Recruiting (and retaining) volunteers is the single highest priority for any group. Forget putting on cool parties, lobbying politicians and hosting debates - without a reasonable number of people working together you'll never achieve very much. This document outlines some tips for getting more people involved.
Getting new volunteers
Get the word out - people won't get involved if they don't know you exist! Put up posters and hand out leaflets in every local venue, and everywhere you go. Make sure you include who you are (a local group, part of the FC-UK network), what you do and when you meet.
Hold regular outreach events - running stalls in students' unions & town centres, hosting free culture parties and other similar events are a great way to reach out to new people. Ensure that you have plenty of appropriate information about getting involved on display at all your events.
Raise your profile with stunts - stalls are good, but stunts can get much more media and public attention. Dress up in daft costumes and give away free CDs on your stall, get a band to play an set of protest songs outside your MPs office, anything to get people's attention. Be creative.
Have regular meetings - if all your posters, leaflets and fellow activist are giving the same message about a regular meeting, people will always know where to come. Even if somebody sees your poster, she may not be able to come to the meeting advertised, but if she knows it will happen each month / week at the same place & time, she'll probably be there at some point.
Keeping volunteers
Welcome new people - be friendly and sociable, try to get to know new people. There's nothing worse than attending a group meeting where everyone else talks to their friends and excludes you.
Give people tasks as quickly as possible - it's rare for people to jump into the deep end and start doing work straight away. Make sure you have a few open tasks for people to do that require a range of skills so that any new volunteer can quickly feel like they're playing an active role in the group