Keep Them Coming

by Bill Roberge

Some good news, now that we have had time to process some of the paperwork from the Summer Hummer, I am happy to say we have signed up 45 new members and 52 renewals from that event alone. The Hummer is not just a fundraiser, as you can see it is a huge membership drive. Our membership numbers for the last two months have been looking better. I think everyone is making an effort to recruit new members, and I thank you for that. Of course, the truth is we need many more, but with the effort I have seen in the last several months, I have hope we will get to where we need to be. Remember, if one person is telling you something it is easy to ignore, but if 10,000 people are telling you the same thing, you may want to listen. Having a strong united voice is what keeps ABATE going while other organizations fall by the wayside. We need to have that united voice and the best way to do that is to keep up on the issues by attending meetings and reading the newsletter articles.

We have had some concern by members about the renewal notice coming to them from a Wild Apricot website rather than from ABATE of Wisconsin’s website. It’s not spam or a scam. It is just the way our new membership program works. Please make sure you inform Marie at the office if you have had a change in your physical address or your email address. She gets a lot of not-deliverable mail returned to her and it takes a lot of our time tracking you down and correcting our records. A good way to check that we have the correct information for you, is to go directly into your ABATE profile. You can get there from our ABATE website. In a few clicks, you can be sure that everything is accurate.

Speaking of new members, here’s something to concentrate on when once you’ve brought in a new member. Call it the first in your mentoring series – Get to know the new member. Asking a few simple questions will go a long way towards giving you more tools to make the new member feel comfortable with us. By knowing what they like, you have a better idea of leading them towards ABATE activities that they will enjoy. Ask simple questions like “What do you ride? Do you like to ride in small groups, large groups, or by yourself? Just thought I’d ask because we have a couple of different rides set up for the summer….” Another approach might be “Ever been to a swap meet? Want to check out the swap meet next week? We have a group going over, you’d fit right in.” … or “Where do you work? You make business cards? Great, can you bring me some samples to the next meeting?”

Keep those memberships coming, and whatever you do, keep those new members engaged in your meetings and be sure they have fun. It can be the start of a lifelong friendship. I know that from experience.

Bill