Training Log Archive: iansmith

Another OUSA Open question:

There seemed to be some good discussion on the OUSA membership question, so here's another: What can OUSA do to increase local starts and membership? Can we have a campaign?

OUSA doesn't actually organize any events; events are organized exclusively by clubs, and often by a relatively small number of people in clubs. Consider OUSA starts data from Robin Shannonhouse that I modeled for 2009-2016. Local starts were negligibly up, while national starts, club members, and OUSA members all declined.

Let's set aside the national starts/membership with the premise that everyone who goes national starts local, so let's increase local first. When I was planning the NEOC schedule, no one from OUSA contacted me to say "hey, this year we're really pushing ;" there was no plan or concerted strategy, just a laissez faire approach. While the value of marketing nationally is still an open question, we can communicate intention to the clubs.

For instance, in 2018, say we said "our goal is to increase local starts by 10%. Please try to increase the number of events you have by 5-10%, and here are some resources (materials, marketing guidance) to try to attract people." Some big clubs might already have saturated markets - COC, QOC, DVOA, NEOC, but I don't think most (or any) clubs have reached the point where more events will result in fewer people attending. Maybe we can incentivize it, by offering small prizes for the top 3 clubs at the end of the year by %change - say new e-punch units or a teardrop banner or something.

Is this viable? Pointless? Would it move the needle by giving a concerted effort and direction to our federation?

C • How to move the needle on local starts 17