Grange Action Program

Successful Actions of Fredonia Grange - MI

Fredonia Grange, located near Marshall, Michigan, was among the earliest Granges to be featured on Successful Actions Teleconferences back in April, 2005. At the time, they were a strong action-oriented Grange that was very involved in their community, publicizing that they were “Good People Having a Good Time for a Good Cause.”

Fredonia Grange was invited back to the Successful Actions Teleconference in March, 2008, because of some remarkable results from a membership drive. Between the Michigan State Grange Session in October, 2007, and March – just under six months – the folks at Fredonia Grange have taken in 60 new members! 60! We wanted to know how they did it!

“We came back from State Grange Session with a lot of enthusiasm,” says Rich Hazen, Fredonia Grange membership director. “Sally Crosiar did a presentation that inspired us, I guess you’d say. She challenged us to set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or as I adapted it for myself “Bring Another Granger Home!”

“The idea of a Big Hairy Audacious Goal comes from Jack Canfield who created all the Chicken Soup for the Soul books,” says Sally. “It’s the kind of goal that makes us feel a little scared because it’s bigger and bolder than we think we can really do – at first.”

“But when we take a really serious look at some of the membership trends we see in Grange,” Sally continues, “it becomes crystal clear that we need really big, really bold goals to turn those downward trends around. So I asked the Michigan State Grangers to take a deep breath and create – and then publicly state a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, which makes an acronym BHAG! And you’ll know right away if the goal is Big and Hairy enough if when you imagine achieving the goal, you can picture yourself shouting a resounding ‘Woo-hoo!’ “

“The BHAG I set at State Grange was to get our Grange members at Fredonia Grange to get enthused and increase our membership by 20%. Well, that started a contest between our Grange and Oceana Center Grange. And then Sally offered a monetary incentive if we could raise our goal to a 30% increase in membership – an even bigger goal. And then one of our Michigan State Grange members Patty Carncross offered another monetary challenge, and we were off and running,” says Rich.

“We started emailing between Granges, and every time we signed up a new member, we’d send each other a ‘Woo-Hoo’ message. It’s been a lot of fun!”

Here are a few email messages that have been sent between Rich and other Michigan State Grange members.

Well here it is folks,

The confirmation from the post Christmas celebration at Fredonia Grange; 4 new members just from that event (by the way Santa and Mrs. Clause did join). Dad (Athol) confirmed them last night at our meeting. Plus there were 2 other ones that have joined Fredonia since the first of the year. He read off 41 names of members that have reinstated their membership or have signed membership applications since the 3 quarter of last year. We have not received dues money from all of them as of yet but I will lay a wager that the 30% we needed have.

This has been a huge boost not only to Fredonia Grange but to the Michigan State Grange too. Plus with other Granges reporting new members (and we can only pray that they are not losing any) I can really feel some excitement. Can't you?

Let's hear from every Grange or Granger out there on what they are doing to try to increase membership. Your endeavors might give another Grange an idea even if it isn't working for you. Share your successes and your failures. A failure doesn't mean you should give up, it should mean that you should approach another idea or the one you had a different way. We all have to be sales people to increase membership. Sell your Grange, the Michigan State Grange, the National Grange as the great organization that it is. We have all had wonderful experiences belonging and we have also made a lot of close friends.

Keep up the good work and try to come to the Action/Membership meeting at West Oshtemo Grange January 19th to take some ideas back to your own Grange to keep improving and increasing membership.

"GET EXCITED, PROMOTE & SIGN THEM UP. ONE DAY AT A TIME, ONE AT A TIME"

Excitedly yours,

Rich Hazen

Hi Grangers,

I am so excited! Herb and Patty have worked on this lady for a LONG TIME and today I cinched the membership. She liked our family activities, our legislation process, our community service, our connections with the local Chambers of Commerce.

Fraternally,

Ardith

Well, I have to congratulate Oceana Grange and other Granges for their diligent work in bringing in new membership but I have to also congratulate Fredonia's members for signing up a total of 42 new members since the 3rd quarter of last year. WOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

We also signed another one this past Saturday night at our meeting. It is the daughter of one of our newer members. She and her mother have also committed to sit on the B. E. Henry Association board. This is also on top of what they do for the local 4-H club and Neisha is also very involved in the Marshall FFA.

This has been an amazing run for us and right now I couldn't be happier. I know I need to personally thank everyone who has signed up to become Fredonia Grange members and I hope I can do that soon. We know that not all of them are going to be able to assist us but just having them join to support us and the MSG is pretty amazing.

We are starting to come into our busy season. We have started to make our signature sloppy joe, getting ready for this summer's fund raising events. Also, the annual Family Night Out (February 23rd), Outdoor Safety Day (March 13th & 14th), Easter Egg Hunt (March 22nd), plus our semi-annual pancake brunch (March 9th) events are right around the corner. 
Mary Houghton is also busy as she headed up a new event for us. There were17 who signed up for a sign language class sponsored by Fredonia Grange. For the first one we feel it is a "HUGE" success.

That's all for now folks.

"GET EXCITED, PROMOTE, AND SIGN THEM UP" "ONE DAY AT A TIME, ONE AT A TIME"

Fraternally,

Rich Hazen

“You can tell from these emails that we used our activities as a way to sign up new members,” says Rich. “We signed up ten new members at our picnic. At our Appreciation Dinner that we put on for all the people who help us out all year long, we had 90 people attend. We got another 5 or 6 new members from that. At our Christmas party, we even signed up Santa Claus! I bet there aren’t too many Granges who can say that! We just signed up a couple with their son. The father is 90, his wife is in her 80’s, and the son is 55.”

“We’re very active in the community,” says Rich. “I could list off a hundred things we do, and that helps us attract new members. We have a Pancake Brunch 2 times a year where we serve up to 800 people from 7AM-1PM. It takes about 60-70 people to make that work. We start cooking sausage about 3am – 360 pounds of sausage!”

“We co-sponsor a local safety day with our Sheriff. We co-sponsor an Easter Egg Hunt. This will be our fifth year doing that, and we get tremendous support from local banks and the credit union. We’ll have a Saint Patrick’s Day celebration where Grange provides the meal, and then we have an auction after the meal. Anyone can come, and we usually get 70-80 people. Last year we raised over $1000 at the auction. We just have a lot going on – and every event is an opportunity to talk to people and encourage them to join us.”

Rich’s father, Athol Hazen, Secretary of Fredonia Grange agrees. “It would be difficult for another Grange to get as many members as we have if they aren’t active in the community.”

It’s true that Fredonia Grange is active in their community, and you can read more about all they do in their article posted at http://www.nationalgrange.org/ActionGrange/Success/Fredonia.htm . On the other hand there are also great stories about Granges that came back from long years of inactivity and very low membership. You can read some of those inspiring stories on http://www.nationalgrange.org/ActionGrange/successfulactions.htm . Look for Mt. Pleasant Grange of Washington State, Coanicut Grange of Rhode Island, Battenkill Grange of Vermont, and Hambden Grange of Ohio for just a few inspiring stories!

“We have a monthly newsletter that goes out to all our members, plus all the people who support us,” says Rich. “Some of those folks have told us that they won’t join, but they show up at every event to help out. We send them a newsletter too.”

“A lot of our members come from organizations that our Grange either does support now or has supported in the past. We bring in a lot of money – from our Pancake Brunches and our County Fair food booth. We grossed about $25,000 at the Fair last year and netted, between $12-13,000. But the money we take in, we give back to the community,” says Rich. “We do Words for Thirds and give dictionaries to eight local schools. We do an Outdoor Safety Day with 500 children from local schools. Our FFA Director asked us to serve food at an Ag Day event, we’re holding a sign language class in the Grange Hall. One of our members brought in that idea, and signed up sixteen people in the class. We fronted the money to buy the text books for that class.”

“If a Grange went out there with a lot of enthusiasm, I think they could get new members,” says Rich. “You just need to talk to folks – and ask them the right questions.”

When asked what the right questions are, Rich doesn’t have an immediate answer. “Probably the right questions are different for different people,” he says. “But really it’s all about just talking with people. When we’re doing some event, other Grange members will say, ‘Rich, come over and talk to these people.’ So I do. And I’m enthusiastic while I’m telling them about Grange.” He laughs. “Sometimes I lay the guilt on them.”

“Be enthusiastic about your Grange and you will be able to sign up new members. I’ve always thought that if you believe in something, you can sell it. If you believe in your Grange, you can sell it.”

Kristy, another Fredonia Granger chimes in. “Rich just has the greatest dimples! So when he’s talking to people, they’ll do anything just to see those dimples,” she jokes. And then she adds, “When people see the members of Fredonia interacting with one another, they see that we’re having a great time, and they want to be part of that great time with us! We have a lot of fun! And they want to have fun too!”

Rich agrees. “We don’t ask them to come to meetings. We ask them to help out with an event. If we can get them there, then we show them how much fun we have – and then they want to be there with us. Since January alone, we have signed up 20 new members, and over half of those folks asked us to join! We didn’t have to ask them. They asked us!”

“We probably average 25-30 people at our meetings – and that average age is 60-65,” says Rich. “But the rest of our members are very active at all our events. They show up to help!”

“Our state has pretty high dues - $40. We only charge our membership $30 and the Grange covers the other $10,” says Rich. “I’ve been Master in prior, and after 3 years I thought “it’s time for me to step down.” Somebody else will have new ideas, and that will be good for the organization.” It has worked too.

“We have an annual election,” says Athol. “It’s a paper ballot. Usually someone will announce a few meetings before the election that they will no longer accept the position they’ve been holding. And sometimes, someone will announce that they would like to take on a job, and usually they’re elected.”

Rich returns to the idea of membership. “Oceana Grange and a few others have taken up the challenge of getting more new members too. And it’s not just me at Fredonia. Everyone is asking people to join. We hope that when other Granges see that we’re being successful, then they’ll see that they can too. Already, there’s been a ripple effect of Woo-hoos in the state of Michigan!”

“Oceana Grange has taken in 22 new members since October,” says Ardith Merton, Oceana Grange President. “And we have another eight who are in the debating stage. We plan to increase these numbers by this coming September.”