Increasing Membership In Rec Sports Clubs..

[gorgie101]

Thought I would pick ya'lls brains for some ideas on increasing membership in our Rec Sports club.

As is stands we get most of our new fencers as drop-in during practice. (Our practice room is right by the entrance so we get lots of watchers) We have posted flyers in the dorms and around campus and even put an add in the campus paper. We attend all of the new student orientations and our rec sports event day. Despite all of this we only get about 5 new fencers a semester that actually come to practice regularly.

We would love to get people from the community to come and fence but our rec center requires and ID or they have to pay $6 and be sponsored in by a student.

So that is what we have done so far and the result is pretty consistent. What have you done in your clubs that work?

Thanks

J.

[Fencergrl]

I coach at a community centre. They hire me as a contractor to teach classes. I provide all the equipment, and they provide the space, the students and a big cheque at the end of the 8 weeks.

The vast majority of the people who sign up are kids. Kids love fencing. If you are not going after this demographic you are missing a big chunk of the market.

[gorgie101]

We are not really accessable to youth becuase we are a University club. If a faculty or staff member has a Rec Center pass for their family then we could bring in youth. Right now our main concern is just keeping the club self sustaining. We are not retaining enough students to keep our numbers up to snuff with the Rec Center. We get our funding from the Rec so the more active members we have the better it is for us.

We are trying to get Fencing offered as a PE class at the University but it is a long process and might not go into effect untill the Spring semester next year. Once we have a class I think getting and keeping members in the club will be better.

I like the idea of using a community center for youth. I might be able to arrange something with the YMCA here in town. They offer lots of youth classes during the summer.

Thanks for the input.

[Fencergrl]

Gotcha... Okay, have you tried offering free/inexpensive workshops. A few hours where people get a small taste of what fencing is like. I do this in the high schools as part of their PE program. PM me if you want details.

[gorgie101]

Thanks for you help. Why is this section of the forum so dead? I know there have to be more rec clubs out there...

[Fencergrl]

Try re-posting in the "Coach Section". This came up for me because I always search "New Posts". Most people ignore this section because it's hardly used.

[gorgie101]

Will Do.

Thanks

[campb1pr]

At the university I went to, and the one I work at, our clubs do two main things that attract new students. First, we take advantage of the student organization fairs that our student affiars staff puts on, and have a table and do a demonstration. Second, within a week of that event (generally about two days later) we do a demo night in the practice room. That is what packs them in. Nothing fancy, but it is scripted all out, and we show them all three weapons, withs guys and girls both fencing. We outline the semester's class for beginners, highlighting the dates when they will start working with weapons, and our end of semester beginner's tournament.

With a clear schedule in front of them, and the excitement of seeing the demo, we generally get about 20-25 beginners to start, and end up with anywhere from 10 to 20 staying after the first semester.

[gorgie101]

Thanks! Never thought about doing a demo day. We have an email announcement system that we could use to announce it to the school. Hmmm...must ponder this new idea.

[campb1pr]

Yeah - we have definitely seen over the years that the college and university age student generally reacts well to seeing fencing. That is how we attract most of our people who wouldn't normally seek us out. We get a few folks each semester who either fenced earlier in life, or are inexorably drawn to "swordplay". Funny enough, those two types are generally the ones who don't end up staying. It's the ones who never thought about it until they saw our folks on stage at student organization night, or in the demo at the gym that stay and become our most productive club members.

Get fencing in front of your new freshman class as often as possible - real live fencing, not just flyers, and you should see some results.

If you have access to a system to email the students of your school - search here and youtube or fencingpictures.com for some nice stills and videos of fencing to attach to or embed in an email. (Make sure to contact owners for permission first!)