Recruitment of Members 

The survival of Clubs and Class Associations depends on the recruitment of new members.  This section of the site looks at some of the ways in which they can be done.

For clubs to survive, it is necessary for existing members take positive steps to encourage new members to join the club. Of course a happy and active club will generate new members but not to the same extent as a club which takes positive steps to attract new members.

Clubs should ensure that their activities are covered by the club insurance policy.

Recruitment Methods:

• Place advertisements in the local press and shops.
• Prepare literature about the club and its activities which can be made available to non-members.
• Make membership application forms easily available to non-members.
• Encourage visitors. Encourage existing members to include in the club constitution a rule and to use that rule permitting a non-member to visit the club as a guest on a limited number of occasions in any given year.
• Welcome visiting yachtsmen. Encourage existing members to include in the club constitution a rule permitting temporary membership for visiting yachtsmen, then invite class associations to arrange meets at the club, either racing or cruising events.
• Open days. Arrange an open day once a year by advertising locally, so that non-members may view the club premises and activities, and meet the existing members.
• Encourage existing members to attend sailing events at other clubs.

Open days:

Although there are many approaches to recruiting new members, whether by general advertising, word of mouth, display stands at exhibitions or shopping centre or mail shots, the most consistently successful approach is through holding a well organised open day or weekend.

Such an event is not only an opportunity to recruit new members, but also to revise the profile of the club in the local community, to provide some hospitality for local councillors and other dignitaries, and make the sport of sailing appear less elitist and more accessible to all members of the community.

This section is intended to give tips on planning, running and promoting open days, and is based on the very successful format of the RYA/ BMF National Go Boating weekends in 1997 and 1998.

Activities on the water:

Initial planning and insurance

The first stage is, of course, to source the equipment (i.e. boats) that you are going to need. These could come from your members, or from boat builders who could supply boats for the event. Compile a list of the potential sources and contact them as early as possible. If possible, try to provide boats of different types (depending on your access to the water). You should also at this stage devise a provisional berthing plan, and to draw up a list of skippers for each boat.

Before organising any activities, check that your insurance policy will cover any accidents, and also ensure that the owners of the boats have public liability insurance, and that the insurance will be valid for the event. If there is any doubt, contact the insurance broker for clarification.

It is recommended not to charge an entry fee for visitors, as this would be classed as paying visitors which can cause problems with insurance cover. It can also discourage people from attending which is something you positively do not want to do.

Operational considerations:

You should allocate pontoon space for the boats that will be at the event for the weekend, including overnight berthing if necessary. There should also be a changing area with easy access to the berthing area.

If powered craft are present, ensure sufficient fuel is on board and that spare fuel is available and safely stored.

VHF radios are the best means of communicating between pontoon area, HQ and the safety boat, and if possible to have on the boat being used for visitor rides.

Staff will be needed to deal with the visitors and should included a pontoon manager responsible for:

• co-ordinating pontoon activity;
• ensuring turn-around work to schedule;
• managing all staff on the pontoon;
• safety at the waters edge.

There should be assistants to work on the pontoons to issue buoyancy aids and look after visitors.

You will need to plan a briefing for all skippers and staff so that everyone is clear about their responsibilities and what is expected of them during the event. They should also be ready to advise visitors, and answer any questions they may have.

It would be useful to have signs to the pontoon from other areas of your event; they should clearly indicate where trips start from and where buoyancy aids are issued.

Bookings:

There should be one or two staff allocated to handle bookings during the event, fully briefed on the booking procedure, and with a single point of contact to deal with problems such as over-booking.

Schedules should be planned in advance and will cover:

• length of trip for each boat (e.g. 20 mins. Power/30 mins. Sail);
• allocation of timed slots to ensure staggered starts for the trips;
• co-ordination of timings with other events (e.g. demos or specific features);
• start time for first trip and finish time for last trip ;
• lunch and pit stop breaks for staff and skippers
• capacity of visitors in each boat
• age limits for certain boats (e.g. some boats may not be suitable for small children).

and so on. 

If possible, have pictures of the craft available on display where people will be booking their trips.

Signage from the booking area to the pontoon can be useful, particularly if you have crafty starting from different places.

Safety considerations:

All staff should be briefed on safety procedures. There should be buoyancy aids for everyone going out on the water (you will need to have children s size s available).

Ideally there will be a dedicated safety boat on hand that is crewed at all times when members of the public are out on the water.

Care should be taken to control the flow of people on and off the pontoon so there are never too many people on there at any one time. The demonstration area should be clearly marked off and nobody should be allowed past a certain point without a buoyancy aid. Children below a certain age should be accompanied by an adult at all times and should not be allowed on the pontoon if unaccompanied.

There should be a first aid kit easily accessible (and all staff should know where it is located). All staff should be aware of who are the designated first aid officers.

In case anyone gets wet, ensure that there are some dry towels and blankets available so people can dry off and keep warm.

Before you allow any member of the public onto the water, we would recommend that they should sign a disclaimer form.  Please refer to the 'Duty of Care' section of the website for more information.

The public:

The idea behind the event is to encourage the public to come and try out boating and watersports, so please make sure that as many people as possible can safely get afloat.

Remember that some people may never have left dry land before! So whilst the experience should be interesting it must also act as a gentle introduction to boating. Ensure you brief your skippers who are taking the public out so they do not frighten anyone. Some water splashing over the side may happen from time to time but for someone who has never been in a boat before they may feel they are going to drown.

If it is windy, for sailcraft make sure you reef the boats or fit smaller sails.

Whilst your skippers are out with the public, encourage them to talk about getting afloat and their experiences. This will help to put people at ease if they are nervous and is a chance to do a bit of publicity with a captive audience. The most important feeling to achieve is that everyone who gets out on the water enjoys the experience and wants to do it again.

Experienced enthusiasts:

If you have the facilities, run some activities on the water for the experienced enthusiasts.

Treasure hunt:

This can be run even if you are based on a lake or reservoir. Clues can be placed ay certain points around the lake, along the river or on suitable sites if you are a coastal. Teams have to find all the clues and then return to the event.

Poker rally:

A version of the treasure hunt where playing cards are located at various sites. Teams go around and collect cards from the sites. On returning to the event, the team with the best poker hand wins.

Boat handling:

All sorts of skills can be tested, but the easiest is manoeuvring though a gate. The width of the gate can be adjusted according to the level of expertise of the competitors.

Blind boat handling:

One person in the boat is blindfolded and the other must direct them around a course in the fastest time.

Relay:

This can be run with two or more teams. There is a series of buoys and one team member must travel out to the second buoy and back, and so on.

Activities-on land:

Think about what other activities you are going to offer. Who is going to organise them beforehand? And who is going to run them over the weekend?

Barbecue:

Everyone needs to eat. Set up a barbecue (assuming the weather is good enough, or if not have a grill inside) and sell sausages, chicken, beefburgers, hot dog s etc. If you are not able to organise it yourselves, get an outside van or caterers to come in and run it for you. Make sure that their selling process will be reasonable and don't forget that you are offering them a business opportunity, so you can charge them for setting up their stand or van. Vegetarian options should be available for anyone who doesn t eat meat.

Bar:

If you have a bar make sure that you have plenty of supplies, as you are (hopefully) going to have non-stop custom during the course of the event. If the weather is particularly hot you could be in danger of running out of beer or soft drinks. Give the bar a theme to fit in to you your overall theme for the weekend. If you do not have a licensed bar, you can approach a local pub and ask them to run a bar for you. The publican needs to comply with the requirements for a Temporary Event Notice. This can take a little time, so make sure that you give your local pub plenty of warning. This is a business opportunity for the pub, so make sure that you make a charge for it.

If you need any further information about licensing, then you should contact the Licensing Authority of your Local Authority.

Ice cream:

You can either buy ice creams from your local cash and carry or get a local van to be there for the weekend. It would be a good idea to contact your local ice cream van first. Remember there is a great opportunity for the van to make money: think how many ice creams you can sell to a captive market on a hot summers weekend. So charge for the privilege of being at your event. This could be a donation to sailability or the RNLI.

Mini fete:

If any local organisation is still looking for a venue for their fete or would like to expand, get them along to your open weekend. Or if you cant manage that, create your own fete. All that you need is a few stalls to give it that atmosphere of the local church fete such as; white elephant sale, coconut shy, cake stand, tombola, welly throwing. Think of all the things that you normally see at a fete and try to recreate as many as you can.

Contact local organisations that normally run fetes and ask if they have any stands that you could borrow for the weekend (for a small donation, or some free boating opportunities for them).

Children's events:

Members of the public and your members/customers will probably bring their children along with them, so make sure that you have things to keep them amused as well. You will also attract more adults if they can bring their children along to your event.

Face painting:

This is very popular with children and they can be painted as pirates, animals or whatever is in keeping with the theme of your weekend. See your local yellow pages, under entertainers.

Punch and Judy/puppet show:

To complete the summer event, see if you can get hold of a puppet show. There are all sorts including the famous Punch and Judy. See your local yellow pages under entertainers.

Treasure hunt:

This can be done on the water for those that are afloat and if you have the facilities to do this. If not, or even in addition, you can create an event where children and their parents have to find clues around the event and the surroundings that will lead them to the treasure . All the clues should have a suitable theme to them.

Mini exhibition:

Consider a mini exhibition about boating an watersports which could include safety, sail craft, boat maintenance, keeping fit in the winter season, in fact any aspect of being on the water. You could invite the coastguard, the police, customs, the RNLI and other organisations.

Make sure there is plenty of information about your club/business and what goes on, including the sorts of craft used and, if at all possible have the actual boats and equipment there for people to see.

Where possible, have stands where people can join in and actually do something. The most successful museums all have exhibits that visitors can touch and try things out.

Talks:

If you have the facilities, you could arrange for talks by some experts. These could include; the social life of your club, how to buy a boat, how do I start boating or watersports? Make sure that if you ask someone to speak that they are a good speaker and will come across well to a non-specialist audience. it s a good idea to hear the presentation beforehand to check the content and style. Remember that the people listening are potential enthusiasts who wont understand jargon or technical language.

Local businesses:

Speak to local car dealers to get them to bring along a brand new model of one of their cars for the weekend. Again, it is publicity for them and they should give you something in return for the exposure. Perhaps they can offer to book test-drives for any visitors expressing an interest or there may be a mutual mailing opportunity where they can enclose details of your event in a mail shot to their customers and you include their details in a mailing to your members/customers.

Themes:

Giving the whole weekend a certain flavour or feel can really help to create extra atmosphere. Here are just a few to get you thinking:

France: berets, onions, French wine and cheese, plenty of tricolours flapping in the breeze.

Caribbean: limbo dancing, rum, coconuts, bright shirts, reggae music, red stripe beer.

Hawaiian: Hawaii 5-0, cocktails, lots of pineapples, grass skirts, garlands of flowers, dugout canoes.

Pirates/treasure island: Eye patches, parrots, Jolly Roger, treasure chests, maps, booty, pistols, stubble.

Hi de hi: The great British holiday camp, knobbly knees competition, egg and spoon races.

Baywatch: beach babes, lifeguards, sand, jeeps, and immaculate hairdos

The public:

One common misconception is that getting afloat is expensive and joining a club is equally expensive (many people regard it as costing the same as a golf club). Make sure that you get the message across that not only is membership very reasonable, but you can also get on the water with a second hand boat for a reasonable cost. One-way of helping to get this message across is by likening the cost of membership to the cost of renting a video or buying a couple of pints a week.

Remember your neighbours. They are all the people who live in the immediate area around your event. They may be the people who think what do those strange people do in there; it is a great opportunity to break down the barriers with your immediate local community- so invite them as well. They may just return the favour by keeping an extra vigilant eye on your premises when you are not around.

Please take down any members only or private land signs. Vandals and burglars take no notice of them at all. The only people who do take notice of them are the sorts of people you want along you your event.

Other signage should be put up so that people who are trying to find our event can easily do so by car and on foot. Open day this way signs are bold and striking will be very useful.

Please bear in mind that a visit to a boating or watersports event could be a daunting experience. Make sure that you give a very warm welcome to everyone as they arrive, thank them for coming and say goodbye as they are leaving.

Recruiting members:

If you are a club, ensure that you record the names and addresses pf people who visit your event as they arrive (so you can write to them afterwards). Also, give everyone some information about the club as they arrive.

This could be a simple word-processed sheet with information about the club, training courses, activities, social events etc. it should also have the address and telephone number of your club and a membership contact. You cannot expect everyone to join your club during the weekend, but make sure that everyone at least goes away with some information.

Do make sure that there is somewhere where people can join up and become members of your club over the weekend. A table or stand should be strategically placed where lots of people will see it (e.g. near the bar).

It should be clearly marked and should be staffed by an outgoing member of your club suitably clad according to the theme of the weekend. There should be clear signage announcing that you can you can join the club here and that there is a special offer for joining during the weekend.

Also, set up some signage near the entrance to your club advertising the special offers on club membership, so it is visible to everyone going past and coming in to the club. The special offer can be, for example, 3 months extra membership free for a year s membership, or free family membership for a year if an adult joins. It could also be a discount on a boating course ( if your club offers them) and we would advise you to waive the joining fee (if you still have one) for anyone who joins as a result of your event.

After the weekend:

Following up:

If you are a club, write to everyone whose details you took on the day, but who did not take out membership there and then. Invite them to a special day or evening that you are holding for new members and prospective members.

Find out what your existing members/customers thought of the event and what could have been done to make it better.

Induction day/evening:

If you are a club, make sure you do organise a specific event for new members or those that have expressed an interest, as the second visit to your club can be crucial in terms of retaining a member, if you are having a race day, then everyone can be extremely busy rigging and will not have time for new members asking questions, there is a danger that they will feel left out and may not come back again.

If you do invite new or prospective members along to a race meeting or another existing event, make sure that there are members who are designated to look after them and answer any questions.

It is vitally important in terms of membership retention that your club develops a new members programme. This means special days and/ or times for inexperienced members to come along and learn under qualified instruction. Also, there should be special races exclusively for new members, so they can have a chance of winning a race. This is something they would probably never have, if they always race against more experienced club members. This can be the reason why clubs loose members-they become disillusioned.

If you require further assistance please do not hesitate to contact the Legal Team Tel:  0844 5569519  Email: legal@rya.org.uk.