"Clubs - Fresh Blood" Topic

Is your local club attracting new members? Over the last year or so would you say your club had more/less/the same number of regulars?

Do you pro-actively recruit new members? How do you indoctrinate them?

We've recruited four new members over the last year (3 new, one returner). Best form of indoctrination is to get them playing and enjoying themselves – if someone visits twice and does not get a game chances are they won't come back!

And we run a show each year where we always get some interest.

another great way to recruit is doing a training day or what maws call a bootcamp which is a great way to gain new members.so choose a system you know well and then advertise it.
regards
paul
maws

My local group is almost all older guys in our 40s-60s and we have suffered severe attrition over the last year. It seems to be harder and harder to get enough guys together for a game.

We have tried to get new guys by running games at one of the local stores but it seems they never stay. I'm running out of ideas.

Another good recruitment method is to prop up a box on a stick… tied to a bit of string… and leave some miniatures under it… when the prospective candidate is attracted to the shiny mini you pull the string and WHALA! a new member for your club! Just remember to feed him and clean out his cage occasionally.
You can also catch cats this way… which are good eating if you use the right BBQ sauce.

We play in a library and keep the doors open so that people walking by have a view of what we are doing. We made up info cards with our yahoogroup, facebook page, an email address and phone number on it. We have a facebook page and yahoo group set up. We have a local game store, that has sponsored us for the entire 23 years we have existed, who hands out our info cards. We have gotten new members attending the club meetings and joining the yahoo groups.

Our group participates in public events of various sorts,
especially those organized or sponsored by local museums.

We have garnered new members in this way.

Our club growing. New members all the time 40 to 50 at club nights some times more. Average age of members is coming down now that can not be bad .
readingwargames.co.uk
Holding a Show once a year helps to bring in new members
also a large hall to hold club nights .

I think that MAWS has gained at least 6 new regular members in the last year and another 6 or so occasional ones.

If clubs don't get new members they will wither and die. There is always some attrition in terms of players moving away and getting attacks of "real life"

Factors to bringing in new members.

1) A decent website and ease of contact. Having your mobil number on a web site makes a real difference.

2) Playing and enjoying GW games. This will draw in younger members.

3) Ads in local Libaries, model shops, workplace social notice boards, and contact details at nearby GW branches.

4) A willingness to discuss your hobby with colleagues, even wearing a club T shirt. (Yes you have to come out of the closet)

5) A club policy of welcoming and involving visitors. Absoloutely essential!!!!

6) Club details and links on community and council websites.

7) Invite a reporter form a local paper to visit the club. This is enhanced if it can be linked with fund a fund raising event or venture for a charity.

8) Mention of club events on local radio stations.

9) Ads in wargames mags.

8) A presence at local fairs and other community events.

Hmmm; I am forced by my job to relocate every 2-3 years, so as a result I am forced to find a new local club as often.

It never ceases to amaze me how difficult some club players make it to let new people into their circle. Smart people will reach out to new players and welcome them. Other people will act stand-offish and cliquey, then wonder they have no opponents after a few years.

In the Game Parlor in Chantilly VA, where I game frequently as a walk-in, almost all the regulars welcome people who are standing by, looking at their table and inquiring. That helps.

As others have pointed out, having gaming events that are open to the public (i.e., passers-by could see and inquire) is a help also.

Considering that from 2010 in the UK, all adults having even occasional contact with children or vulnerable adults within a club, company or organisation will be required to have Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks, what steps are clubs taking?

Considering that it has already been a legal requirement for all club officers to be checked for many years, many wargames clubs I know break the law because they are crawling with kids, yet as far as I am aware, none of them have even considered conducting CRB checks for their club officers.

I have to say that this does not bother me personally, as it is appallingly bad, knee-jerk, typical Neu-Arbeit legislation… But it is the law and it would only take one incident of alleged kiddy-fiddling at a wargames club for the gutter press to mount screaming denunciations of the hobby as a whole.

Are the managers and staff of GW 'creches' CRB-cleared? I don't know, but they certainly work with and have a duty of care for children during games nights and even during the working day.

I run a youth group and there is no way on God's earth that I could possibly allow one of my staff to be responsible for a child before the Holy CRB paperwork comes back.

All organisations from from the Scouts to cadet units, youth clubs, church groups, sports teams, outward bounds centres, school bus companies and even companies conducting youth work experience are required to comply with this legislation by law. Even if you give your son's mates a lift to their football team fixture, or if you give the Scout leader an occasional hand in transporting the Cub Pack to camp, you will be required to have a CRB check for that role from 2010.

So why do we in the wargames hobby assume that we are somehow exempt?

I must add that I do not agree one iota with the legislation and I think that it will kill small, locally-organised clubs and groups stone-dead. However, it is reality in the UK and we have to comply, even if just to protect yourself should something happen in your own club (ESPECIALLY if you are a club officer).