Vice President's Letter - February, 2010

February 2010

The 2009 yearend numbers are in and the total 3D membership is 8745 (7,041 adult and juvenile members, 764 insurance non-members and 940 heritage members) compared to the 2008 yearend total of 9,028 (7,302 adult and juvenile members, 782 insurance non-members and 944 heritage members). We had 26 members transfer out of 000-999 lodge to a local lodge.  Ten lodges in the District experienced NET growth. Many lodges added new members but lost members the same month. The total number of new members is 545 for 2009.

We must address the members voluntarily leaving, 671 in 2009.  A concerted effort needs to be made by the lodge to contact these members and retain them as members of your lodge. This is an issue we should be able to turn around since lodges’ Vice President and Financial Secretary  are sent monthly “Membership Activity Reports” Find out why they are not renewing their membership, is it cost, lack of programs, not feeling welcome?  If you bring this information back to your lodge officers and your membership committee, they can see what has to be done to “fix” this issue.

I have discovered that only a handful of lodges utilize 000-999 reports sent to the VP and membership chairs every month. I will now send the names of the 000-999 members sorted by state to the appropriate lodges; this should enable a better follow-up effort in getting these members to join your local lodge. The home office has been providing lodge Vice-President contact information and names of individuals who have signed up on line wanting to join a local lodge;  if your lodge requires a vote for membership. Surprisingly, even fewer of these have been contacted by the lodge!  At last count, only 3 out 19 have been contacted by a lodge.   

We must work out a different strategy so we don’t lose a person actually asking to join a lodge! I will be contacting the 2010 Vice Presidents and Membership Chairs on how to best go forward. This may be the time for lodges to rethink how they handle their membership and  consider changing your by-laws so” no vote” is needed. People can then join directly on line and be put in your lodge membership.

Have you posted your event for “March Membership Madness” on the 3D web site? Let all the lodges know what the event will be and after it is over let us know how many members you got!

Remember:    2 A’s  -  Ask & Advertise  -  to get a member.

                       2 M’s  - Mentor and Mingle  -  to keep a member

Alt for denne gangen,

Gail

Medlemskap scorer bord