Attracting Younger Members and Growing the League

By Janie Owens, Member at Large, Florida State President, National 5th Vice President

As state president of the NLAPW in Florida and national 5th vice president, I often hear that most branches need new members. There has been a lot of chatter about how to grow our membership because we all recognize that our members are aging.

We have two dynamics. First is the completely retired or semi-retired women. Second is the younger women who are building careers and may have a family to raise. Then there’s the single mom who works to support her family. One group has time and the other two lack time.

When our mothers and grandmothers were attending daytime meetings, they didn’t have home computers or tablets, nor did they have cell phones. Facebook and AI hadn’t been invented. Today, women work to pay the bills and put food on the table because it is frequently necessary. The NLAPW must change with the times to accommodate the younger women if we want them as members.

If meeting schedules, board sessions, and events take place during times only accessible to retirees, it prevents working-age women from joining. If we fail to adapt our schedules, we will fail as an organization.

Equally important is presenting a platform to attract women. We must ask ourselves, what are we offering new members? According to research, I found that mentoring is an attraction within other organizations. This could easily be set up in each branch.

We must find ways to accommodate younger working women. Branches wanting (and needing) to grow should consider adjusting the meeting schedule to accommodate the younger women. This can be done by offering a Saturday or evening meeting every other month instead of all daytime meetings.

The NLAPW needs new members. Our new president, Nancy Dafoe, is strongly pursuing that objective. Let’s join her in achieving that goal.