Collaborative Post
Social clubs are great opportunities to meet people who share a specific passion. Go to any town or city and you’ll likely find many social clubs dedicated to all kinds of interests. Of course, there may not always be a club that is suited to your passions. In these instances, you can always consider starting your own club.
Starting a club allows you to choose your audience and set your own rules. If you don’t agree with the way other clubs in your area are run, you can make yours different. This is one of the big advantages of starting your own club.
But just how do you go about setting up a club? This post offers a basic step-by-step guide of the main things to consider.
Decide your audience
What type of person is your club going to appeal to? This is the biggest thing to consider as it will affect the types of members you attract.
Most clubs are built around a shared passion such as reading, gaming, crafts, sports or the arts. Consider what your passion is and whether you can set up a club dedicated to that passion. Ideally, you don’t want to go too niche. At the same time, you want to make sure that there aren’t lots of competing clubs in your area.
You could consider targeting a certain age, cultural background or gender. Just make sure that this isn’t seen as discriminatory.
Decide where to meet
Where will your club be held? You may be able to find somewhere free to meet up such as a park or a bar, however this may not always be an option if you need to bring certain equipment or don’t want any distractions, in which case you’ll have to rent somewhere.
Renting a place means spending money – which means you may have to charge members a fee to cover this cost. Community centers, sports halls and private function rooms are some of the popular places that rent out space to clubs.
Choose a date and time
Most clubs are held on a weekly or monthly basis. You need to work out the right day and the right time to host your club. It should be a time that is convenient for most people (if you’re choosing a weekday, you’ll want to choose an evening time). You also need to make sure that any venue you’ve chosen is available at this time. Weekday evenings from Monday to Thursday tend to be most popular.
Gather some members
Once you’ve decided your audience, where to meet and what time to meet, it could be time to start gathering your members. You may already know friends and family who are interested. However, you’ll likely need to recruit a few strangers too. This involves doing some promotion.
If you’re hiring out a venue, you’ll usually be able to work with the venue to promote your club – this could include putting up posters and advertising on the venue’s website and social media page. Consider also setting up your own social media page and handing out some flyers (there may also be public notice boards local to you where you can pin up flyers). Word-of-mouth can be a powerful promotional tool too – talk to everyone you meet about your club to help attract interest.
It’s worth advertising your first meeting a few weeks in advance. Get people to contact you in order to sign up so that you have a clear idea of who is coming and whether you need to do more promotion.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Organise your first meeting
The first meeting can be a bit nerve-wracking – you never quite know how it will turn out. It’s likely your first meeting will be spent mostly getting to know members and discussing your plans with the club. A few ice-breaker activities could be worth organizing to help people open up.
The first meeting is a great opportunity to find out what your members want from the club. While it is your club and you get to choose how it is run, many of the best social clubs still like to heavily involve members in decision-making processes. Encourage members to propose ideas so that you can cater to them and keep them engaged. You should also confirm whether the time and date is suitable for everyone.
Find the best way to communicate with members
It’s good to be able to keep communication with members between each meeting. Consider using a WhatsApp group or a community app such as Disciple Media to create a collaborative space where you can share updates and information. This is likely to be easier than individually contacting members.
Consider setting some rules
Certain types of clubs may require some rules in order to keep activities structured and in order to maintain the peace. The venue may have rules regarding parking, noise levels or cleaning up – you may have to enforce these in order to keep a good relationship with the venue. Alternatively, you may want to set some of your own rules – for instance, if you run an exercise club in a park, you may want to set a rule that people take home their rubbish such as empty plastic bottles.
Obviously, you don’t want rules to be too strict as this may put certain members off. Be fair with your rules and try to enforce them in a friendly way.
Build your club
Once your club is all set to go, you can focus on growing your membership. It’s possible that you may prefer to keep it small, however it’s still worth constantly trying to attract new members to replace any members that drop out.
You could find that members recommend your club to friends and family. In fact, you could even introduce a recommendation reward scheme in which current members are rewarded for bringing in new members. Make sure to also continue your own promotion on top of this. If your club is experiencing a lull in members, consider spending some money on some flyers or social media ads.