>From:    REBECCA J ROBINSON <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Disapointing start
 
My fiancee and I have recently started a ferret club and we had to find a
new place for meetings due the turn-out.  I'll relay to you (and everyone
else who's interested) what we did.
 
The first thing we did was we had one of the local pet stores (the best one,
IMHO) host the first meeting.  We were fortunate enough to have the owner
dedicate a week's worth of ad time in the city paper.  He did a LOT of
business that night and is now selling a LOT more ferret goods.
 
We also went to Staples (Office Depot, etc) and got some Avery 4x6 Laser
postcards and printed them up with our address on one side and our
'goal/mission statement' on the other side and a space for name, address
(snail and email), names of ferrets, comments, and phone number.  We put
these people onto a mailing list and, once we had about 15 people (under 2
weeks) we sent out cards/published the ad in the paper for a meeting.  We
had over 30 people show up at our first meeting.
 
Our second meeting had only about 10 people, but I think that was due in
large part to the time we had the meeting: Saturday afternoon (our first
meeting was held Sunday evening @ 7pm).  It seemed to be the general
concensus that no one wanted to give up the first day of their weekend.
Most people have nothing better to do on a Sunday evening.
 
I'm not sure how well this worked, but we BRIBED people into coming to the
meeting.  I found out that Pizza Hut donates pizzas to not-for-profit group
meetings and events and I was able to lure people in with the FREE PIZZA
AND SODA gimmick.  The pet store supplied the soda, so this was another
no-charge-to-me benefit.  Our third meeting is coming up this next weekend
(Sunday Eve. again) and we'll see how that goes.  Good luck with your
club!  My main suggestions are stay away from Saturdays, and stay away from
the early part of the days.
 
                                        -Erin...
 
=========================
   Mr. Erin M. Ennis    |       Any sufficiently convoluted argument can
 eennis(at)zoo,uvm,edu  |       be made to appear to be science as the
 Water Resources Major, |       layman equates incomprehensibility with
     Biology Minor      |       science.                -Unknown
    Uni. of Vermont     |
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[Posted in FML issue 2319]