Lets talk about how to get more members and keep them

DMS General
#41

Great data point. Were their teaching skills on par with others for their topic? Or at least on par with a typical starting teacher?

Don’t forget we have #5:

Within the limits of such purposes the corporation shall:

  1. Build and maintain spaces suitable for technical and social collaboration.
  2. Collaborate on all forms of technology, culture, and craft in new and interesting ways.
  3. Apply the results of its work to specific cultural, charitable, and scientific causes.
  4. Freely share its research and discoveries, using what is learned to teach others.
  5. Recruit and develop talented members dedicated to these purposes.
  6. Promote scientific, cultural, and artistic advancement

The bottom line on all of this brouhaha is that DMS has rules and guidelines that were interpreted by those enforcing them. These governance items as interpreted and enforced became the fence around the play ground. People played within the fences of those boundaries and generated some unforeseen financial challenges that were brought front and center by a hiccup on membership and cost surprises in expanding. The problem festered longer than anyone wishes it had in significant part due to the cash accounting/no budget operating philosophy of DMS. Now due primarily to the longstanding governance approach of DMS, a perfect storm of troubles got way too close to the shore before it was spotted. So, we hurry around and take protective measure to weather today’s storm, figure out what root causes are and start designing to get them out of the organization.

Consistent with much in human nature, action gets messy because time seemingly must be spent finding people to blame. Maybe, just maybe that’s a waste of time. It appears little has actually been disclosed that reflects players were OUTSIDE the fences. These are fences that organically grew as DMS grew and ended up being not in the best location for today’s needs. It will take some short and long term changes. Most of the changes will help, a few may turn out not to be quite right and have to be modified and tweaked.

IMO opinion, DMS will advance far better and faster if less time is spent finding out who played inside the fences in ways we can’t sustain and strategically focus on getting better fence locations and better tracking of the score so the org has adequate warning when the next surprise rolls upon us … cause it will, we just don’t know when.

1 Like
#42

Truth? Not in most cases. It was clear they weren’t familiar with the space, it was hastily planned, etc. Did they get better over time? Yes. But the space didn’t need to pay for the learning curve. If we wanted it can be requiring an auditor sit in to add them to an AD to get honorarium instead of an imperial timeline. I also think though a talented teacher can make contact with a senior member and easily convince them to sponsor for that period

#43

Unfortunately, that sounds just like some classes I have taken from long term members.

#44

The concern here is voluntolding volunteers to take personal time and sit through classes, plus it possibly being a class that wouldn’t be repeated anyway, or tweaked/improved so that the next is completely different.

I have no doubt that not every new class or new teacher doesn’t have room for improvement (heck, ANY class, there’s always opportunity for improvement), but I think in-person auditing needs to be saved for special concerns, not a blanket solution looking for a problem.

I don’t think this (new teacher honorarium bandwagon) is where we are bleeding.

2 Likes
#45

I don’t either. Based in the numbers Draco just posted the legacy rates need to be carefully examined since it’s not a small chunk of change

#46

Getting members is hot on Talk today but recruiting generally does not get much attention. Check response to my suggestion a couple of weeks ago.

2 Likes
#47

On the other hand, no response = no objections. :+1:
Formalize that sucker & ask for funding…

3 Likes
#48

We should have a table at every possible convention in town that could even be remotely maker related.

6 Likes
#49

Are we advertising in local news papers?
They may have special non profit rates.

Can we get a news dept to do a short feature on us?

Lemon aid stand at the corner

3 Likes
#50

With all of the classes here on “how to make money on youtube, etsy, etc” and “how to promote your business” and all of those other types of classes - you would think the person teaching those could put together a money making campaign for DMS?

2 Likes
#51

Last year I printed up a little blurb/info thing that fit on 1/4 of a 8" x 11" piece of paper (4-up), printed a bunch up and walked around my neighborhood putting them on doors with some scotch (not blue!) tape. I never did figure out if anyone actually signed up because of, but hey, at least I got some exercise, enjoyed some nice weather, and met some of my neighbors.

2 Likes
#52

The previous five replies are some of the best ideas I have seen.

#53

How about having required classes scheduled rather than when enough people ask for it. Hot work safety every Saturday, wood shop safety and intro classes every other week etc. when getting blessed on the machinery you want to use takes a month or more it is real easy to loose interest and question the cost justification of the membership. standard classes by approved instructors at scheduled times requiring no approval and occasional auditing. would streamline the process and make sure the new member was rapidly integrated into the process. This is, I believe, one way to increase and maintain your membership.

1 Like
#54

Ideally you create a new domain name for them to join using and track it. We need more data collection and different points, something I hope we can work on in Data.

1 Like
#55

I am a big fan of campaign tracking and marketing analytics.

3 Likes
#56

If we stop being a ***** to him, I’m sure he might be very happy to do it. He is a really positive guy. I don’t mean denying non-making classes, I mean talking to him about it before berating him on Talk and denying out of the blue. He has been very supportive of the space and the scouts as you once saw him quite often in a scouting uniform with his son Ben.

This is also one way to keep people. Talk to them instead of pushing them off a cliff.

5 Likes
#57

It looks like engagement is a key part of the solution. It might impact the leading cause of membership cancellations.

1 Like
#58

At least he misses that since he isn’t (or at least wasn’t) a participant on Talk.

#59

Here’s some recent, raw “cancellation reason” data (all cancellations since ~5/12/2019 through today, N = 90) that I cut-n-pasted into a spreadsheet for fun:

CancelReasons.xlsx (11.0 KB)

6 Likes
#60

thank you that was an interesting read.