Membership Recruitment by President Matthew

 Member Recruitment 
So recruiting new members. It’s important, but… why? Does it really matter how many members a chapter has? Basically, yes! Having a goal of gaining new members is great for so many reasons, a couple of which I’ll get into.
A note I’d like to make first though, is that growth isn’t necessarily the best for every chapter. Some chapters are perfect at the size they’re at, and growing wouldn’t help their chapter. These chapters want to sustain their membership, and keep their numbers relatively the same. If your advisor wants that for their chapter, listen to them. They have their reasons and are looking out for your best interests. For these chapters, I implore you to recruit professional and alumni members, provided your advisor approves.
Now, onto why membership is important. It may not seem like it, but it matters for all of Florida. Because of the membership we have, we are able to send 5 or 6 people to ICDC in each event, depending on what kind of event it is. If we increase our membership this year, we may be able to send 6 people in EVERY event! I think that is a great incentive. New members (professional and alumni included) help out the entire state.
On top of that, of course membership is important to your chapter at well. Some chapters take pride in their size, and use it as bragging rights. Bigger chapters (typically) have more support from their school’s administration which is definitely a plus. Larger chapters also have more potential fundraisers, event winners, or officer candidates. Just the sheer numbers provides an advantage. In addition to this, the Membership campaign challenges chapters to add 20 student members this year, so your growth may satisfy this! If you have any questions about campaigns, feel free to email me about them at matthew@fldeca.org.
Hopefully these few reasons have given you an idea of why membership is important. Members make the organization and they’re the reason Florida DECA is great. Our members make Florida DECA limitless!