Recruiting tip #25

Some of my thoughts are:

1. You have to be sold on the whole barbershop scene yourself-music, performing, camaraderie.

2. You have to like people.

3. You have to have barbershop as a significant part of your personality and it has to show through.

4. Play the high percentages-those who you know who have a strong interest in music, e.g., fellow choir members, work associates who you know like to attend music functions.

5. After you succeed in getting them to give it a try, pick them up and take them the first several times; introduce them to as many people as possible (there is usually someone in the group with a similar vocation or something in common.) Picking them up is critical.

6. Follow up, follow up, follow up.

7. Include their family in some function, if at all possible, early in the game.

8. I have had the most success with people who have recently moved into the community, before they get involved with every other organization in town.

9. Time their first visit with the night you know the chapter is going to have a good, planned program.

10. Follow up, follow up, follow up.

Our chapter is planning a four-week membership drive mid-September to mid-October, with special emphasis on the fun of learning new music, culminating in an Oktoberfest for all the new recruits, wives, kids and, of course, our regular members. The Oktoberfest includes the new songs in a mini-show so the spouses can see what's been going on Wednesday nights. This intense effort gained a number of new members last year.

We've found that membership drives should be done first-class or not at all, because sometimes we have wasted a potential member because the first night he came was a bummer of a practice night.