The Royal Canadian Yacht Club of Toronto launched its Serve to Sail program four years ago to attract new members, trading the entrance fee for services for the club.
Attracting new members comes with the territory of running a club. But when prospective members are deterred by the cost of joining, tapping into their special skill sets can create a win-win for both the club and the prospect.
Four years ago, the Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) of Toronto launched its Serve to Sail (S2S) program to attract new members and, particularly, those who were sailors.
“There were many guests or crew already coming to the club to help existing members go sailing, and the club wanted to convert them to membership,” explains General Manager and CEO David Brightling. “Most of these were in a desirable age bracket [25-40] and for whom the entrance fee was a barrier to joining, but for whom annual dues are manageable.”
Tapping its current membership for referrals, the program sought out recruits with select eligibility requirements. “Our current emphasis is on candidates who are competent coaches, race management officials, or jurors,” says Brightling. Prospective members are required to submit a sailing resume and go through the standard membership application process, upon approval from the club’s Director of Sailing.
The S2S membership category is capped at 60, and 15 new recruits are admitted annually. As part of their acceptance, they must commit to at least 40 hours of service per year (over the course of four years) to cover their entrance fee. Upon completing the four years, they graduate from the category, resulting in 15 open spots for the next round of candidates.
The services that S2S members provide include boat repairs, seasonal launching and maintenance of club-owned boats, race-officer duties, regatta management and sailing event organization, and coaching of junior sailors. With such a diverse roster of hands-on activities, many volunteers end up exceeding the required time commitment—a point that Brightling emphasizes to the current membership.
“If it is not properly understood, existing members may be offended by these ‘instant members’ and feel that the club brand is being eroded,” Brightling explains. In a recent newsletter, the RCYC Flag Officer penned a post-season summary to educate members on what S2S members actually do.
“It is important to be ahead of the curve in communications to prevent the ever-efficient rumor mill from taking over,” Brightling says. “As most club managers know, you cannot over-communicate in a private-club setting,”
With these measures put into place, the S2S membership continues to prove its worth. Since its inception, the program has created 60 new sailors, generated nearly $256,000 in new annual fees, and saved the RCYC approximately $400,000 in provided services.
Now considered an established club component, other yacht clubs have been in touch with Brightling to learn how to integrate this program into their own business models—and he doesn’t think it will end there.
“By every measure, Serve to Sail has been a success for the RCYC, and is a model that could be adapted at many private clubs—and not just in the yacht-club segment,” he notes.
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