Well, we have just about made it though another year and with the New Year just a little over a month away its time to start thinking about whats in store for your bass club…
Well, we have just about made it though another year and with the New Year just a little over a month away its time to start thinking about whats in store for your bass club. This past year many bass clubs suffered the increasing cost of gas which took its toll on participation for tournament days. The good news is gas prices have steadily been falling and hopefully will continue on that trend. The bad side of things is the economy is still in a slump and most likely will affect membership in some clubs.
So, what do we do to keep membership up and participation at tournaments high in the times we are in? Now is the time to look at what works and doesnt work in your club. Basically it is time for a little house cleaning. We have already set the rules in our club for the 2009 season. We looked at several things that werent working and tweaked it up a bit. For example we looked at all the tournaments from the past few years and determined that draw tournaments had very low participation. We also noticed that our September tournaments had low participation. With that in mind we did away with draw tournaments and we decided to end our tournament year in August rather than September.
We also determined that gas prices were taking their toll on months that we had two tournaments scheduled, so we went back to having one tournament a month to ease the stress on the pocket books and hopefully pick up participation. Not every club is faced with the same challenges but I am sure that all clubs have some things that can be tweaked to make things better.
While changing some things up can help, adding new things can definitely help. Try fresh new ideas to help make things interesting and keep members active. Try giving door prizes at tournaments or meetings. It doesnt have to be anything elaborate. You can give out a few baits, give a subscription to a bass magazine, or maybe even a free membership to the club for the next year. You can provide dinner at some of your meetings which may get more people to attend. We have a Christmas party every year which is paid for by the club. Anything that gives back to the members of the club is a good thing.
Now is the time to start thinking about changes if they are needed. Get your members active and get them to start brain storming ideas that will make your club an even better one than it was before. Even with the hard times, 2009 can be the greatest year ever for bass clubs across the nation.
Jared LeBlue
