The Kentucky Extension Homemakers Association is a group of community members and volunteers dedicated to learning, leading, and serving their community. Engaging all members in membership recruitment and retention will strengthen the organization for the future.

KEHA believes there are 3 Keys to Membership:

Recruit – Add one member to your group whenever possible; preferably yearly;
Retain – Value your members and engage whenever and however possible; and
Repeat – Continue to grow your county and area membership yearly.

Each time a county gets three new members (above the previous year total), the county will be entered into a drawing. For example, counties that get 12 new members will be entered four times. There will be five $100 drawings per year. The county with the highest number will receive a Golden Key to display in the county.

Here are my interpretations of the three R’s:

Recruiting: I don’t know about other counties, but Christian County Homemakers has become an “aging population.” I would like to see all counties set a goal of creating at least one new, younger generation group within the next year and if this happens, spotlight them as often as you can. Assign one or two other existing clubs to mentor them if possible.

One suggestion might be to establish a “Jr. Homemaker” group like Christian County has done with our home-schooled kids. They have truly enjoyed this and it gives them another resource for credits. Christian County would be happy to offer information on how we do it and anyone is welcome to come visit our Jr. Homemaker group.

Retaining: Set a goal of having at least one county-wide “outing” or “gathering” outside of annual meeting where you take a trip to either a local attraction or something nearby. This gives all clubs a chance to interact and get to know each other better.

Repeating: Set a county goal of recruiting at least one new member per every three clubs for the next three years. For every year your county obtains this goal, have a special recognition so all clubs will know the county has reached its goal.

Sincerely,

Martha Colley
KEHA 2nd Vice President