1. Simon Jeffs - November 24, 2009

   Thanks Rob, I’d be interested to learn how people approach those people who are more likely to be availble during the day.

   We started off by approaching outdoor types but we need a real spread of people.

   Having said that our Membership Secretary has been working wonders and we currently have around 20 new recruits.

2. Kris Manning - November 24, 2009

   Hi Simon,

   What methods have you found work best for you?

   We are about to start a recruiting drive for SEBEV.

   Kris

3. Jennie Webster - November 24, 2009

   ISAR also need a big recruitment drive as we are still very low on operational members.

   What have been the best techniques for recruitment? And also, how have people found best to organise members to come to training – is it best to do an introduction to search as a classroom session, to organise a search exercise, or one following the other? Is it best to have a “new member’s night” or for them to attend an ordinary session? Is there any difference between all of these?

   Kris, have you considered working together on anything and would you be adverse to that idea?

   Obviously we border each other’s counties, and may overlap on who we have access to, for example I attend Reading Uni, which is obviously in Berkshire, but was thinking that may be a good platform to get some publicity on SAR in general out, obviously I cna’t do that as it’s not in our county, but wondered if I could maybe be a point of contact and direct people to the nearest team to them, for the vast majority this would be SEBEV. And if anyone was from Oxfordshire maybe you could point them towwards us?

   Have people found attending local events to be useful as attracting members?

   We need ideas… So far we’ve been (slowly) distributing leaflets giving information and contact details, but haven’t yet recieved any response, however, the email system hasn’t been working well recently so maybe people have replied?

4. Simon Jeffs - November 24, 2009

   Register your unit with your local volunteer bureau. We get contacted maybe 1 or 2 a fortnight this way. Posters in prominent locations. Website presence as a number of members found us using a well known search engine. I used the advertising on Facebook 2 weeks max spend of £2 / day as it was just a trial and we got two new members out of that.

   PR events / street collections always help. Also approach the outdoor shops.

   In terms of getting them along we currently use the deep end solution. Get them along to a training exercise, introduce the searchers cube and give them an observer to look after them. But equally a classroom session can be just as good. Our last classroom session was an open forum for the members and there were eight new members there.

   In Hampshire we do have to target it slightly. People on the Isle of Wight like to think they are doing something for the island so it is advertised as Hampshire Search and Rescue but specific to the Isle of Wight Team.

   Hope that helps?

5. Jennie Webster - November 25, 2009

   Simon,

   That helps a lot, thanks.

   I’ve got to look at getting more leaflets printed up as I’ve given out 300 to team members to distribute in their local areas – we thought gyms and sports clubs would be a good start? Outdoor shops would definitely be a good place and we’re looking to get some into those, some posters in those shops would be good too. What do you put into outdoor shops?

   We need to get the website properly up and running and yes, that should help to attract members, and at least allow them to look us up on the internet if tehy see a poster etc.

6. Kris Manning - November 25, 2009

   Hi Jennie,

   No we certainly wouldnt be adverse to some collaboration.

   My email address is on Robs emails so drop me a line.

   Kris

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