Bryn Snow, Club President, Escarpment Toastmasters, Milton, Ontario

Building membership during a pandemic: what fun!

This has been the journey of Escarpment Toastmasters in Milton and its sister club, Milton Toastmasters.

Since the end of December, both clubs have taken up the challenge of building their membership base.

Club executive members, VPPRs and VP Memberships have met regularly via Zoom to attract new members during one of the most challenging times in living memory.

While adding new members certainly has not been as easy as in pre-pandemic times, both clubs have gained some important new marketing knowledge.

Normally, prospective members would attend an Open House, or a regular meeting. Often, the warmth of the welcome and the strength of the agenda has often been enough to convince visitors to join the club.

Now, warmth is muted by the digital experience in the online platform. Members occasionally struggle with the technology and this may or may not contribute to a visitor deciding to join. Visitors may be tired from hours of remote work. They may not be excited about another virtual meeting.

To make up for this, both Milton clubs have opened accounts on social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MeetUp, and LinkedIn. They have listed their meetings and Open Houses on Eventbrite.

Which platforms have delivered the most success?

You might be surprised. Eventbrite has in fact delivered more prospects to book tickets than any of the other social media sites.

Week after week, visitors have booked tickets to attend the meetings. In six months, over fifty prospects have booked tickets for one club alone.

However, there is one caveat. Though many prospects have booked tickets, leaving their names and email addresses with Vice President Memberships, the number of visitors that attend the meeting is still frustratingly low. When one sees the number of registrations for the meeting, excitement grows. However, this translates into only a few visitors.

Still, during this time when so much else remains virtual, to have one platform collect names and email addresses is encouraging. The challenge now is to figure out what can push potential members to attend a meeting.

If you as a Toastmasters member have tried out Eventbrite and have experienced this problem, please let us know what solutions you may have. We’d love to find out.