<p>I volunteered with several students to establish the first meeting for our college's chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. We created a Facebook page and sent out invitations. 34 students said that they would attend, but last Tuesday there were only 5 who showed up! </p>
<p>Our faculty adviser mentioned that we might lose accreditation if we don't have enough members. Our goal is to host career workshops, speaking events and other activities that will give the journalism students at our college an opportunity to learn more about the field and network. </p>
<p>What are some of the methods we can do to boost membership and get the student body interested?
I have tried the word-of-mouth approach with my classmates and they say that they'll attend but it never happens. And then there are the students who commute to school and work after their classes, which is another challenge. </p>
<p>Thanks for your suggestions</p>
<p>Hello! I am president of the new media/journalism club at my high school till graduation tomorrow, that is. I also experienced a troubling problem with fluctuating membership and the risk of being shut down, but what I learned in my term was that it helps to do recruitment the old school way. </p>
<p>Hand out real invitations to your friends and put up a poster at a notice board outside a dorm. Facebook events are not as easy to track after they are past their date, so if you haven’t already set up a page, you should do so. (this can have embarrassing consequences if the society is indeed shut down, <em>touch wood</em>)
A Twitter feed is also a good idea for publicity. For my club, since blogging, tweeting in addition to print media was a big part of our activities, this also widened our viewership. Interested people can sign up and go for meetings, while those who just think you’re cool is going to keep following you. PS Word of tweet can be lightning quick if your school has a large twitter community.</p>
<p>Alternatively, call up/text/whatsapp everyone who said they’d go and ask why they didn’t show up. This is important if you want to know what they want in a membership with the society. Commitment, time scheduling, degree of interest and experience might play roles in this. </p>
<p>Hope all goes well, fellow scribe.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice.</p>
<p>I like the idea of flyers or posters around campus and the dorms because that will definitely reach the freshmen and sophomores. We have new housing facilities and more students are living on campus so this would be an opportunity to reach them. </p>
<p>Then we could use Twitter to reach out to commuting students and juniors/seniors who are working while attending classes.</p>
<p>I’m far from a PR expert, but I also like your idea of getting feedback from the students who were tentatively interested in joining. We can have them fill out a quick survey in order to find out what our club can do better + learn about obstacles to membership. </p>
<p>Thanks ivoryis!</p>
<p>Do you have money in the budget to offer food? An ice cream social, a cookie party, pizza… I would think that would boost your turnout.</p>