The Member Who Never Came Back
In 1964, four motivated, dedicated, and committed enlisted Air Force members stepped out of their comfort zone and championed the organization that I have grown to love and respect, the Air Force Sergeants Association. Tirelessly, they campaigned, recruited and spread the ideals of AFSA and one member at a time grew the organization from the original four to over 100,000 members. This feat was only possible because of staunch recruiting and retention efforts. However, our great organization is plagued by an ideal than many chapters and recruiters suffer from, the “Fire and Forget” concept.
Simply put, we put so much effort into cultivating new members, we often forget about the ones we already have. We take them for granted and too frequently, loose them as our vector is skewed off center-point. Below is an “AFSA’lutely” wonderful parable that was originally printed in AFSA’s SERGEANTS Magazine, August 1981:
THE MEMBER WHO NEVER CAME BACK
It amuses me now to think that your organization spends so much time looking for new members when I was there all the time.
Do you remember me? I’m the one who was asked to join. I paid my dues and then I was asked to be a loyal and faithful member.
I’m the one who came to every meeting, but nobody paid any attention to me. I tried several times to be friendly, but everyone seemed to have their friends to talk to and sit with. I sat down among some unfamiliar faces several times, but they didn’t pay much attention to me.
I hoped somebody would ask me to join one of the committees or to somehow participate and contribute, but no one did.
Finally, because of illness, I missed a meeting. The next month no one asked me where I had been. I guess it didn’t matter very much whether I was there or not. On the next meeting date, I decided to stay home and watch a good television program. When I attended the next meeting, no one asked me where I was the month before.
You might say that I’m a good person, a good worker and I love my community. You know who else I am? I’m the member who never came back.
Let’s all try harder and greet each member, old and new, and make them feel wanted in our chapters.
Warriors in blue I encourage everyone not to forget the members we have. Continue to cultivate new members but please do not forget to embrace the members we already have. Let us work together to make our organization stronger, bigger, and more effective!
V/r
SMSgt Matthew “Mad Dog” Becker
AFSA International Membership (ADHOC) Committee Member
AFSA Division 89 Treasurer
AFSA Chapter 984 President
“Lead Me—Follow Me—or Get Out Of My Way”