Annually the Health-System Academy of the Arizona Pharmacy AzPA (AzPA) participates in a fun-filled Membership Recruitment Event. The day kicks off with orientation and membership recruitment from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm, followed by a celebration and awarding of prizes from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Upon completion of the membership event, the AzPA members adjourn to a local sporting or social event. For example, the 2008 recruitment event was held at the local major league baseball stadium, and after recruiting 283 new members in only 4 hours the AzPA members attended the baseball game!
Forty to fifty AzPA members attend the day long event. The members are split into six different teams (with a corresponding team leader) and each team consists of 4-5 members per team. Team ‘names’ parallel colors and every team member wears a matching color. For example, one year the pink team that consisted mainly of men wore bright pink shirts with the logo ‘Real Mean Wear Pink’. This is one of the many gestures that set the stage for a fun event! The room is filled with a rainbow of colors and logos!
Membership recruitment on the day of the event consists of team members making phone calls to non-members of the AzPA. The caveat is that each member must know the person they are calling – no “cold calls” are allowed. In addition, AzPA members are allowed to start recruiting new members prior to the day of the event (deemed ‘sand bagging’). New membership forms completed one month in advance are counted toward the team points on the day of the event (1 point = 1 new member recruited). The team who recruits the most new members wins a prize! Prizes (such as the ‘Big Dawg Award’ to the member who ‘sniffs’ out the most new members) are given out all day to keep the energy flowing and new membership calls ongoing! For every new member recruited a cow bell sounds!
Overall, this unique Membership Recruitment Event proved to be successful with 283 new members recruited in only 4 hours and fosters collegiality between AzPA members! For more information on this membership recruitment event, please contact Janet Weigel, Arizona Pharmacy AzPA Marketing and Communications [marketing@azpharmacy.org] or Mindy Rasmussen, AzPA Executive Director/CEO [director@azpharmacy.org] .