We Are Doing a Pretty Good Job

by Bill Roberge

We are doing a pretty good job of recruiting new members. Of course, we can always do better but many of you are making the effort. Thanks for that.

What I want to talk about this month is retention and involvement of new members. The Regional Reps need to lead the way in this effort. If you have a member that has expired their membership you may want to contact that person and find out if they just forgot to renew or if they have some sort of a “problem” that is preventing their continued involvement in ABATE. I think if it’s done in a proper way, showing concern for their situation and not just asking for their money, you may have more success than you think. Some regions have done this as a group and have had good results.

The other thing is to get new members involved and let them know they are important to ABATE and its success. Some regions have a person that greets members at every meeting. It is very easy to get focused on the business at hand and not take the time to get to know that new member in the room who might be wondering what they got themselves into this time. Get to know that new member, give them a call to invite them to the next meeting, or hook up and ride to the meeting together.

To help you with this I will be sending every active Regional Rep a list of current / new and expired members each month. It is very important to keep our membership information private and under control. The lists will be sent only to the Regional Reps and it will be their responsibility to see who uses it. Make sure you don’t leave this private list lying around for anyone to see.

So, remember privacy, retention, and involvement. Every member – get one member and we will be a force to protect our way of life. Our records show we are losing an alarming number of first-year members. They join and are never seen again. It seems harder to keep a new member than to find one. Let’s see what we can do to change that.

Bill