How would you describe the marketing area and populations St. Anthony's might serve in the future?

[Servant Team]

For your information attached is a file of 2012 population statistics for Wisconsin counties, including an extract for Marathon County and the eight counties that surround it.

Did you know that 1/12th of Wisconsin's population lives in these nine counties? (But not 1/12th of Wisconsin's physical resources for retreats, conferences, adult religious education and spiritual formation.)

Also listed in the file are:

• Populations of cities and towns within 70 miles of St. Anthony's. Note: many people who frequent St. Anthony's travel from a greater distance than the area most proximate to Marathon City.
  
• Summary of a QuickInsite Report (6/21/2013) for zip 54401 including:
  
• Top 10 (of 71) Mosaic Lifestyle Segmentation Types for 54401
  
• Members of the Upper Midwest Association of Retreat & Spirituality Centers and their web site addresses. (Not listed are adult facilities in the upper Midwest maintained by other organizations and religious traditions.)
  

Share your marketing experience of central Wisconsin, and your familiarity with Quickinsite Reports, Mosaic Lifestyle Segmentation Types and other marketing tools.

Given what other Retreat and Spirituality Centers can offer and their locations,  what is distinct and most appropriate to focus on for a "new chapter" at St. Anthony's?

[Leo Jacoby]

I was struck that Marathon and adjoining countries hold 12% of the state population. Add to that much of the Northwoods that have few comparable retreat spaces, and the location of St. Anthony's seems viable to my amateur eye. It may be helpful to learn what distances clientele for St. Anthony's have traveled in recent years.

In the past I know St. Anthony's campaigned for parishes to make a commitment for a retreat weekend, sometimes sharing with one or more other parishes. Marketing directly to congregations strikes me as one workable strategy, especially if you include Protestant churches that value contemplative prayer and the retreat experience, either organized by themselves or by a consortium of churches. If 100 churches or more could guarantee they would use facilities at St. Anthony's at least once a year, we could achieve more of its potential. 

Time sharing is a metaphor that might be applied. Congregations or organizations buy into a system, reserving a number of beds or meeting spaces they can use on specified dates or traded for other available dates. Weekend and some seasonal dates could be tagged at a higher premium than weekdays. 

Being in a rural setting without TV, computer, wi-fi can be marketed as an asset to more urban churches in Minneapolis / St. Paul and Madison. Serving urban poor with some rural hospitality is another possibility in harmony with Franciscan purpose. A unified branding for St. Anthony's can appeal to a variety of churches and organizations.

I belong to an environmental group called Interfaith Community for the Earth (ICE). Care for the earth and the poor put in harm's way by climate change is bound to become an ever more pressing moral issue. St. Francis has built-in appeal to the environmentally aware. St. Anthony''s would be a super place for retreats and workshops on the spiritual aspects of changing our consumer habits and an economy based on resource extraction and depletion. 

Youth is another target audience for overnight retreats. Marketing to a broad association of churches could yield more than the 8 average Confirmation retreats St. Anthony's has conducted or hosted the past five years.

From an educator's view the overnight format is a good teaching span for adult learning too. Most retired persons and many working persons can arrange to take one weekday off from work for a learning respite. In a 24 hour period it would be relatively easy to schedule 9 hours of group time, for example, 6:30-9:30pm, 9:00am to noon, and 1:30-4:30pm. This can be a lot more convenient that 4 or 5 weeks of two-hour sessions. Many retreat formats work better with a 42 hour or longer span, including two overnights; and if during the week, probably two weekdays. 

Another marketing strategy is to plan delivering education resources across three venue: online and print resources one can access in the home at any convenient time; congregational or area group meetings for face time; and periodic gatherings at St. Anthony's for group participants and/or group leaders to compare best practices and network 

about group progress for a particular curriculum or ministry focus -- I challenge readers to help brainstorm 100 examples or more.

Past 8 years the Center has on average conducted (47) and hosted (74) programs for a total average of 120. With 52 weekends and 260 weekdays, and facilities for holding more than one smaller event at a time I think there is potential to schedule 200 events and more, if loyalty can be sustained and a sense of ownership in St. Anthony's grows to a broader base.    

The Capuchins have done such wonderful work extending hospitality to all who seek God. The soil they have prepared may be ready to support a richer ecumenical culture in which spiritual life that God provides takes many forms and we deepen our own identity through relationship with the other.