Membership Recruitment

Congratulations Michigan FCCLA! Thanks to all your hard work and dedication, Michigan had the biggest membership increase in the Central Region last year. Jill Borman, our 2006-2007 State President, accepted the award on Michigan's behalf at the 2007 National Leadership Meeting in Anaheim, California this past summer. We all owe a debt of gratitude to last year's State Executive Council as a whole, and especially to Samantha Magdaleno who headed up our membership efforts last year as Vice President of Membership, but was unable to attend the National Meeting to accept the award. Let us work to earn this award again next year at the 2008 National Leadership Meeting in Orlando, Florida by boosting our membership again this year!

As the start of school approaches, there are many things that everyone can do to help recruit new members. If you haven't yet, it's important to get your chapter's executive council together to discuss plans and goals for the year. Remember to make your goal possible to achieve, but still challenging. Also make your goal measurable, so your chapter knows when they have reached their goal. One of your goals may be to get five new members to join your local chapter, to receive the Gimme 5! award at the Michigan State Leadership Meeting next April.
 
2006-2007 Gimme Five Winning Chapters
Alma High School
Ann Arbor Pioneer HS
Bedford High School
Belleville High School
Byron Area High School
Delta-Schoolcraft ISD
Durand Area High School
East Kentwood HS
Howell HS
Iosco RESA
Kingsford HS
Lenawee Vo-Tech Center
Livonia Stevenson HS
Parcells Middle School
Petoskey High School
Saline High School
TBA Career Tech Center



If your school has a student organization day, talk to your administrator about the possibility of setting up a booth or sign up table to get incoming freshman interested in FCCLA. At the booth/table, you could display past projects that people have showcased before or pictures of some of the events that your chapter participates in. You could even make a brochure or flyer to hand out to people, so that if a friend of theirs sees it, they may be interested too! There's even a sample that you can use on the Michigan FCCLA website at www.mifccla.org. Click on "Recruitment" under the "Membership" menu. Maybe you could allow members to recruit a friend and receive $5.00 off their dues!

It's also important to plan a fun activity for everyone to get know each other such as a breakfast party before school or a tailgate before a football game. Hang posters up or make announcements so everyone knows about your fun activity. You could play one of the many icebreaker games that you have learned to get people talking to each other, as many of the new freshman may be shy in an event where everyone already seems like a close family. Make sure everyone knows about the opportunities FCCLA can bring, such as the chance to help your community, travel across the state and country, learn more about yourself and potential careers, connect closer with your family, and of course, meet some amazing new people.

These are just a few ideas on how to recruit more members to Michigan FCCLA. Just remember, FCCLA is one of the greatest student-led organizations around today. After hearing all about FCCLA and the wonderful opportunities it can bring, people will want to join and help make Michigan FCCLA stronger than ever. We are Michigan FCCLA, and together we can increase our membership for another successful year! For more recruitment ideas, feel free to visit our website at www.mifccla.org, or email me at dpatel@mifccla.org!