Churn project helps Midlands club to recruit and retain more members

A project to tackle membership churn at a Midlands club has nearly halved the rate of non-renewals.

The initiative saw Tamworth Sailing Club working with RYA Midlands and resulted in 12.9% churn in 2021 compared with 21.1% in 2020 and a 20.6% average over the years from 2015-2020.

Part of a wider programme spanning a number of clubs in the region, the results at Tamworth SC have illustrated how a focussed plan to tackle churn can support membership retention.

The project at Tamworth SC was coordinated by RYA Midlands Sailing Development Officer, Tricia Ordsmith, who worked with the club’s churn sub-committee to identify key areas for action.

Consultation

The starting point at Tamworth SC was a consultation process, which took place last February and March in the run up to membership renewals, in order to better understand club members and their motivations.

The club held two informal zoom meetings - with new individual members and with new family members, who had joined the club within the last three years - inviting them to give their views. The club’s midweek sailing group was also consulted, along with female members.

Additionally, one-to-one chats over the phone took place, and while the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, the discussions did highlight a number of areas for the club to follow up.

It emerged that newer members, for example: enjoyed social sailing but wanted consistent days and times for it; would like to try a variety of boats before buying; and were keen to have small group or 1:1 training to build confidence and were willing to pay for it. The feedback highlighted:

• A gap between formal training and new members getting on the water, particularly for racing.
• Not everyone knew about the club’s main means of communication, TeamApp.
• Women, who make up 34% of the club, were a group vulnerable to membership churn.
• Midweek sailing – a mainly older group meeting up for sociability - was a potential growth area for working age members.

A development plan was drawn up with goals for action. As vice commodore Sandra Young explains: “Although we found that on the whole people were happy with the club, there were areas where we could make a difference, such as newer members not feeling confident about joining in with racing, and not necessarily knowing people very well.

“We looked at how we could better engage and support all our members and help them make connections with like-minded people, and the project saw the club adjusting to new ways of working to keep members’ interest so we’ve had fewer people leaving.”

Engagement

In response to the consultation the club worked hard to grow engagement, fill any gaps in provision and help incoming members to become more involved in the community of the club.

New members were encouraged to help out with club racing and there are plans for rules and OD training, and a buddy scheme to pair up experienced racing sailors with newer members.

Lockdowns saw online activities like quizzes, plus 10 navigation sessions based on RYA Day Skipper theory, which have continued again this winter, and the club now runs more socials, including monthly events and BBQs after Friday social evening sailing in summer.

There are more opportunities for social sailing at set times and through winter, alongside a TeamApp group for novices; female members took part in World Sailing’s Steering the Course festival celebrating women in sailing; and there was a club trip in autumn to sail Rutland on the new RYA Dinghy Trail , which saw members having a grand day out while forging friendships.

Marketing

The club found that its one-to-one chats with members, giving people a chance to have their say, combined with better communications and an early bird discount for renewing membership, all helped towards improving retention rates.

A Re-Discover Sailing day last March inspired existing members and attracted 32 participants. A Discover Sailing Day with bookable taster sessions then recruited nine new members - a better conversion rate compared to previous all-comers open days.

With its public location at Kingsbury Water Park in Warwickshire, the club has no shortage of enquiries and also improved its promotional activities, with listings on the park and council websites, search engine optimisation, a growing Facebook presence and a more navigable club website.

The club’s own training courses in 2021 were rapidly full and so a link was forged with Andrew Simpson Birmingham, who provided additional RYA Level 1 &2 training places and then signposted participants back to Tamworth SC, which gained five more new members via this route. The club has since trained up three additional Assistant Instructors to increase its capacity for 2022.

Overall club membership has grown slightly and currently stands at 162 members plus 40 children, 202 in total, a figure which reflects 29 new members and improved retention.

Review

In its evaluation of the project, the club noted that while it had already been doing lots, the initiative had revealed where there was room for improvement. The resulting development plan remains a live document regularly reviewed at committee meetings to enable progress to continue.

Sandra said: “It’s been a really worthwhile project. Compared to where we were when it started, I think we’re more informed, with more accurate information from our members about what they want. For the future, in addition to the changes we’ve already made, we will be continuing to look at ways to ensure learners are able to become fully embedded club members. The other area we need to work on for both existing and new members is volunteering for roles.

“Sailing Development Officer Tricia Ordsmith gave us a focus and what’s really helpful about a third party is they have no axe to grind and will ask the questions you couldn’t necessarily ask yourself. It’s really helpful to have that person to guide you through the process. You also know they are going to come back and ask how you’ve got on which is motivational for getting things done!”

Support

The initiative with Tamworth SC is part of a wider churn project which has seen RYA Midlands Sailing Development Officers (SDOs) – Patricia Ordsmith, Kevin O’Brien and Howard Nelson – working with a number of clubs across the region, including Chelmarsh, South Staffs , Glossop and Manor Park.

Using data from the annual RYA Club Membership Census, SDOs worked with committees to implement a range of strategies to improve membership recruitment and retention.

For Tamworth, Tricia held an initial meeting in autumn 2020, followed by a planning and goal-setting meeting in spring 2021 and then a review to assess outcomes at the end of the year.

Tricia says: “It’s all about clubs finding out what do they do well and understanding what their members want: getting a picture of where they are now and following that up with an action plan.

“What came out of it for several clubs was that over winter it’s the ardent racing sailors and not necessarily the novice sailors that get on the water, with social sailing sessions often not running at this time of year, and so clubs looked at how to engage members during the colder months.

“Clubs also appraised what they delivered for newer members and came up with ideas to bridge the gap between people doing a course and then getting out regularly or going racing. Glossop, for example, introduced Sunday improver sessions, and Chelmarsh and South Staffs have been working to expand their training capacity with additional dinghy instructors.”

Volunteering

Tricia adds that an incidental bonus of more engagement and communication with members is clubs finding new people stepping up for volunteer roles. Tamworth SC gained a dozen new volunteers, including five after a Powerboat Level 2 course and two committee members.

“Clubs have found out more about their members and what skills they have to offer or would like to learn, and because their members then feel more a part of their club, they want to help,” says Tricia. “An unexpected benefit of getting to know your members and what they want from their club, is finding out what they are willing to do for their club.”

If your club would like support from an RYA Midlands Sailing Development Officer to look at ways of tackling membership churn, contact the team here. There is also an RYA Guide to Developing Your Club available in Club Zone.