Since most of our new members join us by “word-of-mouth” or by attending one of our events, this committee is active all through the year. We usually have one or two events each year during which we offer free membership for the remainder of the year. In 2017 we signed up 3 new members at our “Tree Farmer of the Year” tour. In the past, most members who signed up this way have renewed their membership the following year so we consider this program a success.

To retain our membership we make personal calls, send personal reminder and thank-you letters, and visit our members. Finally, each quarterly issue of the Bark contains a “President’s Message” which is often used to help retain and recruit members.

We advertise our programs in several ways:

1. The OSU Forestry Extension produces an online newsletter called “the Needle” which describes upcoming events in Linn and neighboring counties. A link to this newsletter would be useful on our website. We collect contact information on prospective members at each event and get them signed up for Needle.
2. We place announcements of upcoming events in the local paper (Albany Democrat Herald) and try to follow that up with an article after the event.
3. We advertise our chapter and events in our quarterly newsletter called the “Bark” and write follow-up articles on these events.
4. We make mass mailings and/or emails to members and prospective members about events. This method is losing its effectiveness. I feel that most people are just overwhelmed with email solicitations.
5. We have not done much with social media (facebook et. al.) but recognize that this method may be successful.