Advocacy Toolkit

Recruitment

Aside from planning, recruitment and retention are the most important aspects of building a successful chapter. The more motivated and committed individuals you have in your group, the more you can accomplish as a chapter. At every event that you hold or attend, try and recruit new members or attendance at your events by distributing flyers and having contact information sheets for individuals to sign, which gather email, address, phone, year of graduation, and areas of interest. Stay in touch with individuals once they express interest.

As a student chapter leader, it is important to recognize that both your involvement and the involvement of others in a PHR chapter involves a certain amount of self-sacrifice. Particularly as you are in graduate school, time and energy are very precious commodities. The key to encouraging and maintaining students' involvement is to help them clearly see what they stand to gain by sacrificing their time and making a commitment to the chapter.

The 4 C's of Recruitment

These "C's" of organizing provide a structure for all recruitment activities.

CONNECTION - Try to find out something that you share in common with a prospective member - a class, hometown or neighborhood, a person known in common, etc. Mentioning that connection will make your interaction with the individual more personal.

CONTEXT - Give a brief background/history on the issue and give the context of why this issue will matter to the individual/ why he or she should care.

COMMITMENT - Be direct about what you want from the person (i.e. attend a meeting, staff a PHR table, get 15 others to sign a petition). Don't be afraid to ask individuals whether you can count on their support - this lets them know that you are relying upon them. When recruiting students, it is good to have a general commitment, but also try to be flexible. Encourage students to give as much advance notice about whether or not they can do something as possible.

CATAPULT - Be clear about what you have agreed upon, what the next steps are going to be, when you are going to see/communicate with him or her next, and end on a positive note ("it was really great talking to you…").