After spending years as a Board member of our CT, I decided to take a break and have taken on the head of our membership committee instead. The last membership chair was nice, but a bit ineffectual and our memberships have dropped to pretty dismal levels. I have been going through the process of updated our (out of date) database and have begun to send out membership renewal letters to long lapsed members. I have to admit, there hasn't been much return.
So, I'm attempting to figure out what we've been doing wrong. What have our members gotten in return for their membership? We don't give out free tickets to opening nights like some. Nope. They get a newsletter emailed to them every month and the satisfaction that they've supported their community theatre for a year. Well, that just doesn't seem like enough to me. There are some people who would love to do theatre, but can't because their lives are way too busy. It's these people I think we've lost and these people I'd like to concentrate on.
For the past 6 months I've been trying to stretch our wings a bit. We've had a karaoke/membership drive party that turned out pretty well. We charged members $5, lapsed members got it free if they re-upped —  (* I learned a lot that night and am looking forward to the improvements when we do it again this year).
We celebrated National Poetry Month by hosting a night of poetry (ditto the *). — And now I'm kicking around the idea of hosting a Radio Theatre Night. All of these things are fun and for the most part, free activities that don't require a lot of time but still allow some of our busier members the opportunity to perform. I'm hoping for the best. If any of you have any ideas, please respond. It takes a theatre community to raise a community theatre and I need all the help I can get!

Well, there are tons of old radio programs that are public domain. (Go to www.genericradio.com) Everything from Abbot and Costello to The Shadow. I was thinking it would fun to put on an old radio show, announcer, commercials and all. We could use a lot of different members or not. The best thing about it is everyone would be able to hold scripts and one or two men would be able to do several male roles if needed. I was also considering putting the sound person stage left and playing around with using the wrong sounds on purpose, etc. Still just kicking it around...
I know there's an award winning theatre in New York that does original stuff, strangely enough called Radio Theatre.

I think you have some really good ideas and would love our theater to do something of that nature. Some incentive beyond the early bird ticket price for being a member.

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply. My dad used to talk about the old radio programs, now I listen to them on satellite. I'm really looking forward to trying this. I guess I'd better start finalizing things and writing out a proposal. I'll let you know how it goes if I get a date. Till then, check out this website http://www.radiotheatrenyc.com/reviews.html. This guy does all original stuff. Of course we're not about to write our own scores .... but I'd love to catch this if I'm ever in NYC!

How much do you charge for membership?