Sons of Norway District 5

With our declining membership across Sons of Norway, it is important that as we focus our Recruitment on lowering the average age of our members, not by ignoring older members and older potential members because everyone, regardless of age, contributes something valuable to our lodge families, but we need to focus more on recruiting families.

Tips on How to Recruit Families:

1. A good starting point is children and grandchildren and siblings of existing members. Many will tell you that they have tried over the years to get their adult children to join without luck. Encourage them to try again but in a different way this time:
    A. Start by making arrangements to have members’ grandchildren come with them to a picnic, the Christmas party, or some event where you create fun activities for the children. Then encourage the children to bring their parents next time. Our bowling outings have brought parents of the children, as have our Christmas parties. This is a start. But don’t pressure the parents to join. Get to know them, perhaps find some friends or interests in common, tell them how much everyone enjoys seeing their son/daughter at Barnas Klubb, how good he/she is about helping out, etc.     

    B. Next try to involve the children in a Lodge program and invite the parents to come see them perform, talk before the group, etc. Again, don’t pester them to join.

    C. Find ways to include them in special celebrations, perhaps asking them to bring a game that their son/daughter really enjoys. 

    D. After having met them for a few times, casually tell them that most of your members do not attend every meeting but attend when they can.  Also let them know that when you count “active members” for purposes of scholarships, support for Masse Moro, etc., you consider members active if they attend at least one or two activities a year. 

    E. Then ask if they might be interested in supporting their children by becoming a member, that the cost is $xx per year, and less for a spouse, etc. If they still are reluctant, leave it be and invite them to continue to attend any activity any time they want. 

2.  Make sure that your lodge has fun activities for children and teens. In my own lodge, we have started a Youth Group of kids 12-20. So far they have elected their own leaders, organized some of their own activities, outside of lodge meetings, and they are planning a rummage sale to make money to support planned activities. They are enthusiastic. I’ll keep you posted on how it progresses since we started the Youth Group last Fall.

3. Make children part of your lodge meetings. Have them participate in some way while still having their own activities. In my lodge, the children decorate the name tags and seek out the adults whose name tag they have just finished, thus providing interaction between adults and children.  They also help distribute and collect the national anthems sheets. One of our teens (14-year-old boy) did our cultural program last year, doing a felting demonstration with opportunities for all of us to try it ourselves. It was superb! If we support children for Masse Moro, we require them to thank the lodge during one of our meetings and tell us or show us what they did or enjoyed the most. During our regular “Open Mike” sharing time, children go up and tell about their soccer games or special school projects, etc. Parents always like to see their children in the spotlight, so these things attract them also.

4. If only one parent is a member, welcome the non-member spouse if they come to an activity to see their child, but without pressure to join. We have seen several spouses deciding on their own to join after having been welcome guests for months.  So practice patience and greet everyone, member and guest, with a big heartfelt welcome. Feeling welcome and valued, they will attend more often or join if they aren’t yet members in their own right.

5. If your lodge has outside activities, such as book club, knitting club, or card club, invite friends outside of Sons of Norway and make sure they understand that there is no obligation to become a member. And then remember that and don’t push them! In our lodge we have “recruited” several new members this way by not recruiting them at all but by making sure they know that they are welcome to be a SofN member any time. 

6. Publicize your lodge, activities, and special celebrations in community newspapers and other venues and make sure you emphasize that your lodge is family oriented and if possible, get information on scholarship opportunities to members’ children out as often as possible. 

7. Try to establish your own lodge scholarship for your members. This will usually generate publicity and draw younger families of  Norwegians or Scandinavian ancestry.

This is not an all-inclusive list, of course, but a sample. Use your imagination and work with others lodge members to create your list of Tips and then GO TO WORK!

I hope you heeded my advice in VP Tip #1 to separate the Board meetings from the Lodge meetings. For you who are encountering opposition, remember the crucial question: “What do you think is the role of the Lodge officers?”

This Tip deals with some important things to remember when planning and conducting your Board meetings.

    1.  Always prepare and distribute an agenda. The agenda is important to help you stay on track and avoid getting into side issues. Side issues brought up can easily be diverted to the more catch-all “New Business.” And if someone gets off agenda item discussed at the moment, it’s easy to politely remind them and ask them to “Please hold that thought until later, see agenda item X.“

    2.  Stick to the agenda. (see point 1 above)

    3.  Start the meeting on time. Even if a few people you expect have not arrived yet. Nothing encourages later and later arrivals than starting a an important and essential individual has not arrived yet when you reach a pertinent agenda item, ask if the Board will agree to postpone that item until the person arrives. If the Board members in general should object--which usually doesn’t happen--follow the agenda and discuss the issue without the late stakeholder.

    4.  End the meeting on time. At my Lodge Board meetings, we start at 6 pm and end no later than 8 pm. Perhaps once or twice we have not finished the agenda by 8 pm. At those times, a Board member has made a motion to continue for X more minutes. If it passes, I still remind the Board members that if they need to leave, they are excused.  

    5.  Keep the meeting going and flowing. Don’t allow endless discussions but instead suggest that a few of the Board members form an Ad Hoc committee to discuss and make recommendations on this issue. Those with strong opinions on the matter will volunteer to join. If only one member volunteers, ask that person his/her opinion and vote on it.  

    6.  Consider scheduling a refreshment break. Our Lodge Board meets at a Perkins Restaurant, in a side room. Most Board members order from the menu as soon as they arrive since we meet at 6 pm. When the food is served, we take a break to enjoy our food and to just visit. As president, I always ask if it is ok to continue the meeting even though a few may be still finishing their meal.  

    7.  Establish a set seating arrangement. We ask the restaurant manager set up one long table across the back wall and two long tables at ninety degree angles from the back table. Seating is only on the outside (along the walls) so we can all see and hear each other and the staff can easily serve us. We have no designated places. As president, I usually arrive first and seat myself somewhere along the back table so I can easily see everyone as they arrive. And we greet each other loudly: “Hi Larry. Glad you could make it.” “Great seeing you, Ola. Is Shirley feeling better?”  Before the meeting starts, we walk around and talk--or we talk from where we are sitting, making it relaxed, informal and friendly. And we have great attendance, usually at least 16, sometimes over 20.

    8.  Establish a comfortable relaxed atmosphere. Make sure everyone feels comfortable making suggestions, voicing opinions, or even disagreeing with an earlier speaker, but politely and with humor if possible. I have to check my tendency to at times grab on to the first suggestion made instead of encouraging more input before something is decided or voted on.

    9.  Notify general membership. Make sure to announce Board meeting dates and times in your newsletter, during meetings, etc. and make clear that EVERYONE in the lodge is  invited.

After you have separated your business meetings, aka Board Meetings, from your lodge meetings, the next most important task is to look critically at the ATMOSPHERE (vibes, feel, etc.) of your meeting. If it isn’t friendly, warm, welcoming, social (conversations are heard), fun (laughter is heard), you need to take stock and make changes.

A.  Do you have greeters who know everybody’s name and who can do some friendly chatting and small talk?

B.  Do you use name tags?
In my lodge, we have members sign their own name--or we make them out with everybody’s name typed or printed neatly--and then we take them out of the plastic covering and send them to Barnas Norsk Klubb (which meets at the same time) to decorate the name tags.  After the children color them, they go in search of the owners. This often creates fun conversations, the children get to know the adults and learn to be more comfortable around the grown-up members.

C.  How do you configure your seating?
Round tables for six or eight work the very best to get members to mingle and get to know one another. But rectangular tables work also if you place them in a “friendly” way. If fewer than forty generally attend your meetings, placing the rectangular tables in a square with seating on the outside only makes it easy for everyone to see and hear.

Another good configuration is an “E” or a long table with three “legs” where people are seated on the outside of the “E” first. If all those seats are taken, then place people around the center or third “leg” of the “E” so that they can see as many as possible and be able to view a screen or presenter positioned in the middle space of the vertical side of the “E” or in front of the “E” near the entrance. You get the idea, right? And have the greeters try to seat people and to keep as a goal not to sit with the same people at every meeting. Try to think of incentives--fun ones--to get members out of their routines.

D.  Don’t seat officers and Board members at a “head” table--such as along the vertical side of the “E.” Have them spread out and sit with members.

In our lodge, we use round  tables and I, as the president, usually select one of the tables closest to the entrance for my “stuff”: sound system, papers, notes, brochures, hand-outs, etc.  I open and conduct the meeting from this spot, but when we eat or the program starts, I move to a table and sit with members.

E.  Make sure that everyone is made aware of guests or new members and that everyone is “brainwashed” to pay special attention to them, or to a couple who might seat themselves away from other groups, perhaps unsure whether they would be welcome to join them.  Make sure guests and new members are introduced around as they come in. Don’t wait until they are formally announced at the meeting.  Try to lead them to a table with room for them, and if no one at that table is welcoming, join them yourself and try to change the “atmosphere.”

The atmosphere you help create keeps members coming back and new members wanting to join!

You may have great ideas about creating the right atmosphere through greeting and seating. Please share them with me in an e-mail or a phone call.  

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it    262-598-9994