Networking! Find out who sings well in the pews and make a personal phone call to them. As a rule (in my experience anyway) bulletin announcements don't work, and Mass announcements work marginally better.

Networking and the occasional bulletin announcement/ministry day exhibits (which are incredibly not worth the time.) If you want to know why I say the latter, just ask.

The only method I have found effective is recruitment on the part of choristers. When someone sees me coming, they know they're getting a recruitment speech, and usually give a fake smile and laugh "sure, maybe I'll check it out."

After a few months of doing this to people, I'm sitting alone at coffee time.

On the other hand, choristers who excitedly demand that people join them in this fun endeavor never fail to attract new members. So I always put the work at the feet of the choristers, and they never fail to bring in new people!

It's not easy and it's still a work in progress.

First of all, I was hired by a Jeffrey Tucker influenced pastor (not kidding, he spoke of reading him in my interview) who stated, up front, that he believed that chant and polyphony, along with solid hymns accompanied by the organ, were the ideals for the latin rite Church and that he wanted the music program to move, over time, in the direction of sung propers either in latin or english, chant or modern music.

So, getting off on this foot in the first INTERVIEW, I knew that I'd potentially found a dream job. He did, however, state that there was really no money. When I was offered the job, I accepted it, knowing that I was embarking on an exciting challenge. The first year, I took the choir that I inherited and begged/borrowed a few friends and acquaintaces who were mostly college aged/right out of college and had enough training and choir singing experience to be slightly dangerous. With this group, we started our first choir season singing mostly SAB, easy pieces, such as the Missa Secunda by Michael Haller (CPDL) and an Oxford arrangement of Beautiful Savior, for SAB voices and organ, etc etc.

During that first year, I fundraised every way I could. I went out and played organ recitals, donating the free will offering or stipend to the program. We did some other things, too many to even remember. I scrounged for money like it was my job. Going into year two, I asked the pastor for permission to hire a solid cantor and a few paid singers, saying that I would pay for all of it with money I raised. He agreed.

So when year two came, I started out with a soprano holding a master's degree from CIM as a cantor, who was willing to work cheap to be in a Catholic church, since she is Catholic, another soprano who was a sometimes parishioner with a voice degree that I paid a pittance too, and a few men, also doing it for what amounted to gas money. We started doing some GREAT things (simpler SATB polyphony, such as Anerio's Christus Factus Est)

We are currently finishing year three. We now have two professional singers on each part, though they still make a pittance. The repertoire has gotten better and better, and the paid group also sings by themselves as a schola and does some nice works of Byrd, Palestrina, and the like as well as chant. I don't fully fund this anymore, because the costs have exceeded what I can raise, but the pastor has now chipped in money from the general budget.

On another front, we are looking at getting a pipe organ. It remains to be seen how quickly that will happen or how successful it will be.

I couldn't have done ANY of this - nor continued to grow it - without a pastor who stated the things that he stated up front.

I will never again work somewhere where I hope that I can "sway the pastor" over to my side or anything of the sort. I am beginning to work on a Master's degree this fall at CIM so that, hopefully, whenever I am faced with looking for a new position in the future, I have my pick and I will be able to consider only places where the pastor outlines desires such as my current one did in the interview process.

Sorry for giving you my life's story. Hope parts of it are helpful.

Programming good music helps but of course not in the beginning. I left my soloist job at a Methodist church here in metro Detroit when I found Assumption Grotto. I had decided before ever hearing the choir that I wanted to join the parish and then after hearing the choir sing Faure's Requiem Mass, there was no way I could avoid being a part of beautiful music in the liturgy.

I only have a full choir for the Triduum and Midnight Mass at Christmas time. I make a plea at all 6 Masses and normally get the same people. Although I do pick up and loose a couple every year.
I believe the problem is people are not comfortable with the way they sound so they are afraid to take the jump.
during OT this year I will be teaching basic voice and how to read. We'll see if that produces anything.

These are all fantastic ideas, and I'll add another I haven't seen: Try to strike the balance between requiring enough dedication that people will get skilled, but not so much that they burn out. There have been good discussions about how to support people who can't commit to coming to practice every week, and how to do this fairly with the other singers.

I'm a big fan of lowering the expectation over the summer months, because it provides a bit of respite from the heavy commitment during the rest of the year. It helps people to rest and rejuvenate, and to re-commit. I did this as an RCIA teacher for about 25 years, and the summer break was CRUCIAL because the rest of the year was so intense. Without that, I would have burned out after 3 years.

Take advantage of the key events during the church year to attract people who can't commit to a whole year. Have a bigger choir for Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and so on - this can help those who want to "test it out" a bit before committing.

I also love the conversations about forming children's scholas - I was talking about this with my mom just today because she needs new members for her handbell choir. The schola I'm currently in sings for 8pm Sunday Mass. Not my preference personally, but it's actually a great thing because it attracts the college kids and we're a university parish. For many of them, Sunday evening is much easier than Sunday morning.

Finally, I've had some success with doing open workshops for the parish - "come for 2 hours of fellowship and learning chant!" No expectation that they'll join the schola, although I've gotten new members using that. It was the way that I finally changed the schola from male-only: 3 ladies decided to join as a result of that workshop.