Cardonald Bowling Club attract 100+ new members
Cardonald Bowling Club in the south side of Glasgow has been working hard during the winter months and beginning of the 2025 season to dedicate time, resources and volunteers to help attract a surge of new members to their club.
The Try Bowls registered club recently held two separate ‘Come and Try Bowls’ events on Sunday 27th April and Tuesday 29th April, to help kickstart their season and welcome the local community along to their impressive double-green and modern clubhouse facilities. Both events were free to attend, all equipment and coaching was provided, and a special introductory offer of £60 membership for the first year for adults and free membership for under 18’s was used to incentivise newcomers to join the club.
Situated at the heart of several housing blocks and nearby primary school, Cardonald Bowling Club made the most of their prime location by distributing 5,000 printed leaflets to local residents and published their flyer on various community Facebook groups. Through their countless hours of work and planning, an astounding 400 people attended the club over their two separate Try Bowls days.
Keen to share Cardonald’s experience with other bowling clubs throughout Scotland, we spoke to the club’s Try Bowls Co-Ordinator Andy Weir, to find out more about their membership recruitment journey so far. Find the full Q&A below:
Q1. Why did Cardonald BC want to host a Try Bowls Day in the first place?
AW: “We have seen a gradual slow decline in our membership over the past 10 years and as a club with two greens and a big facility, we needed to address the decline for the benefit of our current and future membership. We would like to see a surge of new people take up the sport by learning at our club, so we felt we had to make an accessible, open and free event for the local community to come along and try it.
“We are offering a drastically reduced first year membership fee (approx. 25% of our normal full member fee), a second year reduced rate (approx. 60% of our full fee), with the intention that anyone continuing into a third year, and beyond, would then be on full fees. These changes and this event naturally required the support of our membership via the AGM held in February.”
Q2. How did the club promote the event to the local community?
AW: “We designed our own poster, had 5,000 glossy flyers printed and some of our members distributed them within the local area. We also shared the digital poster on local community Facebook groups via our club Facebook page and put up flyers in some local shops.”
Q3. What did the event look like on the day?
AW: “We held two open days, a Sunday daytime and Tuesday evening. This was to ensure that those that couldn't attend the weekend date could perhaps make the midweek date.
“We had a team of existing members available on both dates to give club tours, discuss our Try Bowls membership offer, take them onto the green for basic and fun coaching and finally inviting them into the club for a hot drink and some food the club had laid on free of charge.
“Attendees were provided with an information sheet which included the Try Bowls membership offer and key contact details. We also ensured we obtained the contact details of as many attendees as we could. Try Bowls membership forms were also available for those that wished to sign up on the day.
“The weather was excellent for most of the two events so that helped encourage a lot of people to come along.”
Q4. How many people attended the Try Bowls Days? Has there been much uptake in membership applications?
AW: “We estimate between adults, children and local school and girl guide groups, we had 350-400 people through the gate over the two open days.
“We are delighted that 118 adults took up our offer and are now club members. This does not include the under 18’s, to which we offered free membership and they are now attending dedicated junior coaching sessions midweek and Saturday mornings. We estimate around 20 new under 18’s are attending.”
Q5. What is the plan now to support these new members taking up a new sport?
AW: “We are starting free coaching sessions for our new members this week and will be offering these on an ongoing basis for as long as we feel necessary.
“We will be hosting 'novice' competitions during the season and some of these will allow our new members to integrate with the experienced members, learning as they go. All new members have been encouraged to attend our Monday night 'aggregate' nights, also known as hat nights or wappenshaws.”
Q6. Did you receive any support from your National Development Officer or any advice externally?
AW: “We were in touch with our Bowls Scotland National Development Officer Holly Hamilton regarding Try Bowls equipment, which she provided for the open days. We also spoke to contacts at Hyndland Bowling Club and Ralston Bowling Club, who had held similar successful events, taking any lessons learned into our own events.”
Q7. What would your advice be to other clubs looking to host similar membership recruitment events?
AW: “The best advice we can give is to reach out to Bowls Scotland for their support, but also definitely speak to other clubs, like ourselves, who have had some great success.
“Getting your members on side is also very important by removing perhaps some blinkered views and having them think about the future of the club. Use social media such as local community pages and get your events shared as far and wide as possible in your local area.”