A NOTE FROM THE BOARD

Greetings fellow Jaycee!

Last week, I discussed the "State of the Chapter". Out of the "State of the Chapter" address, Traci Powell and I are going to discuss the marketing strategy for the Chapter.

Our primary goal with marketing this year is not to run as many newspaper, radio, or TV ads as we can. This type of advertising can get expensive, and it's difficult to use a generic advertisement to build a relationship with a potential member. Instead, our goal is to use as many events as we can to achieve two things:
1) Raise awareness of the Jaycees by building relationships
2) Use the event itself as the marketing tool

Other Chapters, most notably Atlanta and Coconut Grove (in downtown Miami), have used this approach with great success, and it is the Board's intent and goal to use this same approach with similar success.

The reason we are working at building relationships instead of outright marketing is in today's world, one of the facts that we have to face is the Jaycees are competing in a time-crunched and noisy society. Time crunched because everyone is busy. Noisy because it’s difficult to get noticed - every place you turn there is a commercial for something. These two factors make it critical that the Jaycees provide a quality product that does two things:
1) Gives our members value for their time and money
2) Makes the Jaycees stand out (in a good way!) in this noisy world

Towards this end, we are going to build relationships and partner with other organizations for as many events as we can. By building relationships and partnering, we can raise awareness of the Jaycees to more people than just doing the project by ourselves. Partnering also helps spread the burden of an entire project over a bigger pool of people, which increases the chances of success and increases the number of people who are told and shown who and what the Jaycees are.

One way the Board has been working at building relationships is by regularly attending the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours networking events since last December. Now that we have attended several of the Business After Hour events, we are starting to branch out into other events such as IndyHub so we can expand our circle of influence.

Another way to "raise awareness" of the Jaycees is through our Chapter meetings. As many of you know, we are meeting at area businesses this year and having leaders of the company speak to the Chapter. As part of this, we are working with the host companies to have announcements in the host company's newsletter posted about the Jaycees and to use the Chapter meeting as an opportunity to meet and learn about the Jaycees.

Another way that we are raising awareness is through partnerships with other organizations. The WFYI Winefest is a great example - we provided over 20 volunteers at this event, and in return, WFYI recognized the Jaycees on their website for our assistance (check out this link: http://www.wfyi.org/eventWinefest.asp)

Another example of partnering with other organizations is the upcoming Agave Totems to Turquoise exhibit at the Eiteljorg museum at the end of this month. Agave is the Eiteljorg's young professionals group, and "Totems to Turquoise" is a new exhibit opening at the end of the month. This should be a great event as we will be able to be part of the opening of a new exhibit at the Eiteljorg, AND have a great opportunity to network and build relationships with the members of Agave.

Another way that we are working on raising awareness is through our training events. Annie Hernandez, the 2007 ID VP, is already working on our next training event, slated to be in July. Once we get the details finalized, we will market the event through the Chamber of Commerce, IndyHub, and organizations such as Agave and the Rolls-Royce Early Professional Network. These training events are great opportunities to build relationships and show the Jaycees as a serious and significant organization.

Cornbooth is another great opportunity to market the Jaycees. In case you haven't noticed, the Jaycees name is barely mentioned on any of the signs used at Cornbooth. This is a huge opportunity to market the Jaycees that we are missing out on completely, and that is going to change this year! We are going to re-do all of the signage so the Jaycees name is prominently displayed. We are also thinking about getting a butter-resistant covering that can be put on top of the front counter so we can display pictures of the Jaycees in action.

I hope you can see the pattern here - the Board is working hard to achieve two goals with every event:
1) Make the event interesting for our members, especially our long-time members who have participated in the typical Jaycees project for the last 10 years!
2) Use every event as a way to raise awareness of the Jaycees

I hope this gives you an insight into how the Board is working to raise awareness of the Chapter in the Indianapolis community. We think we have a great product, and our mission is to tell as many people as we can about the Jaycees and what we're about.

Finally, as you've heard from the Board before, and you'll hear again today - while the Board is the group that manages and leads the Chapter, it is the members that make what we do possible. We want to encourage all members to contact one of us (Traci or Jeff) or another Board member if you have any questions or suggestions on how to make the Jaycees a more vibrant and stronger organization.

Thank you for your time, and have a great week!