SASKATOON – Women’s groups no longer assume members are going to keep walking through their doors these days.
“We’ve applied for project money to do some creative things because we realize you can’t keep doing the same old recruitment style,” said Allison Wilson, president of Saskatchewan Women’s Institutes.
Membership is “always an ongoing process,” said her counterpart at Alberta Women’s Institutes, Elizabeth Rushton.
One old idea that’s still used in Alberta is girls’ clubs. The Ella Women’s Institute is “mothering” a new club for girls aged six to 16 in Didsbury. There are 15 girls in this club, one of three in the province, said Sylvia McKinlay, Alberta Women’s Institute provincial secretary. There used to be more, but 4-H and its co-ed activities has taken some of the potential. The girls’ clubs have many of the same functions as the institutes for older women, McKinlay said.
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“They learn about agriculture, social studies and cultural things such as public speaking and handicrafts so these won’t die out, and international affairs.
“It’s similar to Brownies and Guides but more rurally oriented.”
All age groups encouraged
Manitoba Women’s Institute recently conducted a telephone survey and found that women ranked the organization quite highly – along with church groups and Kinsmen clubs. President Audrey Grier says the Manitoba Women’s Institute just tries to encourage all age groups and to link itself with what women who work or have children want. However, she said the institute is also using fall regional seminars and an updated mailing list to reach its individual members and to help deal with “a gap between the provincial level and the grassroots.”
In the British Columbia Women’s Institute’s newsletter this summer, president Estelle Lefurgy wrote: “If we wish to continue to be an effective presence around the province, we will learn through listening and watching how we can adapt our work to the current needs of women, families and communities. By doing this, we will more likely be offering what our community women want, and not only what we want.”
The 29,000 Canadian women who belong to the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada are kept as members mainly through the actions of the provincial women’s institutes, said national president Charlotte Johnson. But the national group assists, and a year ago it held a workshop for the provincial membership directors.
For women’s groups affiliated with mainstream farm organizations, recruitment is based on the family.
Women of Unifarm is connected to its parent Unifarm, and a spouse can join the group when her husband buys a membership in Unifarm. The parent group also does a fall renewal, selling memberships at meetings and farm shows, through word-of-mouth or through the central office in Edmonton and Unifarm’s newspaper.
Recruitment method changed
A Unifarm staff member in the office said the group used to hire salesmen to recruit but that’s no longer used because it’s less effective since farmers belong to many commodity organizations.
Karen Fyfe, women’s president of the National Farmers Union, said: “We like to have the husband and children active as well as the woman.”
However the NFU has special women’s programs such as a Quebec exchange, work within the national child care coalition and a legal rights project.
Some of the newest organizations, the ones who count members in dozens rather than hundreds, also like to involve families.
“We’re concerned with providing a voice for farm women and their families,” said Beverly Bell, president of the Saskatchewan Women’s Agricultural Network. SWAN’s director in charge of memberships, Elaine Kacsmar, agrees.
“We’re hoping to draw out some farm women (to regional conferences) with issues related to farm stress, working together in a partnership. … We want to make the conferences more male oriented so both the partners are aware of what’s going on with SWAN.”
More publicity about the group will also help, she said, such as media stories, a booth at Agribition and the word-of-mouth from those attending conferences.
“I believe there’d be more members if they knew about us,” said Kacsmar. “We’re not just a lobby group.”
Part of the problem in recruitment is how busy women are with having to earn money, in addition to looking after the children, the house and the farm.
“Very often, the wife is running around at 10 at night doing dishes.”
Bell is not concerned about SWAN’s relatively small base of 80 members – “the Suffragettes didn’t have large numbers, yet they were strong, determined women.”
Small gains are also welcomed by the Alberta Women in Support of Agriculture said its head, Christine Mitzner. The group has been recruiting mostly by word-of-mouth and through its newsletter and the provincial farm women’s network.
“The ones (members) we have are very happy and after every newsletter we get a half a dozen (new) members.”
Lee Pengilly, chair of the Alberta Farm Women’s Network, said her group has a different format since its umbrella role brings its delegates from other groups. However, it uses the newsletter it shares with Mitzner’s group to gain individual members.
The network will hold its fifth annual conference in January and is allowing anyone who’d like to attend, rather than just delegates.
Another popular event the network organizes that “generates a lot of interest” is its Alberta Farm Women of the Year award.
Recruiters share ideas on membership
- From Jean Johnson of the British Columbia Women’s Institute:
“We have to move with the times and that means listening to the women around us.
“Each branch can best decide how they will communicate with the women in their own area – will it be a telephone or a door-to-door survey, an article in the local paper with a ‘clip-and-send-back’ survey, a hosted coffee hour for open discussion, an info booth at a community function? The ideas are as diverse as each community. …
“A wise young woman recently told me, ‘women want to make a difference. They will find time for issues they feel a passion for.’ “
- The 1993 recruitment co-ordinator for Saskatchewan Women’s Institutes, Colleen Soule, said in her report to the group’s annual meeting:
“Attitude will play a big role. Reach out to others regardless of their walk in life. Be patient and tolerant. Diversity has always been a welcome challenge.”
- The National Federation of Women’s Institutes in Britain, whose 293,700 members represent a 2.6 percent drop from 1993, also is looking at this issue. Member Doreen Mountjoy wrote in her group’s newsletter:
“Sailing and golf clubs don’t go out recruiting – people join because they want to. In the same way people join the WI because they want to. Outsiders might think: ‘If they are as good as they say, why do they need to recruit?’ I have been a member of the WI movement for 33 years; it is part of my life. It is chatting among friends that brings the members in.”
Some ideas from the New Brunswick Women’s Institute for attracting new members:
- Prepare a kit with your newsletter, your local’s upcoming events and a name and address of a contact person, and add a tea bag. Tag it with the suggestion to make a cup of tea and read about an organization just for you.
- Extend a personal invitation and offer transportation to meetings.
- Identify special skills your group needs, advertise the need and a potential new member may respond.
- Provide local leadership by solving issues in the community with letters, briefs, phone calls and personal contact with local officials.
