Membership Toolkit

About this Membership Toolkit

This toolkit is intended for use by leaders at CCAE Section and Chapter levels. It is a collection of ideas for strengthening membership growth, including a description of practices found to be helpful as well as sample documents (flyers, etc.) for use in promoting CCAE membership.

Section and Chapter leaders, as you develop additional tools and practices, please share them for inclusion in this toolkit.

Membership Toolkit FAQs

What are some strategies for recruiting new members?

These are strategies leaders of CCAE chapters and sections have used to make CCAE visible and encourage others to join.

Through CCAE meetings:

Beginning of the year CCAE meeting on campus with free lunch to talk about CCAE and membership.
$5 Starbucks gift cards to new members and to members joining chapter or section meetings for the first time.
If a chapter has 100% meeting representation (at least one person in attendance at each Section monthly meeting) for the entire year, the chapter receives $250. In the past, it was our way of giving back to the chapters to increase their funding source to enhance membership.
Hold 4 meetings a year, lunch is provided (incentive to join).
Presentation to show the benefits of joining CCAE.
Promote membership at section conferences, table, provide swag, etc.

Through non-CCAE meetings:

Introducing CCAE at the consortium level - Across California, adult school and community college leaders meet regularly in CAEP planning consortia. This could be one venue for reaching out to leaders of adult schools that do not have an active CCAE presence. Especially if your consortium participation is majority adult school, consider getting on their agenda to make a presentation about CCAE and the benefits of membership.
Introducing CCAE membership and benefits at staff meetings or other meetings - Some school leaders put CCAE on the agenda for back-to-school or other staff meetings. Ask yours to do this, and make a presentation to your colleagues.
Zoom Room Social Event - Reach out to Section-wide adult schools who were not actively participating in CCAE. Invite to create a chapter. Provide free registration to the section conference.

Outreach & Perks - Perks for members or others can be material incentives to join CCAE, or they can serve to make CCAE visible within your school. Some ideas:

Offering opportunity drawings/prizes.
Offering some kind of breakfast/lunch/snack once a month for all members in CCAE on campus.
“Fun Fridays” - Surprise Snacks in the Staff Lounge, provided by chapter.
CCAE chapter-sponsored refreshments for the Back to School meeting.
Members have the opportunity to attend section and state conferences.
If you hold a section conference, provide discounted registration for CCAE members.

Other Activities:

Section/Chapter-wide social events. Invite all to attend! For example….

Northern Section’s trips to see the Kings games
Bay Section's “Day at the Races” - a booth at the horse race track

Fundraisers can make CCAE visible and show that we do meaningful work. See "What are some good fundraising ideas?"
Add CCAE to your school websites as a community partner. Spelling out how CCAE contributes to the school community helps others recognize the value of CCAE membership. Explain that CCAE membership is open to all in the broader community who wish to make these kinds of contributions.
SWAG -- Chapters/Sections purchase CCAE branded items to sell or give away (CCAE branded hand sanitizer, lunch bags, pens, notepads with section leaders’ names, Frisbees, stress balls, etc.). These increase the visibility of CCAE.

What documents help explain why to join ccae? (Why would you join CCAE?)

General Membership Poster
Fingertip Facts - a small flyer giving thumbnail info about CCAE and adult education in California
These promotional flyers are seasonally themed invitations to join CCAE:

All can be found in the Membership Toolkit

Are there flyers I can edit and use?

The Membership Toolkit has images of posters and flyers that are not intended to be edited. The rationale for this is to maintain a consistent look to CCAE branding. However, you are encouraged to append to these images and customize information specific to your chapter/section activities. We also have image files of the CCAE logo you may download and use in creating your own CCAE promotional materials.

If you come up with something cool, please share it! Pass it on to your Section membership leader.

Are there resources targeting classified staff for membership?

We don’t have brochures or posters targeting classified staff. If you develop some, please share them! Send them to your Section’s membership leader.

Some CCAE leaders have found classified staff very responsive to one-on-one conversations about CCAE’s purpose and activities.

Some have offered new classified staff members incentives of gift cards valued at $30 - the cost of annual membership.

State and section conferences can be more valuable to classified staff if the conferences include a strand of workshops targeting classified staff interests. Your recommending topics and presenters to conference planners can help increase the value of CCAE to our wonderful classified staff.

How do we include students in CCAE membership?

Awarding these memberships to students can get them started in their relationship to CCAE. Consider the following ideas:

Promote student leadership. For example, Clovis Adult is offering a student leadership class this term, where students can earn elective credits toward their high school diploma.
Student advocacy in adult education. For example, promote active student participation on the Leg Day.
Professional development workshops. For example, public speaking, team building, etc.
Scholarships to support CE programs and post-secondary education.
Platinum Institutional Membership provides 15 student memberships. (Standard Institutional Membership includes no student memberships.
Invite students to CCAE meetings at the Chapter/Section level and have those students share out to others on campus.

What are best practices for retaining members?

Supporting member participation in presentations
Targeting best practices in teaching and learning
Fun and educational activities at the same time
Opportunities to attend CCAE conferences

WHAT ARE some good fundraising ideas?

CCAE chapters and sections raise funds to use for scholarships and for supporting the general work of the organization:

Scholarships for students to further their education & training
Scholarships for students to participate in section and state conferences
Scholarships for adult school staff to participate in conferences or other professional growth activities
Travel expenses for state board meetings
Travel expenses for participation in Legislative Action Days in Sacramento.

You can think about fundraising activities using these two dimensions:
How easy is it? (easy or hard to do)
How lucrative is it? (small or big payoff)

Here are a number of fundraising ideas based on the above questions:
Easy, Big Payoff

50/50 drawings
Snack Shack
Snack sales in the main office
Pop-ups on campus
Restaurant Pre-Order Events

Hard, Big Payoff

Silent Auctions
Yard Sales
Turkey give-a-ways (Staff donate turkeys and opportunity drawing tickets sell for .50 cents.)

Easy, Small Payoff

Food trucks

Hard, Small Payoff

Movie night on campus (sell pizza, popcorn, entrance fee, etc.)
Sell school spirit gear (shirts, keychains, bags, etc.)
Opportunity drawings (gift cards, themed baskets)
Local food places to sponsored dinner night, returning a percentage of proceeds back to CCAE
Donations (i.e.: students who started in ESL but have since moved to HS diploma, CTE programs, or college donate to CCAE for scholarships for current ESL students)
Notebook kit sales - notebook, pen, pencil, eraser
Pop-up sales (i.e.: avocados, lemons, used books) - 100% profit when we own/make product ourselves, such as owning a fruit tree or a robust library
Candy grams - can be holiday-themed
Social events with different consortium members such as bowling tournaments
Costume race
Barbecue plate
Team building and promoting activities such as painting
Karaoke evening