Promote local clubs??

[wingnut]

I'm curious, what have others done to promote your local club? We teach at our local YMCA (they give us free space for classes, tournaments, etc, so it works out well).

We seem to have a lot of people interested in the beginning classes, but few continue on.

I'm curious what other clubs have done to retain those new members, and to get the word out to the city/town about the club in general.

Thanks!

[Chafunkta]

We post flyers around town in places like libraries, high schools (if they let us), and at the local college. We also put ads in local magazines. Another helpful thing you can do is put on demonstrations where ever you can. Ask high schools and anybody who seems like they may be slightly interested in a demonstration. Make it coincide with a school's history lesson on the Rennaissance, or some other sword-related lesson.

As far as retaining club members goes, I'm pretty sure f.net is at a consensus that it's just not going to go well. If you keep 20% of your class, you're doing very good.

There are a lot of other threads on this, by the way. Try a search.

[S. Richardson]

I was lucky, because when I placed an ad in the local paper looking for other fencers to start a club a reporter picked it up an wrote a feature story on it (as I rather suspected the paper would). Now that we're established I've had T-shirts printed so the club members become walking billboards and I'm going to invite the reporter to come back and spend an evening with us. I've also just moved us to the local community center where we will be included on the schedule and the quarterly newsletter. The important thing is just to keep the club in people's minds and to make them aware you exist.

[chefencer]

It wouldn't hurt to make sure you're here:

fencing.net now has a database of fencing clubs searchable by zip code

[Namir]

First, the internet is my clubs bestfriend, I run the site, (http://JFC.greatnow.com) and it probably brings in a quarter of our class alone. Simply because people find it on the division website.

We have also been sucessful bringing in members when we do manage to make the paper. We try to bring the paper down for tournaments and other features.

We too also put flyers up and around, currently, The Local College, Middle Schools, and all the county's libraries.

We have also been looking at the idea of demonstartions during highschool halftimes.

For retaining members communication is key. We have the website, phone numbers, a message board, and an email list. The email list is particularily usefull for bringing back fencers who we once had.

Also, We get our space free from a public Charter Academy. Use The Local Highschools afterschool program account plan which allows us to actually borrow money no intrest.

For retaining students... my club does far better than 20%... which is IMHO a very sad number... We probably keep closer to 60-70% of our students from the first class but they do tend to trickle out later, but that's highschoolers for you. It really helps if you try to focus your club on a team spirit sort of aspect. My club all has matching Socks, and traditions, we have partys and so on, get them socialy involved in your club. No one leaves their friends after all. And it dosn't distract lessons or anything...

fencing.net now has a database of fencing clubs searchable by zip code

I am listed in the Zip seach but not the normal Club directory... odd

[Maeve_Mari]

Another way to get the word out about your club and membership is to join into or at least associate with, the local town athletic associations. They usually have scheduled sign-up periods when parents and kids come into a central location (or via web) to sign up for the town offerings.
Being associated with a town/county/city league helps place you in the communities easier.

Go Gophers!

[chefencer]

...Go Gophers!

Gopher Bowl

In my best imitation of KD5MDK...

[DesertFencer]

We've had luck with what's suggested above, with the newspaper being the most successful in terms of attracting new students.

Our club meets at a city operated community center, and they list our club in flyers.

We registered our beginner's class through a community college continuing education program. They list us in their catalog that is published every semester.

[JayhawkPawn]

It wouldn't hurt to make sure you're here:

It sure would be nice if you ever got your emails responded to when you pointed out massive glaring omissions to that search function, but hey, that's not his problem, right?

[chefencer]

It sure would be nice if you ever got your emails responded to when you pointed out massive glaring omissions to that search function, but hey, that's not his problem, right?

Easy Cowboy... I'd imagine it's just a matter of time - as in Craig's spare. I'm sure his "things I should take care of" list is plenty long. Patience is important when one isn't paying for a service...

[Craig]

It sure would be nice if you ever got your emails responded to when you pointed out massive glaring omissions to that search function, but hey, that's not his problem, right?

I've tried to get every change listed in the database. If you haven't had a response after a week, resend it please.

I'm setting everything up now in the new zip code searchable database and will be using that data to populate the other pages within the next 2 weeks.

One of the biggest benefits will be to clubs that have multiple locations. You'll be able to get listed for each location so people can see what classes are actually closest to them. (Not which club officer has a mailing address close to them!)

Craig