Creative Recruitment Ideas For Your Student Chapter

Membership is vital for a thriving chapter, granting you the opportunity to reach a larger student audience. We’ve compiled creative recruitment ideas!

19.9 million students were projected to attend colleges and universities by fall 2018.

For most of these students, developing an outstanding resume is critical. One of the ways that these students seek to stand out is by joining honor societies.

Being part of an honor society not only looks good on one’s resume, but it can also help one to develop their skills. It doesn’t hurt that you can also make valuable connections for your future jobs prospects.

If you run an honor society chapter it’s your goal to help students and alumni enjoy these benefits. You thus need to keep bringing in new members.

Here are some recruitment ideas to help you fill the ranks.

Promote the Benefits

Students, who are your target audience, are attracted to an honors society due to the benefits they can receive, among other reasons.

Thus, you need to promote the benefits compellingly.

As fellow students, your peers will need to add value to their resumes. Their degree programs might need community service or professional development unit (PDU) hours.

You can boost membership numbers by showing potential recruits how they stand to benefit. Point out that the chapter’s community service programs will count towards their program.

Keep your scope wide here and consider targeting even those students that are outside of your discipline.

For those who need PDU hours, you can emphasize how organizing outreach activities and other chapter events can help them gain personal development experience.

The leadership experience they get to build by being part of the chapter, grant-writing, and fundraising skills are things that cannot be overlooked.

Members of the chapter also get to develop their networking skills and become better communicators through public speaking presentations at chapter events and meetings.

These skills will not only help them fulfill the required hours for their program but will also help them have better resumes and increase their chances of becoming top performers.

Respect Their Time

No matter how many new members you attract to your national honors society, they will only stay if they feel they like being part of the society.

As a chapter leader, you should constantly remember that your members are students who have a myriad of responsibilities.

Prepare activities that do not eat too much into their time so that members don’t feel stretched thin every time they take part in social activities.

Allay Their Fears

Students or alumni who have never been part of an academic honor society before may not know what they should expect if they sign up.

Consequently, you might find that some of the prospective members might have an inkling of what the society is about but are held back by fear of the unknown.

To overcome this barrier you can offer to help train those who will join. Take them through a sample training class or workshop so that they see what it’s like.

If you find that any members who, after joining, become uncomfortable with certain aspects of the society you can pair them up with more experienced peers.

They will feel more comfortable around a peer, and that will help them stick around.

Raffles

Whenever you are having a recruiting drive there are different activities that you can use to attract new signings.

A raffle is a fun way to pique curiosity in those who might want to join. Whenever you hold a raffle, you should give away a free membership to one person who decided to join the chapter during the drive.

Show Appreciation

Few things motivate people than when they feel you appreciate them.

If your chapter depends on members to volunteer for various activities then you need to keep showing them that you value their contribution.

Make it a habit to thank your members after a volunteer session so that they can desire to come back again.

For a chapter-wide gesture of appreciation, you can host an end-of-year party to celebrate the successes the society has had.

You can also make the tradition of celebrating exceptional achievement as part of the annual society-wide celebration. Develop different categories you will award publicly to boost morale and keep participation levels high.

Host ‘Bring-A-Friend’ Meetings

A valuable source for new recruits is word of mouth advertising. As a way to capitalize on this, you can host a ‘bring-a-friend’ meeting where each member will be expected to invite and bring a friend along with them.

Since such a meeting relies heavily on the personal relationships these members have with the guests you should create a more congenial environment.

Start the meeting with a fun ice-breaking activity that will get people to be freer with each other.

Make sure you provide free refreshments as people rarely turn down free food. A snack break will help potential members mingle and learn more about the chapter.

Follow Up

Whenever you host a society event you ought to get those attending to provide their contact information at the door.

This will allow you to reach out to any guests who attended the last meeting.

When you call or email them, thank them for visiting and don’t forget to invite them to the next event.

Invite a Speaker

One reason students and alumni join honor societies is to make connections that will further their career prospects.

You can tap into this desire by inviting successful professionals to a chapter meeting to give a talk and also speak about the importance of joining an honor society.

Prospective members who connect with the career accomplishments of these professionals will attend the talk and give a second thought to joining your chapter.

Execute Top Recruitment Ideas for More Members

For many students, an honor society is an essential addition to their achievements.

It is one way they prepare for life after school. As a chapter leader, you must never run out of recruitment ideas to keep adding more members.

The Honor Society Foundation exists to help members get the most out of their society. Get in touch with us today to find out how you can gain a scholarship and become a valuable member of your chapter.