by Janet McMahan

The second annual Best Practices Contest yielded an abundance of successful membership ideas. More than 100 clubs worldwide entered this year’s contest, submitting their best membership tactic in either the recruitment/invitation or retention/participation categories. A panel of Lions Clubs International members judged the entries according to how well they were developed and implemented and the positive results obtained.

Following are the first place award winning ideas from each constitutional area. In addition, both the first place winner and honorable mention entries from each constitutional area are featured in the Best Practices Contest Winner booklet, available for downloading.

2005-06 Best Practices First Place Winners

Constitutional Area 1, Gresham Lady Lions Club, Wisconsin, USA
Number of Club Members: 29
Category: Retention/Participation
Idea: Dues In Kind

This club, in existence for little over a year, was experiencing some issues with a few members not being able to pay their dues. Not wanting to lose valuable members over a financial matter, the club’s board of directors developed a unique way to keep the members they worked so hard to recruit and develop. Their solution is called Dues in Kind. Members who own small businesses or work for businesses that can provide gift certificates (for things such as oil changes, haircuts, restaurants, etc.) are asked to secure donated gift certificates. These certificates are then auctioned off during club meetings. The money made is used to offset the dues that are needed to retain the members who are struggling to pay them. Those in need of financial assistance are kept confidential. The club has found this to be a “win-win situation,” and has retained four members through this effort.

Constitutional Area 2, St. Albans Lions Club, Newfoundland, Canada
Number of Club Members: 28
Category: Inviting/Recruiting
Idea: Comprehensive Advertising Campaign

The St. Albans Lions Club mounted a successful advertising campaign to promote awareness of its club within the community. They advertised on local television and radio stations and mailed 500 flyers to families in the St. Albans area.

Constitutional Area 3, Bauru Bela Vista Lions Club, Brazil
Number of Club Members: 53
Category: Retention/Participation
Idea: Multi-faceted Retention Campaign

The Bauru Bela Vista Lions Club approaches member participation and retention several ways: They hold a points-based attendance competition that encourages participation on the club, region and district levels; club membership diligently follows up with members that miss meetings; they promote fellowship through informal gatherings at members’ homes; they keep leadership accountable to the pledges they made when they were sworn into office; and they hold an annual membership retreat. These strategies have helped the club not only achieve 100 percent retention, but add four new members as well.

Constitutional Area 4, Noisy Le Roi Bailly Lions Club, France
Number of Club Members: 32
Category: Inviting/Recruiting
Idea: Create a Strong Community Presence

The Noisy Le Roi Bailly Lions Club identified service activities on the local, multiple district and international levels that would focus and mobilize club members, such as job training, working with handicapped people, supporting Campaign SightFirst II, working on the development of an Alzheimer Center and aiding tsunami and hurricane victims. In addition, the club involved the community by creating a Partners Commission of community supporters and legal authorities to champion the club’s service activities. The club also created the Noisy Le Roi Bailly Spring Musical Festival, a popular event. To support their efforts, the club conducts an annual public relations campaign that effectively reaches out to both the media and general public. The club has added five members this year.

Constitutional Area 5, Lo Tung Lions Club, China
Number of Club Members: 150
Category: Inviting/Recruiting
Idea: Support Year-Round Growth

Members of the Lo Tung Lions Club believe in the power of year-round growth. They diligently seek new members every day, year in and year out.  The club emphasizes looking “right beside you” to find potential new members – friends, family members, co-workers, etc. as well as targeting Junior Chamber International “graduates” and retirees. The club has added six new members during the year.

Constitutional Area 6, Jamshedpur Tatangar Lions Club, India
Number of Club Members: 25
Category: Retention/Participation
Idea: Create Action Plan to Turnaround Club

When Rajnish Kumar transferred to the Jamshepur Tatangar Lions Club in 2005 and elected club president, he found the club was in disarray. Out of 23 members, only two or three were active, the club had US$1,100 in outstanding dues and did not hold regular meetings. Undaunted by the challenge, Kumar evaluated the club members and created an action plan to help strengthen the club. He changed the club meeting place, announced new service projects, gave club members assignments that met their interests and improved internal communications with a new membership directory and e-mail reminders of all club meetings and events. In less than one year, the club has at least 11-13 members attending meetings regularly, has reduced its debt and is considered the most active club in the city.

Constitutional Area 7, Camperdown Lions Club, Victoria, Australia
Number of Club Members: 36
Category: Retention/Participation
Idea: “Ten Commandments of Retention”

The club has developed the “Ten Commandments of Retention” that they consistently follow: 1) Meeting punctuality and control 2) Allocate tasks Lions will want to do 3) Show all members you care about them 4) Keep in touch with members and their families 5) Don’t have an overkill on fines/jokes 6) Involve all members 7) Bond the club together with social activities 8) Be interested in people – acknowledge any achievements 9) Give thanks and praise when due 10) Deal promptly with conflicts or disagreements.

These guidelines have helped the club increase its membership by 16 people over the course of one year.

A great deal can be learned from these award-winning entries. These outstanding recruitment/invitation and retention/participation ideas can be used by clubs to help boost their clubs’ membership initiatives or can be a catalyst for brainstorming new solutions to troublesome membership issues.