Hello! My name is Dillon McManamon and I am the Washington State Director of Membership and Public Relations. Every chapter in our state has the potential to grow and improve in the 2009-2010 school year. I have decided to keep the FCCLA website updated.I want to hear from you! Please keep me posted on your success with the projects found in the letter. Also, feel free to make suggestions for recruiting, retaining, and recognizing members to be posted in upcoming letters. Please send me any pictures of your chapter using activities in the letter to promote membership along with and explanation of your projects. Chapters that use the suggestions and send me pictures/stories, will be recognized at the 2009 state meeting.
If you are a former adviser to an inactive chapter, please feel free to contact me about getting your schools chapter up and running again!
Thank you,
Dillon McManamon
Washington State Director of Membership and Public Relations
Membership Newsletter
The first month of the new school year is a great time to get students involved in the organization, as well as invite back past members from your chapter. I hope you find these suggestions useful and that your chapter will continue to grow and succeed!
Membership Drive!
The key to a successful drive is involvement. Retain members of your chapter from the previous year by encouraging them to run the drive.
* Have a great theme! Themes make the event easier to plan and more interesting to potential members. Some ideas are: pirate theme with FCCLA treasure hunt, sports theme "Hitting a Grand Slam with FCCLA" or use this year's national theme, Leadership Revolution as inspiration for your drive.
* Create invitations to be distributed by current members and in FACS classrooms, encouraging students to come to a lunchtime or after school meeting to find out what FCCLA is all about!
* At the event, make sure you have snacks, decorations, and activities related to your theme and FCCLA. Create scavenger hunts with FCCLA trivia, have STAR events portfolios and pictures from the previous year on display and provide worksheets with FCCLA facts so that your new members can already be familiar with Step One by the time they leave the drive.
* Be sure to offer initiative for paying dues on time. e.g. FCCLA apparel, candy, or even another party!
Focus on Fall Activities
FCCLA truly has something to offer everyone. Make sure everybody knows this by giving each meeting this month, or even this year, a theme on who to invite. One week, have each member bring a football player along with them to the meeting. In the meeting, be sure to recognize those members who invited players and thank the players themselves for attending. Show these athletes that FCCLA has something to offer them by putting a focus on "A Better You" and discussing personal fitness and nutrition. For the next meeting, challenge members to bring a member of the marching band, drama club, debate team etc.
FACS Classes: A plethora of potential members
In order to become a member of FCCLA, you must have taken or be currently enrolled in a Family and Consumer Science class. This means, that every single student of FACS classes are eligible to join FCCLA. Have current members visit each FACS class to perform skits about FCCLA and answer questions about the organization. Also, always make sure FACS students know when upcoming FCCLA meetings are and remind them that they are always welcome to attend!
