Membership opportunity knocks in door-to-door recruitment


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Membership opportunity knocks in door-to-door recruitment
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Membership opportunity knocks
in door-to-door recruitment

Carl Brown, a member of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Abilene, Texas, likes the face-to-face approach when he recruits new members. The ongoing estimate for Carl and his recruiting partner Angela Nicolini—president-elect of the Greater Abilene club—is about one new member added per month. Between them, Carl and Angela recruited about 20 members to build a new Abilene club.

Door-to-door recruiting: A few tips from Angela and Carl

Go in pairs, and choose a partner who will complement you. It’s a good idea for a recruiting pair to include a man and woman of varying ages.
Don’t pre-judge anyone—ask everyone. Don’t assume someone will be too busy or wouldn’t care about Kiwanis.
Be yourself, approachable and natural. Try to avoid sounding overly rehearsed.
Bring materials, such as “Changing Tomorrows Today” and other handouts with you.
Let prospective members know how much you enjoy your club and why. “If you are enthusiastic about your club,” says Angela, “they are going to wonder what it’s all about.”
Point out what makes your club unique.
Talk about the hands-on service projects—or a particular project—your club does in the community and about the other organizations the club supports.
Avoid talking about your club’s fundraisers, which can be misconstrued as asking the person for money.
Follow up with a phone call. This is key, especially for those who expressed interest in joining but “wanted to think about it.”

Their approach is simple—and just about as straightforward as you can get. They set a date, target a business area and, together, visit each business, asking for the owner or manager and then talking to him or her about Kiwanis.

“It’s a very deliberate thing,” Carl says. “We start by telling them what Kiwanis is about, and we use Kiwanis’ ‘defining statement.’”

It works. Before Angela began recruiting with Carl, she had never brought a new member into Kiwanis. When she was chosen as Greater Abilene’s president-elect, Carl thought it would be a good idea for her to become involved in the club’s recruitment.

“It was very intimidating at first,” she admits. “I felt tongue tied and nervous.”

That’s not, however, what Carl remembers from his first recruiting venture with Angela.

“The first place we went, she convinced the manager of the store to sign a membership application,” he says. “She was so excited, she wanted us to go into every store that day!”

Says Angela: “It’s not easy to (recruit door-to-door) at first; but for every five people who say ‘no,’ someone says ‘yes.’

“That one ‘yes’ makes it all worth it, and makes it so exciting. It peps you up!”

Angela has earned a Ruby K for her new-member recruitment successes.

Defining Statement: Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time.