We Win! Encourage Election Participation with Chapter Contests

Who doesn’t like healthy competition? Countless studies have been done on the positive role competition can play when trying to motivate people. Member-based organizations can capitalize on this when trying to encourage election participation by adding a little competition to their voting processes.

One way to motivate groups of members to get to the polls is through chapter contests. In a chapter contest, chapters, regions, subsections, etc. compete to see who can get the highest percentage of members participating in the election.

Chapter contests are a great way to encourage member participation. We advocate the use of chapter contests because we’ve seen them work.

Here are some of the benefits:

• Team building. Contests build a team atmosphere, promote engagement and create familiarity across areas of the organization that may have otherwise been unfamiliar.
• Leveraging subgroup leaders. Chapter presidents (or similar leaders) take on the role of motivator-in-chief to get out the vote. This has the added benefit of taking some of the election promotion duty off the central (or national) office and spreading the responsibility of improving response across the organization.
• Keeping members’ attention. We facilitate such contests by providing up-to-date, accurate reporting at key moments during the competition. This is important so each “team” can see how they’re stacking up against their “rivals” and if they need to rally more colleagues to get out and vote to win!

Remember to always check your organization’s bylaws to ensure contests are permissible.

For more successful strategies and tactics to encourage member participation in elections, get our free e-book here.