Clubs Days
Clubs Days is a yearly AMS event at which many of the AMS' 300+ clubs set up booths in the SUB in order to recruit new members. It is the biggest membership event of the year for the VOC and is a great chance to inform people about the club. Usually it takes place during the third week of September. Volunteer club members take shifts operating the VOC booth; helping out typically counts as a workhike.
Remember that if you are working at a VOC booth then you are representing the club!
Contents
Things needed for a Clubs Days booth
- Pretty display items, including:
- A poster featuring our name prominently
- A large drape/VOC-flag to cover the front of the booth with
- Various pieces of attention attracting rental gear
- A couple VOC journals for people to leaf through
- Membership forms & cards and somewhere to keep completed forms
- Somewhere to keep money securely
- LOTS of pens
- Longhike sign-up sheet and tickets
- Brochures/pamphlets (see below)
- A list of upcoming trips (which emphasizes that they are free)
- A prominent sign telling people when/where Intro night is
- (optional) Laptop with slideshow
- Laptop to sign people up immediately
- (nice to have) Lots of clipboards/pieces-of-stiff-material (so that when it gets really busy people don't need to jostle for booth desk space to sign up)
Brochures/Pamphlets
It's probably a good idea to only have only one pamphlet that includes all the necessary information. If there is more than one then people seem to take one of each kind out of fear that they may be missing out on something. Perhaps a second kind with tons of information for the super keen could be kept out of sight and offered to those who seem like they might want it? People also seem to prefer pamphlets that are folded into thirds as opposed to loose sheets of paper, although this requires periodic folding by booth workers. A nifty pamphlet holder would probably make us look pretty professional too. Stuff that is important to have in the brochure includes:
- The club website
- VOC crest
- FAQ (What are the benefits of joining? Who are you? What do you do? What does it cost?)
- Map to the clubroom for those who can't sign up right-this-instant
- Intro night information
- Info about Longhike
When we write a brochure, it should answer the questions that prospective Members want answered. Under "What does the Club Do?" we probably want to describe our trip plans for the whole year in general terms. Often the Exec has not figured out what our trip plans are at this time.
Past brochures:
- 2009 Brochure Media:2009 VOC Brochure.odt in editable form, edited by Roland
- 2009 Info Sheet Media:2009_VOC_Clubs_Days_Info_Sheet.doc Written by Piotr F
- 2009 Glossary Media:VOC Glossary.doc Written by Piotr F
