Now What?

by Haley Cahill-Teubert

You did it! You successfully navigated your first virtual recruitment and you’ve got fantastic new members! So…. now what?

What do we do with all these members? How do we integrate them into the chapter and give them a great new member experience over Zoom? And what about our current members? It was easy to engage them during recruitment prep, but now what?

It’s natural that we direct so much of our time and resources to recruitment, but that’s all for naught if we can’t keep our members as well. To keep people, it’s important to understand why they disengage and leave so we can be more proactive than reactive in retaining our members. Too often, though, we wait to talk about retention until it’s really too late–when members have already mentally checked and have a foot out the door.

There’s a popular Chinese proverb that says: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

The same can be said about our retention strategies.

First, let’s break down what the research says about why people leave:

1. Misaligned Expectations
   Simply put, we sold them one thing and gave them something else. This is likely something your current membership is feeling, especially the members who joined last year. You sold them a spring formal, a member retreat, weekly dinners at the house not realizing a pandemic would make all of that impossible. And that’s no one’s fault–we just have to understand the experience we can provide now likely looks very different than what most members signed up for.

2. Lack of Connection
   This one is fairly self-explanatory–members are disconnected from others in the chapter. We’ve seen this rise this year as the school year was cut short, people were sent home, and gatherings were moved to Zoom or canceled altogether. It’s easy to understand how we become disconnected from people when we don’t spend any quality time together.

3. Discord
   In other words: Drama in the chapter that strains relationships and causes people to leave.

4. Competing Interests
   External factors such as the return on investment of membership, perceived value of the experiences, and competing interests make up the last reason why members leave fraternity and sorority. This is where members often assess the worth of membership in an organization.

(For a more in-depth look at our research, check out this resource.)

With consideration of how a virtual membership experience (or even a partially virtual experience) could impact members’ decisions to stay involved, focusing on aligning members’ expectations for the year ahead, providing value, and keeping members connected will likely be your three top priorities for keeping members engaged (and in the chapter).

Align Expectations

Have you asked your members what they expect from your organization this semester or quarter? Have you talked about what’s realistic this year? If not, this is a good place to start. Open dialogue about what your chapter can provide right now and what plans are in place is important in aligning members’ expectations for the coming months.

If you’ve already recruited, hopefully you were honest (but optimistic) with prospective members about what your chapter plans to offer this year. If you think there’s a chance some of your new members think that full chapter retreat in the mountains is still happening, but you know it isn’t, schedule time to share with them how your chapter will pivot those plans this year in light of Covid-19.

If you haven’t recruited yet, be sure to discuss how you and your members will share what PNMs can look forward to this year. (See the “Provide Value” section for more information.)

When everyone has aligned expectations, they’re less likely to leave because you can’t give them what you sold them.

Create & Strengthen Connections

What we often forget about joining a fraternity or sorority is that it doesn’t give you instant best friends; it gives you opportunities and spaces to create friendships, but those waters become a little muddy when those spaces and opportunities are virtual. Consider the following strategies for helping new and current members create and strengthen connections in your chapter and community.

• Bring back the OG facetime. At this point, there aren’t many campuses that come to mind that have banned one on one interactions. And while we’re used to doing things as a herd, this is the perfect time for us to bring back the original facetime dates. Grabbing coffee, studying, making dinner, going for a walk are small group activities you can safely do with members of your organization. That intentional one on one time allows individuals to build rock-solid relationships with others, which makes them feel more connected. Encourage chapter members to pursue that route or even partner them up with someone they don’t know well who they can build a friendship with and stay connected. Here’s a list of 101 small activities you can do to build those relationships and keep people connected.

• Create small groups. Many large clubs and organizations, religious and spiritual groups, for example, rely on small groups to create spaces for more intimate gatherings. Feeling closely connected to an organization of 100-200+ can be intimidating and challenging. Bridge that gap by creating small groups of people who may not typically spend time together and let them choose how they want to gather, whether that’s for a weekly dinner at their favorite local restaurant or for a monthly book club or movie night.

• Partner with other organizations in your community. When you join a fraternity or sorority, you don’t just join a chapter, you join a community, but that’s probably easy to forget when you’re just trying to navigate virtual connection with your own chapter. Collaborate with other chapters to help build relationships within your community. Consider having study groups for fraternity and sorority members of any council for various majors or dinner groups for members who live in the same building or areas of town.

• Reimagine chapter meetings. Most chapter meetings suck… And probably suck even more on Zoom. Keep announcements brief and incorporate games or trivia into the meeting. (Check out Kahoot! and Jackbox Games. ) Maybe you can create a challenge or competition with a prize. Mandatory time together can (and should) still be fun time together

Create More Value

This is a time where many members, new members, and potential new members alike question what the value is of being in an organization right now. Without parties, chapter events, and big gatherings, what’s the point of a social organization right now? Can you think of five to ten things of value your chapter can provide this semester? If not, let’s start there. Create a list of five to ten things of value your organization can provide right now. Can’t come up with that many? Consider these things:

• Over-program, under-expect. Nothing sucks the fun out of an event faster by requiring attendance. Fill your calendars with fun events, but don’t expect or require attendance. It’s important to note, this is an opportunity to involve the whole chapter. It’s not realistic (or fair) to expect one officer to fill the chapter calendar with 100 events and activities. Involve your members and let them shine in their own gifts by allowing them to plan and lead an event of their choosing. Ideally, this shouldn’t require a significant amount of time or energy on their part–it should be part of their daily life that others can join in on. For example, if you have a member who loves to hike, they may choose a date to host a small group hike. Whoever shows up, great. If people don’t, that’s fine because that member was probably going to go for a hike anyway. Or maybe you have a member who loves to bake. They may choose to host a virtual baking class one evening and share a grocery list for “No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies” and a Zoom link for anyone who wants to join. And if no one shows up? No worries–that member can still make their own cookies and go about their business. Encouraging members to lead an activity gives them purpose and recognition, allows chapter members to learn about them and the things that matter to them, and it gives people unlimited opportunities to connect on their own terms. Maybe they don’t want to come to today’s event because they’ve been on Zoom for lectures for the last six hours, but they’re totally free tomorrow and would be more apt to show up for something then. Having a ton of options gives people flexibility and countless opportunities for fun. Let your new members in on the fun too – it gives them a cool space for members to learn about them and what they like to do. (Here’s a list of 44 ways to foster brotherhood and sisterhood virtually to get you started.)

• Establish an alumni mentor program. With the help of your alumni, you could create a really incredible mentor program where members of certain majors could connect with alumni working in that field. Maybe they would be willing to let members shadow them virtually for a day or hop on a call and share tips for making your resume stand out or give advice on what they wish they had done before graduating to set them up for success. This would be such a valuable offering to your members and a fun way to connect with alumni.

• Serve your community. Each of our organizations value service, but sometimes we rely too much on large scale, flashy barbecue dinners and kickball tournaments to contribute to our respective causes. There is more than one way to have an impact, especially when it comes to the community where you live. Local businesses and organizations may need your help now more than ever before to continue operating. Create a list of business and organizations in your college community who you could donate time, money and resources to. Create a list of projects individuals or small groups of members could do to help people in your community in need. Large events that raise impressive funds are great, but there are plenty of other ways to serve those around you in an equally impactful way.

• Repurpose chapter funds. If you haven’t slashed your budget, you likely have plenty of funds to work with, especially if your over-the-top Bid Day or big cookout interest meeting couldn’t happen. Get creative and use those funds in other ways. What if you purchased a resume review service for seniors? What if you bought everyone something super practical like a Hydroflask? Or what if you delivered a box of snacks and candy to each member ahead of your Netflix streaming party? Or use your surplus of funds to support members impacted by Covid-19. There are plenty of ways to repurpose chapter funds to support members and continue providing value.

Fraternity and sorority life obviously looks different this year. But it’s as important as ever. And it still provides significant value.

Adopting a proactive mindset and creating a plan to retain members is as important as your strategy to attract them to your organization in the first place. By focusing on aligning expectations, building and strengthening connections and creating more value than ever before, your organization won’t just continue to exist but will thrive.