Organization Recruiting: A Plan to Increase Membership By: Kristen Roberts President, Students for Global Connections

Introduction My organization, Students for Global Connections, has a lack of members. This is a problem because it forces more strain on the officers and limits the productivity of the group. Students for Global Connections has been an officially registered organization on the Texas Tech campus for over two years, but it has never had more than twenty official members at a time. As the current president of Students for Global Connections, or SGC, I present this Recommendation Report in order to find ways to attract more Texas Tech students to this organization. The future success of my organization depends on finding more people to help further its cause. If a solution is not found, it may cease to exist after all of the current officers graduate. This report offers these two solutions to solve it: 1. Market the organization towards study-abroad students, because they should have an interest in multicultural activities. 2. Create an advertising campaign on campus that would be marketed to any Tech student interested in joining. This report goes into detail about both solutions and will show the reader a projected outcome of each. Objectives of the Plan There are several limitations regarding this study. Because it is a multicultural organization, SGC has many variables to consider. Five different countries are represented by the officers alone. Even officer meetings by themselves could be a study in the potential difficulties of different nationalities working together. This has great advantages, such as the amount of cultural education that all parties experience through multicultural work, but also some drawbacks. One of the biggest hurdles is that there have been cultural clashes in the past. However, that just comes with the territory of being a multicultural organization. This diversity brings substantial potential benefits such as better decision making and greater creativity and innovation(Cox, 1991). Criteria of the Solutions The two solutions are being judged on the following: y y y How cost-effective it is How long it would take Projected gain of members

Solutions There are two possible solutions that would help increase members. One would include focusing on the study abroad students, who could be the most likely to join. The other plan would be to have an advertising campaign on campus, a campaign that would not be engineered for any specific audience. According to the University of Kentucky website, it is important to have banners and flyers of the organization at all recruitment opportunities(Involved, 2007). y Marketing to Study Abroad participants

Scheduling a quick talk to students at every re-entry study abroad session would help to get more students who already have an interest in cultural opportunities. This solution is free except for the cost of paper. A fact sheet and organization sign-up would be passed around during the talk. It would occur during the beginning of the fall semester and the beginning of the spring semester. However, there are a large number of students who study abroad, but not many of them go to the re-entry study abroad session. Because the re-entry session is usually very long, the presentation would need to be short and interesting in order not to put the audience to sleep. y Advertising campaign geared toward everyone

An advertising campaign would involve anyone who walked by an SGC booth outside the library. The funds required are about the same because it would still be over the cost of paper. A proper advertising campaign should be done at least at the beginning of each semester, if not an additional one later on in the semester. Factoring in the environment of the campaign, the projected gain of members is a little less than the other. People are most likely to ignore booths outside of the library. Evaluation By looking intensely at both options, it is clear that both are viable options. Look at the criteria: y y y How cost-effective it is How long it would take Projected gain of members

Both options require roughly the same amount of funding. Both are would require about the same time. And both would probably gain the optimal amount of new people.

Conclusion Which is better? While the second option would technically work, it is plain to see that the first would bring in more students who would be more interested in multicultural things. There is a lot of diversity on the Texas Tech campus, but you have a better chance of netting the people most interested in what we re looking for at a study-abroad re-entry session than a random spot in front of the library hoping that someone interested in global connections walks by. According to the Texas Tech website, there are 390 plus student organizations(Organizations, 2010). With a number as high as that, it is safe to assume that almost every student at Tech has already found a worthy organization to call their own. With that being said, we should go the route of quality versus quantity. More students at the re-entry session would definitely be interested in this type of activity than the average Tech student speed-walking past the library s front steps. Recommendation section Because I recommend the first option, several steps need to take place. I should immediately start talking with the study abroad facilitators in the International Cultural Center so that I can have at least 3-5 minutes at every study abroad re-entry session. According to the Northern Michigan University website, it is a good idea to have an orientation session for new members(Recruitment, 2008). Shortly after each re-entry session, it would be a good idea to meet with the interested students and have a meeting with them about their role in the organization. Another helpful recruiting site that I found, the Holden Leadership Center site, recommended that a welcome party be held for new members(Holden, 2009). While I do not guarantee that going that far just for a few new people would help that much in the long run, it is not a bad idea. In any case, there is no question that showing this organization to Study Abroad students will be the best answer to my organization problem of having few members.

References 1. Texas tech universi ty: stu dent union and ac tivities. (2010 , 12 7). Retrieved from http://www.depts.ttu.edu/su b/Stud Org/Index.php

2. Recruitment/retention: nmu student organizations. (2008, 4 12). Retrieved from http://webb.nmu.edu/Center s/StudentEnrichment/Org aniz atio ns/SiteSections/Orgnizations/Resou rceM aterial s/Recruitment. shtml 3. Recruiting new members. (2009). Retrieved from http://lead er ship.uoregon.edu/resou rces/exercises_tips/organ ization/recruiting_new_members 4. Cox, T aylor. (1991, 1 ). The execu tive. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/pss/4165006 5. Getting involved. (2007). Retrieved fr om http://getinvolved .uky.edu/Leader sh ip/pdf/Recruiting%20 Ne w%20Mem ber s.pd f