Life moves on, and so do people. Climbing clubs need new members in order to survive and prosper, but if your club is shrinking, just how do you undertake this daunting task? Fran McNicol, the Recruitment Officer for the Merseyside based Vagabond Mountaineering Club has some tips.

Recruitment and retention can be contentious issues, but the whole club should be clear about the need for new blood and be prepared to share the extra work involved - don’t just leave it down to one or two individuals. It can be immensely frustrating taking the time to lead prospective club members up simple climbs, only to find that they give up climbing shortly afterwards. And for the dozen or so new faces encountered each year, only one or two will stick around to repay the investment.

Who to recruit?
The perfect new member would obviously climb V5/E3/F7b/WI IIV, have their own transport, an apartment in the Alps and would bring enthusiasm, fresh knowledge, skills and inspiration to the club mix. But the truth is that these people, unless moving for work, generally don’t need new friends. A club may decide to set parameters before embarking on a recruitment campaign. There may be issues around supporting complete beginners for example. You also need to decide how many prospective members your club could cope with at any one time, and plan the advertising campaign accordingly.

Who recruits?
Have a designated “new members” contact on the club committee who can deal with enquiries and screen potential members. This is equally useful for any enquirers - they get effective communication and a friendly face to latch on to at the wall or crag.

Advertise
We put posters up at the local climbing walls, but other good places to advertise are local gyms, Venture Scouts, University athletic unions, the climbing magazines and the local press. These days most people will also expect a website, so get one started, with prominent contact details for the recruitment secretary. Also feature some current looking articles, photos and a message forum so prospective members can browse and easily ask questions.

Have a spy at the local wall
Some of our members are staff at the local climbing walls. This enables us to spot keen climbers who want to move outside. Those who book onto a leading course or outside climbing courses are also pointed in our direction. But even if you’re not so well connected, introduce yourself to the staff at the local wall.

Look for members everywhere
I regularly flick through the common web forums (ukclimbing.com, planetfear.com) for appeals for clubs or partners in our area. I reply to the enquiry, send out information and follow up with an email after a few weeks. I also try to mention to everyone we meet about how great our club is and what we get up to, and encourage all our acquaintances at the wall or the crag to come to the pub after climbing.

Aspirants meets
Aspirant meets work best if you have a cohort of interested indoor wall climbers who all want to have a go at “proper” climbing. You will need a group of established members prepared to give up their time to help novices up easy routes. But this doesn’t need to be pure hardship on anyone’s part, and imagine the thrills of doing Poor Man’s Peutery, Grooved Arete or Craig Dhu Wall as your first outdoor climb! With two experienced climbers per novice you could do these safely, have a great day out and leave the aspirant climber gagging for more.

Be sociable
We have a weekly evening club night, summer and winter, combined with a designated pub meet. We publish the calendar on the website and most meets are open to all including prospective members. It seems obvious but people will only want to join your club if you are fun, friendly and have an active climbing calendar and a vibrant social scene. So make some effort, and you’ll not only attract some new blood, but have a whole heap of fun along the way.

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