It has always been important to find new teammates or club members to ensure your FPS chapter is set up for success in the new school year. COVID-19 has created new challenges for recruitment, but future problem solvers are no strangers to tackling challenges. What are some of the best ways to recruit in this new world of increased virtual interactions and decreased in-person activities?

Here are some tips to help kick-start your efforts to attract new members to your FPS team:

Digitize Your Team Identity:
Your school might transition to online classes and activities, so your FPS chapter needs a robust digital brand to help generate awareness among potential new members. Ensure you create a team social media page or website. Ask your teammates to identify a member with graphic design skills to create a set of digital assets that reflect your team’s unique identity or brand. Be sure to develop custom backgrounds for video conferences as well as cover photo banners or profile picture frames for social media. Distribute these graphics with your teammates and club members to use on their social media accounts so that they introduce FPS into every virtual interaction! Be sure to check out the NYFPS digital graphics which we offer on our website through the Virtual Center (nyfps.com/virtual-center). Show your pride by tagging us at #NYFPS and @NYFPS!

Manage Your FPS Social Media:
Maintaining a strong and effectie social media presence puts your FPS team top-of-mind amongst prospective members; especially when you have less in-person social interactions. Have a social media strategy for the school year. Ensure your team or club has accounts on platforms where your target audience frequents, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. Remember to check with your advisor before setting these up. Have a social media calendar to plan out your posts to avoid inactivity. Be sure to mix things up with a diverse variety of post formats such as photos, memes, videos, polls and stories. Share the calendar with teammates and assign responsibilities for creating, posting, and replying on each platform. Also, encourage your club student leaders and followers to share all posts for wider impact.

Sign-up Online:
Getting new members to sign-up to join your team in-person may not be easy this year, so why not take this opportunity to modernize by bringing your enrollment process online! Create an enrollment process where new members submit their interest or team application through your team website or a service such as SurveyMonkey or Google Forms. Virtual sign-up forms also makes it super easy to share links to sign up through email and social media. You might discover that a virtual enrollment process makes recruiting new members even easier than before!

Add A Distanced Personal Touch:
You can still add a personal touch to recruitment despite fewer in-person events. Dropping off a personal package through the mail or homeroom teacher mailbox with information about NYFPS, a handwritten note/art work, and maybe some of your branded FPS team gear after prospective members express interest online. Consider contactless options to generate hype around your FPS team. If you’d prefer to keep it all virtual, send the same information through email or social media instead. You can create excitement by making sure prospective members are aware that they will receive a welcome package after they official become a team member.