New Member Program Suggestions:
· Caravan to Younger Grades and to the Confirmation Class
· Sponsor an event for younger grades or the Confimation Class
· Speak to your religious school director about running a program during religious school to acquaint potential members with the kind of programming done in your youth group.
· Fall or Spring Open House
· Make time to visit your junior youth group, religious school classes, and the confirmation class to share what it means to be a member of the youth group and information about upcoming events
· Offer food in all presentations to potential members and make it casual and fun
· Teaching Sessions for New Members
· Combine a TYG event with a JYG event (or invite 8th graders to the final event of the year). Most of your potential members won’t understand how great your TYG can be unless you integrate them into your TYG community.
Have a meeting to teach new members to become familiar with the culture of your youth group:
· Music sung during song sessions
· Dance moves that go with particular songs
· The NFTY Cheer
· Blessings before and after the meal
· Israeli Dances
Hold Programs Specifically for New Members Only (especially effective if you make this an annual event)
Have an event just for the incoming 9th graders and new members from older grades run by the TYG board and 12th graders. This will provide an opportunity for the new members to meet and become familiar with the leaders and veterans of the TYG, and less intimidated about meeting new people. It can also provide the board and veterans with an opportunity to learn the names and something about the new members and ways to accommodate their needs.
Shopping Mall Scavenger Hunt
Map out a series of clues that require teams to search for specific items that can be found in stores in your local shopping mall.
Divide participants into teams (be sure to have a mix of ages on each team)
Give each team a disposable camera (or digital camera if enough participants and board members are willing to use theirs)
For each item that the team has to find, instead of having them buy it, they need to have someone take a picture of their entire team holding the item
Be sure that everyone is familiar with the location and the boundaries
Do not ask participant to “find” anything obscene or that they may have difficulty finding
Make sure there is someone in a central location in case a team has a question or requires help.
The first group to complete the scavenger hunt and have their film developed at the local one-hour photo store wins!
Social Action Programming
People always feel good about being involved when they are doing something that helps others:
· Help out at your local soup kitchen or food pantry
· Visit your local nursing home
· Offer to help around the Temple – is there an upcoming event that requires extra hands? Can the youth group help beautify the temple grounds by planting or cleaning them up?
*It may be as simple as having mixers at the beginning of each event, you need to make sure that the new members are meeting people and are a part of the community.
