VERO BEACH — The Vero Beach Power Squadron (VBPS) received the 2013 1st place award for Member Involvement and Retention presented by the United States Power Squadron national membership committee.
The bottom line measure of success for a squadron’s Involvement and Retention Program is its membership levels over time. The VBPS membership levels on Jan. 1 of each year have grown from 236 in 2009 to 387 in 2013, an increase of 64 percent. Membership on May 6, 2013 was 417.
“We consider ourselves a family, not just a club. And just like your family, our squadron family members have different interests. In our case, those interests include training, safety, volunteering/community outreach, sports, and social activities.
Finally, the glue that holds us together is a genuine sense of caring for one another,” said Toby Jarman, membership chair, when asked how the VBPS retains members.
The VBPS is one of the largest in the country, with over 400 members who live in a relatively small town. There is a danger that a new member, who recently may have moved to Florida to retire, could get lost in a large organization of unfamiliar faces.
To combat this possibility, VBPS offers members a smorgasbord of activities that, by their very nature, involve smaller, more intimate groups where lasting friendships are made.
Such activities include boating classes, volunteering in the Power Squadron, as well as with outside organizations such as Youth Sailing Foundation of Indian River County, the Boys & Girls Club, Coop Charting, the Environmental Learning Center of Vero Beach, the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, the Visiting Nurses Association, and the Hibiscus Children’s Center in Vero Beach.
Interest groups include a relatively new biking and birding group, as well as more established groups like a book club, bowling, fishing, golfing, movie/lunch, paddle, and Ye Olde Friends groups.
VBPS takes very seriously the basic mission of training, safety, and volunteering/community outreach. Combining this with a plethora of social activities has proven to be a winning formula.
Each month, there are numerous social functions including weekly Friday night socials, monthly theme parties such as Halloween, Jimmy Buffet, and Derby Day/Cinco de Mayo, large boat raft-ups, small boat island “beach-ups,” lunch cruises by boat and car, and last but not least, new members’ parties.
VBPS tries to get new members involved early on by using the Personal Skills and Volunteer Areas of the application form. Following up with new members to request their participation in volunteer areas such as hospitality or using their personal skills such as public relations or finance can produce active members for the future.
Also, we let members know that we care. Sometimes the little things are the most important. Our Nautical News newsletter contains a list of all birthdays for the upcoming two months.
Further, we send both individual and squadron get well cards for those members in the hospital, followed up with visits by individual members and bridge officers.
And last, but not least, we made countless telephone calls and sent emails to members who have stopped participating in functions or who have not renewed their memberships.
This is a lot of work, but it pays off in retaining members who were slowly drifting away. A simple conversation or note lets the members know we care or identifies an unknown problem that we need to correct.
