Membership Committee

• Enter Members Web (Authorization Required)

Overview

• Chair: Diane Cates
• Co-Chair: Open
• General Description: This is the "engine" of the club. Once we have attracted members to the club, we want to keep them involved by keeping them up to date and encouraging them to take an active role. The Membership Committee maintains our Master Contact List, email List Serve lists, and interacts with the Treasurer to gather as many people as possible into the club. The tasks of this Committee will mainly fall into the hands of a single person who maintains the Master Contact List and prepares simple mailings, and uses the Web to invite people to the List Serve.
• Skills Needed: To be successful in this role, the volunteer should have good computer and web skills. This isn't rocket-science, but it does take a bit of diligence in maintaining the Master Contact List.

Tasks of the Membership Committee

• Maintain Master Contact List
  • Currently maintained in the Members web.
  • Will get information from a variety of sources:
    • Mailing List form will be emailed directly to a member of this committee.
    • Meeting Sign-in Sheets
    • Mailed-in information
    • Information provided by the Treasurer.
  • Master Contact List should be uploaded to a private directory on the web so the President and others can read it.
  • From time to time, (perhaps once a year) to go through the list and call contacts that have elected to not be listed in the email list server.
    • Particularly important right after we have established the ECDC-Announce list as some people have unsubscribed due to too much email but they may be happy with the lower volume of the Announce list.
    • Make sure those who are no longer members are not subscribed to the Members list, and also the reverse, make sure all members are subscribed.
  • Keep names of students from our student outreach separate. (We may need to establish a separate student email List Serve.)
  • The Master Contact List is CONFIDENTIAL!

• Meeting Logistics - Much of this work can be delegated to other volunteers.
  • Pre-meeting tasks
    • Create printed nametags for new members
    • Print blank sign-in sheets
  • During the meeting:
    • Provide name tags to members at the door
    • Have visitors sign-in with full information.
    • Create visitor nametags by hand.
    • Accept memberships, create receipts for cash
  • Post-meeting tasks
    • Enter names from sign-in sheets into Master Contact List.
    • Update Master Contact List with attendance.
    • Visitors: Enter emails into list manager and send invites to subscribe to the list. See List Serve

• Random Prospect Contacts
  • Contacts will inquire about the club by calling, emailing, or regular mail.
    • Enter names into Master Contact List.
    • Enter email addresses into List Serve manager to request that invites be sent.
    • Send "Prospect Kit" by physical mail. It contains:
      • Prospect Cover Letter. (Update with latest dates and other information.)
      • Club Brochure
      • Current Events Theater Invitation
      • Any other material that seems suitable.
      • Return envelope, with address label applied.
      • Use East County Democratic Club return address label on the main envelope.

• Handle Membership Applications: Mail-in or Hand-delivered Membership Application OR Membership info from meeting or by email.
  • Pick up from Post Office (El Cajon Branch) (1265 Avocado Blvd, Suite 104 (#335)
  • Enter names into Master Contact List.
  • Enter email addresses into List Serve so that it will send invitations to subscribe to the list.
  • Send Membership Kit by physical mail.
    • • New Member Cover Letter. (Update with latest dates and other information.)
      • Club Brochure
      • Current Events Theater Invitation
      • Any other material that seems suitable.
      • Return envelope, with address label applied.
      • Use East County Democratic Club return address label on the main envelope.
  • Send check to Treasurer (Rosalie Star) (if you have it) along with membership info.

• Annual Membership Campaign
  • Performed in December/January.
  • Membership Committee need only create mailing labels from the membership list, current members and to everyone on the Master Contact List.
  • Members who paid after Oct 1 are credited with the next year's membership.
  • All others are encouraged to renew at the full rates, unless they provide hardship story.
    • Members who joined after June 30 can renew at 1/2 normal dues.
  • Mail out President's renewal letter to mailing labels provided.
  • See Instructions For Bulk Mailing for details on handling bulk mailing.
  • Handle returns per the task detailed above, "Handle Membership Applications."

• Robo-call Maintenance
  • Recently, Raymond Lutz experimented with a robotic calling tool that would call everyone on the list prior to an event. Most people praised the facility, but it didn't work well in some cases and they were called over and over. This did not give us a very good reputation, so we aren't using it now.
  • Mark Hanson says he has access to a robotic calling machine. If we can use this, we will need to extract a list of phone numbers and load it into the machine.

-- Raymond Lutz - 23 Oct 2006

• ECDC_Folder_Labels.odt: Labels for front of presentation folders for Avery 5163