Innovative approaches to growing membership: Lessons from Great Oakley

Michael, a Committee member of Great Oakley u3a, shares how his u3a have been growing their members by introducing new language and board game groups.

We ,like most other Groups around the Country have experienced problems with encouraging Members to become more involved with activities arranged by the Group. We are slowly growing our Membership since it was depleted during the Covid Epidemic and are now finding success in organising sessions using Board Games and Language learning to attract new members.

I moved my home from Buckinghamshire to Corby in June of 2023, I was a former member in Buckinghamshire where my locality had a thriving group, offering a variety of activities to attract members to participate together. The only problem that occurred was that groups became full very quickly and it became difficult to find sufficient leaders to open extra sessions to accommodate those who wanted to participate.

On moving home to Corby, I joined the Great Oakley Group .and quickly became a Committee Member. I noticed that there was good support for Monthly meetings that mainly participated in listening to Speakers or, joining with a few groups that were long-running but, generally full. My Committee were most concerned that more needed doing to increase the overall size of the Group by introducing some new activities to enthuse the members and get them participating in something more interesting.

As a result of my earlier experience with u3a, I suggested that we might consider arranging a weekly session of social inter-action playing Board Games such as Chess, Cribbage, Canaster and Scrabble. Within weeks we had 17 members participating in these games with additional interest growing. To add to this activity, I suggested that we might consider also setting-up a French learning group. That too became active within a few weeks and now has 12 members studying the language in a relaxed but serious fashion, with the help of a French National and an experienced Speaker making it possible for those who had not studied the subject before  to enjoy the sessions.

There are a wide variety of Languages and Games that could be introduced allowing for a number of sessions to be arranged, the list is vast! The outcome of this friendly interaction is slowly growing the group. Is this the answer to the problems besetting recruitment of Members?

The cost of necessary equipment and study material can easily be met from the small weekly contributions subscribed from those attending the activity, so it does not rely on a Group needing to charge additional fees to bring about the increase in its’ membership nor does it require heavy advertising in the Community to encourage participation. 

It is surprising just how many retired teachers and lecturers are able to supply just a few hours a week to assist with learning persons who have played Card Games to a degree that they could pass on skills to enthusiastic beginners.

Perhaps many more Groups already employ such tactics; but if not, why not give it a try! To grow membership in your area??