Not sure how easy it would be to implement, but I believe we collect e-mail addresses from members when they join; how about a friendly reminder e-mail when their membership lapses? Say, a month or so after the quarter when their membership ends, a quick e-mail to say 'hey, we noticed you're membership has lapsed; it may have slipped your mind but we miss you! BTW, here are all the great benefits from being in the club, etc. etc.'. Something like that might be just the thing that someone needs who is on the fence about renewing their membership.

You could also do semi-annual or annual e-mails thereafter (a blast to all the memberships which had lapsed in a given quarter the year before), something quick and simple that says 'we haven't forgotten about you; we miss you, and are here if your circumstances change and want to come back'. Obviously you'd want to have an 'unsubscribe' if someone truly wasn't interested and didn't want to receive the e-mails, but other than that it might not take all that much effort to implement and manage (though I'm obviously not speaking from experience, so could be wrong). I know that I haven't been dues-paying member of Mensa for more than 5 years (the local chapter here didn't have much going on, and for $65 a year for a magazine that I didn't read it wasn't worth it to me), but I still get the occasional e-mail (1 or 2 a year) from them that lately has me saying "huh, maybe I should give them another try".

As far as the goes, I left the club for several years as my own protest the last time dues were raised and there was no grandfather provision for those wishing to become life members at the old dues structure (as there was no constitutional provision for such at the time). I pouted for a time, then eventually decided that I was just being a baby, and so decided to come back (as well as some help from a great Membership Officer ). However, an e-mail or two while I was gone reminding me that I was welcome back at any time (although I always knew that to be the case), might have been the push I needed to come back sooner.

Just my $0.02

Brent J. Jensen
R-8007
orbis non sufficit