Clubs, I just dont get them.

[oldenglish]

I joined our local club last year, they were getting an average turn out with long term members showing up when they were needed. However our once a month mtg participation could have been a little better.
So far this year we have revamped the club website, improved the newsletter communication (mailing list actually works) our mtgs have been better attended, I assume our membership is up as we seem to have a lot of first timers most weeks. I would say we average 20 - 25 at each mtg with a good % of new faces each month. My complaint is how on earth do you get folks to get interested and to participate ?

We have a club forum and post on there about interest in club purchases for bulk discounts, plenty read the threads but almost no one posts comments.
Yesterday we had our club picnic, the attendance was pretty pathetic, apart from board members we only had two regular mambers show (and one of those was my daughter), weather was nice, plenty of notice was given I just dont get the apathy. Maybe its me but one reason I join clubs in the first place is to take part in club activities ?

[luvin honey]

Everybody's busy? Not saying that you are not busy, too, but I personally find it hard to make time for extras this time of year and would be way more likely to attend spring, fall or winter meetings... Just my 2 cents :)

[oldenglish]

I understand that in some areas this time of year is a busy harvesting period, however we usually dont start pulling honey for harvest for another week or two here.

[luvin honey]

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of kids home from school, summer vacations and other activities, gardening, yard work, and so on...

I hope it picks up! It's disappointing to have such a poor turnout.

[qa33010]

   In the past year one club I'm a member of has up and down attendance and another has a steadily growing attendance.  Most of our members are hobbyists and a lot work on weekends also.  It can be frustrating at times, just don't let it discourage you. 

[BeeHopper]

Oldenglish,

Attendance at clubs will always vary, ours is no exception. We meet a minimum of 5 times per year, maybe 6, each meeting is at a different location with " HANDS-ON" instruction on various management techniques geared towards new beekeepers, novices and experts, this is the key in bringing beekeepers out. I believe most beekeepers will not attend once a month meetings just to chit-chat, they want to see some "action". Since changing our format to hands-on, we have been pulling members from other branches in NJ because they've have grown tired of the chit-chat gatherings, maybe this approach will help your dilemma, retention of long time beeks is also important, so some sort of incentive to attend is also needed. Good Luck in growing !

BH

[riverrat]

the old saying you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink doesn't apply here. the horses may want something different. I would suggest polling the membership see what they re interests are and go from there.  Try to hit common ground and then do the impossible try to schedule to accommodate the most people. but remember sundays you may compete with church Monday Thur Friday you compete with work during the day and kids events during the evening which leaves Saturday and the whole world is doing a assortment of things so finding a common date will be next to almost impossible unless the people are interested enough to make it a priority.

[Natalie]

My club has around 300 in our membership with 80 joining just this year.  We have at least a hundred minimum show up for the meetings each month, to the point its sometimes hard to find seating sometimes and this is in a high school cafeteria.
I always look forward to our meetings and are bummed if I have to miss one, they are alot of fun.
Maybe thats the key, are your members having fun or are they bored?
Our typical meeting is this:
We arrive, everyone has really nice badges that are ordered through the club with our names inscribed on them but we also have a piece of paper with our names printed on them lined up on a table and we find our name and drop it into the raffle basket.
That way its fair and everyone has only one raffle ticket in the basket.
The raffle is done during intermission and its always a new piece of beekeeping equipment, for instance a refractometer, a voucher for a queen, a gift certificate for a free package or a nuc, brand new hives etc.
The 2 hives that are raffled are the ones that are purchased by the club and the bee school students assemble as part of their course work one night and then are raffled off during the regular meeting.
We also have club t shirts and hats, bumper stickers, badges you can sew on your jackets etc.

Our actual meetings consist of guest speakers presenting on topics from chemical free beekeeping to overwintering, diseases in the hive, topbar beekeeping, commericial beekeeping, spring/fall management, harvestin techniques etc. with a question and answer period after.
We also watch movies and slide shows.
The business part of the meeting is usually done at the end of the meeting with any discussion that is need on how much money the club has and if we should purchase anything we may need and how much to donate to the community/schools for instance we fund a beekeeping course for the kids at the local agricultural school.
There is a member in charge of the food table and the food is always excellent.
Our president keeps everyone involved by sending out twice monthly reports and pictures from different hive inspections he has done at the members bee yards with captions explaining each picture so you know what to look for and the good and the bad.
Then there is the regular monthly newsletter telling everyone what to expect at the next meeting in terms of presentations and the items to be raffled.
We also have workshops in between for harvesting honey, making soap and candles and visits to different members yards and inspecting their hives.
We also have 4 extractors that the members of the club  can borrow for their harvesting.
During the summer is the big picnic which is a blast and we have our own field days at different beekeepers yards.

All I can say is from the above description is that members are alway kept up to date about what is happening in the club at all times, we also have our own message board for members to interact, like this forum.
It helps to keep them included at all times so they feel involved.
Topics of the month are always very interesting.
Raffle items of course are always a big incentive to get people to attend but then you have to have a good basis for the meeting as well.
We have fun and we are involved.
I would consider what your topics are at the meetings, getting a raffle going, a snack table if you don't have one (remember that alot of people are coming directly from work and may have not eaten)
Do you have club t shirts printed up, hats, badges, field days at members houses with a cookout after, up to the mintue newsletters?
All of that helps with club spirit and involvement.
 

[BjornBee]

6 years ago, the local club here had 6 people attend one of there own picnics. I took the lead and approached the club to have a "sponsored" picnic hosted by the club, but invite sister clubs from surrounding counties. And open it to all beekeepers, members or not. This club has a bankroll of about 7,000 dollars. I asked for 275 dollars (to pay for a pavilion at a park, meat, and drinks), and you would thought I had asked for the whole 7 grand. They shot my idea down. I proceeded without the club and with the help of another beekeeper started my own picnic.

Saturday, I had 118 beekeepers attend the picnic, from three states and 11 counties within the state.

Now why would the local club not do this? Would they not of benefitted by building relationships with the other sister county clubs. Could they of given out information from the club to the approximately 25 new first year beekeepers in attendance?

The second club I belong too, and not the one mentioned above, were just thrown out of their traditional meeting site due to the fire marshal seating limit of 80 people. Three years ago, getting 15 people at a meeting was considered success. Today, the meetings are approaching 100. They had 27 members in attendance. They understand that the club supports members as much as they should expect the members to support the club. They are run by an exciting new president.

I find that there are really big differences between clubs. I see growing clubs with high energy people who are well liked, and respected. Other clubs I see are run by old fuddy-duddies, and are set in their ways, cling onto money like it's theirs, and stagnation is rampant. Some are not run in support of members, but more of moneymaking ventures.

I've seen clubs do more than the traditional meetings which can get boring. I liked one club who had a well attended potluck dinner in conjunction with the showing of the "bee movie". Members loved the evening.

If you joined a bike club, would you not expect to ride? If you belonged to a horse club, would you not expect to see a horse? But for 5 years in one club, I have never seen a beehive from another member as part of a bee club activity. They hold 4 meetings a year, to which most members lose track of, which is easy to do when 4 or 5 months are between meetings.

Some ideas....

Have exciting activities.

Change the "old guard" of the officers. Clubs are run on personality. Some officers have NONE!

Have a regular meeting EVERY month.

Members want to be educated, but also entertained. Meetings are not a place to come and sit and listen to some"know it all" speak for two hours.

[luvin honey]

Wow--Natalie and Bjornbee! Can I join your clubs?!?  :shock:

I've only attended one of my local meetings, so I should probably not base my opinion too much on one time. But, we simply got to see the leader open one hive, point out brood, eggs and the queen. Even for a newbie like me, it seemed a bit pedestrian, something we all have seen in our own hives and books.

Then, a mini potluck and chit-chatting. The chit-chatting is nice if you find the right folks. Mostly, as a new person, I attracted everyone who wanted to tell all their hunting and beekeeping stories to a NEW ear :D. I love the ideas above of lots of hands-on skill building, information and so on. Great ideas!

[oldenglish]

Wow--Natalie and Bjornbee! Can I join your clubs?!?  :shock:

Took the words right out of my mouth.
We try to have a guest speaker at every mtg, we have had hands on trachael mite inspections, how to sell honey through farmers markets, collecting pollen, entering county fair competitions etc. Most seem to go over really well.
Our mtgs have a pretty good turn out although I hope that with some effort the club will continue to grow. I have just been dissappointed that members seem happy to sit back and let somebody else do it. Hopefully it will improve over time.

[Natalie]

I do think monthly meetings are important to keep people involved, if you only meet every other month or a few times a year people drift away.
We meet each month from September through June and the two summer months are filled with beekeeping field days and the picnic.
It helps that we all feel included, believe it or not just having badges with your name on it and t shirts are a good way to make people feel like they belong, that they are a part of something and thats a good way to get people to stay involved with the club.
At our last meeting we had all the tables labeled by town and at the beginning of the meeting we were asked to go sit at the table labeled with our town.
The point was to get members to meet other beeks from our towns and to make connections.
It turned out great, I had no idea that I had another beekeeper just several houses down from me.
He was an older man that I had seen there but just didn't know who he was, turns out I went to high school with his daughter and his son in law is my son's baseball coach.
It was a great idea and people enjoyed it alot.
We have also played a game where you could win prizes such as various hive tools and supers if you knew the answer to a beekeeping question.
I have to say that the people that run my club have alot of fresh ideas and are always actively trying to improve things.

[asprince]

We have found that good speakers draw crowds.

Steve

[alflyguy]

I want a club in my area. I'm sure someone will say "start one". I've lived here for a long time but I've only recently meet a couple of beekeepers. It's hard to figure out beekeeping on your own. Without this forum I would not have made it through the first year.

[tillie]

The Metro Atlanta club is one of the oldest bee clubs in the country.  We have about 150 members and meetings are attended by lots of them - around 50 - 60 people.  We always have good speakers: Keith Delaplane, Jennifer Berry, Carl Webb (he and Virginia, his wife, won best honey in the world at Apimondia) as well as some of our own members.  We meet monthly which helps. 

The meetings are centered on the speaker - we have a board with about 12 members on it where most of the business decisions are made.  We have a picnic with a honey contest and an auction in September; we have a holiday party with a gift exchange in December, and we offer a short course in January - the latter being a huge focus of the club.

We also have a hive inspection program where new beekeepers can go to one of three Atlanta locations and be a part of a hive inspection to learn what to do.

The club used to be a tiny group that sort of wandered its way through but two go-getters became the president and vice-president a few years ago and they have made the club the vibrant entity it is today.

Linda T in Atlanta

[Hillbillenigma]

I'll reply as the Newbee that I am.  first, I'm very envious of you folks that do have a thriving club but I'm sure there is alot of work that goes on to make it so.   

Last year there was a small display at the local Fair of a Clear Hive.  I was fascinated and put my name on an attached "Request more Info" list.  Never got a call.   So I took the initiative a few months later and tracked down the contact of a local keeper who gave me the Bee Clubs info. 

I went to that first Meeting, I'm a researcher and so I took my list of questions, ?'s on rec Books, etc.   I sat through almost an hour of "Club Business" - Treasurer report, who to rec for this or that appointment, etc.    Then they had a speaker (Member) who had brought some plants and explained the Tox. names, good or bad for bees and then the meeting adjourned.    :?

I had to trap one of the VP's to ask my questions.  I left my contact with him to send a Membership App but never heard from anyone. 

The question I think all clubs should ask is what do they do to attract New Members?  How do we keep New Members?  I think a great way would be to assign new Members a "Mentor" or "Guide" or somthing of that nature for assistance and just plain fellowship.   If anyone would have shown an interest in me or my enthusiasm I would have joined immediately. 

Now I suppose I will probably go back at some point, its the only game in town... but I sure wish my initial visit had turned out differently.   

[Natalie]

That sure is disappointing. I don't blame you at all. I have gotten that feeling from clubs before.
I hope things get better for you and you find a group that pays attention to you or this group gets better.
Actually I would write a letter to the president of the club explaining how your visit went and how you were left feeling.

[slaphead]

OldEnglish,

Sorry to hear the turn out was so low.  We can't criticize people for placing family commitments before a beekeeping social and this is prime time for family vacations.

SH

[oldenglish]

OldEnglish,

Sorry to hear the turn out was so low.  We can't criticize people for placing family commitments before a beekeeping social and this is prime time for family vacations.

SH

I would not say that I am criticizing folks for not showing up, although I was disappointed. Our club meets once a month, we have a summer picnic, we man an info booth at the state fair for a week and we have a christmas party. If folks are going to join a club then you would think a little effort to attend the functions is the least they could do. I can tell you with certainty that come the November mtg when the new board is selected, attendance will be low or we will have a room full of new folks who got interested through the fair (like last year). The board positions take very little time out of our lives, I believe in the past they basically only met once a year, so far this year we have not even met. I even went so far as to create a board members only section on our forum so that we could discuss things without mtg. I sent out the password to each board member (8 officers total) and so far including me only 3 have bothered to log in. The only thing we have done this year that was a good thing was to stop going over the minutes of the last mtg, we already send them out in the newsletter so it was just taking up time, in my opinion the bad thing is we have gotten too lax, we do an around the room and go straight to the speaker topic, no old/new business etc. I could go on but I am sure that this is not the only club to have these kinds of issues.