Hey there Fellow MVP’s!
My name is Robbie Heeger, I am your regional membership super center, and I couldn’t be more excited. The specific creation of the regional board is to be a resource for you, the regional TYG. My job is to be your number one youth advisor to all things pertinent to membership, so that means FEEL FREE to hit me up with an email, phone call, or even cup of coffee if you want. I am more than happy to drive or to meet you somewhere and have a hot cup of joe and talk about life, liberty and of course, the pursuit of members.
I am 16 years old, but not for much longer. I live in Palo Alto, California, and I regularly attend the fine establishment called Palo Alto High School.
I am a senior and aside from NFTY and going to my own TYG events, I play baseball, play Guitar, love all music, and like any other typical high school-er, I love video games. From Dave Matthews concerts, to SAT tutors, to In-n-out, to high school football games, I am what they call a stereotypical senior. I am compelled by the world of television and entertainment, I make 24 my second religion come January, and I devote far to many hours to Facebook. Most importantly, I am a pirate, because quite frankly they do what ninjas can on water and as everyone knows, putting something on water makes it infinitely harder to accomplish.
Leaving that aside, lets get to the nitty-gritty, Membership. I am a firm believer that membership can always go up. We at NFTY Central West had struggled in the past to get our faithful members to pay dues, and after a promising year last year, I look forward to more of the same record membership growth. But there would be no collection of dues without the initial recruitment of the members themselves. Let me fill you in on my philosophy for membership. The key to membership growth is not the mindless filling of events with as many members as possible, but rather the premeditated filling of events with as many people as possible. This however does not encompass all that is membership. The key to the premeditated mass gathering is that no one person is left “untouched.” -- Enter the Membership Vice Presidents. Where we really work our magic is in the one on one confrontation with each of the new members. It is affiliating them with a larger sense of being and showing them that even though there are countless others in the room, they are the only ones on our mind that will bring them back time and time again. To connect them with tangible and memorable experiences is to envelop them in a community that they will forever feel a part of.
Indeed, this is a mouthful, but look deep inside this section you will find that those before you have come up with many devious little tricks to making the philosophy reality. There is an old Camp Newman shirt that reads “Camp is life, the rest is just details,” make the members a part of NFTY life, and you will find that the rest is just minor details.
Sincerely,
Robbie Heeger
Membership Vic President, 5768
NFTY Central West
CWR-MVP@nfty.org
