Joining the Labour Party changed my life. Just because this is a cliché doesn t mean that it is not true. When I filled in the form in a pub in Brighton in 1991 I could never have known that, because I was a member, I would be part of every significant political event in our country in the eleven years that have followed. Our defeat in 1992, Tony Blair becoming leader, building up our party to win two successive election victories I was there, I was part of it, and I made a difference.
And that s why we all joined to make a difference. Research into why people join the party reaffirms this. The single overriding factor in motivating members to join is because they share our values. It is not because it is easy or cheap but because they believe in our core values of social justice and equality and want to put those values into action. Members want a party which gives them the opportunity to meet other people like them and to help shape its policies; some want to stand for elected office; all want to feel closer, more informed about the political party they actively support.
This is what we need to deliver. In the eleven years since I first joined we have changed our party. We have more members, we are much more diverse, we are younger, we are more representative of the communities we serve the long journey we took from opposition to government has transformed our politics but we still have much, much more to do. As John Reid said at conference, we are a movement, not a monument and renewing our party is integral to keeping our government strong.
Bringing new people into the party and keeping our existing members activated and involved are vital political tasks. Too often we consider party policy or political debate to be somehow more important or significant than sustaining the party itself. Membership remains as much a political priority for our party now as it has for any time in our history.
The challenge we face is twofold. We must bring more people into our party but equally improve the experience of those who are already involved. There are key membership trends which we need to understand but the good news is that by taking simple but significant steps together we can make the difference to our party s future.
So what are the next steps? The key to getting people to join is to ask them! This really means being an active advocate of your membership experience. Our values are the dominant political values in the country at this moment our task therefore is to demonstrate that, if you are committed to generating change in your community, Labour Party membership is the best way to do this. It is about having the courage to initiate that discussion. It is about understanding that putting a form through a Labour door is not enough. We have to be prepared to have a political conversation about our own experience of being involved with Labour the difference it has made to our lives and the benefits we have gained from it.
Our research also shows that members are unlikely to join the first time that they are asked; in fact, on average, we have to ask three times before converting a supporter into a member. This means that we have to integrate membership into everything that we do every piece of literature we produce, every electoral activity we undertake, we have to reinforce the message that new members are always welcome to join. Elected representatives have a huge role to play in this: if an MP or a councillor or other senior political figures in a local community take the time to do membership work they will have a positive impact on the number of people likely to join or get involved.
The new membership rates introduced at our recent conference means that membership costs £2 a month this is not a large amount of money if every member has a good experience of party membership and that s what we have to deliver.
How do we achieve this? Communication is vital. We become members because we want to feel closer to the party whose values we share. We want to know more about Labour than the average member of the public. The national party strives to keep members better informed. The introduction of regular e-mail communications is one aspect of this, as is the members area of the website. The members area contains briefings and campaigning materials that are updated on a weekly basis.
But it s not just about national information. Members want high-quality communication about their area from their local parties and representatives. This is not insignificant. One of the main reasons that people give when choosing not to renew their membership is that nobody locally had been in touch.
Getting the welcome right is also vital and we only have one chance to make a first impression. If we can welcome people properly, are enthusiastic about them joining and describe a range of ways that they can make a contribution, we are more likely to keep them involved into the long term.
At a national level, we provide a membership card, a welcome pack and a welcome telephone call thanking our new members for joining. Locally we provide lists of new members to local officers and ask them to ensure that everybody is contacted and asked to get involved. A significant development is the establishment of a national network of membership mentors people committed to improving new members experience who call or visit them to ensure that they have a positive experience of joining.
Members are most likely to leave in their first year of membership. Improving the quality of the welcome a member receives is a key part of any retention strategy, as is ensuring that, where they can, all members pay by direct debit. Currently over 50 percent of all members pay this way but over 95 percent of our members have bank accounts. Increasing the numbers who pay by direct debit is a small but significant way of keeping members involved. A recent competition to encourage local parties to switch members to direct debit created some excellent results. Competition winners Middlesborough switched 67 members 30 percent of their total membership to direct debit, proving what can be done when we try.
Politically, membership has never left the party s agenda. Modernisers acknowledged a generation ago that only a strong, representative party could deliver a strong, representative government. Our commitment should not falter. Simple but effective membership work can ensure that our party can grow and sustain our government into the future.