Ron Buffaloe
Membership Coordinator
The Membership Coordinator, in cooperation with Area Vice Presidents and Chapter Presidents, works directly with Chapter Membership Chairs or designated membership officers to implement the Federation’s ongoing membership program and to strengthen recruitment and retention activities at the chapter level. The Membership Coordinator also serves as the advisor to the Membership Committee and shares responsibility with the Committee for periodic evaluation of the Federation’s Membership Program.
The Membership Coordinator provides assistance in helping the chapter membership chairs or designated membership officers to:
- Create, implement, monitor, document, and manage membership development plans and materials for each chapter to recruit and retain members, and encourage former members to rejoin.
- Publicize NARFE’s presence and services to federal employees, retirees and survivors in each area, as well as increase the general public’s awareness of NARFE. This includes coordination of area health fair recruitment activities.
- Work with other chapter officers to ensure that chapter activities and programs are informative and varied to include programs of interest to all members.
- Engage chapter members in recruitment plans and foster greater involvement.
- Encourage outreach to National members within the area.
- Facilitate communication between chapter membership chairs and NARFE Headquarters Marketing and Member Resources staff, including Recruitment & Retention.
- Forward names and addresses of prospective members to the Recruitment & Retention Section.
- Encourage chapters to maintain awareness of the NARFE Headquarters and Federation membership programs and available assistance, and promote the use of Headquarters’ reports, databases, and membership tools.
MEMBERSHIP - RETENTION AND RECRUITING
Successful 2019 Health Fair Season Completed
We’ve just finished a most successful health fair season with officers and members from seven chapters participating in fifteen health fairs across the state. My compliments and thanks to all of you who, like me, set up a NARFE recruitment table at federal installation health fairs and then spent the day trying to recruit federal employees to join NARFE.
These health fairs are some of the best recruiting opportunities we have in North Carolina. If you find out about such an event in your area please contact the host agency and try to participate. Once you’re allowed to participate the first time you will usually be automatically invited to participate in future health fairs.
I want to thank Carolyn London (and husband Frank) of the Durham Chapter for again serving as our liaison with BCBS of NC, for sharing information with me and the appropriate chapters about this year’s scheduled health fairs, and for personally participating in numerous health fairs in the middle of the state, often with very short notice.
Following are the 2019 health fairs our chapters and members participated in:
10/24/2019 – Charlotte HCC.
11/05/2019 – VAMC Asheville
11/05/2019 – VA OP Clinic Kernersville
11/06/2019 – NIEHS RTP Durham
11/06/2019 – Seymour Johnson AFB, Goldsboro
11/06/2019 – HCC Kernersville
11/07/2019 – Camp Lejeune MCAB, Jacksonville
11/08/2019 – Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville
11/12/2019 – VA Health Care Center Fayetteville
11/13/2019 – VAMC Fayetteville
11/13/2019 – US Courts and Probation, Raleigh
11/21/2019 – Butner FCC
11/21/2019 – CBOC Charlotte
11/21/2019 – Ft. Bragg, Fayetteville
11/22/2019 – VAMC Salisbury
MEMBERSHIP - RETENTION AND RECRUITING
North Carolina Federation
Membership Awards Program
Introduction
The North Carolina Federation has decided to emphasize new member recruitment in its yearly membership awards program. In prior years both recruitment and retention were equally measured and emphasized, with only chapters being eligible for awards consideration.
Due to the “out of the ordinary” times we have gone through in recent years in our federation, with many of our members choosing to move to National Member Only status, a substantial number of our chapters have closed and those that remained struggled to just stay open. As a result some chapters qualified for award consideration and selection only by ending the year with something close to the same number of members with which they started the year.
Our awards program wasn’t appropriately recognizing and distinguishing the difference between chapters just maintaining the status quo and those making outstanding efforts at recruitment and retention. It certainly wasn’t recognizing the outstanding efforts some individual chapter members were making to both retain the members we had and to increase the number of new members.
New Awards Program
Our new awards program, at least in its first year, will emphasize individual member contributions to the recruitment of new NARFE-NC Federation members. Future years may also include recognition of outstanding individual contributions to the retention of existing members if satisfactory methods can be developed to measure such efforts.
Each issue of NARFE’s Recruiting & Retention Journal, published about every six months, includes the states, chapters, names, and numbers of new members recruited, for those members who have recruited at least one new member in the most recent period being reported. We will use this information from the Journal to determine the top recruiter(s) in North Carolina for the prior calendar year.
The NC Federation Membership Award winner(s) will be recognized at the Annual Meeting by suitable means. Recognition will also be included in the next issue of the federation newspaper and released to the local newspaper(s) of the award winner(s). It is hoped that by recognizing the outstanding efforts of our best recruiters we can encourage other members across the state to increase their own efforts at recruiting new members to NARFE and the North Carolina Federation.
MEMBERSHIP - RETENTION AND RECRUITING
MEMBERSHIP PRESENTATION – NCNARFE 2020 GTW ANNUAL MEETING
PRACTICAL TOOLS FOR MEETING MEMBERSHIP GOALS
PRESENTED BY RON BUFFALOE, MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR
MEMBERSHIP - RETENTION AND RECRUITING
North Carolina Federation Membership Manual
150 Ways to Recruit New Members and Retain Current Ones
North Carolina Federation Membership Plan
February 13, 2019
