Membership

[jnorman]

What are some ways you keep your club/team membership up?

[jnorman]

We use the following:
We advertise with the website.
Play students in intra murals and than invite them to the club.
Have the walls by the racquetball courts plastered with info.
Actively recruit when playing.

[baseman]

We advertise in the dorms, usually getting players as soon as the enter college is the best time, otherwise they find other activities to immerse themselves in.

We also have our own board down by the courts which list contact information, as well as the updated ladder positions and league scores. This is a hope that people will see it and want to play more.

As well, our school has interest forms that all freshmen fill out as they come to the school and then we get all the emails for people who are interested in the club.

When they do come to the meetings, we offer them incentives to pay dues and become a part of the club. These include:
-Free T-shirt
-Discounts on Equipment
-Access to the ladder, reserved courts, and other ways for them to guarantee weekly matches that aren't always their roomate
-Cheap travel to tournaments
-Team Building exercises, such as getting food every once in a while
-Clinics and demos as a way of stressing that most players are beginners and we show them that we are here to teach them to play the game.

-Brandon
UW- Madison Racquetball
http://www.uwracquetball.com

[jnorman]

Brandon,

That is amazing and a very helpful post, how much are your dues. We don't even charge dues in our club. It is something I am going to start next year.

[baseman]

We charge all members $25 for the year. Then, they pay a small fee for travel and a discounted price to play in our home tournament.

[jnorman]

How do you normally arrange travel? Do you guys take personally owned vehicles or vehicles that the school provides?

[baseman]

We usually try and take personal cars if possible. There are times, such as this weekend, when none of our travelers has a car on campus and so we were forced to rent a van from the school.

[David V.]

Next year will by my club's first official year of existence. In the beginning of the year, there is an orientation for all incoming freshman. At the orientation, they have a time when all of the clubs set up tables and all of the students walk by them. That's where I'm planning on doing a lot of recruiting. With thousands of students walking by, I should think that we can get a good small group together to train up throughout the year.

I'm thinking $25 annual dues is good. With that, we might include:
Club Shirt
Goggles
Can of balls

The rest would go to paying for club fees, tournament fees, whatever else. We'll really have to see how it works. So far this year, we don't have any members that haven't been playing racquetball for a couple of years. It's worked ok so far, but it would be great to get more interest, rather than just tapping what is there.

[cyoung]

when I was at University of Miami for a tournament I saw that they had one of those enclosed bulletin boards by the courts with contact info & schedules, and they had their ladder league rankings displayed by using the little metal hook shaped key holder pins that were screwed into a board and hanging little round tabs with name and contact numbers on them for each of their 3 skill divisions. I am going to try and get something like that to put at USF, its a great way to promote the team as well as motivating people to improve their game by having the ladder displayed to everyone who comes to the courts. i asked their president Jared Mendel to send me a picture of it to share with everyone here.

[Army Alumni]

I'm not sure how many schools do a "club" night at the beginning of the year, but that is where we do our initial recruiting. We get a table and set out information about our club. We have a lap top with pictures from our tournaments (not all court shots, the ones of the team at Arizona State University are big sellers). Next year we will have a projector with screen to make the show more visible. We have racquets and players in uniform answering questions about the sport. The more people answering questions, the more contact you can make with the student body.

Another thing we do is keep an eye on the courts. If we see someone playing that has some skill, we'll talk to him or her and see if they have interest in the club (like it was said before, some people don't know the school has a team). I also talk to the tennis coaches. Sometimes people try to walk on the varsity team, but for whatever reason don't make the cut. Some of these people can easily make the transition to racquetball.

The other thing I do is advertising. We have information around our racquetball courts. Whenever we play in a tournament, I write a article about the event and send it in to the local newspaper. They are usually pretty good about putting something in the paper, though they normally edit the article. This type of advertising is also important when it comes to fund raising, by making people award of our club and upcoming events.

Hope that helps