we had a late sign up so it did end up with 6 responses and the great vibe at the club has seen another 10 people come through friends, or walk in or some other way.
so much so that the problem at the moment is volunteer burn out from organising them all! i just had a conversation with Anne @ East Brisbane about it.
This is the outcome:
East Brisbane's Come and Try: 16 People in 6 Weeks
Quick update from the East Brisbane pilot.
East Brisbane started the year with under 30 members. In the past six weeks, 16 people have gone through Come and Try. The committee has acknowledged the highest membership growth the club has seen in memory.
If the ratae holds, we could be looking at a 50% increase in membership within a quarter. From a club that was under 30.
This is working. Here's what we've learned so far.
What's actually working
Four-person groups are the sweet spot. Two volunteers on court, four participants. The dynamic is perfect for teaching, playing, and social connection. When they play their six hoops together, it just clicks.
Sessions run closer to 2 hours than the planned 1 hour. People don't want to leave the court. That's a good problem.
Nobody blinks at $300 membership. Multiple participants have asked about membership cost unprompted, mid-session. No one has hesitated at the price. The "will they pay?" concern that most of us have had turns out to be a non-issue.
The little touches matter. Mineral water, cheese platters, strawberries at 4:30pm. These aren't compulsory, but at East Brisbane they're doing serious conversion work. They signal that this is a club worth joining. Your club's version of this might be different, but the principle is the same: make people feel welcome from the first visit.
Friend groups convert fast. A disbanded tennis group came through a book club connection. They arrived as friends, had a ball together, and are all coming back. If you can get one person from a social group, you can often get the whole group.
You don't need to separate beginners by week. Week 1 and week 2 participants can mix without any issues. The content is flexible enough to handle different skill levels in the same session. This simplifies things enormously.
The good problems
Here's where it gets honest. The Come and Try format works. What doesn't work is trying to be too flexible with scheduling.
East Brisbane was offering sessions across Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons and trying to accommodate every individual's availability. The result: constant back-and-forth messaging about cancellations and rescheduling. One person's at a 70th birthday. Another's got a son visiting from interstate. Another's sick. None of it is lack of interest. It's just normal retiree life.
But all that individual organising was burning out the volunteer running it. She's the one handling every text, every email, every rearrangement. That's not sustainable, and it's not something we'd want to replicate at other clubs.
What we've changed:
- Set your Come and Try times and stick to them. Pick two times a week that work for your club (e.g. Wednesday morning and Sunday afternoon). Participants come to those times. You wouldn't move club day because someone's busy. Same principle.
- If someone cancels, the first option is always another existing session. Can't make Wednesday? Come Sunday. Or next Wednesday. No custom sessions created for individuals.
- Make exceptions sparingly, not as the default. If someone is genuinely exceptional and just can't do the set times, fine, make it work. But 75% or more of people should just come to the allotted times.
- Fast-track naturals straight to club day. Some people just get it on the first session. For those people, skip session two and invite them to play on a regular club day. Tell them they're ready. They belong.
- Club day itself is a backstop. If someone keeps missing Come and Try sessions, offer them a club day instead. Treat it as an orientation within a regular game.
These are all simple changes. They don't require any technology or extra volunteers. They just require being a bit less flexible on an individual level so you can be more sustainable overall.
Something we didn't expect: the indirect flyer effect
Six people came directly from flyer distribution. That's great on its own. But the bigger effect is what the flyers did to the club's confidence.
Because there's now a visible structure for handling new people, existing members feel comfortable inviting their own friends. The attitude shifted from "I'm not sure we can handle newcomers" to "this is all just great fun, come along."
The flyers work as direct advertising and as an enabler for word-of-mouth. That second effect might actually be more valuable.
What this means for your club
You don't need 16 people at once. East Brisbane's volume has been happily high. But the core approach works at any scale:
- Have two set times a week for Come and Try
- Organise two volunteers on court
- Play in groups of four
- Make it enjoyable (tea, cake, whatever suits your club)
- Don't chase people who cancel. Just have the sessions there for when they can make it
- If someone's ready, get them to club day. Don't hold them in the Come and Try process longer than they need
I'm meeting with Toombul and McIlwraith next week, Burleigh after that, and exploring Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba. The goal is one club running this in each region within a month or so so everyone has a nearby example to look at.
If your club is interested in trying this, let your regional rep know. We're not asking you to change how you run your club. We're offering to help you get more people to become members.
This post was made using the transcript of Anne and my conversation with the assistance of custom AI models Gemini Pro 3.0 and Claude Opus 3.6. Wade has proof read the summary and it is a true reflection of the conversation.
