7 April 1999

Regarding the quantity of new members Susquenango Power Squadron has been able to recruit, I offer the following information and hope it will be helpful.

Obtaining new members in the squadron is based on two very significant activities: 1) getting people to take the safe boating course. 2) signing them up for membership after they have taken the course.

Getting people to take the safe boating course:

The key is to get exposure to the public. We have a very good PRO who gets us exceptional exposure. Some of the items are:

Newspaper coverage

Coverage in employee newsletters in the various industrial plants

Coverage in boat and jet ski dealerships

Coverage on community calendars on TV

Booths at boat shows

Floats in parades

Signs in retail outlets

At the parades, brochures are passed out to the public advertising the boating course and indicating the beginning dates. At the boat shows a booth is manned and a sign-up sheet for the boating course is provided.

Signing up new members:

Our first sessions starts with a short presentation by our commander welcoming the new students and presenting a very short basic history of the squadron. At this point the students don't care about the squadron, however, we do identify ourselves so that they know we are qualified to teach safe boating. We also explain that it is a basic course and will not make them navigators, but that we do teach more advanced courses to our members.

Our chairman of the safe boating course is a very enthusiastic person. Constantly during the course he compliments the students progress, promotes the squadron, shows our District publication and points out significant articles and discusses the various courses the squadron teaches and the value of these courses. He also gets to know the students, ages, boat types, etc., so he can address various specifics to their needs and interests. Also he meets with the proctors (we use the proctor system, (four to eight students and a proctor at each table) prior to beginning each class and tries to stimulate them to promote the squadron during the instructional sessions. Incidentally, uniforms are not worn at any of these sessions. Some students might be uncomfortable with uniforms so we don't promote this aspect of the squadron. We do, however, ask our proctors, lecturers and others who help in the class sessions to dress nicely and wear name tags to promote the professionalism of the squadron. Jeans and T shirts are not acceptable.

On exam night, simple refreshments are provided, free of charge, to keep the people occupied so active members, (usually 5 or 6 are present) have a chance to talk to the graduating students and try to encourage them to sign up for membership. Also our Member Involvement Chairman is present to explain squadron activities and the Membership Chairman and his assistant are there to sign up the new members.

At a minimum, the commander tries to be present at the first and the last class session. As I said earlier, this is a team effort. It is my opinion that new member enrollment is directly related to the stimulation provided during the boating course activity. If the course is informative, enjoyable and professionally done and if membership offers further benefits, the students will be inclined to join. If a person does not sign up at the conclusion of the safe boating course, that person will probably never be a member. The squadron has only one chance and can't afford to miss it.

There is one more thing we did in the past that seemed to be effective and we are going to initiate it again at our next sessions. During the last three or four weeks of the boating course, we had the chairperson for some of the advanced and elective courses set up a table displaying their course material and visual aids. This is more descriptive and impressive to the students and encourages a desire to join the squadron and continue their education.

We offer three Safe Boating and State Certified Youth Courses per year, two in the spring and one in the fall. Our class size averages 50 adults and we usually sign up 15 to 20% of them. The last class consisted of 35 adults, all of which passed the course, and 7 signed up for membership. An additional two said they forgot their checkbooks and would join later. Our Membership Chairman will send a follow up letter if we don't have a timely response.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

Sincerely,

(signed)