|
 Building
a Strong Membership: Recruitment
Build a large, diverse membership by constantly recruiting
through publicity, announcements, visibility events, general meetings,
and more.
Recruitment | Why
Important | Chair/Coordinator | Finding
Feminists | Recruitment
Timetable | Strategies and Tips
What is Recruitment?
Recruitment is the ongoing process of inviting new people to join
and participate as members of the Feminist Majority Leadership
Alliance on campus. Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances generate
new student participation through a recruitment process that includes
publicity, announcements, visibility events, general meetings,
and a membership form process.
Why Recruit?
Recruitment helps build a movement of committed young feminist
activists. Actively recruiting activists generates large numbers
of new participants, enabling the FMLA to become a large and influential
group on campus. With more members, the FMLA can take on more and
bigger actions, generate more publicity, and access more funding!
Recruitment builds diversity in the group and encourages participation
from enthusiastic and dedicated students, bringing fresh ideas
and energy to the FMLA.
Recruitment Chair/Coordinator
Every member of the FMLA is responsible for recruiting new members
to the group. In addition, electing a Recruitment Chair to the
Executive Committee ensures that recruitment is an ongoing process
in the group, increasing participation in the Leadership Alliance.
The Recruitment Chair coordinates a major membership drive at the
start of each Fall and Spring semester.
The Recruitment Chair is an elected leadership position recommended
for a second-year student. S/he is responsible for consistent recruitment,
planning events to increase membership throughout the year, working
with faculty, staff, and Campus Organizers on strategies to improve
recruitment, and setting ongoing recruitment goals. The Recruitment
Chair plans events with the Equality Chair to ensure a diverse
membership. The Recruitment Chair is also responsible for collecting
the Membership Forms and maintaining copies for group use.
Contact a Campus Organizer for materials, suggestions, and to
create a plan of action for the recruitment drive.
Finding Feminists:
Whom to Recruit
- Committed feminists who feel comfortable advocating
all of FMF’s principles (as delineated
in the constitution)
- Students who represent a diversity of
backgrounds, interests, experiences, talents, and academic
pursuits
- Students from each academic year
- Students
with progressive organizing and leadership experience
- Students
who are new to feminist activism but
wish to enhance their organizing and leadership experience
- Students who are willing to invest their time in
the FMLA as an extracurricular priority
Recruitment Timetable
The entire recruitment process should be conducted within
the first 4 weeks of the semester so that new participants
can become active almost immediately.
Begin the first semester recruitment drive
during the first two weeks of school. Include active involvement
in first-year orientation, registration, and dorm move-in.
Each of these activities requires advanced planning. The
Recruitment Chair should begin to organize Fall recruitment
at the end of the preceding Spring semester.
The second recruitment phase should coincide with the beginning
of the second semester. If your campus is
on the quarter or trimester system, plan shorter recruitment
phases at the beginning of each term.
Each recruitment period will include:
- Visibility and
Publicity: Leadership Alliance
participants will table, put up flyers, make class announcements,
and use any other strategies to raise awareness about the
FMLA on campus.
- General
Interest Meeting: During this
open meeting, the Executive Committee or the Launching
Members
present the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance program
and the Choices campaign and distribute the Membership
Forms.
- Membership Forms: New FMLA members should email the campus team at campusteam@feminist.org. Only students who are comfortable advocated FMF’s
mission and principles may receive new membership benefits
and participate
as an active member of the group.
|
|
We want large numbers of student activists and we can
get them through constant, active recruiting! Active recruitment
fosters diverse participation from enthusiastic and dedicated
students.
Having regular but defined "recruitment periods"
each semester helps the group increase participation, while
moving beyond the recruitment phase in a timely manner.
|
|
More Strategies and Tips
for Recruitment
|
|