Introduction and guide to the u3a recruitment and retention toolkit

An updated introduction to the toolkit created by u3as in 2020, to share resources to help the movement retain and recruit members.

u3as have been sharing ideas with each other and coming up with resources to help the movement retain and recruit members during this time and beyond. This is an introduction to the toolkit, updated in February 2024.

The Recruitment and Retention Toolkit, hosted on the u3a website, is intended for use by your committee and any sub-committee or team that you set up. The purpose of the toolkit is to provide you and your u3a with tools to assist you in your efforts to recruit new members and retain your current ones.

The documents in this toolkit were written by u3a members as part of the Recruitment Working Group project in 2020-21. The tools include practical experiences, ideas and suggestions of over 60 Pathfinder u3as who worked with the Working Group to develop the toolkit. It is with thanks to the Working Group and u3as that these documents are available. The current versions of the documents were updated and re-published in early 2024.

The Toolkit has several different types of tools including PowerPoints and How to guides. The tools are designed to address the following issues:

1. Retaining current members
2. Developing your team, building support and dealing with objections
3. Planning your relaunch/recruitment campaign
4. Your interest groups
5. Using social media and the internet effectively
6. Recruiting new members and promoting your u3a
7. Enrolling, welcoming and inducting new members

There are a large number of documents, and you won’t necessarily find that every tool is useful to your u3a. This is a resource which you can dip into for suggestions to suit your own u3a priorities as you change and develop, rather than needing to read every tool. There are lots of practical ideas and examples, and the tools demonstrate one of the strengths of our movement: there are lots of different ways of doing things.

Is this the right time to recruit new members?

It is always a good time to recruit new members. New members bring new ideas, energy and enthusiasm, they benefit from joining your u3a, they might become new helpers, interest group leaders and committee members. In addition they will enrich your u3a and will spread the word to other prospective members.

Over the coming years a large number of people will be retiring from work and will be looking for new opportunities. We need to equip ourselves for a world where many of the 55+ age group will be looking to the internet for inspiration and new opportunities. In addition, almost everything you do to prepare your u3a to recruit new members will also serve to strengthen your u3a and make it more and more attractive to your existing members. There is a substantial overlap between preparing to recruit new members and retaining current members.

All the documents listed below can be downloaded from the Recruitment and Retention Toolkit webpage.

Which tools might be useful for my u3a?

1. Retaining current members
   Thinking about how many of your membership renew their membership each year, how many of your members renew their membership? For example, if your retention rate is below 80% you might want to think about how you can better retain your current members
   - How to retain current u3a members (01)
2. Developing your team, building support and dealing with objections
   Recruiting new members has a whole host of benefits and grows the pool of volunteers to recruit to your committee. If this is an area you struggle with, these documents will help:
   - Preparing to recruit new members checklist (02)
   - Developing a shared recruitment project (03)
   - What could our recruitment project look like? (04)
   In addition, how easy do you find it to recruit to your committee? If this is something that is a challenge, you might want to have a look at these documents:
   - How to build and get support for recruitment (05)
   - Making your committee bigger and better (06)
3. Planning your relaunch/recruitment campaign
   Do you have a plan in place to recruit new members and are you reaching out all areas of your local community? If this is something you haven’t thought about much before, or want to know if there is more you could be doing this might be an area to explore:
   - Ways to re-launch your u3a (07)
   - Planning your u3a relaunch recruitment project (08) 
   - Monitoring and evaluating your recruitment project (09)
   - Making your u3a more inclusive (10)
   - Developing outreach and partnerships (11)
   - Swap shop – recruitment (12)
   - Market research on people who have recently left full time work (13)
4. Your interest groups
   Interest groups are vital to the health of your u3a and are likely to be why new members will join. How healthy and thriving do you think your interest groups are? If this is an area you decide to explore, there is lots of information in the following documents:
   - How to make your u3a offer irresistible (14)
   - Recruiting interest group convenors (15)
5. Using social media and the internet effectively
   There are lots of ways to use the internet and social media to raise the profile of your u3a and recruit new members. If you would like to do more with this, these documents will provide lots of ideas:
   - Setting up Facebook (16)
   - Using Facebook adverts (17)
   - Getting and keeping website and social media traffic (18)
   - Measuring the effectiveness of your website and social media (19)
6. Recruiting new members and promoting your u3a
   Social media isn’t the only way to increase the profile of your u3a, you might also have a website, run stands at local community events and contact local employers to share information about u3a with those who work part time or will be retiring. How well do you think your u3a is known about in your local community? These documents have lots of ideas.
   - Transforming your website (20)
   - Pop-up displays for recruitment (21)
   - Model emails and letters for promotion and recruitment (22)
7. Enrolling, welcoming and inducting new members
   Once new members have joined it is important to ensure they have a positive experience, feel welcomed and included. This document looks at how to ensure a warm welcome to all new members:
   - How to enrol and welcome members (23).
   - There is also a customisable welcome pack for new members that can be downloaded from the u3a Brand Centre.

You may also want to have a look at the information about diversity and inclusion on the u3a website to explore what reasonable adjustments you could be making to ensure your u3a is welcoming and accessible to all. You could also attend one of the equality, diversity and inclusion online workshops, or have a look at the other workshops that are available for all u3a members to attend on the u3a workshops webpage.

Using the u3a Brand Centre

The u3a Brand centre contains free and paid-for resources including u3a leaflets, posters, banners, downloadable logos and a customisable u3a welcome pack. To access these please visit the u3a Brand Centre (where you will need to set up a log in if you don’t already have one).

If you would like any further support, please contact your Regional Trustee or the u3a Office: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

This is an updated version of the Introduction of the Recruitment and Retention Toolkit. The original introduction was published in March 2021 - this introduction was updated in January 2024 to remove Covid references, broken links and to ensure advice in line with current u3a guidance.