How's the rest of Canada doing?

In addition to the Ontario Provincial Aerie, Canada has four other provincial jurisdictions.

The brightest spot is Alberta/Saskatchewan, combining the two provinces. Its eight Aeries are, as of the end of March, 140 per cent of quota, with 337 new members signed up - 30 more than last year. Alberta/Saskatchewan's eight Auxiliaries are at 115 per cent of their annual quota already, with 166 new members, 22 more than last year.

By far the biggest Canadian jurisdiction is British Columbia. Its 402 new Local Aerie members in 23 aeries amounts to 99 per cent of its quota for the year, but it's 20 fewer than last year at this point. BC's 21 Auxiliaries signed up 91, only 32 per cent of its annual quota and 43 fewer than last year.

Manitoba's four Local Aeries make it the smallest jurisdiction anywhere in the Eagles, and continues to suffer declines. It had 12 new members by the end of March, 25 per cent of quota and 11 fewer than last year. Manitoba's lone Auxiliary signed up two, 17 per cent of its annual quota and one fewer than last year.

Quebec is the other Provincial Aerie in Eastern Canada Region. Its six Local Aeries signed up 81 new members, 96 per cent of its annual quota and two fewer than last year, while its six Auxiliaries signed up 18 new members, only 25 per cent of annual quota and six fewer than last year.

Best source of new members? New members, of course.

The new member initiation ceremony isn’t just the end of the process of recruiting those members; it’s the beginning of your best chance to grow your aerie or auxiliary membership even more. Those new brothers and sisters are themselves gold mines for new prospects.

New members have family, friends, neighbours, co-workers, fishing buddies and fellow softball team members who know little or nothing about the Eagles. They need to be motivated to recruit them.

Remember EMOALONMTHAEY? We often say (and most of us post a sign saying) “every member owes at least one new member to his/her aerie/auxiliary every year”. If all Eagles did that, of course, our overall membership would double every year, while we are in fact declining in membership numbers. The Grand Aerie Membership Department says only eight percent of us sign a new member in any given year.

If we can get new members to sign up others right away we can make a dramatic difference. According to Grand Aerie Membership Director Vince Kinman, “if only four percent of new members signed up another member during their first year, the FOE overall would have a net gain in members every year.”

Imagine what could happen if each of our Local Aeries set a goal of one new member from each new member. It’s a modest enough goal, but the payoff would be spectacular!

Here are a few suggestions for meeting that goal:
• Have an officers meeting before an initiation, to review what we know about each candidate. Assign an officer to be in charge of welcoming each new member, along with that new member’s proposer.
• The assigned officer’s job begins at the end of the ceremony: he or she now has to engage the new member in conversation, take him or her around to introduce other members, and let the new member know what upcoming activities there are that might be of interest.
• The assigned officer is given a list of upcoming events (dinners, dances, work parties, etc.) and regularly scheduled activities (darts, shuffleboard) that might be of interest to the new member. The goal here is to get a commitment from the new member to come back one more time.
• The assigned officer also gives the new member an application form and lets him or her know that we expect him/her to sign up someone else right away.
• The assigned officer’s job doesn’t end until the new member leaves for the night or gets involved in conversation with someone he/she did not know before the initiation.
• People organizing upcoming events should be asked to be present, and to have one or two specific tasks they could ask the new member to help with.
• Make sure there’s food available on initiation nights. It doesn’t have to be a full-blown dinner. Throw some Kraft Dinner into a crock pot or whip together a couple of loaves worth of egg salad sandwiches if you have to. The whole point is to give the new member a reason to stick around at least for a few minutes after the ceremony.
• The day after the ceremony, mail a personalized welcome letter from the membership chairman or the President to the new member’s home. Repeat the request to sign up a new member and include another application form.

By the end of March, Ontario’s Local Aeries signed up 60 new members. Imagine where we’d all be if each one of them signed another new member of their own. Three of our five Local Aeries don’t even have 60 members in total. Ontario’s four Local Auxiliaries (Toronto 2311 doesn’t have one) signed up 14 new members by the end of March. All of us could become net gain aeries or auxiliaries, and we could guarantee ourselves that every new member has a friend at the Eagles, a reason to come by more often.

Let me know if you can think of any reason this wouldn’t work.

Do you have your elevator pitch ready?

It's great to ask friends and family who don't know the Eagles to join your aerie. One of the best ways to get them interested is to invite them to a special function at the aerie, so they'll see the Eagles at its best.

But somewhere along the line, they'll ask "what is the Eagles all about? Why should I join?"

You might answer, or someone in the aerie might. If you leave it to chance, your guest will most likely find a barfly - someone who's had a few beers, who's got lots of free time (because he never volunteers for anything), who's always looking for someone to talk to (because the other members have tired of him). Is that the spokesperson you want? Your guests will get responses like "cheap beer", "I live around the corner", or "they wouldn't accept me in the Elks".

You might lose a new member that way, or worse, the barfly's reasons might appeal and you've signed up another barfly. Big deal.

Where the lack of a brief, compelling explanation really hurts is when it's an aerie officer speaking to someone from the news media. The unprepared officer sends the wrong message to thousands of people all at once that way.

An elevator pitch is an explanation of your organization you might give to someone you meet in an elevator. You really want the person to join, and you've only got a few seconds to take them to the next step. If you really want to sign up new members, you might try making a few notes, asking a few questions, and practicing that elevator pitch. If you're an officer, you especially should have one ready, and you should try it out whenever someone brings in a nonmember guest. One day, if you're lucky, a community events reporter from a local newspaper, radio or TV station will ask you about the Eagles, and you'll be ready.

Sales people, evangelists and politicians rehearse their elevator pitches all the time, because they know it's important.

The Grand Aerie Marketing Department is more than willing to help you with media support, to help you promote an event, fundraiser or open house. If it's newsworthy, they'll draft a press release with you and distribute it to your local media. If you think you've got something that might get coverage, email marketing@foe.com and they'll get back to you.

There's also an excellent local publicity guide available for download from the members only section of the Grand Aerie website under Media Support. Everyone should read it carefully.

If you want more local advice email me (I worked 20 years in public relations). I'll be delighted to help any way I can.

But at the end of the day, what'll make the difference is your elevator pitch. Blow it and you might lose some very valuable news coverage.

The idea is actually centuries old. A couple of years BC, a Jewish cleric called Rabbi Hillel was asked by a non-Jew to explain his religion "while standing on one leg" (meaning as briefly as possible).

Rabbi Hillel replied, “That which is hateful to you, do not unto another: this is the whole Torah (scripture). The rest is commentary — now go study.”

You don't have to be a media star to make your pitch work, but you do have to be prepared. Take a look at the YouTube video posted on Mar 27. Indiana State President Bill Dickey and State Trustee Dan Frick are being interviewed by local community affairs host Bill Potter about a fundraising event. You might have said different things, you might have been more concise. But there's no denying the fact they're prepared. Very prepared. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pol9wH8AO-w

My Eagles travel plans

This blog has just begun, so I haven't really set things up very well to gather information about aeries other than my own, Toronto 2311. That will change gradually, but I do have some upcoming travel plans that will help.

The Ontario Provincial Aerie and Auxiliary annual convention is set for Sault Ste Marie 3991 June 6 to 8. I'll be spending a longer time there this year, though. I'm travelling with my good friend Spencer Doyle (currently a Provincial Trustee and also a Past Provincial President).

We plan to spend the day/evening at Heyden-Goulais River 4061 June 5; at Sault Ste Marie 3991 Monday June 9; and at Webbwood 4269 Tuesday June 10. These are also the local aerie general meeting nights in all three cases.

Last time Spencer (in the picture) and I were in Webbwood the weather wasn't ideal for enjoying their wonderful deck. It's much busier in summer.

Here's Webbwood's outdoor licensed area. That's Toronto 2311 Past President Maxwell Stewart in the foreground left. As you can see, Webbwood is the kind of place where you can drive an all-terrain vehicle right to the aerie.

The New York State Convention takes place a week after Ontario's, June 19 to 21 in Johnstown NY. I'll be visiting there as well, travelling by rail (VIA/AMTRAK). The train trip takes 9 and a half hours, which would have seemed intolerably slow before I retired (January 31). But it takes two flights to get to Albany NY from here, and with the stopover included that's also nine and a half hours - and flying into Albany leaves me another half-hour drive to Johnstown!

Taking the train means I can walk around (actually back and forth) and even visit the dining room or the bar car if I'm so inclined. It's an all-daylight trip, so I'm also looking forward to some pretty spectacular scenery.

And, of course, there's the 2014 Grand Aerie International Convention July 14 to 17 in Orlando FL.

I'll be posting frequently from the Sault, from Johnstown and from Orlando.

We're inching up there

We've added three new members in Toronto 2311 and one in London 4060 so far this month. Welcome Eagle Brothers Pedro Barata and Richard Barry (both proposed by Past Worthy President Richard Sherman) and Shivand Luke (proposed by Dave Cunningham) to Toronto 2311 reported on April 7; and James Fleetwood (proposed by Secretary James Tolley) to London 4060, reported April 3.