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Membership Recruiting and
Renewals
In September, 1996, the LPM joined the National Libertarian
Party’s Unified Membership Plan. This enabled us to combine the membership
rolls of both groups, making members of either party a member of both parties.
This change increased the membership of the LPM to over 1000
strong.
This was done in part to make the renewal process more efficient
and simpler. The National Party has a very high renewal rate and people will no
longer have to remember which party they renewed with and which one they
didn’t. From now on, all membership renewals at the state and national
level will be handled by the national party.
Unfortunately, due to
varying local dues structures across the country, the national party is unable
to solicit and process dues for local parties. Therefore, local parties will
have to handle their own membership renewals. The LPM will be happy to assist
you in whatever way possible.
What the LPM is doing
now:
- All new members and inquiries
are receiving letters asking them to join their local party.
- All LPM membership applications
allow for a "Tri-level membership" and for "County membership"
- The state newsletters contains
an application and a reminder to join your local party.
- The names and contact
information of all new inquiries and members and any database changes are sent
to each affiliate by the LPM Membership Clerk. Other information is available
by request.
What local parties can
do:
Renewing
memberships:
- Keep track of your paid
membership.
- Print a membership application
in your local newsletter.
- Send renewal requests to members
about two months before their membership is about to expire. This letter can be
in the form of an insert in your newsletter mailing.
- Send a second letter just before
their membership is about to expire. ·
- If they still do not renew, call
them ask them to renew their membership and invite them to your next meeting or
event.
Recruiting new members:
- Use the names of new inquiries
from the LPM to send a letter or call them asking them to join and/or attend
your next meeting or event.
- Have a sign up sheet at all
meetings for peoples names and contact information. A few days after your
meeting have someone write or call any new people on the sign up sheet to thank
them for attending the meeting, answer any questions they may have and ask them
to join the party.
- Send each new inquiry in your
county(ies) the next two issues of your newsletter. In each of these, insert
letter printed on brightly colored paper asking them to join. Get mailing
labels for these new names from the LPM Membership Clerk.
- Hold an "Open House" meeting.
This would be a meeting geared specifically for LP newcomers and people
interested in learning more about the party.
- You should find a speaker that
can give a brief history of the party, explain the basic philosophic principles
of libertarianism and answer questions about the party.
- This meeting should be held in
an easy to find location and probably at a different time than your regular
monthly meeting since you want to get people to attend who may not be able to
fit your regular meeting into their schedule. I would suggest a weekend
afternoon.
- Send invitations out a month in
advance to all members and recent inquiries for your area. And follow up with
phone calls the week before the meeting.
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