A word about marketing local Ruritan Clubs

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Linda Bradshaw

From the desk of the Rapidan District’s Publicity Chairperson, Linda Bradshaw:

I’d like to discuss publicity for a few minutes with our Ruritan Clubs today.

Whether we like to think about our Ruritan Clubs as businesses or not, they are, in fact, a type of business.

Target Market (free clip art)

The primary goal of any business is to stay in business! In order for our Ruritan Clubs to “stay in business,” we must increase and maintain our membership! We must “market” our clubs to the right “target market” in order to do that!

In order for our Ruritan Clubs to grow, we need to appeal to the younger, more technologically savvy generations. Those generations are our “target market.”

One of the most effective methods to market anything in today’s technology-heavy world is by using the Internet’s Social Media platforms.

Social Media (free clip art)

Ruritan National workshops held at conventions advised the attendees to use websites, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to promote awareness and membership in our local Ruritan Clubs! There is little doubt that Social Media is THE KEY to the future of Ruritan membership!

I would like to encourage each club to have BOTH a website and a Facebook Page.

Facebook (free clip art)

Consider this: Everyone that reads Facebook uses the Internet, but not everyone that uses the Internet reads Facebook! Only 25% of Facebook users are in the United States, and 25% of Facebook users are under the age of ten. Although Facebook is still a valuable resource, there have been several articles this year that suggest that Facebook’s popularity is waning. Of my own personal circle of family, friends, and neighbors, the majority of them have Internet access but refuse to join, or use Facebook. Yet they all use the Internet’s Google’s Search engine to find information that they need.

Internet – man searching online (free clip art)

Having a “real” website that has the proper keywords built-in will help people find the information they are seeking about your club quickly and easily without having to search multiple posts through a long timeline on Facebook. “Real” websites can have “search” features and multiple pages that Facebook simply does not have. Don’t get me wrong – Facebook is a valuable supplemental resource that can enhance the publicity and marketing of a club. A “real” website, however, is the keystone of an Internet marketing campaign.

Sharing options on WordPress websites

One useful feature of some websites I’ve developed (using the free, easy, user-friendly WordPress platform) is that they can be set up to automatically cross-post to their associated Facebook pages. This is done on their “Sharing settings” page under the “Publicize” option (see photo above.) They can also be set up to cross-post to other platforms as well, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Plus, and more! That feature eliminates duplicity of work. You can publish a post to the website, and be done with it! The information goes everywhere you can possibly want it to go!

Calendar of events (free clip art)

The websites can also have calendar of events features, so your club can use it as a resource to publicize upcoming meetings and events.

Now, I understand that some clubs may have concerns about the costs and technical difficulties of buying, creating, and maintaining a website. Not very long ago, websites WERE expensive, and difficult to buy, create and maintain. Today the annual cost is very affordable.

For example, GoDaddy is selling domain names (dot coms) this month for $2.99 for the first year. Their renewal fees typically are below $20 per year. (The prices vary, depending on sales and promotions at the time.)

Internet (free clip art)

By having the local clubs purchase their own domain, the local clubs can maintain total creative control over their own websites, and can create as simple, or as complex, a website as the club desires. The WordPress platform is free, and easy. The WordPress Platform can be used to create a static page website for a club that only wants to have one or two pages that don’t change, or it can be used to create a blog-style, dynamic web page that can be updated with posts about current news and events.

The Rapidan District Cabinet will purchase a “real” domain name for the District, and purchase the web hosting service plan that will allow the Rapidan District to host unlimited websites on their server. The Rapidan District is offering to host the websites of local clubs within the Rapidan District on the District’s server for free. This offer applies to both existing sites, and new sites. Hosting the local club’s websites on the District’s server will save local Ruritan Clubs a significant amount of money each year. (GoDaddy’s least expensive web hosting plan is $84/year, although it sometimes goes on sale for 50% off.)

By putting the local Ruritan club’s website on the District’s server, the local club can then spend the money saved on some other important Community Service Project! That is a win-win situation!

workshop (free clip art)

One free workshop was held in July 2014 to help local club’s volunteer webmasters understand the basics of creating a WordPress platform website. Another free “make-up” workshop will be scheduled in the near future for those clubs whose webmasters were unable to attend the first one.

If your Rapidan District Ruritan Club is interested in participating in a future free (yes, free!) workshop, please use the contact form below to express your interest and to advise when your volunteer webmaster would be available to attend a workshop!

[contact-form subject=’Contact from Rapidan District Website’][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]

SHARE Food Network Is a Great Way to Provide Community Service To Local Communities

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Linda Bradshaw

SHARE Food Network Menu July 2014

The SHARE Food Menu for July 2014 (above) has been released.

The SHARE Food Network is a way to buy quality food at about half price. We can purchase it for personal use, but we can also use it to help needy families, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, food drives, etc. How about instead of donating $100 to a local homeless shelter/soup kitchen/food pantry, we spend $100 on SHARE Food and donate $200 worth of food to the homeless shelter/soup kitchen/pantry? This is a great way to double the value of our contributions to good causes!

The Jefferson (VA) Ruritan Club uses the SHARE Food Network to help feed their sponsored needy families. Some club members use SHARE Food for their own families as well.

This is a great way to save money on food – and you do not have to disclose income. You do not need to be receiving food stamps. The food is top-quality. If you are not taking advantage of this opportunity to get good food for little money. This is run by Catholic Charities, but you do not have to be Catholic. Many of the distribution locations are in churches that are not Catholic. This is a TRUE community service project!

There are SHARE Food Network Distribution locations in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virgina, and West Virginia. Details for them can be found on the SHARE Food Network’s Find SHARE Site Page.

SHARE Food Network is currently looking to expand their distribution areas, and would be glad to send speakers to Ruritan clubs in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, with the hope that Ruritan Clubs might consider helping to support setting up new distribution areas in their own local communities. If your club is looking for speakers, you may want to consider SHARE Food Network for that!

If you are interested in having a speaker come to YOUR club, you may use the contact form below, and a representative from SHARE Food will contact YOU.

[contact-form to=’winona1@yahoo.com’ subject=’Request for more information about SHARE Food from a Ruritan Club member (from Linda Bradshaw’s website)’][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]

The Important Role Of The Undervalued Name Tag

Posted on April 25, 2014 by Linda Bradshaw

Ruritan name tag

From the desk of the Lt. Governor:

Walking into a Ruritan Club Meeting House, my eyes quickly sweep across the room, looking for someone, anyone, wearing a name tag. Why? Because that name tag is a welcoming beacon that says “I’m friendly. I am approachable. Come talk to me!”

When I don’t see anyone in the room wearing a name tag, my heart sinks. I’m one of “those people” that has a really hard time remembering other people’s names. I know how important it is to remember everyone’s names, and I struggle with that issue. People that can meet someone one time for just a moment or two, and remember their name forever simply amaze me! I simply don’t have that gift! Hopefully that doesn’t make me a bad Ruritan – I’d like to think that I still have a lot to offer Ruritan!

Embarrassed woman (free clip art)

All of those memory enhancement techniques that are taught by memory experts help, but when meeting several people at once, the names go in one ear and fall out the other. Hope springs eternal, and I keep on trying, but I love to see other people wearing name tags because then I don’t spend precious time apologizing for the fact that I will probably forget their name shortly after meeting them.

But enough about me.

When a potential new member, or a scheduled speaker, walks through that same Ruritan Club Meeting House door at a meeting, they are immediately at a social disadvantage. One that could make them very uncomfortable. (Maybe they have issues with remembering names, just like I do!)

When a person is in a group of people where everyone else knows everyone’s name, he or she may feel vulnerable. Very few people are comfortable in a crowd when they are the only “stranger.”

In some cases, the visitor may get the impression that the other people in the group don’t even care enough to make newcomers comfortable in the group. That is one of those “first impressions” that our clubs may not want to be making.

Martha Stewart (free clip art)

Wearing a name tag increases the potential for better fellowship experiences for visitors. If everyone in the club were to wear their Ruritan name badges, the visitor (whether it is a potential new member, a speaker, or a visiting officer from District or National) will feel more comfortable being in the group. This level of comfort may help the potential new member decide to join the club, and it also may help improve the quality of the time of the speaker, or visiting officer. Quoting Martha Stewart, “and that’s a good thing.”

Our membership and fellowship committees can help ease the initial level of discomfort of being “the stranger in a crowd” by ensuring that the visitor gets a name tag, and that everyone in the room has a name tag. Even if it is just a temporary, sticky-backed paper name tag that says “Hello, my name is ____________.”

Hello my name is (free clip art)

That name tag helps to level out the playing field, so everyone can see, at a glance, the name of everyone else. A member of the Fellowship Committee should greet everyone as they come through the door, and provide a name tag to anyone that does not have one.

If the person walking through the door is a new visitor, then the member that greeted the visitor should also ensure that the visitor is introduced to another member, who then becomes the visitor’s companion through-out the entire meeting. This is standard procedure for all clubs that are looking to recruit new members, and is pretty well documented in the Ruritan Handbooks and Guides.

If the club is fortunate enough to have a supply cabinet in the meeting location, the sticky-back name tags and assorted markers could be stored on-site, and brought out as people arrive to the meeting. If the club does not have that storage option, then the membership and fellowship chairs could bring them to the meetings. Alternately, each club officer could keep them in their briefcases/totes that they bring to the meetings.

These items are some of the least expensive tools a club can use to welcome visitors that have taken the time and made the effort to step through that door to see for themselves what that Ruritan club is all about. Making that visitor feel comfortable, by providing name tags is a good first step towards recruiting new members.

Not convinced? Recently I was reading a great blog article about good reasons to wear name tags. I’d like to encourage you to consider reading it as well. The article just might help convince you to start wearing your name tag more often – and not just to Ruritan functions!

I’d like to encourage ALL Ruritan Club members to wear their name badges to all Ruritan Club functions. You’ve got nothing to lose, and a lot to gain by wearing them.

PSA Video Promoting Ruritan Clubs Airing On CVTV In Spotsylvania County VA

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Linda Bradshaw

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBt3bZ6iE_c&w=853&h=480]

From the Desk of the Lt. Governor:

CVTV (a local television station) in Spotsylvania County, VA, responded quickly to our request for a free PSA promoting Ruritan awareness by designing this video, and they will be airing it immediately. They have also offered to run free PSAs promoting our local Ruritan events in the future. This video directs viewers that are interested in more information to contact the National Ruritan office, and supplies their phone number and website address.

Hopefully this will help to increase membership rolls in our local Ruritan Clubs in their viewing area!

The video has also been posted on YouTube. You should be able to view it from this post, by clicking on the video at the top of this post.

Our heartfelt thanks to CVTV, for your help in our publicity campaign and getting the word out to our local communities about the Ruritan organization!

Ruritan’s Rapidan District

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Tag Archives: Local Ruritan Clubs