About This Document

This document describes how to create a “How Do I Join?” page for your side’s TeamFinder profile and provides suggestions for the content. 

An Ideal Solution for Recruitment

Wouldn’t it be great if the potential new dancer (or musician) after seeing your side dance go to their favourite search engine (let’s be honest, it’s likely to be Google) and typed in “How do I Join xyz Morris?” and an answer was at the top of Google.

That is now possible! The following screenshot shows the results for a Google search for “How do I join Dartmoor Border Morris?“

Note that this query was carried out in an InPrivate (Incognito) window, so Google did not provide results based on previous searches.

The “How To Join” Facility in Teamfinder

The information shown in the results is from two sources – the Dartmoor Border Morris website and their How To Join page on their Teamfinder profile.

This facility is available to all Morris Federation sides – and we encourage all sides to add relevant information – especially if you’re looking for new recruits.

What Information Should My Team Provide?

Before creating a “How Do I Join?” page it would be useful to think about who might read it; how it might be used and what information those reading the page would find useful.

• Who might read it: A potential recruit is an obvious answer, but we know that sometimes friends may suggest “Why don’t you join the local morris side – I’ve just read about them and I think you’d love it!”  Relatives may say something similar: “Mum, I know you said you’ve just moved to a new town and you don’t know anyone – why don’t you join the local morris side” or “I know you like keeping fit, so this might be suitable and the local side seems very friendly“.
• How might it be used: We should also consider the local press (or online equivalent). A local newspaper might want to feature an article about morris dancing and being able to include information about the local side would give the article local relevance.
• What information to include: Based on the above you might want to include the following types of information:
  • Core information: Location and times of practices and contact details (e.g. email address – for potential recruits who don’t use Facebook!)
  • Logistical information: As well as the location for practices it may be appropriate to give details on how to get there (especially if in a rural location).  People might also find it helpful to know if appropriate clothing is needed; if refreshments are available, etc.
  • Addressing potential concerns: If your side seeks to be inclusive and welcoming to all you should consider potential barriers to people joining your side. 
  • Dance-related information: A brief summary about your side’s style(s) of dancing might be helpful (“I thought it would be hankies and sticks and you’ve given me a sword!”).

Proposed Structure for ‘How To Join’ Pages

In light of experiences gained during summer 2025 the following structure for How To Join page is suggested, which includes section headings:

Recap: Short factual summary, with name of side, main dance styles, location (including county)  and information relevant to potential new recruit (e.g. if side was previous single sex but this has changed.

Joining the side: Brief general statement about joining the side.

Want to join?   What you should do if you want to join.

FAQs: Provide answers to possible frequently asked questions. This could cover ‘Do I need to bring any special equipment?‘, ‘Do I have to be fit?‘, ‘How do I get to the practice venue?‘, ‘Should I bring refreshments?‘, ‘Is there a subscription fee to pay?‘, …

Feel free to modify these suggestions to fit your side’s requirements.

Example: Old Fogey’s Morris

The following is an example of a ‘How To Join’ information for the fictitious side Old Fogey’s Morris.

Recap: Old Fogey’s Morris is a Cotswold morris side which also dances Border morris. We were previously men-only but are now a mixed side and invite men and women dancers.  We are based in Ambridge, Borcestershire.

• Joining the side: If you’d like to join we suggest you initially contact the team at the email address info@oldfogeysmorris.org.uk  If you don’t have access to email, you should ask a friend to send an email and ask for a phone number you can use.
  We suggest that new members should join in the autumn as this is the main time for teaching new members and, sometimes when experienced members learn new dances.  
  Want to join: After making contact with the side, we’ll give details of where and when practices are held and the times of the practices.
  FAQs: Some questions you may have: 
  
  • Do I need to be fit? You don’t need to be super-fit, but dancing does require some exercise. If you haven’t exercised for a while you should find that after a few months you will be able to dance throughout the evening’s practice.  
  • Do I need special costume? No, we’ll provide sticks and hankies! If you decide to join the side we’ll let you know about the kit we use when performing.
  • Is there a subscription fee? Members normally contribute to the hire of the hall, but that is waived during your first year.
  • Should I bring refreshments? You may wish to bring along some water.
  • How do I get to the practice venue? We are in walking distance of the town centre and there is space to park.

Finding Other ‘How to Join’ Pages

You can go to https://bit.ly/MFhowtojoin and enter “How to Join”  to find the pages which Google has indexed.

As illustrated you can also add additional keywords – for example, search for ‘sword’ teams which have a ‘HowToJoin’ page.

If you have updated your profile but the How to Join information is not shown, the page may not have been indexed by Google – it can take Google a few days to index pages, and this can be longer  for profiles which have not been updated for some time.

Discussion

Some have shared concerns about AI-style answers given to Google queries (“the information is often wrong!“).  This can be the case (and sometimes the results are confusing) in which case you should welcome the  ability to be able to influence the results by providing factual information which can be used.

An example of misleading information is illustrated for a query for “How do I join Old Fogeys Morris?” (obviously a non-existent morris side!

If this is a concern for you then you should welcome the opportunity to provide factual information on a website which is likely to be harvested by Google and similar services.

It should be noted, however, that new web pages are not necessarily detected automatically by indexing robots, so the information may be undetected for some time. In order to address this, during 2025 the Morris Federation will manually submit details of new How To Join pages to Google after we have been notified (send an email to comms-it@morrisfed.org.uk).