Only 60% of youth hockey players are still playing by the time they are 9 years old. For an organization to truly experience growth, they need to focus on inviting previous players back to the rink. 

The most effective and efficient way to get more families to return to the rink is a personal phone call inviting them back. 

During USA Hockey's annual Welcome Back Week, associations are encouraged to gather volunteers to personally call and invite families back for another season. Reaching out with a personal invitation will dramatically increase retention.

The Welcome Back Week Phone Call Retention Program Manual is a step-by-step guide to running a retention phone call program for your association. The manual shares examples of retention emails, a phone call script as well as a follow-up email plan.

Organizational Retention Survey - Have you ever had families in your organization that seemed happy, but ended up at another organization the following season? The objective of a survey is to generate reliable information on the aspects of your organization such as price, ice time, coaching, your website, programs and services. This ultimately will help measure the success of your organization and make improvements to improve player & family retention.

USA Hockey has a Program Services Department, led by Director of Program Services Katie Holmgren. Locally, MAHA's Affiliate Growth Leader is Jason Reynolds, Director of Operations & Marketing. Both are available to you as resources for growing the game. If you want to brainstorm ideas, develop growth strategies for your community or even share a program success story, please do not hesitate to contact them.