Exec reports - Membership Chair

Introduction

The Membership Chair:

• Revises the VOC Handbook, pamphlet, and membership form, as necessary.
• Looks after Clubs days and other booth events.
• Ensures that anybody who wants to join the Club has the opportunity to do so.
• A good position for somebody who is friendly and outgoing, and helpful with giving out Club information, but is still prepared to do some paperwork. Job is essentially finished by the end of the Fall term.

Current Exec Report

2018-2019: Jan Prchal updated

Exec report - Membership Chair 2018 - 2019

________________________________________

Membership Chair: Jan Prchal 

Summary of primary responsibilities

•        Manage emails about VOC membership

•        Send the ACC a list of our club members

•        Host summer BBQ’s (during my term, they were hosted by our VP)

•        Apply for a spot at, and run the booth for, UBC’s GSS Orientation (Grad Students Association)

•        Apply for a spot at, and run the booth for, UBC’s Imagine Day

•        Apply for a spot at, and run the booth for, UBC’s AMS Clubs Days

•        Send out a reminder for membership renewal in mid-September

•        Host a VOC Info Night, try to get as many exec to come and have slides ready

•        Apply for a spot at, and run the booth for, UBC’s January Clubs Days

Note: for Clubs Days this year, we opted to use the Clubroom as our booth rather than wait for people to come to find us tucked away in the corner of the Nest. We found it worked fairly well, so it may be something to consider continuing if a favourable booth table spot is not obtained.

Managing Emails

This will be the most consistent work that you will do. People will email with inquiries about their membership. Often, this is members asking if they can e-transfer you to pay for their membership. I personally was willing to do this, but it is important to state that you have to remember to actually deliver the cash that you owe the club to the Clubroom. More importantly, accepting sizeable quantities of e-transfers impacts your tax situation, so be aware of that.

Activating Members

Know the membership guide inside out.

http://www.ubc-voc.com/wiki/Membership

Always check waiver is signed when activating memberships. Check “signature viewed”.

Summer BBQs

It is nice to run a potluck BBQ’s for members at Locarno Beach on a day that works (first Wednesday of every month May through September has been the day in the past). Small portable propane grills are the best move, rather than a full-sized BBQ.

 Update Promotional Material

Before the fall term starts, it is a good idea to start working on posters for promoting. Past execs have created good material that you can use as a launch point. These templates can be found in the swanky new exec doc that George Hill put together for us. You can find the information on how to get all set up with the exec OneDrive and Google Drive in the Exec Documents section on the website under the Website Admin tab.

A good idea is to use old poster and slideshows as templates for new ones. It helps, for example, to make sure the dates and names are all correct when you present a slideshow for the VOC Info Night.

Advice from 2013/2014 membership chair, Adrian Larson:

“If updating the photos, check out the most recent Photo Contest for possible photos, ask permission, and credit appropriately. The best photos show club members in action or a nice landscape. Try to remember that these should be enticing photos (so not necessarily the most "hardcore").

The VOC Handbook may also be revised as necessary. This is on the Wiki.”

Renewal Reminder Email

A couple of weeks prior to the end of September, use the renewal reminder email function in the Execs Section of the website to remind members to renew their accounts.

Typical VOC Booth

A selection of old journals, brochures (lots-we go through these very quickly), large VOC flag, various gear of interest (ie ski, helmet, ice axe, harness, swag, etc). Mention your favourite things about the club (friendships, learning, favourite trip examples, gear rental, etc). Spare journals from the last year can be given out to members who haven't picked theirs up. Can bring sheets of paper to get emails for an Info Night reminder email because people like to leave their emails (this is a pain to input, get others to do this as a workhike!)

The same basic booth can be used at the Grad Student Orientation, Imagine Day (Main Event), and AMS Clubs Days.

Grad Student Orientation

Organized by GSS for the past two years and is a big fair (similar to Clubs Days) aimed at incoming graduate students. This is a great opportunity for a couple of VOC representatives to advertise the club, as it often is a large proportion of grad students. This has been just a couple hours in the afternoon, the Friday before Labour Day weekend. In addition, we are able to sell memberships here, so bring a float, laptop (or signup forms, but laptop is easier), and waivers. Normally two people is plenty. Contact the GSS in mid-August if you don't hear from them earlier.

Main Event Carnival (Imagine Day)

Organized by Imagine UBC. This is a giant event up and down Main Mall. There is an application for this event that should be filled out in early August. We can't sell memberships here and new rules forbid paper brochures.

For this, you will want several volunteers at the booth (minimum 3 at any time) and some at the clubroom to take memberships and to answer questions. Organizing volunteers is easily done using a wiki page (http://www.ubc-voc.com/wiki/Clubs_days_2013) and by spamming the message board and execs. I used a "typical booth" discussed above. Brief all of the volunteers about good explanations of the club. This is a very busy event and you should expect to be talking the whole time. Last year's lasted past 17:00. The key is recruiting exec to help out with this.

Note: Last year I tried Google Sheets for signup, which worked reasonably well, mostly because I found the wiki signup annoying to use.

AMS Clubs Days

Note: We found that our table allocation in the Great Hall was not worth the trouble, because no one makes it that far into the Nest to visit our booth. Check the January Clubs Days section to see how we responded to this issue.

It is organized by the AMS in the third week (or so) of September. We received an application last year in mid-July. Keep an eye out for the email to sign up.

Typically we get a booth on the main concourse, but this might change with the new SUB (depends on move-in date, I guess...). I used the same wiki page as Main Event to organize volunteers (try to have one exec member, but anyone else is great - they need to be keen). Harass exec and returning members to participate - it's fun and counts as a workhike. Plus, it isn't that much of a time commitment.

This booth is typically very busy as well and having lots of volunteers is helpful. Make it clear to people when recruiting volunteers that this counts as a workhike. Make sure people understand how to sell memberships (esp. activating them) and correctly sell Rock Party tickets. Keeping the floats separate and the Rock Party numbers correct is a significant challenge. Try to be there to set up and take down the booth at the beginning and end of the day or set aside everything and coordinate with a volunteer to set it up.  The critical thing is having an exec who can activate memberships that have been paid right away.

We can sell memberships here, so have a cash float, laptop.

 Exec Office Hours

Try to organize it such that an exec is in the clubroom every weekday in September from 12-1 to answer questions and help signup members. These need not coincide with gear hours. This is quickly done by sending around a Doodle poll to the exec and having everyone pick at least one time. Having two people is better, especially in the first couple of weeks and during Clubs Days. These aren't as important as it gets less busy after September.

The Remainder of the Year

Breathe - you've survived September, and this position calms down after Clubs Days. The remainder of the year you will respond to [email protected] emails and help accept waivers from members (some are off-campus or can't make gear hours) and to help people join the club generally. As mentioned earlier, I was willing to accept e-transfers for membership. Do this according to your preferences.

Great suggestions from previous membership chairs which I did not follow through on but will mention below:

Lead a trip (two per term is a great goal) and help out on others. Help other exec if they have trouble with misc. Events. Write a journal article. Congrats on being a great Membership Exec.

Budget

This budget is just costs related to waivers, posters, and brochures. Printing at CopyRight is nice because they directly invoice the club. 

See more information here[1]

Past Membership Chairs

2009-2010: Maki Sumitani
2010-2011: Fisal Elstone
2011-2012: Caroline Jung
2012-2013: Sabrina Burkhardt
2013-2014: Alfred Larsen

2018-2019: Jan Prchal

Past Exec Reports

In past years, a separate wiki page was made for each exec report. Note that these are out of date, but may be good reference.

Exec report - Membership Chair 2013 - 2014
Exec report - Membership Chair 2009 - 2010
Exec report - Membership Chair 2008 - 2009
Exec report - Membership Chair 2007 - 2008
Exec report - Membership Chair 2006 - 2007