Happy New Year Moose Family,

We have three months left until the completion of the Moose year. This means you should have held at least 4 New Member Orientations to this point. These are critical for the members and the Lodges overall. All Lodges should be striving to earn the Premier Lodge Award, and Presidents and Administrators to earn the Leadership Award. These awards are a great honor for each Lodge. These awards are a goal we hope to achieve each year. Without the New Member Orientations this is not possible.

Who is responsible for organizing and running these meetings? The Lodge Membership Chair is officially tasked with organizing and running the orientation session; however, any officer or member can do the work as long as they are organized, articulate and personable. Remember that this session is often a new member’s first impression of the Lodge, so put your best presenter front and center. I would also recommend possibly looking at organizing a team to share the workload. This can allow the presenters to get a break and present things they feel much more comfortable with. For example, I am not familiar with the chair positions within the chapter. I have a team member that collaborates with me on the New Member Orientation, and she presents with me. By doing it this way she communicates the information much clearer than I can regarding the Chapter, and I can discuss the Moose Legion.

Doing the presentation as a team has advantages other than just having more knowledge on a specific topic. It also breaks up the presentation for the presenters as well as the attendees. By changing the voice or the flow of the presentation you can keep the attention of the new members more easily. Presenters, share stories of your experiences as a member, which also helps keep the new members engaged and it allows them to hear about different perspectives of the Lodge.

At the California Nevada Moose Association 2024 Mid-Year Conference in Costa Mesa March 22nd to the 24th, we will have a New Membership Orientation booth. We will be sharing a PowerPoint presentation that the Rancho Cordova Lodge #2357 presents. Please stop by and ask any questions you may have about New Member Orientation.