Growing your pipe club, things that work

[phxrock]

Our pipe club in Arizona has been pretty solid, but stays pretty much at 4-6 members with a faithful 4 showing up. We have an excellent opportunity with the new proprietor of the former Tinderbox store. The VP of the parent company has promised to support us on the calendar, and great accomodaations. The general manager said that he would love to have tobacco distributors visit us and pipe makers and help us organize events.
With winter coming on, we have a large influx of snow-birds coming in from all points and a lot of Canadians that we would like to tap into, but they are seasonal. We would like to attract some young pipers, and the cigar crowd at the store provides us with an opportunity to tap into them by broadening their smoking pleasure.
Looking for advice that has worked for your club(s)...I posted an ad on Craigslist community that generated zero response:

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/grp/5200481709.html
In hindsight, I should have "bumped" the post to keep it on the front page.

 

[deathmetal]

Do you have posters in local B&Ms?
Sometimes meetup.com can be useful, as can (ugh, yes) Facebook and Twitter.

 

[phxrock]

We are looking into using social media. Signage has also came up, we have to create some to get them out. Problem is would you want to put up poster of club meetings be hosted in another B&M? So it seem logical to use the different forms and social media.

 

[deathmetal]

Problem is would you want to put up poster of club meetings be hosted in another B&M?

If it meant more pipe smokers, I'd support the community. You could also offer to switch where it is hosted to see if you could bring them some sales.
Social media is yucky but can be useful since most people kind of hang out around the house these days, it seems, typing into weird little gadgets. Oh wait, that's what I'm doing.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

we use Facebook as well. We started off strong with 20+, but now we're just five that show up constantly. I felt badabout losing all of the younger guys, but Ive come to cherish the friendships of those of us who always show up.

 

[phxrock]

I think that 4 or 5 getting together once a month to shoot the bull and smoke a couple of bowls is OK. Bit it would be nice to have others drop in for a bit. Hopefully this new venue will bring a few pipers around. Good not only for us it would be good for the venue. Since they are new faces in the area. We are coming here for advice to build. This group started with 3 guys from this forum getting together.

 

[hawke]

How about rotate the meetings at all the local B&M's? Then post signage in all.

 

[georged]

The Kansas City club has around 100 paid members last I knew, and an average monthly meeting has 30-something attendees.
The club's president Carl Staudenmyer is a friend of one of this board's regulars, kcghost. Shoot him a PM for Carl's contact info. He's always interested in sharing club-building ideas.

 

[pipestud]

This article is now several years old and our club is now larger and even more active. This sure worked for us and other clubs. The article can also be seen by going to the www.naspc.com website and clicking on the "Past Articles" link -
http://www.naspc.org/Archives/pipeclub.html

 

[pylorns]

We have around 30 members in Austin that are paying - but it definitely ebs and flows with membership on who shows up... most of our meetings we hit around the 5-10 people mark, which for us, is pretty good.

 

[dochudson]

The day and time really impact getting the youngest guys to show regularly. Wife and kids generally demand prime time. Rotating shops so the same members don't always have to have the long drive.

 

[pruss]

Ditto to what George said. Carl is a helluva resource and was real generous in reaching out to us as we launched our pipe club a couple years ago.
We have six paying members and about 15 guys who drop in on a semi-regular basis and pay the drop-in fee.
At each meeting we have an open tin of a new tobacco for the guys to sample, and a raffle for a new pipe. The drop in fee gets them a raffle ticket and access to the tobacco for sampling. We also start every meeting with a 'new guy' hour in which new pipe smokers are invited to come in and learn how to properly prep their pipe and bowl at the feet of some of our resident codgers. We also do an educational component to (almost) every meeting. Becoming a little more formal has helped us offer value to the guys who show up.
On recruitment:

- The Tinderbox monthly calendar is hugely important. Our meetings are posted in the online calendar of our local B&M and are also bumped in their weekly e-newsletter. This brings us new recruits.

- Be a presence in your local B&Ms. We had business cards made up, and as our relationship grew with the local B&M they began handing the cards out to their pipe and tobacco customers. This has been a win/win for both our club and the B&M.

- Build a facebook page for your club. Younger guys use social media. A facebook page should be a minimum level of social engagement, consider also and Instagram account among others.

- If you can build a web-page this will also help build awareness.
I can't stress how beneficial our relationship with our local B&M has been to us. It has helped us grow, and also helped the B&M expand their pipe and tobacco business.
Good luck!
-- Pat

 

[deathmetal]

I forgot to add this:
Have an email mailing list to remind people a week or so in advance.