We trully think, a clear structure will incrise a fanclub the most. It is very important for the fanclub members to know which person is doing which job. It is important to give them a chance to interact with the leaders of a fanclub. We recomend this strucutre:

1. You sould have at least 3 member in your official board:

– The President: You are leading the fanclub and represents all members. You have to work hard for the community. This is not an easy job.
– The Treasurer: If you work with money, someone need to control the banc account and know how to work with the fanclub money.
– The Actuary: Every fanclub need a member list and has a lot of information to store. From your history to the future and also official documents or protocols. It is a important job and you need to work exactly.

If you have a yearly general meeting with a voting for your official board, it is very important to write a protocol. We recoment to make it easy, but do it. I know it is not sexy to write such document but at the end of the day, everything will be easyer if you have all things written down. Belive us.

We all know it is a lot of work to lead the fanclub and most time, no one will thank you for your work. But we do not work as a fanclub leader for a „thank you“. We do it, because we like it. If you searching some helping hands for your official board, your fanclub leaders… search only very active and interested members to help you. You need to trust them.

First of all, let us talk about a very speciefy topic: What is a member?

An official fanclub member is not someone who likes your Facebook site or follow your Instagram account. We know, you need this guys, but this are not your fanclub members. In our definition of a „CLUB“, it is obligatory to be in an memberlist. For that you need the complete address of your member. If he is not willing to share his address to the fanclub, they not count as a member. As a fanclub member, you are a part of an local, regional or nation community and this works only rules, understanding of other opinions, respect and trust.

Do you thinking about „Membership fees“?

If your fanclub does not work with membership fees, you have a lot of members… because it is for free. This is good and okey. But do not forget… every single member gets you some work. With more than 1000 members in a fanclub, you can not really handle this withour an official board of at least 5 people and a backoffice (we’re talking about a 20% paid backoffice) if you want to handle it right.

We recomment to start with a very low membership fee. It is your job to define how high it should be. We are thinking it should be a symbolic payment between 10-30 Euro (depends on your countrys economic). With this membership fee, you lost a lot of „members“. But if we are trully honest, they are not really a part of the fanclub as we are understanding what is an fanclub.

„A fan club is a group of people who share a common interest and form an organized club to network with other enthusiasts. Fan clubs can be for a noted celebrity, a pleasurable activity, a political idea, or almost anything at all. Admirers known as fans will join a club to learn more
about the object(s) of their dedication. Sports fans, music fans, and hobbyists are some of the people who might join a fan club.“

Source: https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-fan-club.htm

In the most fanclubs you have to pay a yearly membership fee. With this money, the fanclub pays the website, domain, email of the official board/fanclub leaders and invest this money as examples in a local clubhouse, own merchandise, fanclub raffle/draw with prices (sweepstake), advertsiment to find new members or just to pay all things to run the organization. Every fanclub has to send some letters to their members or partners to welcome them or simply say „Thank you.“ and all of this should be payd by the members and not by the fanclub leaders/founders with their private money.

Don’t forget to creat a culture of an open communication. Share your email or phone number with your fanclub members. I know you don’t have the time to talk about every problem with all members, especially if you have a lot of fanclub members. But it is a good chance for leaders to know what is going on in the fanclub. With that, you are at the front.

We recoment to start an own website. It is not very expensive but will help to share information to your members. We know Facebook sites or groups are great. But the most members of open groups are not really your fanclub. You should invest your time for real fanclub members.

Give them the option to contact you via email, phone, website or a simple web form. Take the easyest way.

It is different in every country and in some countrys very hard to register your fanclub as an official association. There is no „must“ to do this. But we as the Patriots Europe recomment to force this goal too. It makes you, as a fanclub, more professional. You can present you fanclub as an professional organization to new potential fanclub members. And in some countrys you need this status to get membership fees.

We recommend official statutes, like we have. It helps you to clearly define every point of your rules. Make changes only with a vote and do it democraticly. After your vote, create a protocol and share it with all members. If you have questions about statutes in general (not specify for your country), democraticly votes and protocols, feel free to ask for that in our leadership board.

What we recomment:

1. Fanclub statutes
2. Setup votings
3. Create protocols
4. Share all this datas with your members