Like many user groups, Cajun Clickers Computer Club experienced a decline in membership during the 1990s. Unlike some, we were experiencing the curse of an effective user group – “death by success.” It works like this: You do a good job of giving people what they want and need and once they get it, they don’t renew their membership!

During 2001, an LSU graduate student did market research for us as her thesis project. That research had some very interesting findings related to membership retention:

The people who stay in a user group are those who form relationships within the user group.

The people who stay in a user group have a sense of loyalty to the group.

The people who stay in a user group stay to “give back.”

The more social interaction, the more likely the renewal.

With those things in mind, we began to experiment with a concept that has worked very well for religious groups in increasing participation and retaining membership. You can call them Cell Groups, or Chapters, or Geographic SIGs.

The idea is to have at least one meeting a month “closer to home” - within a particular neighborhood, suburb, or outlying town. Or within another organization or even congregation. The people may already know one anther, and are more likely to draw in others from their neighborhood or organization, leading to new members. A smaller group makes for easier social interaction. The goal is that the members of the cell will quickly begin to also participate in the larger events of the general group.

The challenges are many. All the same challenges that face the user group as a whole will also plague the cell group. The biggest challenge is finding a leader who will commit to starting and nourishing the cell. The leader should live in the geographic area or be a member of the organization or congregation you are targeting.

Once a leader is identified, you must find meeting space and equipment. The geographic cell meetings must appeal to a broad range of interest and ability. And you’ve got to quickly develop additional leadership within the group so that the leader doesn’t suffer quick burnout.

Our first cell group was started in St. Francisville, a small town about 25 miles north of Baton Rouge. We already had about 10 families in the vicinity who were members. We started out meeting in the community bank and moved to a church after about a year. The sheriff’s department allows us to use their data projector, the church has a screen, and one of the members loans his laptop

That group has not lived up to our expectations. Although we gained about 10 new families, turnout at the meetings is light and we don’t have high hopes for a good renewal rate. I’ve identified several reasons for this group’s failure to thrive:

It’s too far from the main group for most of the people to participate in the main group activities.

It’s too small a town to grow very large.

Commitment from local participants as leaders has not been forthcoming.

Our second effort has been much more successful. Zachary, a small town about 12 miles north of Baton Rouge, already had about 15 families who were members. This group also meets in a church. The church allows free use of the facility, their data projector and screen. This group has grown to about 35 families and attendance at the twice-monthly meetings is good. An active leadership team emerged within the second month. The meetings are well-publicized and the membership is actively recruiting within the community. Meeting presentations are now coming from within the group itself.

I expect this group to thrive and grow. Almost every family in this cell is also now going into Baton Rouge for workshops and meetings at the main facility and many are becoming involved in the larger group as volunteers. These are the kinds of members who will renew and stay active year after year.

The newest cell group, south of Baton Rouge, started in February 2004. It is going very well and is on track to be as successful as, or even more successful than, the Zachary group. We have many other small towns in the metro area where we could duplicate this effort.

But why stop there? Why not monthly meetings in each of the larger neighborhoods? Why not a monthly meeting within an assisted-living community, with meetings geared to elder needs? Why not a cell within the Rotary Club or Lion’s Club, focusing on topics of interest to businessmen? Why not a cell within a church, mosque, or synagogue that focuses on computer use for religious study? Or within a Parent-Teacher organization that focuses on what parents should know about computers?

Let’s stop waiting for people to come to the user group, and take the user group out to the people!