Recruitment Tools Identified in Hamilton/Hamilton West PC Recruitment Workshop

Recruitment is a major challenge for many conferences, each facing the same ‘road blocks’ and challenges. Recruitment techniques used for many decades are no longer effective, yet conferences continue to use the same methods. Techniques that offer minimal effectiveness when used by themselves are;

• Placing appeal in church bulletin
• Making appeal at mass

Additionally, if a person responds to any of these traditional recruitment methods, orientation, training, engagement and retention of a potential new Vincentian too often fall short, resulting in the new recruit not returning.

Is there a magic pill to solve this problem? – YES – Change your recruitment approach!!

The Hamilton/Hamilton West PC recruitment workshop identified several opportunities conferences can consider to develop an effective recruitment campaign. These opportunities include; Round Table Brainstorming

• Every conference member has the responsibility to recruit, it is NOT just the Presidents job
  • If you see the Vincentian Spirit of caring in a person you meet, share your story as a Vincentian. Your story will be of interest to a person who shares the values of Vincentians
• When invited to talk about SSVP, share your story, let your excitement be shine. A drab commentary about the Society is not reflective about the service we deliver.
• When a potential recruit expresses interest, a new member package should be provided
  • http://members.ssvp.on.ca/en/bestpractices.php?item=23
  • Recruitment Prayer to be recited at every conference meeting.
    • http://ssvp.on.ca/en/thoughts/APrayerforVocationstotheVincentianFamily.pdf
  • ABR – Always Be Recruiting
    • Recruitment is NOT a once per year activity or when your back is against the wall when you realize your membership is old and declining
    • You must be continually Building Awareness about the Society and its works
    • Be Passionate in Sharing Your Story - OFTEN
    • NEVER UNDER ESTIMATE the power of YOUR INFLUENCE
  Address to the Congregation
  
  • To make appeals during a mass more effective, include the following;
    • The appeal at mass must be presented by a person who is comfortable with public speaking, a smile and their excitement are natural in their communication style.
    • SSVP Banner prominently displayed
    • Many members need to be at the back of the church to serve witness to your involvement with SSVP
    • Members are best recognized if they are wearing SSVP clothing with SSVP Logo
    • Members must be able to express what excites them about their work with SSVP in 30 seconds (30 second elevator speech)
      • Ask a person what excites them about social outreach, if this is an area that they are interested in, ask the person for their name and phone number so you can contact them at a later date to share with them more information about the Society. **Contact should be made within 48 hours
    • Be prepared to correct misconceptions about SSVP e.g. service to ALL (not just Catholics)
  Branding
  • The SSVP Logo to be prominently displayed in multiple ways;
    • By members wearing a variety of attractive SSVP clothing (shirts, sweatshirts, lapel pins, hats, aprons and much more) Items available on the National SSVP catalogue website https://www.ssvp.ca/ssvp-catalog
    • SSVP Banner, display at ALL special events
  • There are several information templates that have been developed by conferences that can be customised to create an informative pamphlet for your conference. Brantford PC has a very attractive pamphlet. (copy at the end of this document). Also, can be found on the ONRC Best Practice website http://members.ssvp.on.ca/en/bestpractice24.php
  Stores
  • Stores can be leveraged as a recruitment vehicle. Stores are the Face of the Society in most communities. Volunteers at stores have the opportunity to get a glimpse of the work performed by conferences.
  Leverage the events
  • Often conferences sponsor Special Events that require additional help. These are opportunities to share more about the work of the Society AND to identify potential members who share the values of the Society. Events such as
    • Christmas Hamper programs
    • Jesse Tree displays, do not leave the tree by itself, have members available to meet those interested in supporting your campaign
    • Bundle Sundays – appeals made to collect material goods such as clothing, household items to be provided to the community SSVP store (if the community has no SSVP store, to be used by the conference)
    • World Day of the Poor
    • Coffee Sunday’s, Soup Fest
  Recruit a Volunteer Coordinator
  • Best used in areas with SSVP Stores. Volunteers attracted to stores have the opportunity to learn about conference activities such as Home Visits, providing them an opportunity to develop a more intimate relationship with the persons we serve and deepening their personal Faith Journey
  • Target certain Demographics
    • Recent retirees
    • People who have expressed they ‘want to give back’ to Society
    • New to Canada
    • New to your Church
    • RCIA candidate
  Utilize the Commissioning Ceremony
  • Commissioning Ceremonies are encouraged to be shared to the broader church community,
    • During special masses such as SSVP feast days
    • When new President is commissioned
  Use of Local Press to promote Special Events
  • Use of Local Press to promote special events. We have many Catholics who irregularly or no longer participate in mass, invite the press to report a story on Special events surrounding SSVP events such as;
    • New SSVP store opening
    • Launch of new program sponsored by SSVP at your church
    • North of 60 participation
    • Feast Day celebrations
  As a Vincentian family, we want to share our successes to help other Vincentians. The ONRC has a Best Practices website, http://members.ssvp.on.ca/en/bestpractice24.php where we encourage you to share tools that you have found to be successful in recruiting, orientating, training and retaining new Vincentians. We would like to hear your story and share with others on this website. Please submit your story to Linda Dollard linda@ssvp.on.ca
  
  If you would like to learn more about the ONRC Recruitment 101 workshop, contact;
  Judith Nunn nnuncj@me.com
  Linda Alexander lmja@bell.net