President Mike Radcliff's Address to the 121st Convention

The Heart of any organization is membership and attention must be paid to member renewal and retention. Typically organizations will see a ten to twenty percent decline each year in membership. Holding that number and trying to reduce it requires extra effort.

Some strategies we can use to improve member retention is Communications. It is very important especially to new members as it shows what is happening and what we are accomplishing all year long. We need to begin to publish an on line newsletter to the membership to say "here is what we are doing."

The Sponsor should be more involved with the new applicant by assisting him with the application process and engaging him in chapter activities. The Chapters should have a mentorship program for new members.

So that we can calculate our membership numbers in January we need to start renewal efforts three to five months in advance and the Chapter should contact their members about renewal. We need to offer payment options, especially some form of automatic credit card or EFT renewal. We should survey the members that choose not to renew and find out why they left, which areas they liked, and which areas of the SAR need improvement.

I feel these goals are SMART as they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time constrained.

Mike Radcliff
Texas SAR President