Board of Directors/Level of Participation

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== Tactics ==
== Tactics ==
To better understand the problem:
To better understand the problem:
-
* Ask new members what attracted them, what got them involved
+
* Ask new members what attracted them, what got them involved (2017-12 [[PCSAR Doc-128 Recruitment Tactics Questionnaire]] part of [[New Member Package]])
* survey members
* survey members
** survey what they want / need, what are you looking for?
** survey what they want / need, what are you looking for?

Revision as of 20:26, 2 January 2018

Contents

Goal

In February 2017, the Board set a goal for strategic planning: "to develop a plan to address the level of participation, number of members, and rejuvination of the organization".

Description of the Problem

We've addressed the problems of compliance with provincial requirements by splitting off the Community Response Group. However since 2014 our core group has greatly been reduced in part by the difficulty of reconciling ourselves to the need to change our organization and in part because of the provincial requirements on our members.

We're seeing attendance numbers of 4-10 vs previously 15-20. How can we move forward with these number? Workload has now been downloaded to this small group. Burn out for this group is becoming very real.

Strengths

  • we develop inherently interesting skills that are attractive to many potential members
  • we have exciting responses
  • we have lots of good equipment
  • we have solid financial support
  • our community thinks highly of our activities and offers strong moral support
  • our community has a high percentage of outdoor people that we can recruit from
  • we have easy access to great wilderness for training
  • the provincial and national parks bring part-time and full-time staff that are professionally motivated to develop SAR skills

Barriers

Barriers we are currently facing include:

  • amount of work
  • burn out
  • mindset
  • life has changed for long-time volunteers
  • the disparity between paid and volunteer responders on the same incident
  • volunteers are demotivated when they train but don't get used

Potential Strategies

brainstorming some solutions:

  • recruit new members (give this the highest emphasis)
  • Look at a paid model
    • merge with CNP Fire to get paid model
  • lots of community members with Basic SAR training like the first aid model
  • we should target 18 to 40 year olds for members
  • we should use social media to reach our target audience
    • get control of and post to PCSAR's Facebook page
  • invite general public to our events, exercises and training
    • risk: over engagement; mitigate: limit vacancies
    • post on Echo's community events
  • promote & advertise our group

Tactics

To better understand the problem:

  • Ask new members what attracted them, what got them involved (2017-12 PCSAR Doc-128 Recruitment Tactics Questionnaire part of New Member Package)
  • survey members
    • survey what they want / need, what are you looking for?
    • what got you excited?
    • ways to better engage
    • by phone (see below)
    • by Survey Monkey
      • include in monthly mail-out
  • discuss tactics with LASARA
    • speak with Chris Jorgensen ACTION(Brett)
    • monthly social events
      • "Escape from LA"
      • Bike Ride
      • Coffee

To encourage participation of current members:

  • (done) 2017-04-21 Volunteer Appreciation
  • (done) 2017-04-25 ICS Workshop
  • fun activity for July -- ACTION(Brett)
  • social functions
    • involve spouses and kids
    • picnic
    • entertainment
      • something to occupy for 1 to 1.5 hr, then activity
      • e.g. movie
    • visiting time as part of training
  • pictures of what we're doing (mountains we're going to climb)
  • change of location
    • e.g. Beauvais
      • fish afterwards
  • directly speak to members
    • phone call -- ACTION(Brett and Rose)
    • invite to activity
    • include survey (see above)
  • create a "culture of participation"
    • an expectation of participation


To recruit new members:

  • Advertise our activities for community participation to recruit new members
    • include upcoming hikes
    • Echo's Community Events (talk to Nichole) ACTION(Rose)
    • local radio station - Mountain Radio
      • ACTION(John) to provide contacts
      • Do they do public service announcements?
    • Facebook
      • regain control of our old Facebook page or have it deleted ACTION(Rose)
        • Contact Ali
      • post our activities ACTION(Rose)
    • Establish or presence on other social media with the same name
    • Poster
      • Post Office
      • Swimming Pool
  • Recruit from other outdoor groups
    • identify potential groups
    • groups such as
      • Quad squad
      • CNP snowmobile users
      • Volunteer Ski Patrol
      • Calgary Scramblers (locals)
      • CNP Hiking Group (on Facebook)
      • Youth groups - recruit leaders, parents
        • 4H
        • Scouts
        • Guides
    • develop generic letter - ACTION(Rose)
      • update to include request to organization to distribute info to their members, or let us meet with them
    • consider meeting with groups
  • improve our membership inquiry / intake process
    • need more Recruitment Brochures - ACTION(Rose)
    • need more New Member Packages - ACTION(Rose)
    • establish mentors for new members to get them more engaged

Status of this Document

This is an unofficial summary of board discussions.

Log

Retrieved from "http://pcsar.dyndns.org:8080/mediawiki/index.php/Board_of_Directors/Level_of_Participation"
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