Questions to Ask Club Members
For club presidents, officers and organizers who want to hear from the people on the roster, whether out loud at a meeting, in a one-on-one check-in or on a membership survey. The 50 questions follow a member's time in the club: joining, getting to know the group, meetings, events, whether they stay, and what they would take on. Use the first group during a newcomer's first month, and pull a year-end survey from Meetings, Events and Staying or leaving.
Want questions from the whole vault instead? Try the random question generator.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
New members
What made you decide to join?
Why ask it
The first answer is usually the polite one, such as that it sounded fun. Ask what was happening the week they signed up: a friend's invitation, a move, a goal for the year. That is the promise the club made to them, and it is the one to keep.
What do you most want to get out of the club this year?
Why ask it
Answers fall into a few piles: a skill, new people, a line on an application, a standing reason to leave the house. When two piles are about the same size, one meeting format will not serve both, which is worth knowing before you plan the calendar. Put it to returning members every fall too, since last year's answer goes out of date.
How did you first hear about the club?
Why ask it
Keep a tally across a season instead of reading each answer on its own. If nearly everyone came through a friend, word of mouth is doing your recruiting, so make it easy to bring a guest before you print another poster.
What nearly kept you from showing up the first time?
Why ask it
Whatever one new member names here also stopped people you never met. Not knowing anyone, doubting they were good enough and not finding the room all come up, and a line in the invitation can answer each of them.
What was your first meeting like, honestly?
Why ask it
Ask within the first month, while they still remember walking in. Listen for two things: whether anyone spoke to them before the meeting started, and whether they knew what to do with themselves. If neither comes up, assign a greeter.
Was there anything everyone else seemed to know that nobody explained to you?
Why ask it
Expect acronyms, running jokes, where the equipment lives and how dues get paid. Write down each one and you have the draft of a one-page welcome sheet, written by the person who needed it.
Who in the club have you gotten to know so far?
Why ask it
A newcomer who can already name a couple of people has a reason to come back that does not depend on the agenda. If they cannot name anyone, skip the general welcome and introduce them this week to one specific member who shares their interest.
Have you been in a club like this before, and what did that one do well?
Why ask it
These are free ideas from a group that already tried them out. The answer also shows how experienced the person is, which matters when you are deciding who can help the beginners and who is one.
So far, is the club taking more of your time than you expected, or less?
Why ask it
Set their answer beside what the club really asks, events outside meetings included. A gap in either direction is better aired early: someone who planned on an hour a month and is handed six tends to drift off without saying why.
Is there someone you would like to bring along next time?
Why ask it
New members still have friends who have never heard of the club, so this is when an invitation travels furthest. Say yes on the spot and tell them what a guest should expect, which makes it easy to pass on.
Get to know you
What are you into outside of this club?
Why ask it
A roll-call question for the first meeting of a season: it takes ten seconds each and nobody can get it wrong. Jot the answers down, because the member who bakes, codes or plays in a band is someone you will be glad to know about later in the year.
What is a skill you have that the rest of us probably do not know about?
Why ask it
Half icebreaker, half inventory. Somebody in the room can design a flyer, fix a bike, speak a second language or drive the van, and a club can go years without finding out because no one asked.
What would you teach the rest of us if you had five minutes?
Why ask it
Take the best answers literally. A five-minute member lesson at the start of each meeting fills a slot on the agenda and gives a quieter person a reason to stand up once.
What is the best thing that has happened to you since the last meeting?
Why ask it
It holds up as a standing opener because the answer changes every time. Keep it to one sentence each and go in seat order, or the meeting starts twenty minutes late.
If the club took a trip anywhere, where should we go?
Why ask it
Start with no budget so the silly answers come first, then ask for the version you could do on a Saturday. The second round is real planning in disguise.
Which other member have you learned something from?
Why ask it
Keep this for a club that has been meeting for a while, since it needs some shared history. It hands public credit to people who rarely get any, and it shows a newcomer who to go to for help.
What is your favorite memory from the club so far?
Why ask it
Save it for the last meeting of the year or a send-off for departing members. The moments people pick are often not the big official events, which is useful to remember when you draw up the next calendar.
Meetings
Which part of our meetings do you look forward to?
Why ask it
This is the part to protect when time runs short. If the answers are all about the ten minutes before the meeting officially starts, give that time a real place on the agenda.
Which part of a meeting would you shorten or cut?
Why ask it
Announcements and officer reports are frequent answers, and both can move to an email. Saying so out loud takes some nerve, so a slip of paper or a form gets you a straighter reply than a show of hands.
Do the day, time and place still work for you?
Why ask it
Put this to the people who have stopped coming as well, since everyone in the room is someone the schedule already suits. Offer two or three concrete alternatives; an open question about availability returns a different answer from every member.
How long should a meeting be?
Why ask it
Give choices such as 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes and count. Then hold to the result: ending on time, every time, is one of the few promises a club can keep completely.
Do you get a chance to speak when you have something to say?
Why ask it
Compare what the quiet members answer with what the regular talkers answer. If the two groups disagree, try a round where everyone gets one turn before anyone gets a second.
When you miss a meeting, how do you find out what happened?
Why ask it
If the answer is that they do not, one missed meeting becomes two, because coming back uninformed is awkward. A three-line recap sent the same evening is enough.
How would you like to hear from us between meetings, and how often?
Why ask it
List the channels you would really use, such as email, a group chat or a text the day before, and let people pick one. For a school or youth club, ask your advisor which channels you are allowed to use with members before you offer them.
What do you wish we spent more time on?
Why ask it
The replies often point back at the reason people joined: the hobby itself, not the business around it. Put the most-named item first on the next agenda so it cannot be squeezed out.
Is it clear to you how decisions get made in the club?
Why ask it
A no is not a complaint about the decisions, only about being able to see them. Explaining once a year who votes on what costs five minutes and heads off the suspicion that a few people run everything.
Events
Which event or activity this year was your favorite, and why?
Why ask it
The why matters more than the which. Two people can both name the fall cookout, one for the food and one because it was the first time they talked to anyone, and those lead to different plans.
Which event could we drop without you minding?
Why ask it
Traditions can run on habit long after the members who loved them have left. Several people naming the same event gives the officers permission to retire it and spend the hours elsewhere.
What should the club try that we have never done?
Why ask it
Ask for the idea and for whether they would help make it happen. Suggestions with a volunteer attached go on the calendar; the rest go on a list for later.
Would you rather have a few big events or more small ones?
Why ask it
A big event can take the officers weeks to put on, while small ones are easier to host but ask people to turn up more often. If the room splits, alternate, and mark on the calendar which kind each date is.
When you skip an event, what usually gets in the way?
Why ask it
Offer choices: cost, timing, getting there, not knowing who else is going, or simply not interested. The last two are different problems from the first three, and only an honest count tells you which one you have.
Are the dues and event costs manageable for you?
Why ask it
Put this one in an anonymous form or ask it privately, never in front of the group. Before you promise a discount or a waiver, check what your club's rules and any school or parent organization allow, since that varies from one to the next.
What would make you comfortable inviting a friend to our next event?
Why ask it
People invite friends to things they are sure will go well, so hesitation here is a verdict on the event. The fix may be a clearer plan for the evening and not more publicity.
Staying or leaving
What keeps you coming back?
Why ask it
Ask the people who have been around longest, and note whether they name the club's official purpose or the people in it. If it is mostly the people, protect the unstructured time; if it is the activity, protect that from the paperwork.
Has the club turned out to be what you expected?
Why ask it
Three choices work on a form: better, about the same, not what I expected. Follow the last one with an open box, because the gap is often something your sign-up pitch said or left out.
Have you ever thought about leaving, and what was behind it?
Why ask it
A one-on-one question for someone you are on good terms with, and not one for a group. Thank them for the answer without defending the club. Even a reason that has passed tells you what almost cost you a member.
What would make you stop coming?
Why ask it
Easier to answer than it looks, because it is hypothetical. A schedule change or a friend moving away is outside your hands; a meeting that turns into all business, or a clique forming, is not.
Is there anything about the club that makes you feel like an outsider?
Why ask it
Offer it in writing with the option to stay unnamed. If a reply names a particular member's behavior, that calls for a private conversation led by an officer, or by the advisor in a school club, and never an open meeting.
Do you feel heard when you bring something up with the officers?
Why ask it
Officers should not be the ones tallying this if it can be helped; hand the form to an advisor or a member outside the board. A low score often traces to suggestions that vanished without a reply, not to ones that were turned down.
How would you describe the club to a friend who had never heard of it?
Why ask it
You are borrowing the member's words for your next flyer. You are also checking whether their description matches the one on your sign-up table, and when it does not, theirs is the accurate one.
What is one thing we should change before next year?
Why ask it
Limiting it to one forces a ranking. Group the replies into themes, pick the most-named theme that you can act on, and announce the change by name so people can see where it came from.
Overall, how would you rate the club this year, and what is behind your score?
Why ask it
The only rating question a short survey needs, on a five-point scale with a comment box. The number is for comparing this year with next; the comments are where the instructions are.
Is there something you have wanted to tell us and never found the moment for?
Why ask it
Put it last, optional and open. People use it for whatever no other question had a slot for, and now and then for thanks that an officer needed to hear.
Helping out
What would you be willing to help with if it were one small job with an end date?
Why ask it
The words small and end date do the work. People who would never agree to a role will bring the folding tables once, so name the one-off jobs you have instead of making a general call for volunteers.
When you have helped out before, what was that like?
Why ask it
Listen for whether they knew what the job was before they arrived and whether anyone thanked them afterward. A first shift spent standing around unsure can be why a willing member never raises a hand again, and a two-line briefing beforehand fixes it.
How much time could you realistically give in a month?
Why ask it
Offer ranges, starting with an hour or less so that a small answer feels acceptable. Then size your plans to the total and not to what the last board managed.
Would you ever consider an officer role, and what would hold you back?
Why ask it
The hesitation is what whoever recruits the next board needs to hear. When it is fear of the time involved, a written list of what each officer really does in a month answers it better than reassurance.
What event or project would you run yourself if you had two helpers and a small budget?
Why ask it
It turns a suggestion into a proposal with an owner. If the idea is sound, find the two helpers and say yes; a member who has run one thing is a natural candidate for the board later.
Who in the club would make a good leader, and why?
Why ask it
Collect this privately, since it is not a popularity vote. Names that keep recurring belong to people worth a personal invitation, and some of them will be surprised to be asked.
Is there a job you have been doing for the club that you would like to hand off?
Why ask it
For the long-serving members who run the snack table or the mailing list because they always have. Asking gives them a graceful way out and lets you find a replacement before they wear out and leave altogether.
How to ask your members and use what they say
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Four places to ask
Out loud at a meeting
One question per meeting is plenty. The Get to know you group is built for this: read one out, go around the room in seat order and keep each answer to a sentence. Feedback questions asked aloud get the answers people are willing to give in front of the officers, so save anything about cost, cliques or leaving for another setting.
A one-on-one check-in
Five minutes before or after a meeting, with three or four questions and no clipboard. This is the format for new members in their first month and for anyone whose attendance has dropped. Start with what they are enjoying, and ask the harder question second.
A membership survey
Once or twice a year, eight to ten items, open for about a week. Take most of them from Meetings, Events and Staying or leaving, add one from Helping out, and end with the open one about anything they never found the moment to say.
A message to someone who stopped coming
Members who drifted away will not see a form handed out at a meeting. Send them two questions directly: whether the schedule still works, and whether anything about the club pushed them off. Say plainly that there is no pressure to return, because people answer more freely when a reply does not commit them to anything.
Putting a member survey together
Start from what the board can change
Ask about the meeting time only if the time can move, and about dues only if the board is prepared to revisit them. A question about something fixed tells members their answer was collected and then ignored.
Mix quick answers with open ones
Ratings and pick lists are fast to answer and easy to count. Open boxes are where the reasons are. Typing on a phone is a chore, so keep the open boxes to two or three, choose them carefully and make the rest a tap.
Named or anonymous
Anonymous forms tend to get franker answers on cost, belonging and the officers. Named forms let you follow up on an offer to help. One way to have both is an anonymous survey with a separate sign-up sheet for volunteers.
Check the rules above you
A club that sits under a school, a campus office, a national body or a workplace may have rules about what you can ask members, which tools you can use and where the replies are kept. They differ from place to place, so ask your advisor or the sponsoring office how it works there before you send anything, especially if members are under 18.
Paper still works
In a club that meets in person, a half sheet handed out with ten minutes set aside reaches everyone in the room that day. An online form reaches the people who were absent. Using both, with the same wording, covers the roster.
After the answers come in
Report back within a couple of meetings
Read out three things you heard and one thing you are changing because of it. Members who see a result are the ones who fill in the next form. Members who hear nothing conclude it was a formality.
Change one visible thing
A shorter announcements block, a new start time, a greeter at the door. One change that everyone notices does more for trust than a long list of intentions in the minutes.
Do not argue with an answer
When a reply seems unfair, the urge is to explain why things are the way they are. Hold it. Ask one clarifying question, say thank you and take it to the officers. The member told you how the club looks from their chair, which is what you asked for.
Follow up on every offer of help
Anyone who said they would help with something should hear from an officer within the week, with a specific task and a date. An offer that gets no reply is rarely made twice.
Notice who did not answer
The replies come from the people engaged enough to reply. Before you act on the results, look down the roster for who is missing from them and ask a couple of those members directly.