Club help.

[East Coast Kiter]

Hello everybody;

Okay, so a couple of months ago, my friend and I, miffed at the lack of clubs pertaining to kites in our area, decided to create a club here called East Coast Kite Club. At first it went on the backburner because we were having some personal problems, and never went anywhere. However in the last month we've been going crazy with it. Advertising, etc.

Since then we've got about 20 members and growing. We've been featured in a small family newspaper as well. We're also merging with an older club which went on the backburner but the founder is looking to merge under our name and bring his members over to us so we can go at it together.

Lately my friend has dropped off and has not taken much interest in it. Basically came out of the woodwork to help with the newspaper article and that was that, so I've basically been running this rapidly growing club solo.

I'm about to send out my first newsletter via e-mail.

I guess I just have a frw questions if anyone can make any suggestions.

1) What would I include in a newsletter other than date, time, and location of our meeting?

2) So far we're connecting through a Facebook group and through e-mail, but I'd like to get it more face to face rather then all online. How would I go about doing this?

3) I've advertised on Kijiji, and the newspaper is getting word out. How do I go about advertising even more?

4) What kind of events can I try to organize to bring more interest in our club and really get the members enjoying being involved?

Thanks everyone!!

[--Pete]

You may be struggling because you are going through this in the reverse direction to how most clubs get formed.

Usually, it is a group of people who have been associating around some activity of mutual interest who decide to formalize it and create a club.

Beginning with the idea of a club, and trying to form an association may be a bit more difficult.

I notice you are discovering some of the difficulty of keeping the people who do all the work interested. In every successful volunteer-run organization I have ever been involved with, there is always a huge amount of "atta-boy" and "atta-girl" appreciation. People simply NEED all those pats on the back to keep working. To some people it may seem overdone, but I assure you that without it, no club survives. You HAVE to announce at every meeting that "Joe did this" and "Jill did that" and ask for a round of applause.

[windofchange]

Just start out small like you are doing. Remember that the whole reason this is even here is because of your love of flying kites. If you keep that as your main goal and purpose and make the club something that comes along with it, you will be fine and your club will grow. It isn't that important to increase the size of your club. It is important to remember the reason you fly kites. If you want to create a club then be prepared to do 100% of the work to keep it going and operate it. If you get help from others then awesome but it is really hard to rely on them all the time.

A club of one is still a club. Start small, fly and have fun and if it grows then great! I have seen many times where organizing and clubs have destroyed the enjoyment of kite flying. It gets to be so much work that it isn't fun anymore. Just keep in mind that if one of the two have to go because of the work or stress, the club is the one that gets tossed. The fun of flying is what is most important.

Just my opinion...and it is worth every cent you have paid for it.

[East Coast Kiter]

Thank you both for your advice.

Always, the reason for this club is to fly and have fun and hopefully share our interest with each other.

I don't mind organizing anything at all. I've never done anything like this before, but I am loving it.

[John Barresi]

I think for communication, Facebook and a MailChimp.com newsletter should be plenty.