How well are we doing with retention of new clubs?  I looked at clubs that chartered in the 2007-08 year (two years ago) three different ways, by club type, open/group-specific, and whether they were advanced.  (Every Toastmasters club has these three different characteristics; yes, you can have a “company open” club, or a “community group-specific” club.)

Of those clubs chartered two years ago, as of last month, we had lost 20% of the nearly-1000 new clubs (how does that compare to your district?).  Out of that, we lost 27% of the company clubs, but just 10% of the community clubs.

Looking at the same clubs a different way, we lost 23% of the group-specific clubs (i.e., closed, or organization-aligned), while we lost just 14% of the open (typically community, but not always) clubs.

Out of 37 advanced clubs chartered that year, we’ve lost just one, 2.7% (it was in Taiwan).

Conclusion:  It does appear that closed/company/group-specific clubs are much harder to retain, perhaps 2-3 times higher failure rate, over that first two years, which is the hardest time for a club.  Club mentors are so important (though I don’t have data to prove that).

Club type          Lost Total  Percent
Company             148   558   26.52%
Community            34   325   10.46%
College               6    33   18.18%
Other/Specialized     3    24   12.50%
Govt Agency           3    32    9.38%
Correctional Inst     1     5   20.00%
Military              1     3   33.33%
Church                1     5   20.00%

Open/group specific
Group Specific      149   652   22.85%
Open                 47   332   14.16%

Advanced
N                   195   946   20.61%
Y                     1    37    2.70%