Adopt a Greek life approach and have bigs and littles. This creates smaller families within the larger club family. This system allows everyone to be part of a closer, more intimate group. This also creates a space for increased bonding among members. Taken a step further, each smaller family could embark on their own social events, such as coffee dates, movie nights, etc, to foster those bonds.
On a similar vein, a mentor-mentee system could be adopted. This system could be perceived as more professional and structured than the “big and little” system. However, it depends on implementation. In this system, the mentor purposefully engages with the mentee. This could range from encouraging the mentee to lead service events, provide the mentee with info and club updates, and also simply checking up on the mentee to make sure all is well.
Group socials are a great way to facilitate fellowship. The best way to make sure socials are impactful is to make them purposeful and meaningful. A social could be a movie night event. The event could be made impactful by choosing a film that brings up issues that impacts most people. Then after the showing, allowing time and space for members to share thoughts or experiences can help strengthen bonds.
A simple addition to club meetings that could build fellowship, is at every meeting, take some time to ask how everyone is feeling. This could be done individually or in a group. People actually like talking and talking about themselves. Any chance you get to allow members to talk about themselves use it. This creates an atmosphere of caring and compassion. And in doing so, members will know that they are cared for and appreciated due to them being individuals, and not members who can do service.