[Ohio-talk] Fw: MEMBERSHIP BUILDING EXPERIMENT!

[Dr. Smith]

I want everyone to see this but I would like for Richard Payne and the Membership Committee to talk about this and make recommendations to us.

It looks like an interesting opportunity and although we have been having a great year in this area,  this could be another way to maximize our efforts but I await chairman Paynes input so read on!

JW

Dr. J. Webster Smith
President National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
P.O.BOX 458 Athens, Ohio, 45701-0458
Phone Number - 740-592-6326 
"Changing What it Means to be Blind"
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Wilson, Joanne 
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 9:47 AM
Subject: MEMBERSHIP BUILDING EXPERIMENT!


State Presidents,

 

The Affiliate Action Team is designing some new membership building initiatives and we are looking for a few pioneering affiliates to be part of an exciting new experiment to pilot them!!  Are you that pioneering affiliate?

 

A big part of membership building is reaching out to those blind people we don't know.  This has to be done by cold calling, and statistics show that most of us would rather have a root canal than make a phone call to someone we don't know!  But, we have found that when we make cold calling a group activity, our Federationists overcome their initial reluctance and build confidence by sharing in each other's successes. 

 

We are planning to do an NFB Call Center Day to help boost membership in your affiliates.  We are considering two approaches to doing this. 

 

The first approach is for us to come to your affiliate and participate in person in the Call Center Day. Under this approach, everyone would be together in one place. You would need to have at least three members participating, and you could have as many as you would like.

 

The second approach is to do a Call Center Day by conference call. Your affiliate members would not have to leave their homes, and we would participate from the National Center.

 

With either approach, we would help you prepare materials in advance--especially the lists of people to call. We would spend time discussing "What's My Opening Line?" to give members an idea of what approaches are most effective in breaking the ice with people. We would teach our members to identify ways in which the Federation can personally benefit each of the individual people they are contacting and to focus on the aspects of our work that relate to those areas of their lives.

 

The Call Center portion of the day will give members a chance to call actual blind people. Everyone will spend time getting comfortable picking up the phone, calling complete strangers, and beginning to build relationships with them.

 

Finally, we will provide training in how to follow up with the people we call. We will work with you to identify areas where new chapters can be started. We will also work with you to form an at-large chapter, if you would like, for those who live in very rural settings, are homebound, or who just need to start somewhere and are not yet sure about going to a chapter meeting. Several states have done this, and New Jersey especially has had some recent success.

 

Please let me know whether your affiliate would like to try either of these new membership-building models. Also, we need some idea about when your affiliate would be able to participate. Remember that we cannot do this with every interested affiliate right away; we need to start with one or two.  

 

Please let me know by Friday, September 18, 2009.   Any questions, please call me at 410-659-9314 extension 2335, or by e-mail at jwilson at nfb.org.

 

 

Thanks for all you do,

Joanne Wilson

Executive Director

Affiliate Action

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

410-659-9314 extension 2335

jwilson at nfb.org