact local schools/scouts/church or police youth programs and see what you can set up. You never know what you can do till you ask, but be flexable.

A good website with program info is a must. Make sure you have good keywords so that people can find you.

A yellow pages add is not a bad idea, but plan on getting calls from people wanting you to install chain link. At best you will be listed in the martial arts section.

Make sure you are a current USFA member and that you are on their and your division web site so people can more easily find you.

Hope some of that helps.