3 Ways to Make New Members Feel Welcome in Your Association

ou have transformed an association prospect into a paying member. Fantastic! However, the work doesn’t stop there.

Making new members feel welcome and at ease within the organization is important. It sets the tone for their future involvement and overall experience with the association.

Excited and happy members become active members. Here are three tactics to ensure new members feel at home once they officially join your organization.

3 Ways to Make New Members Feel Welcome

Provide a New Member Welcome Packet

One of the most intimidating parts of joining any established group is feeling like you don’t know what’s expected of you.

When are the meetings and events? When do dues need to be paid? How is online information accessed?

Provide new members with a welcome packet which includes information such as contact information for officers and an event calendar. Be sure to present the information in a nice folder or binder the new member will be able to keep for reference.

Set Them Up with a Mentor

Remember how awkward it felt standing with your lunch tray in the middle school lunchroom, trying to find a place to sit? Joining a new group can cause the same feeling of anxiety.

By pairing new members up with someone who has been an active member, not only with they have a friendly face to sit with at their first meetings, they will be able to ask questions.

Ask established members to take a new participant under their wing. This task can be a fantastic opportunity for seasoned people who don’t have time to serve on a committee.

Give them a small volunteer task

By giving new members a small task to help with, they immediately feel like a contributing part of the organization. Be sure to keep the task a simple and quick one; you don’t want a new member to feel overwhelmed from the start.

Ideas for tasks include greeting event attendees with a printed agenda, collecting business cards for a drawing, or asking people to make a name tag.

The key thing here is to have the new member be an active part of the community as soon as possible.

Thank the new member after the task is completed; make the member feel appreciated.

Making new members feel welcome within your organization is important. Members who feel valued and part of the group later become active participants within your association.

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