Question 2: How would you engage new members to join the GAGB

[geocaching womble]

How would the candidates engage new members to join the GAGB?

First of all I would try to increase the GAGB's reach and work with the Committee to encourage new members and put the GAGB on to a wider audience by reaching out to all caching groups and actively attend events on a regular basis to help encourage new members to join the organisation.

As well as making members feel heard and listened to by the committee

[GCHarribo]

I will launch a campaign on all my social media that we are looking for new members and speak to lots of geocachers at events.


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[Antreid]

I feel we need to make membership more worthwhile - why join? I mean, we have several thousand members, but hardly any are really 'active' (for any given definition of that word). Discounts are fine as a personal benefit, but unless members get some real benefits or there's a purpose, campaigns alone will fall flat.

I'd like to see a middle tier of membership like 'friends' or 'Reps' or something - people who are willing to host roving events and be welcoming to newbies, or who can help cachers who have questions or have problems in their areas, and so on, might be a nice way to encourage members to be more active, grant them some 'status', and thus bring some value to being a member in the first place.

And make joining and remaining active easier. Linking it to forums only complicates it all, and I'm not convinced Tapatalk activity is properly registered in the forum anyway.

See if we can define membership differently, and raise the value of being a member at the same time.

[geocaching womble]

I feel we need to make membership more worthwhile - why join?

I'd like to see a middle tier of membership like 'friends' or 'Reps' or something - people who are willing to host roving events and be welcoming to newbies, or who can help cachers who have questions or have problems in their areas,
.

I concur, regional friends of the GAGB that feedback to the committee on a regular basis is a very good idea and if I am elected I would work with you to make it happen

[Leonards193]

I agree, promoting GAGB events to be held to spread the word is a great way to engage with potential new members. Personally, nothing beats being there face to face to answer questions, explain things and describe benefits of joining.
People like to feel they belong and the GAGB is a great starting place for information, particularly when new to the hobby.

[border caz]

As Kim says - nothing beats face to face. Social media has a place but GAGB also needs to be out there at as many events as possible, spreading the word. Tell people what the GAGB can do for them.

A team of "friends" would be very useful for this, getting out and about to events that committee members can't reach, perhaps running GAGB events on our behalf. Also, the Committee themselves need to make sure that as many of them as possible attend the bigger events so we have more presence - and the work isn't left to 2 or 3 people.

I also think that the way we currently base membership on accessing this forum needs addressing, a change is needed to the constitution which was formulated before the advent of all the other forms of social media e.g. Facebook came into being.

[geocaching womble]

As Kim says - nothing beats face to face. Social media has a place but GAGB also needs to be out there at as many events as possible, spreading the word. Tell people what the GAGB can do for them.

I also think that the way we currently base membership on accessing this forum needs addressing, a change is needed to the constitution which was formulated before the advent of all the other forms of social media e.g. Facebook came into being.

I totally agree with you I would be willing to work with you to do that if elected

[Griff Grof]

As I am the sixth candidate to answer this question, a lot of what I strongly believe has already been said.

We have to spread the word - whether that's on social media, or at events. In my manifesto, I expressed a desire to help implement the 'GAGB Friends' programme, in which members sign up to formally declare an interest in helping us out. I would like to offer these members the chance to host roving events (previously only committee members have been able to), which are a great way for the community to 'meet the GAGB' and find out more about what we do.

I concur with regards to redefining what it means to be a member - not logging into the forum shouldn't affect your membership status. Clearly, this will involve changes to the constitution which, as I said in my manifesto, I am happy to help with.

The GAGB should be at the heart of the UK caching community. I think we're almost there, but we need to spread the word and make members feel like they can get involved. The GAGB has to work for them.

Apologies for the repetition, and I'm aware that I've excluded a couple of other good points that have been raised.

Overall, I am enthusiastic about encouraging cachers to join the GAGB and engaging our members in whatever way we can. If re-elected, I would love to work with the rest of the committee to realise some of the great ideas raised on this thread.

[UKCACHEMAG]

I think the GAGB needs to be more visible and accountable

Show and demonstrating our value will inspire people to get involved.

This needs needs to be across a number of social media channels and we need need to be seen at more local events

[Dr Evil.]

I agree with Adam the GAGB needs to be more visible, the only time I have dealt with the GAGB before this was when there was something wrong with one of my caches, I feel face to face meet ups are good and the roving Gagb events are a great way to showcase what the organisation does. I feel social media can also bridge the gaps and make more people aware of what the GAGB does for Geocaching in the UK.

[Grahamthegray]

I think some of the issue here is that we do gain new members from GAGB members promoting ourselves at events and within facebook groups, i think often the real issue is continuing to engage with members once they have joined and the benefits it offers them. Though forums are a good place to have discussions its a bit more old school. Need to engage members on social media to keep coming back to see what is been promoted on the website and the forums. Some of this will be based on that cachers demographics as what will appeal to some wont appeal to others so we need to have an balanced spread to engage the widest audience.

[abiherts]

As Kim says engaging with the 'public' face to face is a good way of attracting new members but do they stay interested after that initial contact? The forums are very much outdated. The landowner databases are only used by conscientious cachers and it is very difficult to find the member discounts. I feel that the GAGB needs to move with the times and make the association more appealing to all of its current and prospective members.

Membership is also very confusing, outdated and needs addressing in a change to the constitution.

[N0hope]

Linking it to forums only complicates it all, and I'm not convinced Tapatalk activity is properly registered in the forum anyway.

Tapatalk has serious security issues. I cannot use it due to every anti-virus app I have used blocking it and stating it has malicious content and details gained by Tapatalk have been sold in the past.

[border caz]

I don't use Tapatalk, my phone has too many apps on it as it is.