How to close the recruitment once the members are decided | Contacting other applicants and preparing for resubmission

1. What happens to recruitment after the members have been decided?

The moment you finally find the right person after spending time writing a recruitment ad and exchanging applications is one of the most rewarding moments in a band's life. However, along with that relief, there are still several practical tasks to be done. There may be applicants who haven't responded yet, and others whose communication has stalled. And then there's the question of what to do with the recruitment itself. This article deals with how to handle recruitment posts made on sites like Membo after the members have been decided. How to select applicants is covered in detail in the article on how to select applicants , so please read that first as a post about what to do after the selection process is complete.

While the word "tidying up" is used, it doesn't just mean dealing with tedious aftermath. For applicants who haven't yet responded, your job posting remains in limbo, as their application is still in limbo. It may seem like a minor detail to the person who reached out, but for those who applied, it's something they continue to worry about whether or not they'll receive a response. Tidying up the job posting is not only about reducing your own burden, but also a basic courtesy to those who applied.

This article will cover three main types of "tidying up." The first is how to close the recruitment process itself (Chapters 2-5), the second is contacting applicants who haven't responded yet or who were in the middle of a conversation (Chapters 6-7), and the third is how to handle the aftermath if you posted the same job opening on multiple sites (Chapter 10). Each of these is an independent task, so you can read only the parts that are relevant to you.

2. Things we want to be honest about regarding Membo 's "Recruitment Status" display.

First, I want to be honest about how Membo works. On the recruitment details screen, there is a section called "Recruitment Status," which always displays "Recruiting." This means that it does not automatically switch to "Recruitment Closed" or "Closed" after members are found; it will remain the same display as long as the post is active. There is also no field to set a deadline for the recruitment. In other words, the current status of the recruitment is not distinguished by the display.

This point may differ from the design of many other recruitment sites. Some may find it inconvenient, and that feeling is justified. However, since we cannot change the specifications in this article, we will organize how to deal with it within the current system. If it is a post made by Membo itself, you can essentially close the recruitment with either the "edit" or "delete" operation, which will be explained later. On the other hand, Membo also displays recruitment information collected from multiple Japanese sites, and the edit button itself does not appear for posts that originate from other sites. This is because this information is managed by the source site. This difference is relevant to the methods of dealing with it that will be discussed in the following chapters, so please keep it in mind first.

3. Two ways to close a recruitment post — update and keep it, or delete it.

If you posted the job opening yourself on Membo , you can open "Edit" from the post details screen, and within that editing screen, you can also select "Delete." As mentioned in the previous chapter, there is no dedicated operation for "End job opening," so in practice, you will have to choose one of these two options.

There's no right or wrong answer, but if you're unsure, I recommend "updating and saving." The reason is simple: once you delete something, you can't get it back. Applicants who haven't responded yet might revisit the recruitment page later, and people who stopped contacting you after applying might suddenly remember and reach out. If you keep the page up and update the content, you can accommodate such later access.

4. Things to include when updating and saving the information

If you choose to edit, we recommend adding the phrase "Applications are now closed" to the detailed description section. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Membo 's "Application Status" display will remain "Applications Open," but simply adding a sentence to the text will be sufficient to convey the message to visitors of the page. Here is an example of how to write it.

[Update] Thanks to everyone's support, we have now found our members, so we are closing this recruitment. Thank you to everyone who applied.

This is a ready-to-use example. Adding "[Recruitment Closed]" to the beginning of the title is also a clear method. You don't need to rewrite the entire description; simply adding this sentence to the beginning or end is sufficient so that anyone can see that the recruitment is already closed.

5. Things to keep in mind when deleting

If you choose to delete, there are a few things you should be aware of. First, once deleted, it cannot be recovered. Second, once deleted, the URL of that page also becomes invalid, so if you shared the recruitment page URL with applicants in any way (such as through announcements on social media or informing other applicants), they will no longer be able to click the link. Third, you will no longer be able to contact applicants from the recruitment page side, as explained in the next chapter. Even when contacting applicants via Membo , the process of tracing them from the recruitment page will no longer be available, so it is safer to complete the contact process before deleting.

Considering all of this, it is safest to delete the listing only after you have finished contacting everyone who needs to be contacted. There shouldn't be many situations where you need to delete it urgently, so we recommend that you first contact the applicants as explained in the next chapter, and then consider deleting it as a last resort.

6. Contacting applicants who have not yet responded.

If there are still applicants who haven't responded once the band members have been decided, I think it's best not to put off contacting them. In research on the US recruitment and hiring field, a 2023 survey by Talent Board (now a subsidiary of ERE Media) of over 240,000 job seekers across 150 companies found that 36% of candidates reported not receiving any contact one to two months after applying, a percentage that hadn't changed from the previous year (SHRM "Research Reveals Candidates' Frustrations with Hiring Process") . This is a US survey based on paid employment and the figures cannot be directly applied to recruiting members for an amateur band. Nevertheless, the structure itself—that being left without contact is a burden for applicants—is still relevant and offers some insights.

When contacting someone, it's important to be polite, but long explanations are unnecessary. In fact, being short and clear will be easier for the other person to understand. Here are some example sentences.

Thank you for your application. Unfortunately, we have decided to pass on your application at this time, as we have found a suitable candidate. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We hope to have the opportunity to work with you again in the future.

You don't need to explain the reason in detail. The fact that "someone else has been chosen" is sufficient. If you were communicating on Membo , clicking "Message to Post" on the post details screen will open a list of applications received for that job posting, from which you can select a contact and reply. Filtering the message screen to "My Posts" will allow you to see only the messages received for your own job posting.

7. Contacting people with whom communication was ongoing or on hold.

It's easy to forget to contact not only those who simply haven't replied, but also those with whom communication has stalled after several exchanges, or those who have put their responses on hold saying they'll wait for replies from other applicants. A more detailed explanation of the background is more appropriate than the example sentences in the previous chapter.

Thank you for your cooperation during that time. I apologize for keeping you waiting. I wanted to inform you that we have decided to ask someone else to handle this matter. I am sorry that I was unable to help despite the time you took to communicate with me.

I understand the hesitation to contact someone you've been communicating with for a while. However, the further along the process you've been, the longer you'll be left wondering "what happened?" If you've applied to multiple bands simultaneously , it's especially helpful to contact them sooner rather than later, as it will help them decide whether to continue communicating with other bands. If you've already progressed to the point of meeting in person or having an online interview, adding a brief phone call or message in addition to a written message will leave a more thoughtful impression.

8. Things to confirm with the designated person beforehand.

In parallel with contacting applicants, there are a few things you should confirm with the people you've chosen. Since the main focus of this article is to wrap up the recruitment process, I won't go into too much detail here and will only touch on the key points. First, it's best to discuss the rules for sharing expenses such as transportation, studio fees, and equipment costs before starting activities to prevent problems later on. This point is covered in detail in the article on money and rules to discuss first when new members are decided . Also, who will be responsible for what extent for roles other than playing (scheduling, transporting equipment, publicity, etc.) is summarized in the article on non-playing roles .

If you would like to have your initial meeting online instead of in person, please refer to the article on online meetings . If you would like to have a trial period or have someone participate as a support member before officially joining, please refer to the article on support members . For information on building relationships after joining and aligning musical styles, please see the article on dealing with differences in musical style . All of the topics mentioned here are beyond the scope of this article, so please refer to the respective links for more details.

9. Resubmitting applications if they are unsuitable or declined.

It's possible that members you thought you'd confirmed might not be a good fit once you start working together, or they might withdraw at the last minute. This article has proceeded under the assumption that recruitment is closed, but in such cases, you may need to decide to reopen the recruitment process. How to deal with cases where communication stops midway through after application, or where contact is lost on the day of the event, is summarized in the article on what to do when contact is lost after application, withdrawal, or no participation on the day . If you have already experienced members leaving or quitting , the article on how to deal with a band member suddenly leaving may also be helpful.

If you choose "Update and save" in Chapter 5 when resubmitting, you can simply rewrite and reuse the same recruitment page. If you want to revise the recruitment conditions, the article on the order in which to relax the conditions covers which of the following should be prioritized: region, part, genre, age group, or gender. If you want to revise the way you write the recruitment message itself, please see the article on how to write a member recruitment advertisement . Just because you've already made a decision doesn't mean you've failed to resubmit. Whether a band and its members are a good match is something that can only be determined by actually working together.

Here's a brief overview of the process when you actually need to resubmit your application.

1. Talk to the person and confirm the situation : Putting into words, without getting emotional, the reasons why it wasn't a good fit and the circumstances of their withdrawal will provide valuable information when considering the conditions for future recruitment.
2. If there are any applicants whose applications were put on hold, contact them first : You can use the example sentences from Chapters 6 and 7 as they are. The fact that "we have decided to ask someone else" remains unchanged, so there is no need to explain the circumstances in detail.
3. Remove the "Applications Closed" message from the application page : Remove the sentence added in Chapter 4 and the "[Applications Closed]" in the title, and return to a state that clearly indicates that applications are still being accepted.
4. Review the conditions : If you feel the reason for the mismatch lies in the conditions, refer to the article on the order in which to loosen the conditions to consider where to start reviewing them . If the issue is not related to the conditions themselves but is due to incompatibility, you can resubmit without changing the conditions.
5. Resubmitting : If you're posting to Membo , you can update and republish it directly from the editing screen mentioned in Chapter 3. If you need to resubmit to other sites, you'll need to perform individual steps for each site, similar to the cleanup process covered in Chapter 10.

Neither Membo nor other recruitment sites have a clear standard for "how many days to wait before resubmitting after realizing it wasn't a good fit." There's nothing inherently wrong with resubmitting quickly, but checking points 1-3 above before resubmitting will likely reduce the chances of repeating the same mistake.

10. Cleanup if the same job posting was also made on other sites.

If you've posted the same job opening on other recruitment sites or social media platforms in addition to Membo , you'll need to handle each one individually. Some of the job postings on Membo are collected from multiple Japanese websites, and these posts are managed by the respective websites where they originated. This means that if you want to close a job posting that you've posted on another site, you'll need to access that site directly and take action there.

The revised Employment Security Act, which came into effect in October 2022, requires businesses that provide job postings and recruitment information to take measures to keep the information accurate and up-to-date (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, "Recruitment Information Provision Business" (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, "Accurate Display of Information Regarding Job Postings, etc.") . This law applies to job sites that are based on paid employment and does not directly apply to all recruitment sites for amateur bands, but the idea of "not leaving posted information outdated" is a good one to keep in mind as a mindset for those posting job openings. Similarly, if you have posted a recruitment ad on social media, it is helpful to add a comment indicating that applications are closed or delete the post. Please also see our article on how bands can use social media .

Do other recruitment sites have a function to close a recruitment post?

Up to this point, we've been discussing things from the perspective of Membo , but some of you might be wondering how other recruitment sites handle the "closing of a recruitment" process. So, I checked the help, terms of service, and FAQ pages of some major sites.

Based on our research, Jimoty was the only site that offered a "close recruitment" option for each post, and that explained how to do so on its publicly accessible help page. This doesn't mean that other sites lack similar functionality; it simply means that we couldn't find it on their public pages. If you've posted the same recruitment on other sites, we recommend checking your profile page or help section on those sites before proceeding with closing your listings.

11. How to organize your thoughts when you're unsure whether or not to contact someone.

Up to this point, we've been discussing this under the assumption that "it's a good idea to contact them," but there are times when you might wonder how far you should go with contacting them, such as when there are many applicants or when you've only had very brief exchanges. In the field of psychology, there is a concept called the "Zeigarnik effect," which states that unfinished or interrupted tasks are more likely to be remembered than completed tasks (Zeigarnik effect - Wikipedia) . This concept, named after psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, explains that incomplete tasks create a kind of psychological tension, which remains in consciousness until that tension is resolved. However, the reproducibility of this effect has been questioned in recent years, and a systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2025 reported that while a general tendency to resume incomplete tasks was confirmed, there was no universal support for the effect of being more memorable (Ghibellini & Meier, 2025, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications) . Regardless of whether this research is correct or not, many people can probably relate to the feeling that it's somewhat unsettling for an applicant to have an application that goes unanswered.

As a practical guideline, it's a good idea to contact people whose names and contact information you know and with whom you've exchanged at least one message. There's no need to send individual messages to people who only submitted an application form and with whom you haven't communicated at all. In those cases, simply adding "Applications Closed" to the recruitment page itself will be sufficient for anyone who looks back at it later.

12. Common Mistakes — Where People Often Stumble When Decluttering

Here, we'll summarize typical pitfalls that can be anticipated when cleaning up recruitment posts, based on the information presented so far. This is not based on actual experiences shared by recruiters, but rather a compilation of common problems.

What all these methods have in common is that the task itself isn't difficult, but rather that it's easy to put off. The overall approach to writing recruitment notices is covered in the article on how to write member recruitment advertisements , and how to select candidates when applications come in is covered in the article on how to select candidates when applications come in .

13. Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How can I close submissions for information from other websites that haven't been posted to Membo ?

As mentioned in Chapter 2, posts originating from other websites do not have an edit button on Membo . If you want to close a post, you need to access the original website directly and perform the action there.

Q. We didn't receive a single application, and the members were decided through another method. How should we proceed with recruitment?

As explained in Chapter 3, either "update and keep" or "delete" is fine. If no applications have been received, there is no one to contact, so the cleanup effort will be minimal.

Q. What should I do if I want to reopen a job posting that I've already marked as "closed"?

As mentioned in Chapter 9, the recruitment pages you saved during editing can be rewritten and reused as is. If you are revising the recruitment conditions, please also refer to the article on the order in which to relax the conditions , and if you are revising the recruitment text itself, please also refer to the article on how to write a recruitment advertisement .

Q. Which is better for contacting applicants: message or phone call?

As shown in the examples in Chapters 6 and 7, a message is generally sufficient. However, as mentioned in Chapter 7, if you have progressed to the point of meeting or having an interview with the other party, adding a brief phone call or conversation will leave a more polite impression.

Q. Is it okay if we contact some of the applicants again later if a vacancy arises?

There's no problem with that. Even if you've told someone "it wasn't meant to be this time," as in the examples in Chapters 6 and 7, there's nothing rude about contacting them again if the situation has changed. However, if some time has passed, there's a good chance they've already decided on another band. When contacting them again, it's a good idea to add a preface like "If you're still considering it" to avoid sounding pushy.

14. Summary | Cleaning up after a recruitment is also preparation for the next recruitment.

In this article, we looked at the tasks you should complete after the members have been decided at Membo , focusing on how to close the recruitment process and how to contact applicants.

1. Membo 's "Recruitment Status" always displays as "Recruiting" : there is no mechanism to automatically switch to "Recruitment Closed," so you need to edit or delete it yourself.
2. If in doubt, edit rather than delete : Simply adding a note saying "Closed" to the detailed description will allow for later access.
3. Those who haven't responded yet should contact you as soon as possible : You don't need to give a long explanation; a short message is sufficient.
4. Don't forget to have an initial discussion with the people you've chosen : it's reassuring to confirm the rules regarding finances and how responsibilities other than playing will be divided before you start working together.
5. If you've posted the same job opening on other sites or social media platforms, you need to deal with each one separately : Even if you deal with it on Membo , the job opening will remain on other platforms.

Cleaning up recruitment posts is a mundane task that's often put off, but it's a way of showing respect to those who applied, and it also serves as a foundation for future recruitment. Keeping the page up and updated will be helpful when you revise the conditions and repost , and if you carefully finish communicating with applicants, the same applicants might take notice again at another opportunity. Once activities with new members begin in earnest, be sure to confirm the arrangements regarding money and rules , as well as the division of responsibilities other than playing music . If you're unsure how to use it, please also refer to Membo's help page , announcements and user guides , the app usage page , and the page about writers .