Retention Chairman — The Member Keeper

Fellow Retention Chairman — the short version

The Order loses most members not to anger but to drift — a missed bill, a busy season, a council that never noticed he stopped coming. You're the officer whose whole job is noticing. This is a REQUIRED Form #365 role, and it's required because the math is brutal: keeping a Brother costs a phone call; replacing him costs a recruiting year.

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What a Retention Chairman actually is

Per the Order's retention guidelines ⚠verify, the Retention Chairman:

1. Contacts members in arrears personally — after the Financial Secretary's billing runs its course (1st Notice, 2nd Notice, Knight Alert) but before any Intent to Retain (Form #1845) is filed. A visit or call from a Brother lands differently than an envelope.
2. Chairs the retention effort with the Trustees and GK — recommending whether a non-paying member should be worked with, granted relief, or — last and reluctantly — suspended.
3. Watches for drift before it becomes debt — the member who stopped showing up this year is next year's arrears case. Early contact is the cheap fix.
4. Feeds intel back — a member's real reason (health, money, a grievance, a move) usually only surfaces in conversation; route it to the officers who can act.

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What a strong year looks like

• Call before the paper flies. Get the FS's delinquency list at 1st Notice, not at Knight Alert. Your window for an easy save closes with every mailing.
• Lead with the member, not the balance. "We've missed you — everything OK?" recovers more Knights than "you owe $42." The dues conversation goes second.
• Know the relief options. Financial hardship has Order remedies (waivers for disability, payment arrangements the council can quietly extend). A chairman who knows them saves men too proud to ask.
• Quarterly list-review with the FS and Trustees. Retention done in June panic is triage; done quarterly it's prevention.

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Common pitfalls

• Becoming a collections agent. If your calls feel like dunning, members stop answering. You're a Brother first; the FS owns the ledger.
• Waiting for the official list. By Intent-to-Retain time, half the saves are gone. Work upstream.
• Solo silence. What you learn matters only if the GK, FS, and Trustees hear it. Report at every officers' meeting.

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Related

• Financial Secretary — runs the billing your calls run ahead of
• Membership Director — the other end of the pipe
• Good Standing — what suspension actually costs a member

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One more thing

Councils that file few Intent-to-Retains aren't lucky; they have a Retention Chairman who made the calls in October. The form measures what the phone failed to do.

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Source notes. Draws on the Order's retention guidelines and Intent to Retain (#1845) practice. Citations flagged ⚠verify where manual editions may differ. Send feedback if anything's off.

Last reviewed: June 12, 2026. Fraternal year 2025–26.