Our new members : Nine months later

In the weeks that followed the EU referendum, somewhere over 50,000 new members joined the Conservative Party. The surge took us all by surprise. Over 600 of those new members lived in West Kent, taking membership of our five local Associations back to the levels last seen a generation ago.

Curious as to what was motivating such large numbers of people, I undertook a detailed survey in which I asked who they were, where they came from, what was their motivation, and what they hoped to gain from their membership. The results of that survey were published on ConHome on Monday 18 July and can be reread HERE

Over the weeks that followed a not insignificant number let it be known that their primary motivation was to vote in the leadership election, which of course was not possible due do our longstanding “three month rule”. The numbers complaining about this led CCHQ to place a notice explaining the requirement on the online membership page and I understand that many refunds were issued. Personally, the fact so many had joined without any previous interest or involvement simply to try and influence the leadership election is total justification for having the rule in place and I hope we continue enforce it in the future.

In our own survey, I gave new members a number of multiple choice options covering the areas that motivated them to join. When asked to rank these reasons, 75% (by far the highest number) chose “I joined the Conservative Party to vote in the leadership election” compared with just 8.4% who said this issue was not an important factor for them. And later-on I asked more bluntly, “If you had been aware at the time of joining that members were only allowed to vote after three months’ membership, would you still have joined the Conservative Party?” to which over 25% replied “no”.

Over the last nine months these figures have weighed heavily on my mind, and from the many questions I have been asked by some senior figures at CCHQ and around the country I suspect I am not alone. I have never had much doubt that the 25% who said they would never have joined had they known they would not have had a chance to vote would not pay again, but what of the larger number (ie, the 75% who said the leadership vote was an important factor for them). This figure obviously includes the angry 25%, but what of the other 50%?  Have we done enough (locally and nationally) to win their hearts and minds and keep them on board?

It is now coming up to nine months since the first signs of the surge and many of the members who joined early on will soon be receiving invitations to renew their membership. To test the water and to see if I could identify how our new members feel we have performed locally (in terms of meeting their expectations and keeping them informed and involved) we ran a similar survey again, the findings of which are published below. However, there is a word of caution. Our original survey attracted a 50% response rate, sufficiently high to make it significant and probably representative. This time the response rate was just below 25% - and it is highly likely that the subsequent null responders are those who have lost interest and decided to walk away. The figures below are likely to be biased and the true situation might be somewhat worse.

To the best of your memory, what was the primary reason for you joining the Conservative Party in June/July last year? Please tick as many as apply.	July 2016	Feb 2017
I was supportive of the work being done by my local Member of Parliament	23%	31%
My interest in politics was revived following the EU referendum	47%	39%
I was concerned about the direction of the Labour Party under Corbyn	16%	9%
I voted Remain and wanted to help shape future policy	39%	27%
I voted Leave and wanted to help shape future policy	29%	31%
I wanted to vote in the Leadership election	45%	39%
I have always been Conservative and wanted to help secure future victories	43%	48%

Given I was asking people to remember what motivated them to do something nine months ago, I think the above findings are remarkably similar, the only statistic of note perhaps being the fall in the number of respondents identifying as Remain, which could indicate some of this group may well have disengaged, which was a likely outcome given the determined and unequivocal approach being taken by the Prime Minister over Brexit.

Always conscious that Associations are often held responsible for not engaging or contacting new members, I was keen to ascertain how they felt we had engaged with them on a local rather than national level.

After you had joined the Conservative Party did you receive a letter of welcome from your local Association?	YES	NO
	98%	2%

And did you then receive a personal visit or telephone call from a local organiser to introduce themselves and talk through local events and activities?	YES	NO
	82%	18%

And how long did you have to wait for a letter or personal contact?	Within a few weeks	Within a month	Longer than a month	Never heard
	84%	11%	3%	2%

Did you receive an invitation to meet your local association Officers and Member of Parliament at a “free to attend” drinks reception or similar, and if so, did you attend that event?	YES	NO
Received invitation	87%	13%
Attended the event	14%	86%

So far, so good. Despite processing 600 new membership applications, 98% received a local letter of welcome and 82% received a personal visit or contact by telephone within a few weeks of them joining. The majority of our new members also recall being invited to a complimentary welcome event, though only 14% of them attended.

Next I was keen to find out about how we communicated with them and had we met their expectations.

  

Since you joined you should have received regular communication from us on a wide variety of issues. Please indicate below if you feel the frequency of emails on each of the following matters has been too little, about right or too much.	Too little	About right	Too much
Invitations to attend social events	3%	81%	16%
Invitations to contribute to raffles and appeals	0%	48%	52%
Invitations to political / policy discussion groups	25%	62%	13%
Invitations to attend campaign days	11%	31%	58%
Invitations to assist with office / clerical / data work	2%	73%	25%

At least they are hearing from us, and on most issues we have got it “about right” though the cynic in me would say our new members seem much more enthusiastic about attending policy discussions than ensuring we are in a position to implement those policies by campaigning and winning elections!

And finally, the million-dollar question.

As things stand, is it your intention to renew your membership of the Conservative association when it falls due in June or July	Yes	No	Undecided
	63%	23%	14%

  

As I wrote at the start of this article, the above is likely to present a rosy view of reality as respondents will be drawn disproportionately from those who are still engaged and willing to respond. I am however confident that in West Kent our new members have been contacted, welcomed and made to feel wanted, needed and loved.