Recruitment Strategies to Help Your Members THRIVE

2012-11-07

The membership campaign deadline is November 30, which means it’s time to increase membership recruitment so your chapter can meet the requirements of the campaign. This past month, I asked various members to share their best recruitment strategies to help DECA’s overall membership THRIVE. Here’s what they shared:

Strategy 1: the Tag Team
Have every outgoing DECA senior find someone to take his or her spot. This way, your chapter’s membership will never decrease when senior members graduate. It’s a simple and highly effective way to keep your numbers up. In fact, this strategy helped a chapter in Washington become one of the largest DECA chapters in the country!

Strategy 2: Personal Invitations
Send out invitations to all students eligible to become DECA members. To make the letters more personal, have your chapter president personally sign all the letters. You could even send letters to former members who left the program to possibly reengage them in DECA.

Strategy 3: A Day In the Life of a DECA Member
Hold a DECA Day at your school: students can visit a marketing class, attend a DECA meeting or shadow a DECA member to experience a day in the life of a DECA member.

Strategy 4: I Spy DECA Diamonds
Hide DECA diamonds around your school during DECA Month or your designated DECA Week. Have students search for them; when they find a diamond award them with a DECA info packet or flyer and a free Otis Spunkmeyer cookie!

Strategy 5: Recruiting From the Source
Host a DECA Day at the middle school that feeds into your high school. Present at a school-wide assembly, and remember to make the presentation as fun and interactive as possible! But don’t stop at a presentation and a Q & A session. Set up a DECA booth in the cafeteria during lunch and staff it with your most enthusiastic members, or put signs on the wall encouraging students to join! To further encourage future members to think about DECA, hand out DECA stickers, conference pins and other promotional items.