Membership resources
- New Member Information Booklet
Last month we talked about the importance of Lions becoming more involved in their communities. One way to do that is to invite people who are not Lions to volunteer alongside us. But how do we find these volunteers?
Here are a couple of ideas.
Ask people to help with a specific project. It could be a friend, neighbour or someone who sees a post on Facebook. I have noticed that a number of clubs are already using Facebook to ask for volunteers, and I think that is a great idea. People may be happy to give a few hours of their time even though they are not interested in joining a club.
Work with other community organizations. When another organization asks your club for financial support, consider offering some volunteer help instead. Perhaps your Lions could help at one of their events, and in return they might be willing to help with one of yours. More importantly, it gives Lions an opportunity to work alongside other community members, get to know them and introduce them to what Lions do.
A few things to remember when inviting volunteers:
- Have a variety of projects where volunteers can help.
- Make volunteering easy. Explain what they will be doing, how long it will take and who they will be working with.
- Make them feel welcome. Introduce them to other members and make sure they are included.
- Don't give volunteers the jobs that Lions don't want to do.
- Personally thank them afterwards and ask if they would like to help again.
- Keep a list of community volunteers who are interested in helping with future projects.
There are really two reasons for inviting volunteers. The first is that clubs sometimes need extra hands to carry out their projects. The second, and I think more important reason, is that it gives us an opportunity to become more involved with people in our communities.
We have been talking quite a bit about the importance of community involvement and how it relates to membership. I believe that when people work alongside Lions, get to know us and enjoy what we do, some of them will naturally become interested in joining.
So perhaps we should stop thinking of volunteers as just extra help and start thinking of them as people we would like to get to know. Even if they never become Lions, we have made another connection in our community, and that is a good thing. Garry
District A15 GMT Coordinator
Garry Ransom
519-835-3170