Recruiting - a picture is worth a thousand new members

Many communities are having St. Patrick's Day parades today....Which reminded me of some advice from another Patrick -- Patrick Knight, former U.S. Metro Conference Director.

The key to leveraging community holidays (and parades) is as simple as BEADS!

That's right, beads. And here's how --

What you will need: bead necklaces, zip ties, chapter business cards, hole punch, digital camera(s), 2+ people

1. Get some beads. Prior to a community event, such as a St. Pat's parade, buy a bunch of bead necklaces. They can coordinate with the event (like green and gold for St. Pat's) or be left over from another event. People don't really care. They love bead necklaces. You can borrow, get them sponsored, or you may have enough between your collective membership already.
2. Put your chapter card on the beads. This should be a simple URL or contact information for your chapter. Simpler is better, and ideally, you want to drive traffic to your website; however. if you don't have a great site, you might opt for an email contact and a blurb about your chapter or directing them to a social media site (like MySpace, Facebook, etc). Fastening can be as simple as twist or zip ties. Twist ties are easy to get, but are less likely to hold up, so zip ties are generally recommended. Affix the card to the beads (usually requires a hole punch).
3. Go to the event and give out the beads while taking photos of the wearers. Send some outgoing people into the crowd with a digital camera (for safety, groups of 2 are best). When giving out the beads, ask if you can take a photo and tell the recipient that they can view or download the photo for free from the website on the card you put on the bead necklace. Make sure when you take the photo that the Junior Chamber logo or name is facing forward. NOTE: Avoid taking photos of children and stick with JC-age people -- preferably ones that seem to be outgoing or attractive. It's a great first line to meet new people, too!
   
4. Post the pictures on your site with information on joining (sign up NOW! is best approach). You should put the pictures online as soon as possible (hence digital over film developing) and in a place that is publicly accessible (no sites where people have to join to view). Google picasa photo albums are free and easy to view without a membership if you don't know where to look.
   
5. Follow Up with people who sign up. You've now driven traffic to your website/picture area and when people are there, they will see lots of young, festive adults having fun and wearing your logo. Whether or not they decide to join, your site will still be filled with young adults wearing your logo, which will look good to other young professionals.
   

So now you've not only created community awareness in your target demographic, but you've improved the content of your web site.

And whether or not you use this in time for St. Patrick's on Monday, you can use it for any community gathering or holiday social event.

Official Statement of the NYSJC regarding Gov. Spitzer's prostitution Scandal

I just wanted to briefly comment on the breaking news this afternoon that NY Gov. Spitzer announced his use of prostitution services, as recent as 1 month ago, in a news conference today.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/10/spitzer/index.html

I'm sure it will be all over the news tonight if you haven't yet heard.

Obviously, this makes it unlikely that his office will be in attendance at the March 19th meeting, however, no cancellations have been made.

In the article, CNN reported: "Before the news conference, three Democratic sources told CNN that a top Spitzer aide had told them that the governor would resign. At the news conference, Spitzer declined to respond to questions as to whether he would step down."

This could mean that David Paterson (Harlem) may soon be heading New York State. His key issues are listed here: http://www.ny.gov/governor/index-ltgov.html
as well as anything that advocates for helping the disabled as he is, himself, legally blind.

This would also likely mean the disbandment of the Young Leaders Conference that Silda Spitzer launched in later January. We are waiting to hear more information on it.

Locally, democratic parties are distancing themselves. CDVP Dave noted that he was asked to remove photos of Spitzer with Democrats. You may, as YPs, be asked for comments on this breaking news. Please keep in mind that as an individual, you are welcome to give any feedback. As a representative (meaning if you mention affiliation, wear logos, or give out chapter contact information), the NYSJC's, have no official position on the matter.

-Shonda Ranson
78th NYSJC President.

From Kathleen Mooney from the Lobbyins in Albany

Shonda,

Thank you so much for participating in the SUNY event yesterday and for your support of the Unshackle Upstate campaign. We are looking forward to working closely with you in the future and like the idea of doing a similar event at U of R this spring (yes, SPRING - let's not work in another ice storm, PLEASE!). We also greatly appreciate your pushing the message out to your J.C. colleagues, the RocCity group, etc. Can you tell we're excited to have you as a colleague? We need people to use the website and send those messages.

Again, you did a great job talking to the students and reporters and we all enjoyed meeting you and your friends. We'll talk in a week or so.

Kathleen

Kathleen Rooney

Senior Vice President

Travers Collins & Company