Here in the Rocky Mountain West, SPJ recently hosted a spring regional conference that I believe could serve as a template for any region seeking to increase the size of its membership.

Dubbed “Brave New World”, our conference provided one day of training on the skills that journalists will need to work in a profession that is swiftly and inexorably moving online.

Thus we arranged a lineup of speakers who talked about how to do video and audio versions of a story and how writing breaking news for the web is different than the traditional model of writing a story for the print newspaper.

We were especially fortunate to book former New York Times reporter Sarah Boxer, who gave a brilliant funny and insightful keynote speech on the intersection between journalism and blogging. Sarah set the tone for what turned out to be a memorable day of conversation, questions and learning.

We made sure to include some discussion on fundamental topics such as the relationship between editors and reporters. We also held day-long sessions in which professionals critiqued the resumes and clips of young journalist.

We also were careful this year to spend as much if not more time publicizing our seminar as we did on booking our speakers.

The end result was this: more than 90 people came to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Co. from as far away as Utah and Wyoming. It was a true regional gathering.

But here is the key to our event. We decided to raise membership rather than funds.

Thanks to our partnership with the CSU chapter of SPJ, we were able to have free use of the student center chambers for the day. Our only major expense was lunch, which cost us about $17 per person.

We pegged the price of the conference to a one-year membership. Students who joined SPJ that day paid $53 while non-member professionals paid $89. Members paid $30.

By applying our $17 in local dues toward the price of lunch, we essential were able to allocate the rest of the proceeds to purchasing memberships.

Thus we were able to end the day with a candlelight initiation ceremony when we welcomed 48 new members for the Utah, Wyoming and Colorado chapters.

Two years ago, our chapter staged a successful regional conference in Denver which generated about $1,000 in profits. We were happy for the financial windfall.

But given a choice, I’d much rather have a chapter rich in members than one flush with money.

Our challenge in the year ahead will be to make SPJ as relevant as possible to these new members and to work on retaining as many as possible. But in the meantime, our chapter is growing at a rate we’ve never before experienced.

It is my belief that what happened in Fort Collins that fine spring day is something that can be in any chapter in the country. By tapping into this genuine hunger for training we can initiate a whole new generation of SPJ members.

SPJ by the numbers

Membership this week            9,306

Membership one month ago   9,288

Membership one year ago       8,871

The Gardener has been on spring break for a few weeks. I’ve been tending to some big events in Colorado, including SPJ Region 9′s Spring Conference.

The conference, titled “Brave New World” drew more than 90 journalists to Fort Collins, Colo. from as far away as Wyoming and Utah. Because we pegged the price of the conference to an amount equal to one year’s dues, we were able to add 48 new members to SPJ in a single day.

Meanwhile, I was delighted to take in a bumper crop of new ideas for growing our membership. Keep those suggestions coming. They’ve been wonderful. Later this week, I will ask the SPJ membership committee to help me pick the best, most original idea and we’ll send out that $25 Starbucks gift card to the winner.

First, here are a few suggested by members of the membership committee:

SPJ Bistro

Offer practical and focused workshops, similar to those being offered by the NYC-based group Media Bistro, which does an excellent job convening journalists in several large urban areas. SPJ has the advantage of having members in areas of the country where Media Bistro traditionally has not reached. We should offer similar programs in these areas.

In Your Facebook

Take advantage of the trend toward online social networking and establish an SPJ Facebook site where members can exchange ideas and helpful information.

And here are just a few of the creative ideas suggested by SPJ members:

SPARTANS, PREPARE TO JOIN

Bringing to mind “The 300″ movie, SPJ could use this motif for ads to
hammer home the point that we’re the largest journalism organization in
the nation and we’re shooting for a membership 10,000 strong. Suggest
strength and dedication, even against great odds.

Graphics could be photos of groups of journalists (and SPJ members) in
newsrooms all over the country. The larger the group the better. SPJ
could put out the word that we’re looking for group shots of SPJ members
in newsrooms and broadcast studios and colleges all across the country
to feature in our ads.

I COVER THE WATERFRONT

Create ads that highlight major stories that a member has covered. For example, feature someone who has been in the middle of covering Hurricane Katrina or the polygamist ranch raid in Texas or a four-alarm fire in their hometown.

It could end with some catchy slogan like “Be proud to be a journalist. Join SPJ”

WHO’S YOUR MENTOR?

Identify journalism students about to graduate and set them up with a working journalist as a mentor. Using e-mail the mentor and grad could communicate about internships, getting that first job, feedback on stories or other questions. The graduates could be encouraged to come to SPJ events where they would already know someone — their mentor.

SPJ-TUBE.

These days everyone is turning to multi-media platforms, so why not put some videos together and create an SPJ profile on You Tube?

A video could be placed on the SPJ site as well or on other sites. It could have testimonials from various members talking about why the joined SPJ/what they got out of it. Maybe you can even get each chapter to submit videos/pictures from their local SPJ events and you can put it together in a montage of sorts with the testimonials.

Or you could even hold a small contest for people to put together an inspirational video that gets the word out about SPJ. And see who does the best job.

A JAVA JOLT

The hardest thing for any organization to do is to actually get their members out to the regular meetings. They pay for it, but they still don’t go!

But as the SPJ Member Resources email said, we’ll do anything for coffee, right? So why not hold chapter meetings in places that donate good coffee at the meeting in exchange for an ad on the chapter’s homepage? If a cup of good coffee averages $3 these days, then monthly attendance would save $36 in coffee, and since dues are $72, that’s a 50% savings! Wow! Nice piece of math, eh?

AN SPJ DRIVE PERK

Why not offer free licence plate holders to members who renew within a certain timeframe or for new members who sign up for two years initially?

GO WHERE THE MEMBERS ARE

If new members won’t come to the organization, take the organization to them. Many small towns and rural areas have no members because of the distance to the nearest active chapter. The nearest chapter could schedule a membership meeting in the target area, inviting local media members to attend. At the meeting they could describe the role of SPJ, including a slide show, and describe the kinds of activities they have been involved with. The meeting would close with an invitation for new members to enroll and an offer of further assistance to help get the new chapter on its feet.

SPJ CERTIFIED

Certify publications whose newsrooms achieve a high percentage of membership, say 70 percent or more, with an official designation such as SPJ CERTIFIED. This status could be awarded in the form of a plaque or certificate, as was as a listing on a special SPJ web page of hyperlinks for all CERTIFIED publications with a public notation of their membership percentage..

FREE MEMBERSHIPS

Several members suggested giving journalism post-graduates one year of free membership. The Gardener is less than keen on this idea for the following reason.

We currently have a very good deal on post-graduate members which enables them to get one year free if they pay for two years at the rate of $36-per-year.

This incentive seems to be working. Post-grads are among the fastest-growing sector of SPJ membership, with a total of 674, a nearly 22 percent gain over the previous year.

The Gardener wishes to thank all of you who took the time to e-mail me your thoughtful suggestions.

SPJ by the numbers

Membership this week            9,216

Membership one month ago   9,212

Membership one year ago       8, 801