acsrelay.org December 2006 - January-February 2007 Newsletter - We're in the Heart Of Relay Planning!!!!!
Relay ForLife
Happy New Year... Happy Valentine's Day... Happy President's Day - been a while since we've talked, but we're back and better than ever!
The December-January-February acsrelay.org newsletter focuses on the following topics:
1. Committee Team Building - as the new year approaches, its a great
time to build the cohesiveness of your committee - check out our tips!
2. Relay Committee Planning Tools - Here are some basic tools to get
your committee jump started
3. Corporate Sponsorship DGI's - Here are some great ideas for lining up your corporate sponsorships
4. Team Retention and Recruitment - Teams are EVERYTHING! Focus on finding teams, and build your Relay from there!
5. Fundraising How-To's - Here are some great ideas to jump start your team fundraising!
6. Using a Myspace page to find those interested in Relay!
7. Great New Discussion Site - http://www.relayforlife.org !
8. Viewing Previous Newsletters
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1. Committee Team Building
It's impossible to put a value on building an effective committee! Since you will spend up to a year pulling together your next Relay For
Life, having productive working relationships is essential. To that end, we have a few suggestions to get you from point A to point B:
* Use Icebreakers! - Your committee will function better together and be more honest the better they know each other… start every
committee meeting with an icebreaker to help them get to know each other. Here are some examples:
http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/09-Great_Icebreakers!.doc
* Make sure that your committee is armed with information - Your committee should know what Relay is and have access to information about it. Distribute the Relay For Life Speaking Points early in your Relay Season to ground everyone in the basics about Relay:
http://www.acsrelay.org/Manual/04-Speaking_Points.doc
2. Relay Committee Planning Tools
* Have clear responsibilities for each subcommittee chair and their committee – Make sure it is clear what the roles and
responsibilities are for the committee vs. staff partner. You will find that committees work much better when they know exactly what is
expected. You can download a Chairman's Manual at:
http://www.acsrelay.org/downloadzipmanualanddgis.php
and roles and responsibilities at:
http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/09-Committee_Member_Responsiblities_Abbreviated.doc
3. Corporate Sponsorship DGI's
Corporate Sponsors are a key part of our Relay For Life team, and so we should do our best to round up some great corporate sponsors and take good care of them! Remember that teams and corporate sponsors often go hand in hand. Have your team captains ask their companies for support, and ask your corporate sponsors if they are interested in forming a team for your Relay!
http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/11-Corporate_Fundraising_For_Your_Event_101.doc
http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/11-Corporate_Sponsorship_Brochure_Examples.doc
http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/11-Sample_Corporate_Sponsor_Request_Letter.doc
4. Team Retention & Recruitment
First thing on the agenda for any committee should be
getting teams to return from the previous year. The only way to
make sure this happens is by making personal contact with team
captains and asking them to return. Divide your team list up
among the team recruitment committee or the entire planning
committee and call each year's previous team captain thanking
them for their support from the previous year and asking if you
can count on them again for this year. Some team captains may
not be able to come back – but don't stop the conversation
there. Ask why? If they have another commitment, or are just
plain tired, make sure you ask if there is another person on the
team who'd be willing to step-up into the team captain role. It
would be a shame to lose an entire team because the previous
year's team captain cannot return for whatever reason
Team Recruitment Plan
Do you have a team recruitment plan? Hold a mapping
exercise with committee to see where your teams are coming from,
then target areas in your community where there are few teams.
Develop a list of prospects and determine who will contact each
of them. Here are some links to great tools that you can use to
get started.
http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/10-Team_Relations_Wheel_Of_Fortune_Where_To_Find_Teams.doc
http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/10-How_To_Recruit_Team_Captains_&_Teams.doc
And here is an example of team captain's handbook:
http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/10-RFL_Tm_Captains_Handbk_Great_Example.pdf
What is the #1 reason teams don't come back? THEY WEREN'T ASKED!!!! As crazy as it sounds, we often don't get teams back because a team captain moves on and no one else on the team is contacted, or somehow we lose track of someone, etc. etc. Make sure you keep good track of your teams and make them feel special for having been part of Relay For Life. Check out the Team Relations DGI's above as well as the following to keep your teams motivated:
http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/10-Team_Building-How_To_Keep_Your_Team_Motivated.doc
5.
Fundraising How-To's
Now that you've retained those teams from last year
and recruited new teams, it's time to talk about fundraising.
Don't assume your teams know how to fundraise, give them tips
and ideas to help them set their fundraising goals.
- http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/10-Fundraising_From_A_To_Z.doc
- http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/10-Fundraising_for_Kids_&_Youth_From_A_To_Z.doc
fundraising event website (if your Relay uses one) or a hard-copy
Relay For Life fundraising letter as a Valentine's Day Wish. You can ask for donations
to fight cancer. Tell them a bit about what is happening with you, and
add the request for donation as part of telling them what you are
doing. Your friends and family will be glad to know that you are
joining the fight against cancer and remembering those who are facing
this dreaded disease as a "love gram" for Valentine's Day.
6. MySpace & Relay For Life
MySpace is a new frontier for charitable fundraising - check out:
http://www.myspace.com/acsrelay
In less than a month, I have 62 friends associated with Cancer and/or Relay For Life for My MySpace page! It's amazing the information I get via the blogs they keep, their stories, and so on. And as a results of being on MySpace, I share ideas and info about Relay with more people than ever. Check out my MySpace page as well as the links to my friends in the bottom right corner. Basically, it is a great way to "network" for Relay For Life!
7. Great New Discussion Site - http://www.relayforlife.org !
There is a great new discussion and blogging site out there now developed by the American Cancer Society, http://www.relayforlife.org - check it out! Much better organized than the discussion board at http://www.cancer.org, and also has blogging capability for anyone that wants to set up a blog. You can also view recent posts (rather than having to look thru everything), see team development training on video, and more! Lots of experts from the American Cancer Society are there to help you, along with 3 moderators (including myself :) ) to help answer your questions.
8. Viewing Previous Newsletters
Sorry we have been "offline" as far as newsletters go for a few months - but we are back, with more ideas than ever. If you'd like to see previous newsletters to look for ideas - visit:
http://groups.google.com/group/acsrelay?hl=en
In any case - hope your Relay season is coming along well, and feel free to email rflvol...@gmail.com with questions and visit http://www.acsrelay.org to find the ideas you are looking for!
"There Is No Finish Line Until We Find A Cure"
Ramesh Moorthy
* Moderator, http://www.relayforlife.org - The National Website For The American Cancer Society Relay For Life - Great Discussion Boards and Blogs!
* Webmaster, http://www.acsrelay.org - Lots of Ideas and Info about Relay For Life
* Blogging About Relay at http://acsrelay.blogspot.com
* Talking & Blogging About Relay at http://www.relayforlife.org and http://www.relayamerica.com
* Squidoo Lens at http://www.squidoo.com/acsrelay/
* American Cancer Society and Relay For Life Volunteer, Baltimore, MD
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RELAY FOR LIFE RESOURCES THAT CAN BE FOUND AT ACSRELAY.ORG:
· http://www.acsrelay.org/start.php
- An overview of acsrelay.org, and what you can find on the site.
· http://www.acsrelay.org/downloads.php
- If you are not sure what you want, take a look at Top Downloads... You'll find out what others have been downloading and might see something you need!
· http://www.acsrelay.org/search.php
- A great search engine that searches the whole website, including MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint attachments, for any "word" you are looking for (search for "fundraising", "car wash", etc.). This includes all Darn Good Ideas, Best Practices, etc.)! If you don't find what you want, please e-mail and let us know!
· http://www.acsrelay.org/manualandDGIs.php
- The Chairman's Checklist Manual that was developed by the Mid-Atlantic Relay For Life Task Force, and provides a great list of things every committee and sub-committee should do...
-and-
- Darn Good Ideas from around the country! Includes fundraising letters, pages of fundraising ideas, flyers, and ideas for every committee!
· http://www.acsrelay.org/Forms/
- Forms in Word you can download and modify for your event and email to people!
· http://www.acsrelay.org/onlineresources.php
- On-line resources for Relay For Life. There are so many websites, blogs, and discussion boards out there with Relay ideas and resources - visit here to see a (partial) list of them... Updated constantly!
· http://acsrelay.blogspot.com/
- A Blog about Relay For Life - go here for some of the latest ideas and thoughts on Relay.
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http://www.acsrelay.org is not the official ACS website and is not maintained directly by ACS. The ideas and information shared on http://www.acsrelay.org are the ideas of volunteers for other volunteers and are the not necessarily endorsed by the American Cancer Society and are based on basic ideas developed in the South Atlantic Division of the ACS. As such, please always check with your event planners and staff for your local and divisional policies before reapplying an idea. Please direct any questions to rflvol...@gmail.com