Membership Officers from nine of South Lancashire’s Soroptimist clubs attended a workshop on the theme of ‘recruitment and retention’.
Regional training events are always popular – ideal opportunities for targeted discussion, for updates and for the sharing of good practice.
Margaret Davies, the Region’s Membership Officer, organised the event. One topic was the ‘time for reflection’ session which, ideally, should be included in each club’s annual programme. It enables each member to feel actively involved in her club’s development. Officers might wish to pave the way for the session by issuing a short questionnaire, which can be anonymous – to encourage members to be honest! Responses can be quite illuminating, and certainly would fuel discussion at the main session.
Working in groups the officers looked at a variety of other topics including retention of members (making them feel valued and supported); the cost of meetings (and how to help members manage their financial commitments to their club); and strategies to prevent new members feeling isolated (mentoring, listening skills, ‘job’ talks, etc).
Margaret said, “The evaluation sheets indicated that officers found the workshop helpful and stimulating – and they certainly enjoyed the opportunity to get together with members from other clubs.
“I must thank Liz McConnell (Regional President) and my colleagues on the Regional Executive Committee who came to support the event. They enjoyed the networking, too.”