How can ham radio clubs attract and retain members in 2023?

I could be missing something here. Ham radio is a hobby for fun and enjoyment what is "professional" about it?

 

Have you checked their Facebook page? Traditional websites are well beyond unpopular for many groups and businesses. It's just not where the majority of people go to find info these days. It's "Athens Ham Radio" if you want to give it a try. I live in Athens, AL.

 

IMO traditional in person club meetings are no longer necessary. The pandemic made online meetings a norm and now that seems to be the more preferred way to get together. You will get more members showing up online then in person. However, an online meeting is a great way to play for in person events! Clubs are fun when everyone has a say and participates, when it's only 1-3 people calling all the shots, it's not going to work.

 

The success of a club is determined by its member's willingness to share their knowledge and time, with others, including the general public. It is important for each club member to be reminded of their own "Novice" experience of not knowing and the learning curve involved.

In our club, the governing club structure is there, with everyone having a say, and no one being "better" than the other. Those in our club who have 50+ years of experience are all willing mentors. Sharing our lifelong experiences, without condescension, is the type of enthusiasm that novices need. Everyone seems to enjoy stories of failure when starting out. Humility is a good teaching tool. Sharing mistakes of blowing something up and what was learned in the process, goes a long way to building bridges with novices. It shows the human side of learning something new. But that attitude is needed with good mentoring tools. Having a club station, with good radios and good antennas, is an important mentoring tool for all concerned. Having no club station is like getting together at the 19th hole at the golf course. New attendees cannot learn to play golf from old stories of holes in one. If you cannot put up antennas at the club's location, a remote SDR is in order.

Sometimes, a club can try to do too many things at once. Start with mentoring being number 1 on the "to-do" list.

VRCMCT ARC President
W1VCM

 

Some are. Some aren't.

Years ago our club took a holistic approach to revamping our web site and focus on local nets that people gravitate towards. I guess our best decision in all of this was to understand we needed to do something and then... actually do something. Key points:

• Attitude: We don't take ourselves too seriously... or at least just serious enough to properly manage the corporate entity per the local laws.
• Radio Assets: Maintain a good quality 2m repeater with friendly retired folks always eager to greet new users.
• Activity: Fox hunts (a favorite of many) - your idea of Wifi Fox Hunts is a very good idea.
• Licensing: VEC sessions aplenty - this alone is likely our best recruiting tool interestingly.
• Media: Modern web site (no GeoCities here) - I think part of the problem with many older web sites is the notion the application of "thrifty to a fault HTML design" (often done by the same person who brags how little they paid for a connector) counts a plus for visitor facing materials... it doesn't.
• Cross Activity: Full support of local SOTA efforts (a broad range of ages enjoy this).
• Bring in the nerds: Welcoming of new Maker Community types who gravitate naturally towards radio.
• Youth outreach: Members helping a local 4H chapter roll out a very active amateur radio youth club (extremely successful).
• Learning/Teaching: Maintain a sense for what information newer folks need/want and design presentations or equiv. to help them.
• Camaraderie: Participate in some teambuilding annual club events: We do VAQP and Field Day as a club and prep for both collaboratively. With the understanding scoring well is fun, we don't go scorched earth on putting only the best ops in the best seats. Sharing the seat is more fun.
• Chill: Plan meeting events where you just get together and talk. Monthly breakfasts work for us.
• Mentor: Nurture those who demonstrate technical prowess to pursue careers in STEM... I cannot emphasize this point enough. Great techie careers often start with passion, but need some coaching. Amateur radio is an excellent chance to change someone's life.

If quadrupling our membership in a few years is a measure of success... I think we've achieved it. Do we still bicker and have our discussions under Roberts Rules? Sure... there's money to manage, events to plan, and repeater(s) to fund so these are very important tasks to manage regardless the environment.

 

I am pushing 50 years as a ham and have belonged to many clubs and I know every single mistake they make when it comes to member recruiting and retention.

Ideas for clubs in 2023, a lot of these I consider to be MUST-HAVES:

Maintained up-to-date website and Facebook page with a GOOD EMAIL CONTACT ADDRESS.

Active membership recruiting. Don't expect hams, especially new hams, to find you by osmosis. Go to every swap meet, have events for hams to attent.

Clubs need a designated PIO (Public Information Officer) to send out club emails weekly or bi-weekly and to respond to queries.

Have a way to pay for memberships ONLINE by PayPal or other electronic means. Stop expecting members to fill out forms and send in checks. That went out 20 years ago.

If your club has runs a net, make it interesting. Just taking checkins is boring. You can talk about ham or technology news or any other topic. Or play the ARRL or RAIN reports.

Every club meeting should also have a presentation of some kind even if it's only 5 minutes long.

Activities, activities, activities. At least once a month. Antenna builds, fox hunts, QRP operating, Field Days. contesting, etc. Have swap meets every 4 to 6 months.

Be involved in public service events. Traffic control or aid stations for parades and marathons or races etc.

EMCOMM. Yes, it can be a pain. Join ARES. Get your ARES certs up to at least Level II. Have a drill at least quarterly.

Sell ham radio to young people as the new gaming. POTA, SOTA, Special Events stations, contest stations make this easy. For eaxmple how many POTA stations can they contact in 8 hours?
Younger techie people love being on computers, add a radio and it's the new way to game with their PCs.

Speaking of young people, there is now a huge STEM component to ham radio and this can be used to get presentations into schools and youth groups.

Never diss other clubs or other services. Hams should be promoting all radio services including GMRS which can also be used as a recruiting tool for new hams. If someone has a GMRS radio and license it's an easy sell to get them into at least a tech ham license. In fact, hams should also get their GMRS license, the radios are cheap and its a good alternative.

Have licensing classes and give tests.

Good luck.

Bob NU7L

 

I feel like you could definitely put some weight behind these club suggestions.

 

Don't need radio clubs anymore if you need info on the hobby just Google it.

 

Best clubs I have been a part of were driven by the younger more energetic folks. They all had big repeater presence locally and did both formal and informal get togethers. One I was a part of got so much backlash from the elders we bought our own machine and formed our own club. They tried like hell to get the frequency coordinator to kick us and even brought the ARRL in on it as they were an ARRL club for decades. It was a mess the first year and lots of bad blood. Still it was worth it in the long run because that club is the survivor today. Pretty much everyone I knew is gone though last time I went through.
I think the trick is you need to offer something past what was usually expected. Getting into supporting youth programs, education, testing etc. Having events small and large. I know one that helps with cars and coffee. Don't think they help much but they are a presence and get questions.(what is that porcupine car?) I don't know about facebang myself as that's dying on the vine but at least a supported webpage with contact info. Good luck though as little common ground exists today and its either one side or the other for most groups now. Can't really fit everyone under one tent, the dividers did everything they could to make it that way.

 

I have not belonged to any radio clubs in MANY years, but I have been involved in quite a few for other interests. As Fred points out above, the point is FUN, people need an EXCUSE to get involved.

What is generally missed is that, to many people, the stated "goals" or purposes of the club is not the "fun" part of their membership. For example, I belonged to a club furthering some unusual (by today's standards) musical interests. There were people who had a marginal interest in the music at hand, but their fun was being in charge of the newsletter. Some enjoyed being ushers, showing people to their seats. There were more than a few who paid their dues but only came around for the social events, rarely to a concert. There was one guy who wanted to be a chef, his fun was putting on the picnic. And, there were a lot of people who simply paid their dues and came to the concerts. Perhaps they were the most important, they funded the enjoyment for everybody else, so it was important to be sure that the performances kept their interest. Some of the popular performances were not in the ideologically "pure" category, but the club officers understood that it was necessary to present a few events away from the mainstream to keep the "non-purist" membership happy. I also note that many couples were involved, often in very different places within the organization. The opportunity for family involvement goes a long way toward making an organization "palatable" to outsiders.

There is a radio club here in town, the members are individually fine people, but the club has no real sense of direction, beyond the social gatherings. They do run VE sessions and a field day entry, but that's about it. They do have a couple repeaters that are just about unused. But, I ask myself, what does this organization do that is FUN? Field day and drinking coffee at the senior citizen's center once a week is kind of thin, for me at least.

Where to go from here? I don't know. One consternation is the general desire for people to get out and about is greatly diminished over years past. My employer in the past offered many mini trade shows, a few booths, free lunch, free beer (!) and just an excuse to get out and about for a few hours. Recently, attendance is almost nil. In years past there was a line at the door!

 

I went to a local club meeting. I was thinking about joining. But I was treated like a bad rash. Never again!

 

One of the best amateur radio decisions I ever made was joining my local club.

You get out of it what you put in.

Simple as that.

 

I'm the current prez of a club. We have about 50members. We do stuff. We do monthly VE sessions. We do annual events. We could do more. We could do less, and would be snoring.

73 Tom W9YW

 

Our club is a small one with 20 paid members-many of them elderly. No issues of politics or other things that can divide clubs, but our club may dissolve due to demographics and that not all paid members even want to engage There has to be activities that oldsters can do without breaking a hip and that technicians can do within this license

Covid was a real problem for us with zoom meetings still a thing