Growing your group and audiences

Online member meetup (Wales)

Running your group is a rewarding but challenging role. Our regular meetups are a chance for you to meet and share learning and ideas with other Wales groups facing similar challenges, explore specific issues affecting leisure-time music making in Wales and consider how we can work collaboratively to find solutions and advocate for the sector. 

Stephen McNally, Wales manager, will be leading this session.

N.B. this event was originally scheduled to take place on 24th January but will now be taking place on 31 January.

In this meetup we'll:

Location

ONLINE
United Kingdom

Making Music census comparison survey

Understanding how the demographics of your members or audiences compare to the make-up of your geographical community can be helpful when planning your strategy, performances, or community engagement plans.  

We have created a census comparison survey to help leisure-time music groups collect data from people who belong to your group, or attend your events, so you can directly compare it to the UK government's Census 2021.  

Case study: Growing your membership with the Llysfaen Singers

Joanna Burdett, chair of Llysfaen Singers, tells us how, by making small changes over time, the choir have managed to successfully grow their membership.

Webinar recording: Connecting with your community

In this recording of our webinar, our guest speakers discussed different ways of engaging with your communities.

If you’re looking to connect with new members and audiences, getting out into your community with performances and workshops could invigorate your group and help you reach more people. In this event, we heard from two UK-wide organisations that put on annual events that you can use as a springboard in your own community. Plus, a member group talked about how they filled an entire year with exciting collaborations and performances. 

How to keep your members engaged

Finding new members for your group requires commitment and effort over a prolonged period of time. So, once they have joined, it’s important they keep coming. This resource looks at what you can do to make sure your members stay engaged and happy in your group.

Contents:

Recruiting toolkit (1 of 5): who do you want?

Recruiting new members is the biggest challenge leisure-time music groups face. Unfortunately, this is not an exact science and there are no quick fixes, but there are some improvements you can make. Work your way through this five-part toolkit to help you build a recruitment strategy, starting with thinking about who you want to recruit.

The joining journey

When someone joins, it is probably due to a combination of multiple circumstances and influences that could take place over days or even years.

Recruiting toolkit (2 of 5): how do people join your group?

There are many circumstances that might prompt someone to join a music group. Understanding how people find you and what might be getting in the way of joining is key information for helping you build a new recruitment strategy.

How do people join?

Before you start telling the world what you offer and asking them to join you, it's worth considering what will happen when they do.

Recruiting toolkit (3 of 5): understanding your members

It's important to understand how your group might appeal to potential members. Your current members are your recruitment success stories, so start by asking what makes them keep coming back and use this to inform your strategy.

Current members

Music groups give people joy – members join because they enjoy making music in a group. But enjoyment comes from different places for different people. For example, it might be:

Recruiting toolkit (4 of 5): who joins music groups and why?

Once you have a better understanding of your current members, it's time to look at how you can use this information to understand who your potential new members are.

Who might join your music group?

In Part 1 of this toolkit, we listed some example steps a person might take before joining a music group. We are going to re-visit these now.

Your new member may have:

Recruiting toolkit (5 of 5): finding new members

So far you have defined your recruitment aims (Part 1), reviewed your joining process (Part 2), understood what your current members like about your group (Part 3) and what will appeal to potential new members (Part 4).