Membership Retention

Membership Retention means getting active brothers to stay active. While anyone who decides Alpha Phi Omega is not for them is free to leave, a chapter should try to retain its members so it can develop all of its programs further. Actives must impress people with the quality of their programs, and also figure out how to improve the programs to keep people involved. For Iota Phi, retention has historically been a challenge because the chapter is so big, and the turnover rate is often very high. Usually, Membership Vice Presidents are held responsible for improving retention.

Records

Term	Namesake	# of Pledges Crossed	# of Actives Completing Requirements
Fall 2009	McKenzie	91	43
Spring 2010	Luong	126	53
Fall 2010	Chandler	97	70
Spring 2011	Chew	51	82
Fall 2011	Zlatkovich	80	51
Spring 2012	Serrano	61	60
Fall 2012	Harty	65	33
Spring 2013	Cheng	57	40
Fall 2013	Emery	53	33
Spring 2014	Liao	41	39

Challenges

Several factors make membership retention at Iota Phi challenging:

The chapter is so large that people sometimes feel lost in the crowd, or feel their contributions are not recognized.
People do not feel they have a role in the chapter. If they do not care, someone else will.
Attempts at retention are passive. That is, they involve an officer setting some resource in place, and expect actives to pursue it. More active approaches are needed to understand why some actives turn away.
Since the turnover rate is so high, one term of inactivity would make a brother feel completely lost and unfamiliar with the chapter.
Records are usually not kept about why members choose to stay active, or choose to leave.
Older actives get tired of seeing the same events repeatedly.
Academics become a big hurdle.

Approaches to Membership Retention

Many different things have been tried over the years to improve membership retention.

Active-only Events

Membership VPs have occasionally tried creating events that only actives are allowed to attend. This was meant to give actives some time to talk about things that they felt more reserved in talking about around pledges. Officers who try to run active-only events should be careful, however. No Alpha Phi Omega event other than rituals can exclude anyone. This means all pledges, inter-chapter members and even the general public are allowed to attend. At most, you can emphasize that an event deals with active-specific issues, and would only be beneficial to them.

Memberboats were created in an attempt to create more fun-centered, active-only events. They are the equivalent of a Fellowboat, except that only members can sign up, no pledges. This allows the active body to have a chance to hang out without the event resulting in pledges trying to get interviews, as often happens at other events, as well as encouraging members to interact with active members that they may not otherwise spend time with.

Active Interviews

Occasionally, actives were given the option of interviewing around 15 pledges for a wildcard that substitutes completion of one other requirement for active membership. This approach is meant to help actives meet newer members and create more relationships within the chapter, so people never feel too disconnected.

Active Retreat

Membership VPs have tried active retreats with varying success. Usually, this event has worked best before the start of a term. Particularly, ExComm has held pre-retreats to check out the Pledge Parents' intended Pledge Retreat campsite. Actives have often been invited to join in.

Awards

Membership VPs have offered many different kinds of awards to recognize actives for their contributions, and remind them that they are valuable. This is meant to encourage people to stay active. Some awards include Active of the Week or "Awesome Active Awards", Brotherhood Awards, and more. The physical award is usually a certificate, but officers have been known to give out other things, like painted paddles. In Fall 2010, Membership VPs created three awards for actives: a mug to be awarded by themselves, a glove to be awarded by ExComm, and a plate to be passed from active to active.

This is a list of awards that was passed down/continued as of F2K16

Goal-setting

One retention idea involves requiring actives to set at least one SMARTER Goal for the term, if not more. Actives can set a simple goal like fulfilling active requirements, or other goals based on their own constraints and ability. They can set less-intensive goals like simply fulfilling 30 service hours, or more intensive goals like doubling all active requirements, or starting a new project. In doing so, officers can have something about actives to track the progress of, and see whether people are getting what they want to out of membership. If people fail to pursue their goals, the officer has something to ask them about to figure out why the person is not as active. Inactive members may also be asked to set goals, in an attempt to either get them active again, or start a conversation about why the individual stopped being active. This can lead to understanding flaws in the chapter that could be improved upon. Another added benefit of this exercise is that it has actives practice goal-setting, which is an indispensable tool for their leadership development.

This process can be managed by Retention Chairs.

Incentives

Membership VPs have tried various incentives to encourage actives to come out and fulfill their requirements. In Spring 2010, officers tried financial incentives. For example, for a Baskin Robbins fellowship, they gave discounts for the first 20 members who came. In Fall 2010, they created customized buttons corresponding to each trait in the Scout Law, and passed a different kind out at each meeting. In Fall 2012, they gave actives who fulfilled their requirements an option to buy active status sweaters.

MVP Interviews

In Spring 2009, Membership Vice Presidents introduced post-rush, mid-term, and end-term interviews for actives. These interviews entailed getting to know actives and trying to figure out their goals for the term, or to help them come up with a plan to make active status. This was intended as a retention tool, and attending all three interviews earned one wildcard. One concern for this idea was that having actives approach the officers was a passive affair that would only attract those who already intend to be active. It did not help with assessing why the more distant members had begun to go inactive.

MVP Office Hours

This idea has been tried occasionally. It is similar to the MVP Interviews, as actives are encouraged to come and talk to the Membership Vice Presidents about plans to make active status. Actives could also talk about any concerns they had about meeting requirements here, and the officers could help them come up with a plan. Also similar to the MVP Interviews idea, this strategy targets those who already intend to be active. However, some people find it very helpful.

Retention Chair

A retention chair is a part of the Membership Committee (MemberComm) that is meant to take an active approach toward helping people who could go either way about making active status. Oftentimes, people are interested in coming back, but end up not doing it because they feel requirements are out of reach, or they do not know anyone anymore. Retention Chairs help those people create their own path toward being active, and they can be the people that keep actives connected to the chapter. It helps to have a diverse group of Retention Chairs, so they can capture wider ranges of people. For example, people of different terms, age groups, or even cliques. While the idea was proposed several times before, it was finally implemented in Fall 2010. The Membership VPs for this term had a couple Retention Chairs, but did not plan to reveal their identities, or even the fact that the position existed, until Banquet.

The following is a sample outline of the Retention Chair position:

Composition

Three to six chairs of various pledge classes, ages, cliques
These people would be a part of MemberComm and make regular reports at MemberComm meetings

Duties

To seek out actives and record whether or not actives plan to make active status or otherwise be active, why, or why not.
To help people who are interested in being active by
1. Asking for and recording their goals as an active,
2. Helping them create a personalized schedule to meet those goals,
3. Regularly contacting actives throughout the term to see what progress they have made in reaching their goals.
To work with pledge parents to understand why each pledge decided to join Alpha Phi Omega.
To ask graduating actives what it is that made them stay in Alpha Phi Omega as long as they did.
To organize all aforementioned records and provide a report to the chapter with recommendations in conjunction with Membership VPs.

Sunshine Chairs

Sunshine Chairs were a short-lived position that existed in Spring 2009 and Spring 2010. The person holding this position was meant to be anonymous until the end of the term. They would give out small birthday cards and other encouraging remarks to boost active morale. The position was discontinued, but the general idea was merged back into the position of Spirit Chair.

Undercover Brother

Undercover Brother is a week full of events in which each active is paired with an anonymous Undercover Big Brother and Undercover Little Brother. Throughout the week, actives go to events and try to figure out who their Undercover Big Brother is. Undercover Brother is meant to encourage actives to build bonds with people they may not know as well. It is similar to a buddy system to keep people active. Some have suggested that this relationship be emphasized later in the term, beyond just the Undercover Brother week. This way, actives can keep each other involved in the long term. This idea was brought back by the Membership VPs and Fellowship VPs in Fall 2010 after years of absence.