The key to the health of most supper clubs is growth. The supper clubs that last for a long time are the ones that are open to new members and actively encourage newbies, especially younger ones, to easily get involved.
A problem our local supper club is that a lot of members are getting older. Many have been in the club for over 20 years. Lots of our good friends have moved away. We are faced with the challenge of recruiting new members and members not of a certain age.
Just about everybody likes to socialize over a meal, but many of us are daunted by the supper club challenges of:
- Finding the right people?
- How to organize?
- How to host a dinner party?
- What if i don’t cook?
- How to recruit new (and younger) members?
Impromptu Friday Nights – A Guide to Supper Clubs (Available from Morgan James Publishing anywhere books are sold) addresses these concerns in detail. However, encouraging and recruiting new members is a key and more than worthy of a few meaningful thoughts.
Our neighborhood is in transition. The homes are 20 to 30 years old and many of the original owners have retired and moved away. The bad news is that membership has fallen off as the core group has aged. The good news is that it is still an attractive neighborhood with affordable homes near good schools and we have seen a significant influx of younger families. It is a perfect environment to attract new members to a supper club.
The key is to get younger people involved. Our club leadership has taken several steps to do so. The club is made up of regular members, who host a dinner party and subs that get invited as fill-in when regular members can’t make an event. Historically, the way we have gotten new people involved is as subs. The good news is that subs don’t have to host and quite often didn’t even need to cook. They show up, have a good time and get more involved. The bad news is that as subs they would get called at the last minute and quite often couldn’t come because of scheduling conflicts. In an effort to get subs and younger people involved, we have started trying to recruit new subs in advance.
Coincidently, a wine club has sprung up in the neighborhood. Many of the participants are younger. The founder of the club developed a website and used it to get the club set up amongst her younger friends. We are trying to get the wine club set involved with the supper club and at the same time adapting some of the more casual features of the wine club into the supper club. For example, historically the supper club has been scheduled for Saturday nights. The wine club meets mostly on Sundays, but moves the dates around and is more flexible trying to get as many people involved as possible.
Growth is a key to success with supper clubs and just about most things in life. If you are not growing as a club, or a person, you have a problem. The good news is that growth is fun. Getting new people involved with supper clubs is a lot of fun. It is a particularly good way to get new neighbors engaged. It is important to make it easy for new people to get involved and lower the intimidation factor. And, most importantly, keep it fun. If your supper club is fun, it will grow.
If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.
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