Tips for keeping society attendance up?

Teslacuted

Hey guys, we're having some issues maintaining our member attendance at various events, I hear this is fairly common so was hoping some people might have an explanation as to why or some suggestions as to how to deal with it.

In particular, our weekly workshop attendance has slowly dwindled from 35 members down to 6, and last night we had organised an improv show with Choke comedy & Karl Spain which absolutely fell on it's face in terms of attendance. I'm not sure if it's that the content wasn't appealing to students or the timing was off, but I'd love to see it work next semester, I'm just wary of it failing again.

Is it too late in the semester? Too close to essay submissions? The show was at 8pm, is that too far from the end of the UL day for people to stay on campus? Was there an advertising issue? I thought we'd covered all bases, Facebook, posters, SMS, email, here...

These are some of the reasons I've thought about, but I'm sure there's more. I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions.

Thanks,

Hugh
DramaSoc

eoins23456

Try recruit more members at the second recruitment drive in january

ULChieftain

Teslacuted wrote: »

Hey guys, we're having some issues maintaining our member attendance at various events, I hear this is fairly common so was hoping some people might have an explanation as to why or some suggestions as to how to deal with it.

In particular, our weekly workshop attendance has slowly dwindled from 35 members down to 6, and last night we had organised an improv show with Choke comedy & Karl Spain which absolutely fell on it's face in terms of attendance. I'm not sure if it's that the content wasn't appealing to students or the timing was off, but I'd love to see it work next semester, I'm just wary of it failing again.

Is it too late in the semester? Too close to essay submissions? The show was at 8pm, is that too far from the end of the UL day for people to stay on campus? Was there an advertising issue? I thought we'd covered all bases, Facebook, posters, SMS, email, here...

These are some of the reasons I've thought about, but I'm sure there's more. I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions.

Thanks,

Hugh
DramaSoc

Try asking your members why they didn't go; it's late in the semester, I have projects due and exams too soon so could be a reason.

What day was it on? I haven't seen any posters for drama soc events so maybe more publicity? I don't think I remember seeing ye in the courtyard promoting or anything.

This week is shag week, rainbow week and battle of the clubs yesterday along with clubs and societies stuff. Like that poker tournament this week was fairly well publicised, got like 4 flyers, didn't see anything for drama though.

shabouwcaw

hey Hugh,

I would imagine a lot of it is down to the lateness in the semester. We (debating union) typically have a huge number of people coming to speaker development in the first few weeks of the semester but it always slacks off after a few weeks. Like I think the "First Seven Weeks" campaign has actually engaged people for a little while longer, but still, after the first seven weeks push is over, our membership engagement generally slumps. Sign up for the first Intervarsity of the year, UCD, was quite strong, but competition sign up since then has been much slower. It's just a fact of reality that people lose interest in things after a while, doing nothing is easier than doing something, especially around exam and essay time.

However, perhaps shake things up a little, we held an event with Max Keiser in FG042 at lunchtime on a Friday and almost filled the room. Never held a daytime event, especially not on a Friday, but people being on campus meant that we had a much higher turnout. Also, don't forget to get Paul or Liz to put your events on the campus events listing, which goes to staff etc, they might forward it to lecturers. Also, we compiled a faculty list of lecturers to inform them of debates that might be relevant to their courses. Maybe you could do something similiar with the English department?

As the poster above said, it's mostly an awareness thing, if you absolutely bombard people with information, some of it will stick.

Nockz

Become a drinking society :pac: Do this by having 'events'/gatherings at the Stables.

In all seriousness I'd imagine you should perhaps focus on either a big bang to finish this semester with or some low-key, yet interesting, events. By the latter I mean just some small, fun acting scenarios or something that people might get a laugh out of. Christmas Improv stuff maybe? A funny take on a Christmas Carol perhaps? I dunno. I'm not really into drama or anything so pardon my ideas if they are too far-fetched.

From the societies I've been on committee for, we just used to have some wind-down events during Reading Week to just relax members before exams.

Skyrim

Yeah try again at the january recruitment drive. Problem with the history society, we organised a trip to bunratty recently, only about six went.

harrythehat

Make your events interesting, publicise them well, be consistent about time and location, ask your members what they want to see.