There's good news and bad news for Local Aeries where their own By-Laws are concerned.
The good news is faster-than-ever turnaround when your Aerie submits a By-Law change to Grand Secretary Chuck Cunningham. His office reviews and approves (or not) all changes to ensure they comply with the FOE Constitution and Statutes.
Currently, Brother Cunningham says submitted By-Law changes will be returned to the Local Aeries submitting them within seven days of his office receiving them. The sole exception, he says, is the time period around the Grand Aerie Convention each year, since the Grove City OH office is relocated to the Convention venue during that time.
I can recall a decade or so ago waiting as a By-Laws Committee Chair over six months for approved By-Laws to come back. In that case it mattered especially since we wanted to change our meeting nights from Mondays to Wednesdays.
If your Aerie doesn't bother to change its By-Laws when you want to change the way you operate, however, you could be in trouble.
The Grand Aerie is now reviewing change requests, Brother Cunningham says, to see which Aeries have not requested any changes in some time. There are, he says, Local Aeries who have not requested a change since 1988 - 26 years ago.
By-Laws aren't meant to be changed on a whim, of course. They're the constant set of rules we set for ourselves for how we conduct Aerie business. It beggars belief that a Local Aerie has not seen the need for change in that many years.
Your Aerie President is required to appoint a By-Laws Committee every year to review them, whether or not a specific change is contemplated. Ignorig an Aerie's By-Laws as they currently exist can put an Aerie and its officers in serious jeopardy.
For more information on what a By-Laws Committee is supposed to do, see my earlier post Procedure 101: The By-Laws Committee.
The Ontario Provincial Aerie and Auxiliary are the umbrella organizations for Ontario aeries (lodges) and auxiliaries of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Ontario's Aeries are in Toronto (Aerie 2311), Sault Ste Marie (Aerie 3991), London (Aerie 4060), Heyden-Goulais River (Aerie 4061) and Webbwood (Aerie 4269). This blog is intended to support membership growth.
Saturday, August 09, 2014
Ontario candidates fail to reach Grand office
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| Tamela Artuso |
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| Pat Gray |
Tamela Artuso was proposed to but nominated by the Grand Auxiliary nominating committee. She did not run off the floor.
Delegates say no to common dues date, once-monthly meetings at GA Convention
A motion to make all FOE membership dues payable on May 31 to coincide with the end of the FOE fiscal year was defeated by aerie delegates, past presidents and 10-year secretaries at the July Grand Aerie Convention in Orlando FL.
Also defeated was a motion to allow for once-monthly Local Aerie meetings instead of the current minimum requirement of two such meetings.
The common due date of May 31 was proposed by the Board of Grand Trustees and supported by the membership department. Membership Director Vince Kinman urged passage of the motion arguing that the Grand Aerie could then assist Local Aeries in encouraging renewals, but provided no specific examples.
Also assumed by delegates but not mentioned in debate was that a common dues payable date would more easily pave the way for future online dues payments through the foe.com website, as is now offered by the Loyal Order of Moose and American Legion central websites.
None of Ontario’s Local Aeries currently have dues payable on May 31. Annual dues are payable August 31 by London 4060 ($25), Sault Ste Marie 3991 ($30) and Heyden-Goulais River 4061 ($25). Annual dues are payable by February 28 by Webbwood 4269 ($20). Annual dues are payable by Toronto 2311 ($50) either on January 31 or July 31.
Also defeated was a motion proposed by several New York State Aeries to allow for general meetings as infrequently as once monthly instead of the current minimum twice monthly.
Proponents argued that it would make better use of member and volunteer time. Opponents argued that once-monthly meetings would not allow sufficient accountability of officers to members, and would not permit time to complete the many statutory requirements for work to be completed or approved in Local Aerie general meetings.
Current statutes require meetings at least twice monthly, but allow for a quorum of only seven members in good standing, at least two of whom must be Local Aerie officers.
Approved by delegates were several housekeeping motions intended to ensure that all internal units are covered by a common statute.
Previously Retired Eagles Activities Clubs (REACs), Past Presidents Clubs, Eagle Riders and Junior Order of Eagles Clubs (JOEs) were governed under separate statutes.
Delegates approved a motion allowing election for three-year terms for the Grand Secretary and Grand Treasurer instead of the previous one-year terms as remains the case for all other Grand Aerie elective offices.
Arguments in favour were generally about greater stability in Grand Aerie office management. The case was also made that while other Grand Aerie officers may continue to reside wherever they wished, the Grand Secretary and Grand Treasurer must have residences near the Grand Aerie headquarters in Grove City OH.
Also approved was a motion requiring that a stay or suspension of a Local Aerie Trial Committee rulings pending appeal must be approved by a majority of Grand Tribunal members. Previously a single Grand Tribunal Justice could issue such a stay or suspension.
Rejected was a constitutional change removing Grand Tribunal Justices from the list of Grand Aerie officers, since they are appointed rather than elected.
Delegates appeared to feel that further examination of the issue was required, especially to ensure an independent judiciary branch of Grand Aerie governance.
Also defeated was a motion to allow for once-monthly Local Aerie meetings instead of the current minimum requirement of two such meetings.
The common due date of May 31 was proposed by the Board of Grand Trustees and supported by the membership department. Membership Director Vince Kinman urged passage of the motion arguing that the Grand Aerie could then assist Local Aeries in encouraging renewals, but provided no specific examples.
Also assumed by delegates but not mentioned in debate was that a common dues payable date would more easily pave the way for future online dues payments through the foe.com website, as is now offered by the Loyal Order of Moose and American Legion central websites.
None of Ontario’s Local Aeries currently have dues payable on May 31. Annual dues are payable August 31 by London 4060 ($25), Sault Ste Marie 3991 ($30) and Heyden-Goulais River 4061 ($25). Annual dues are payable by February 28 by Webbwood 4269 ($20). Annual dues are payable by Toronto 2311 ($50) either on January 31 or July 31.
Also defeated was a motion proposed by several New York State Aeries to allow for general meetings as infrequently as once monthly instead of the current minimum twice monthly.
Proponents argued that it would make better use of member and volunteer time. Opponents argued that once-monthly meetings would not allow sufficient accountability of officers to members, and would not permit time to complete the many statutory requirements for work to be completed or approved in Local Aerie general meetings.
Current statutes require meetings at least twice monthly, but allow for a quorum of only seven members in good standing, at least two of whom must be Local Aerie officers.
Approved by delegates were several housekeeping motions intended to ensure that all internal units are covered by a common statute.
Previously Retired Eagles Activities Clubs (REACs), Past Presidents Clubs, Eagle Riders and Junior Order of Eagles Clubs (JOEs) were governed under separate statutes.
Delegates approved a motion allowing election for three-year terms for the Grand Secretary and Grand Treasurer instead of the previous one-year terms as remains the case for all other Grand Aerie elective offices.
Arguments in favour were generally about greater stability in Grand Aerie office management. The case was also made that while other Grand Aerie officers may continue to reside wherever they wished, the Grand Secretary and Grand Treasurer must have residences near the Grand Aerie headquarters in Grove City OH.
Also approved was a motion requiring that a stay or suspension of a Local Aerie Trial Committee rulings pending appeal must be approved by a majority of Grand Tribunal members. Previously a single Grand Tribunal Justice could issue such a stay or suspension.
Rejected was a constitutional change removing Grand Tribunal Justices from the list of Grand Aerie officers, since they are appointed rather than elected.
Delegates appeared to feel that further examination of the issue was required, especially to ensure an independent judiciary branch of Grand Aerie governance.
Provincial Aerie must now carry liability insurance, GA delegates decide
In addition to general liability coverage by all Local Aeries naming the Grand Aerie as an additional insured party, all State and Provincial Aeries must now have their own liability coverage also naming the Grand Aerie as an additional insured party.
New statutory requirements were approved by delegates to the recent Grand Aerie Convention in Orlando FL.
Provincial and State Aeries must also file up to date affiliation agreements with the Grand Worthy President's office. Such agreements detail the relationships between the two Eagles jurisdictions and their contractual obligations to one another. responsibility for ensuring that these documents are filed now lie with the Provincial or State Worthy President and Secretary.
To further enforce these requirements Provincial and State Aeries will no longer be entitled to services from the Grand Aerie, including Grand Aerie representation at Conventions, if the documents have not been filed.
Nor will members of any Local Aerie not compliant with all statutory requirements, including current liability coverage and affiliation agreements and payment of per capita taxes, be entitled to attend or send delegates to any Provincial Aerie function, including strictly social events.
No Ontario Local Aerie is fully compliant, according to today's Member Management System Club Health Report, though mailing delays could account for some of the issues. Only Webbwood 4269 shows documentation submitted that its officers are bonded.
Toronto 2311, London 4060 and Heyden-Goulais Rover 4061 do not show evidence of current general liability coverage. Toronto 2311 shows membership fees of $360 due and Webbwood 4269 shows $50 in membership fees due. Heyden-Goulais River 4061 shows per capita taxes of $154 due.
No Ontario Local Aerie is fully compliant, according to today's Member Management System Club Health Report, though mailing delays could account for some of the issues. Only Webbwood 4269 shows documentation submitted that its officers are bonded.
Toronto 2311, London 4060 and Heyden-Goulais Rover 4061 do not show evidence of current general liability coverage. Toronto 2311 shows membership fees of $360 due and Webbwood 4269 shows $50 in membership fees due. Heyden-Goulais River 4061 shows per capita taxes of $154 due.
Toronto 2311 tops leader board for July new members
With 36 new members reported in July, Toronto's Maple Leaf Aerie 2311 ranked first among all FOE aeries and auxiliaries for the month of July, as reported in the August FOE newsletter Straight From the Eagles' Nest.
I never thought I'd live to see the day.
I never thought I'd live to see the day.
Friday, August 08, 2014
Re-enrolment: there’s gold in them thar lists
There are lists of prime prospects for membership in Ontario’s Eagles Clubs, nearly eight times our total annual membership quotas for the year.
They’re the lists of former members who have already been members in recent years, who we let drift away and who were dropped from our rosters for failure to pay dues.
For the most part we’ve done very little to ask them to come back. Toronto 2311 has contact information for 209 of these people. London 4060 has 139, Sault Ste Marie has 92, Heyden-Goulais River has 68 and Webbwood 4269 has 54. In all cases, these 562 people represent numbers equal to or even greater than our entire active membership lists.
Some, of course, have passed away, are too infirm to participate any longer or have moved away. There may be some we don’t want to see again and others who, for whatever reason, don’t want to see us again.
It’s the job of the Membership Security Committee (FOE Statutes Section 100.2) to encourage the rest of these people to come back. All it takes is a $10 re-enrolment fee, their annual dues and an aerie ballot. They don’t have to be initiated again. Problem is, not one of our Local Aeries has a membership security committee.
Here are 10 tips to help you get started.
1. Ask your Aerie President to form a Membership Security Committee of at least three people to send letters and emails and who would be good on the phone – nothing beats the personal contact of telephone calls.
2. The Membership Security Committee has two jobs – to encourage members about to become delinquent to renew on time (renewal) and to encourage inactive former members to come back (re-enrollment). Campaigns should be done separately, so that re-enrollment activities don’t interfere with the more time-sensitive renewal activities.
3. Take the time to plan what you’ll say in letters and emails or on the phone, and make sure you get a postage budget.
4. Post the names of people you’re approaching to renew or re-enroll in a prominent place so your Brothers and Sisters in the Aerie who know them can help out as well.
5. For re-enrollments, cull the lists first – cross out who would be unable or unlikely to return or whose contact information is unknown. You may have to pare the list down by as much as half what you started with, but that’s still a pretty hefty group of prospects.
6. Before you cross out someone with a bad address, check the name on the website Canada 411 (www.canada411.ca) . You may be able to locate quite a few of them that way.
7. For both renewals and re-enrollments, consider contacting their original proposers (if they’re still active members) and ask the proposers to contact them as well. That personal touch could make all the difference.
8. Make sure you keep members well informed of your progress at general meetings. Ask them to make a special effort to make returning members feel welcome and appreciated. If that wasn’t done when they were here last, it could well be why they left.
9. Also for re-enrollments, build a mailing/calling campaign around a big upcoming social event. It gives you a reason why you’re calling or writing now.
10. The Aerie, if it chooses to, can provide a financial incentive for a calling campaign – free admission to a special event, for example, or $5 off the re-enrollment fee. When you have a campaign proposal ready to go, pitch the discount idea at an Aerie general meeting.
They’re the lists of former members who have already been members in recent years, who we let drift away and who were dropped from our rosters for failure to pay dues.
For the most part we’ve done very little to ask them to come back. Toronto 2311 has contact information for 209 of these people. London 4060 has 139, Sault Ste Marie has 92, Heyden-Goulais River has 68 and Webbwood 4269 has 54. In all cases, these 562 people represent numbers equal to or even greater than our entire active membership lists.
Some, of course, have passed away, are too infirm to participate any longer or have moved away. There may be some we don’t want to see again and others who, for whatever reason, don’t want to see us again.
It’s the job of the Membership Security Committee (FOE Statutes Section 100.2) to encourage the rest of these people to come back. All it takes is a $10 re-enrolment fee, their annual dues and an aerie ballot. They don’t have to be initiated again. Problem is, not one of our Local Aeries has a membership security committee.
Here are 10 tips to help you get started.
1. Ask your Aerie President to form a Membership Security Committee of at least three people to send letters and emails and who would be good on the phone – nothing beats the personal contact of telephone calls.
2. The Membership Security Committee has two jobs – to encourage members about to become delinquent to renew on time (renewal) and to encourage inactive former members to come back (re-enrollment). Campaigns should be done separately, so that re-enrollment activities don’t interfere with the more time-sensitive renewal activities.
3. Take the time to plan what you’ll say in letters and emails or on the phone, and make sure you get a postage budget.
4. Post the names of people you’re approaching to renew or re-enroll in a prominent place so your Brothers and Sisters in the Aerie who know them can help out as well.
5. For re-enrollments, cull the lists first – cross out who would be unable or unlikely to return or whose contact information is unknown. You may have to pare the list down by as much as half what you started with, but that’s still a pretty hefty group of prospects.
6. Before you cross out someone with a bad address, check the name on the website Canada 411 (www.canada411.ca) . You may be able to locate quite a few of them that way.
7. For both renewals and re-enrollments, consider contacting their original proposers (if they’re still active members) and ask the proposers to contact them as well. That personal touch could make all the difference.
8. Make sure you keep members well informed of your progress at general meetings. Ask them to make a special effort to make returning members feel welcome and appreciated. If that wasn’t done when they were here last, it could well be why they left.
9. Also for re-enrollments, build a mailing/calling campaign around a big upcoming social event. It gives you a reason why you’re calling or writing now.
10. The Aerie, if it chooses to, can provide a financial incentive for a calling campaign – free admission to a special event, for example, or $5 off the re-enrollment fee. When you have a campaign proposal ready to go, pitch the discount idea at an Aerie general meeting.
Sunday, August 03, 2014
Three reasons we’re losing members
EMOAMA is the new marketing slogan for Eagles membership - Every Member Owes A Member Annually.
It’s an ambitious goal for an organization in long-term decline. The FOE has suffered a net loss every year since 1993. The Eagles overall enrolled 101,074 new members last year but suffered a net loss of 32,508. Toronto Aerie 2311 signed up 28 new members last fiscal year but dropped 32. Only 7 States and Provinces have a net membership gain for the year.
But all of this can be reversed. The common excuse for decline is that fraternal organizations are no longer fashionable, or that people now seek community through social media and the Internet. Yet how does that explain the top five local aeries signing up an average of 350 members each last year? How does it explain 142 new members signed by one person in Coeur D’Alene ID Aerie 486, or the top 10 individuals in the Eagles who signed up an average of 112 new members each?
There are, according to the Grand Aerie Membership Department, three reasons for our decline.
The first is simple: we don’t ask people to join. Only 5.2 percent of all FOE members are unique proposers. Toronto Aerie 2311 is slightly better, at 7.9 percent - 19 members proposed a new member last year out of 247 members. If only 4 percent of all new members who joined the FOE during the current year proposed a new member, the FOE would reverse its decline and have a net gain every year.
The second reason is that we don’t do enough to keep people. Aerie activities have a direct bearing on both new member development and retention of those members we have and are about to lose. The strongest Aeries are those with a variety of social activities, community involvement and charity fundraising. Those who content themselves with being a bar or fundraising for the Aerie itself almost inevitably fail.
The third reason is that we don’t ask people to stay. Our Member Management System has an automated renewal notice feature to alert members that their dues are due, that they are delinquent, and that they are about to be dropped from the membership roster for failure to pay dues. Yet 50.6 percent of Local Aerie Secretaries do not use this proven system. Aeries which use direct contact with organized calling of delinquent members report a reduction in dropped members of more than half.
It’s an ambitious goal for an organization in long-term decline. The FOE has suffered a net loss every year since 1993. The Eagles overall enrolled 101,074 new members last year but suffered a net loss of 32,508. Toronto Aerie 2311 signed up 28 new members last fiscal year but dropped 32. Only 7 States and Provinces have a net membership gain for the year.
But all of this can be reversed. The common excuse for decline is that fraternal organizations are no longer fashionable, or that people now seek community through social media and the Internet. Yet how does that explain the top five local aeries signing up an average of 350 members each last year? How does it explain 142 new members signed by one person in Coeur D’Alene ID Aerie 486, or the top 10 individuals in the Eagles who signed up an average of 112 new members each?
There are, according to the Grand Aerie Membership Department, three reasons for our decline.
The first is simple: we don’t ask people to join. Only 5.2 percent of all FOE members are unique proposers. Toronto Aerie 2311 is slightly better, at 7.9 percent - 19 members proposed a new member last year out of 247 members. If only 4 percent of all new members who joined the FOE during the current year proposed a new member, the FOE would reverse its decline and have a net gain every year.
The second reason is that we don’t do enough to keep people. Aerie activities have a direct bearing on both new member development and retention of those members we have and are about to lose. The strongest Aeries are those with a variety of social activities, community involvement and charity fundraising. Those who content themselves with being a bar or fundraising for the Aerie itself almost inevitably fail.
The third reason is that we don’t ask people to stay. Our Member Management System has an automated renewal notice feature to alert members that their dues are due, that they are delinquent, and that they are about to be dropped from the membership roster for failure to pay dues. Yet 50.6 percent of Local Aerie Secretaries do not use this proven system. Aeries which use direct contact with organized calling of delinquent members report a reduction in dropped members of more than half.
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