Retention of X kind of members

[Dionysus]

I don't know what specific forum belongs to because this doesn't only pertain to my chapter; it also pertains to other organizations that I am in at school.

It's safe to say that we have trouble retaining members that are different from the majority in most of my organizations.

For example, we have a lot of trouble retaining minority, homosexual, Christian (except for the Christian org I'm in of course), non-traditional college age students, and students who live off of campus. One of my organizations if predominately female, we cannot keep males for the life of us. Whenever we have info booths, rush, and info meetings we get tons of those kinds of students. But after that, they start dropping like flies.

I know the first question will be "How are you guys treating them?" The answer is not bad at all, but it can be better. I do see some segregation, but everyone does respect each other, no doubt. I know some will also say that having a diverse org is impossible. I don't really believe that because, I've seen it and been in a few before. Does anyone have any advice on how we can solve this?

[Taualumna]

If you want to get guys into predominantly female orgs, then maybe the guys who are there can try to promote themselves to their friends. Same for minorities. I'd like to site Girl Guides of Canada as a prime example. 25 years ago, it would be difficult to find a minority girl involved in Guides at any level, from Brownies to the "Senior Branches" (Sparks, which is the group for girls before they move up to Brownies, didn't exist until the late 80s). With the help of good publicity, things will slowly change. It will take some time, however.