June Top Ten: Ways to Make Every Day "Add an Altrusan Day"

From our fabulous Membership Development Committee comes this month's Top Ten list:

Ways to Make Every Day "Add an Altrusan Day"

1. Wear your Altrusa pin every day for a month, and have your elevator speech ready!
2. Write your own Top Ten list about why you love being an Altrusan, and post it to your Facebook page. (It is Facebook Friday, after all!)
3. Choose someone from your office to invite to your next meeting or service project, and keep going until you get a "YES!"
4. Make donations to the International (or your Club) Foundation in honor of friends' and family's birthdays and other special occasions.
5. Add a great Altrusa signature to your personal email.
6. Create an "Altrusa" board on your Pinterest account, and pin great ideas for service projects, meeting decorations, or anything else that sparks your fancy.
7. Look up old friends and make an Altrusa meeting or other event the place where you reconnect.
8. Ask your spouse to invite a potential Altrusan to join you at the next meeting.
9. Put a collection box--for pop tabs, books, toys, or whatever your Club is collecting--in your office at work with a sign that clearly shows Altrusa.
10. Have Altrusa business cards made, and give them to every person you meet for the first time.

Do you have an idea individual members can use to make every day "Add an Altrusan Day"? Send them to Governor Beth. And keep your eyes open for a kit of materials that will help you plan for and celebrate "Add an Altrusan Month" (April) like never before.

More Thoughts on Retention

Some thoughts on member retention:  Most clubs have (or should have) a process to determine why members fail to renew, but does yours have a process to evaluate why people remain members? Do you do a survey of your members every year to evaluate how your club is doing in the member’s eyes? To evaluate projects? To suggest new projects? Clubs are only as strong as their members. To keep your club strong you need to understand why it is strong, and if it’s not a strong as you’d like do you know why it’s not?

Members remain Altrusans because Altrusa fills a need (often many needs) in the member’s mind and heart.  Some of these reasons are a sense of belonging to something worthwhile, having a feeling of accomplishment and having other women to relate to and rely on…a sisterhood. Building that feeling of sisterhood can strengthen your club. And while doing service together certainly can accomplish that to a certain extent, having a chance to know your members as friends can add a different dimension to the relationships among members.

So how do you encourage that feeling of sisterhood? How about having activities that you do together just because you like each other and want to be together? How about arranging a quarterly lunch (or dinner) that is available to whoever is available to come.? How about a book club? How about a shopping trip? Or visiting a museum or concert together? Or whatever else you and your Altrusa sisters like to do! Maybe even look at forming a “committee” just to plan those fun things for your club to do, which gives you a chance to get to know your Altrusa sisters as people, without the pressure of having to perform some service. This is a wonderful accomplishment in itself.

I look forward to sharing ideas with you about what your club does or could do to build another dimension of your Altrusa bond. Contact me at bobbiklein@gmail.com.

Altrusa Hugs,

Bobbi Klein
Membership Development Committee Co-Chair (Retention)

What Altrusa Has Given Me: Laure Bruner

I’ve been giving a lot of thought into why I became an Altrusan and, more importantly, why I stay an Altrusan.

The answer to the first question is simple, I joined because I knew my mother really wanted me to join in this organization that she really liked and I saw it as an opportunity to share something with her.  The answer to the second question is because Altrusa has given me so many blessings and changed my life in so many beautiful ways.

Of course this organization has given me the satisfaction that I am helping many who are less fortunate and helping to make our community a better place to live.  I have also met some amazing people from all over the state, country and even in other parts of the world.  Some who have become extremely important to me and whom I consider my friends.  But the gifts of Altrusa do not stop there.

Many people who know me now will really laugh about this next statement.  When I joined Altrusa back in 2006, I was extremely shy and lacked any sort of self-confidence.  I was the member who looked for the seat where I thought I’d get the least amount of notice.  I was happy to sit back and listen while everyone else did the talking and made all of the decisions.  I would literally get sick at my stomach if I had to speak in front of more than 2 or 3 people.

As you all know, that has certainly changed!  Now, while I may get emotional and have tears in my eyes when I get up and talk about Altrusa, I can do it with courage and pride.  The support and encouragement that I have received over the years from my fellow Altrusans has given me a self-confidence and poise that I don’t think I would have ever found in any other place.  Me!  An introverted woman from a little known small community in East Texas.

In my second year in Altrusa, I was asked to serve as the club secretary.  A job I knew I would not be good at, but one I figured I could not botch up too much.  So I accepted the job with as much dignity as I could muster and did the best job I knew how to do.  I was by far NOT the best secretary in the world, but at least I didn’t screw up too badly.  At least I don’t think I did.  So began my long tradition of not knowing how to say “no” when asked to do a job.  I was surprised when the next year they asked me to help out with the club’s yearbook.  But, being the soldier that I am, I accepted and helped the yearbook editor get the book out on time.

I was nearly speechless when, in my third year in Altrusa, a member of the nominating committee approached me and asked me if I would serve as the club’s president the next year.  I wanted to ask her if she was out of her mind, but I figured that was too rude of a reaction.  But I did tell her I didn’t think I’d be any good at it.  She assured me I’d be fine and so I accepted.  I stayed president for 3 terms.  Our club did not disband during that time, so I guess I did okay.

Since that time, I have been asked to serve on committees at the district level (I’m on my second committee now) and now on the international level.  I’ve accepted each time with the thought that I will always help in any way that I can.  But each time, it is I who has received something in return.  These positions have helped me learn more about Altrusa and also to grow as an individual and hopefully as a leader.

Hopefully in sharing my story, I will encourage at least one of you to have the courage to step up and accept a leadership role.  Volunteer to chair a committee or to fill a position on your local board.  Get involved at the district or international level, you’ll be glad you did.

I know I am biased, but I believe Altrusa really is the best organization you could ever belong to.  It is truly a builder of women (and men now as well), but it has helped me to grow and I know it can help you to grow as well.

Laure Bruner

Anderson County

Please share your thoughts about Altrusa with the world. Guest bloggers are always welcome. Email Governor Beth with your idea (if you want help), or just send your post.

Do You Get It?

When I became an Altrusan in 1997, I did it for all the right reasons: My Aunt Carolyn invited me, I thought it would be fun, and I needed something on my resume. All valid reasons to be an Altrusan.

Money was tight, but each year when dues came up I scraped together enough funds to remain a member because I'd found myself a little challenge: I wanted to be president of my club and put some neat ideas to work. This was yet another valid reason to be an Altrusan, because I'd heard time and again that Altrusa is a place where you can try things and the members will support you. I thought I'd test that, and so I did.

Along my ascent to the top post in my club, I joined forces with a couple of other newer members. Paula and Michelle became my running buddies, confidantes, and sounding boards. I'm not from the Dallas area, and I had made few friends other than these likeminded ladies from my little service club. Together, we solved the world's--and each other's--problems. We were tight. They became the face of Altrusa for me, and I for them.

And somewhere along the way, I got it. Altrusa became a way of life for me. I planned my vacations around Conference time. I relished my blossoming friendships with women all around the world. I looked forward to service projects and to first and third Tuesday nights, and I couldn't understand when a club member whom I respected treated me badly, or when another said she had "put in her Altrusa time." Now I understand: They didn't get it.

Today, I am wrestling with one of the most stressful situations I've dealt with in my lifetime. And the first people I told were Altrusans. They have poured forth their encouragement, prayers, and welcome suggestions. They have let me literally cry on their shoulders in a room full of people I don't know. They have waxed eloquently about me and reminded me that I am loved, no matter what, and that I am special to them.

And that's how you know when you really "get" the value of Altrusa membership. You don't need a life crisis to circle the wagons. You just need to experience the true friendship that is cultivated when a group of caring women (and men! I see that hand, Juan!) pull up side by side, push up their sleeves, and experience the true joy that comes from making their communities better--together.

As I serve District Nine as Governor, I know that our members will be leading to better communities. I've personally taken on a burden to spread the fabulousness of Altrusa membership to as many new people as I can. As each new member attaches her pin over her heart for the first time, I'll be sending a little prayer that she makes the most of her membership. That she will "get" it.

Beth Blair
Governor

Membership Spotlight: Crisis of Faith

You’ve all heard the expression “crisis of faith”, right?  Although this idea typically refers to religious ideals or strongly felt preconceptions or beliefs, sometimes it becomes part of our more normal, everyday life.

The other day I had a “crisis of faith” with my dedication to Altrusa.  There’s no need to go into details, let’s just say enough things had not gone the way I hoped and I felt frustrated, disappointed, angry, and just about ready to give up.  I wondered why I was continuing to share my time, my money, and my life on projects that made me feel like I was spinning my wheels.  It was not good.  

I would guess you’ve all had times and feelings like this.  The question is, how to handle this.  I knew I had to figure this out as it would be terribly unproductive to go on the way I was feeling.  My first step was to think of my life without Altrusa.  I have made wonderful friends within our organization, women I would not have met otherwise.  These women are very important to me and I can’t imagine my little word without them.  Once I reminded myself of my Altrusa friendships, I opened myself up to remembering all the other things I love about Altrusa. I thought about how I feel when I know we’ve made a difference, how I feel when we’ve successfully raised money that we know will go to help, or how I feel when we support members of our club during tough times. On any scale, these positives far far outweigh the occasional frustration.

If you’ve had a rough period where your Altrusa faith and dedication are tested try to remember the feelings will pass.  The work we do together is so gratifying and important.  We make a difference, sometimes not exactly the way we plan, but we make a difference nonetheless.  Try to remember how important each of us is to our community and to one another and your dedication will return, I promise.

--Deborah Hecht, 2013-2015 Membership Development Co-Chair

Please let your voice be heard. Write your ideas, and send them to Governor Beth for publishing on “Thoughts From the Mighty Ninth.”

New-Member Initiation of the Month

Here is a new-member initiation ceremony you can use during a Club meeting at any time. We’ll publish one each month. Send us your favorite to share!

[[New member]], It is with great pride that I officially welcome you into Altrusa. To be invited to become an Altrusan is a high honor indeed—and one that should be cherished. Remember that you do not join Altrusa, you become an Altrusan.

Confucius said: “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

Most women want to look beautiful and often use makeup to enhance their natural beauty. Tonight, let’s think of this makeup bag as a representation of Altrusa International Inc. of [[Your Club Name]]. The items placed inside will represent the opportunity you will have to make our Club and our community more beautiful.

Let’s start with:

A Good Foundation. Foundation is an important component in adding beauty, as it creates the canvas to which color will be added. In Altrusa, the foundation is attending meetings, participating in service projects, and adopting the ideals of Altrusa. Much information you will need to become acquainted with Altrusa is in the Bylaws and Policies and the Altrusa Encyclopedia. These items, coupled with your attendance and participation, get you off to a good start. New-member orientation will help you to understand many facets about the Club and its operation.

Blush or Rouge. Blush is used not only to brighten up your face and add some color, but can be used to contour features to enhance them. In Altrusa, there are many opportunities for you to enhance who you are by utilizing your talents in programs, service, and fundraising for the betterment of the club and the community. Your colors will shine brightly as you find yourself taking on tasks and learning new skills. Because Altrusa is a builder of women, you have much opportunity for personal growth as a life enhancement.

Eye Shadow. The varied colors of eye shadow represent the multitude of service opportunities and friendships that await you in Altrusa. The interests in this Club are varied, as are the personalities and even the ages of the members. Community needs come and go, and Altrusa strives to meet the needs of this community. Just as you would not want to wear every color of shadow on your eyelids, you might not want to participate in every project done by the club. Mix and blend the choices well and you won’t be overwhelmed. But you might want to try a new color every now and then.

Mascara. Mascara is the product that really makes your eyes pop, bringing your lashes into view, and often helps lashes to grow. In Altrusa, we need to grow as well, and you are encouraged to grow in knowledge of Altrusa, to grow in friendship with the other members by working together and getting to know each other, and to help bring in other new members so that our club will also grow.

Lipstick. Now that we have the foundation, the blush, eye shadow, and mascara, it is time for lipstick to add that finishing touch. Lipstick represents your dedication to Altrusa. Just as your lipstick will fade with wearing, so can your dedication to Altrusa fade if it does not become an important addition to your life. So, I encourage you to pay attention to your commitment to Altrusa just as you do to keeping lipstick on your lips. A way to do this is by attending District Conference each year. International Convention is held on odd-number years. Both will help you to maintain your enthusiasm for Altrusa and its service, so attendance is encouraged.

The last item to go into the bag is a mirror. The mirror provides opportunity for you to see the reflection of who you become through membership in Altrusa. I trust that you will find it a beautiful sight!

Now, if you are still ready to become a member of Altrusa International Inc. of [[Your Club Name]] and follow the ideals of Altrusa, please say “I do.”

Sponsor, will you please present her pin? The pin is to be worn proudly over your heart. Wear it to meetings, of course, but wear it daily so that it will be noticed and you will have opportunity to share Altrusa with others.

Madam president, I am happy to introduce our newest member, [[name]], whose membership is sure to add beauty to this Club.

Brenda Tucker
Altrusa International Inc. of Pampa, Texas, and Past Governor of District Nine

Please let your voice be heard. Write your ideas, and send them to Governor Beth for publishing on “Thoughts From the Mighty Ninth.”

Member Retention Belongs to Everyone

Here are a few tips for officers AND members to help with membership retention. These steps are not just for the Membership Development Committee! Making the effort isn’t hard, and you’ll find it helps with recruiting new members, too!

Nurture new members. They became Altrusans to get involved, so get them involved! Find out what their passion is, and allow them to implement their own ideas on something that interests them. Ideas: Make sure sponsors are educated in how to mentor their new members, and award high-performing sponsors in your club.
Pitfalls to avoid: Don’t burn out your new members with too much too soon. Don’t assume sponsors know how to mentor new members (even if they’ve sponsored new members in the past)—be diligent in training. Don’t neglect new members in favor of those members who seem to be able to do everything—Altrusa is a builder of women, so give those newer members a chance to strut their stuff!

Nurture seasoned members. Just because they’ve “been there, done that” doesn’t mean they just want to fade into the background. Honor those members for their knowledge and experience. Ideas: Form a past presidents’ council or establish another committee composed only of these sage sisters, who can impart their advice. Place a past president as an “advisor” (formal or informal) on every committee.

Make meetings and other events fun. Plan positive, uplifting programs with your members AND guests in mind. Make sure every single attendee, whether a seasoned member or a first-time guest, has a take-away from every single meeting. Ideas for take-aways: A nugget of Altrusa knowledge, a surprise public recognition for their contribution, a save-the-date card or other action-item reminder, or a simple gift box that says “thank you for coming.” Note: This is a function of each meeting’s chair, not always the president or other officer.

Take an interest in every member. All members should make an effort to greet every other meeting or event attendee personally during social hour or afterward. Ask about their family or their hobbies, and make a real effort to get to know each other. Ideas: Set aside another night for Altrusa each month and have dinner/drinks with the girls, host movie night (compete with theme!), start a book club, or have a work night for the next big project. Make it a family event by hosting a chili or soup cook-off and inviting the guys along as judges.

Hold an orientation and/or a midyear evaluation retreat. Let every member have a part in the presentation, and allow their voices to be heard in midyear evaluations. Then charge the committees with implementing the suggestions they’ve received in the second half of the club year. Pitfalls to avoid: Not following up. Why evaluate if you have no intention of making a change? Positive changes will be noted among your membership, especially if you’re making strides toward correcting something the members are unhappy with.

Recognize achievement. Look for ways to recognize members for their contributions, and do so frequently. Ideas: Longevity awards, acknowledgment of contribution at the district or international level, appreciation for successful project chair, Altrusan of the Month, Bright Idea award. Brag on each other during brag jar time.
Pitfalls to avoid: Make sure you’re acknowledging a genuine contribution, not just a reason to give out an award. Meaningful recognition is powerful, but meaningless recognition can be misconstrued—and embarrassing to the recipient.

Keep everyone informed. You can’t over-communicate. Keep the information simple, and read your communications as if you were the audience: Is everything I need to know in this message?
Ideas: Poll your membership to find out what their preferred method of communication is, whether email, paper, or even telephone (remember those?).
Pitfalls to avoid: Don’t assume everyone knows what you know.

What can individual members do to encourage retention?

• Make an effort to sit next to someone you don’t know (or don’t know well) at every meeting. Start a conversation. Make a new friend!
• Inquire after members who miss meetings to let them know they were genuinely missed. If there’s an action item for the next meeting, let them know, or even suggest the two of you work on it together. (“We’ve been asked to bring school supplies to the next meeting. Would you like to come with me to shop on Saturday?”)
• Retention isn’t just about other members; make sure you’re getting the most out of YOUR membership, too! Strive to attend every meeting and project, and to be involved in planning. Stretch your limits and resolve to learn something new. Attend district events so you understand Altrusa from the inside out.
• Squash conflict immediately. If you’re involved, gather up all your tact, swallow your pride, and work to make amends. If you’re not involved but you see it happening, determine whether a tactful conversation could be had with one party to encourage them to work toward a resolution. Think about it: If conflict is not resolved, it only gets worse, and if it gets worse we could lose our club! Remember that our club’s strength comes from the diversity of its members, and that diversity can lead to differences of opinion. Make our club stronger by respecting those differences rather than fighting them.

Beth’s number one membership retention tip: Love Altrusa, and let it show!

Beth BlairGovernor

Please let your voice be heard. Write your ideas, and send them to Governor Beth for publishing on “Thoughts From the Mighty Ninth.”

 

 

The Nuts and Bolts

So, we’ve identified our target audience and its preferred communication channel, and we’ve worked on creating connections through like-minded social media channels. Now, let’s address a few of the nuts and bolts of how all this works.

Do you have a personal Facebook account? You should, and your club should, too. The fact is, Facebook is how the world is communicating right now, and if you want your club to move forward, you have to participate.

Your club should, in fact, have at minimum two Facebook pages. The first one is a group page, with club members as the only participants in the group. This page is not for the public to see. Here is where you should share the information only club members care about. For instance, wish one another happy birthday here. Share news of members and reference meeting reminders. Each member is able to post on this page.

Your club also needs to have a fan page, which is the type of Facebook page most people recognize. This page will have a couple of administrators to control the content. This is the page we want the public to follow.

Once you’ve set up the page, follow these hints to make it shine.

·         Make sure all of your members “like” your public-facing page, even if they are “members” of your group page, so all posted content will appear on their feeds for their friends to see.

·         Stay away posting the self-referential information; post what would most appeal to the public. For instance, if your club spent Make a Difference Day working at the local food bank, make sure you’ve posted lots and lots of pictures and written about what you’ve done.

·         Tag, tag, tag. You want to tag each person in each picture, you want to tag where you are, and you want to tag the project. Why? Let’s say there’s a picture of me on Facebook stocking apples at the North Texas Food Bank for Make a Difference Day. First you tag me in the picture, now all of my Facebook will see that picture in their news feed. That’s a lot of people seeing what we’re doing. Now let’s say the picture had four Altrusans in it, all tagged. That’s the Facebook network of four people seeing us working hard and having fun servicing our community.

·         In addition to tagging people in posts and photos, we want write in the description that we’re at the North Texas Food Bank. That will mean our picture will also pop up on a Google search. You can add more, like “Altrusa International Inc. of Dallas serving the North Texas Food Bank on Make a Difference Day.”

There are a couple more ways to use Facebook that can be beneficial. An event or fund-raiser your club holds can have a fan page of its own. This works best if it is an annual event as it takes a while to build a following. Have each of your members “like” the page, so Facebook will share that information with all their friends.

You can also create an event on Facebook. By creating an event you can show the time, place, date, and what the activity is. Next, you want to invite all of your members and ask them to invite or share this with all their friends. For instance, in addition to our annual fund-raiser having its own Facebook fan page, with lots of pictures and glowing remarks, The fund-raiser is created as a Facebook event each year. Our goal is to have each of our members share this with all of their friends and then to have at least some of their friends share it with their friends. This is how something goes viral. You remember the old shampoo commercial: “and they’ll tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on and so on”? Well, this is just that on a larger scale.

Consider focusing more on the Club website and Facebook for the coming year. Get your various pages up to speed and looking great. Make it interesting to nonmembers. Create tags that will generate Google hits. Add lots of pictures, videos, and blogs. There are so many great reasons to be an Altrusan, let’s use social media to let the rest of the world know it.

Deborah Hecht
Altrusa International Inc. of Dallas

Please let your voice be heard. Write your ideas, and send them to Governor Beth for publishing on “Thoughts From the Mighty Ninth.”

Kicking Off a Successful Social Media Campaign

Yesterday we discussed that reaching Gen-X comes most readily through engaging social media channels. Today, I’ll teach you how to start doing that.

It’s important to know that setting up a Facebook fan page, a group page, a Twitter account, and a LinkedIn account alone is not enough. That was my mistake. I was the oaf at the cocktail party who stood on the table and screamed how great Altrusa is and how each person should join. I thought if I said it enough times, people would listen. I was wrong. There are ways to do this that take a bit more time and effort but should yield better results.

Let’s go back to the analogy of the cocktail party or another social event. How do we actually behave here? What we typically do is join a group that has already gathered for conversation. Again, we don’t just butt in with what we think we should be talking about; we listen for a while.

This is what we should do to kick off a successful social media campaign. Start by listening. Join or “like” the social media groups that have similar goals as some of your service projects or fund-raising projects. For instance, if your group does work with the food bank, consider joining groups about feeding the hungry. If you work on literacy projects, find groups regarding literacy. When you join these groups, start by simply reading the comments to get a feel for the group. Listen, see what the tone is, discern what’s important to these folks, watch how they do things. The next step is to interact. When you read a comment that is relatable to something your club does, mention it. For example, if the literacy group conversation moves to how it’s hard to get books to kids in impoverished areas and your club just happens to donate books, well, there’s your golden opportunity to write something like, “Our Altrusa club recently donated 500 books to the XYZ School. There’s an explanation of how we did it on our website at ….”

With this sort of comment we’ve accomplished a couple of things. First, we’ve shared that we have donated books with a group of people who think books are important. We shared a message with people who care. Second, we have referred these people who care to our website. Hopefully, these people will click the link and see pictures and video from the event and testimony from those who were there. They will see that we are people just like them, doing what they like to do.

The linking is a very important step in the process to create a following. There needs to be a ton of back and forth linking between your Facebook page, your LinkedIn account, and your webpage. Everything should eventually drive to your site, which will then drive to personal interaction. Here’s another analogy. I don’t know if you have ever done any online dating, but I think we all know the premise of how it works. This isn’t really that different. We put ourselves out there with what we hope will catch the attention of someone we’d be interested in. We make sure we’ve presented our best pictures and have descriptions that portray us in the most positive way. Once we catch the guy’s attention, we hope to start the online conversation, but of course, the eventual goal is to meet in person. Remember, if you saw a profile on Match.com that had in big, bold letters “MARRY ME NOW,” you probably would be a bit frightened away or you would at least ignore this person. Same for us, give people a chance to get to know us and then naturally they will want to become Altrusans, or at least help.

Tomorrow: The Nuts and Bolts

Deborah Hecht
2013-2015 Membership Development Committee Co-Chair (Recruitment)

Please let your voice be heard. Write your ideas, and send them to Governor Beth for publishing on “Thoughts From the Mighty Ninth.”

Celebrate Altrusa Using Social Media

It is no longer a question of IF clubs should execute a social media strategy. The question for most clubs is how to best execute a meaningful and engaging approach that generates results. With so many social media marketing options available, communications teams must also decide best practices and what tactics to avoid.

First thing for each of us to remember is social media is social first, media second. Imagine yourself in a room with the people you are reaching out to. Speak to people as if they are there with you. You probably would not walk into a cocktail party and immediately shout out “Hi, I’m an Altrusan! Greatest organization ever! You should join, or at the very least, donate money to us!” Unfortunately, this is part of many organizations’ bull-in-a-china-shop approaches to social media.

There are a lot of nuts and bolts questions regarding social media. Let’s start with why we bother with social media at all. Nearly half of all Americans use Facebook. Based on ages, the group we are most likely to grab and influence using social media is Generation X, a group of people who typically have now settled into their lives and can think about giving back to their communities.

So who is Generation X? This is a group that is motivated by results; they are independent, flexible, and adaptable multitaskers, and they know how to work their computers. Generation X expects to change the rules and views change as an opportunity—which is why using social media to reach them is going to be important. New methods of communication like Facebook and Twitter are wide-reaching, easy to use, free, environmentally friendly, and most importantly, the way our target market is communicating with one another.

In other words: Get on this bandwagon or get left behind.

Tomorrow: Kicking Off a Successful Social Media Campaign

Deborah Hecht
2013-2015 Membership Development Committee Co-Chair (Recruitment)

Please let your voice be heard. Write your ideas, and send them to Governor Beth for publishing on “Thoughts From the Mighty Ninth.”

Why I Became an Altrusan: Deborah Hecht, Dallas

Recently at conference I was chatting with a former Governor and she asked me why I became an Altrusan.  Easy question.  I had gotten to a point in my life where I was enjoying some of the spoils of my past hard work.  I recognized my blessings and new it was time to give back.  That’s why I joined Altrusa.  Thing is though, that’s not why I fell in love with Altrusa. 

My mother passed away at age 48.  In her short life, she was a tremendous community servant.  Her dedication was well known, but I think in the years since her death I had forgotten.  When I became an Altrusan I was flooded with memories of my Mom’s hard work for our town and our schools.  Each act of service I perform makes me feel closer to my mother.  As I follow my mother’s lead I know how proud she would have been of me.  THIS is why I fell in love with Altrusa. 

So, what’s your story? Why did you become an Altrusan?  Why do you love Altrusa?  Please share your story with other Altrusans, better yet…….share your story with potential Altrusans.  If everyone knew what we know; if they knew any of the many reasons why we love our organization, don’t you think they’d want to share in the experience? 

--Deborah Hecht, Dallas Club

Facebook Fridays

Can social media change Altrusa? You bet.

Social media thrives on friends passing messages on to friends, who in turn pass them to other friends, and so on. If an Altrusan sends out a message about Altrusa, and her friends pass the message on as well, before long we have a network of people who are being introduced to Altrusa (and whatever message was sent).

So, let’s try an experiment. Every Friday, check in with your Facebook account. Post something about Altrusa: why you love it, what it means to you, what your club’s recent service project was—whatever. We’ll even post reminders to you, sometimes with a topic to help inspire you to send a great message.

Keep in mind as you write your message that it’s meant to show off Altrusa to your friends. You want to pique their interest and get them thinking about how Altrusa could fit into their own lives. You might even close your message with an offer to “ask me about being an Altrusan.”

Send Governor Beth any successes you have from Facebook Fridays so we can brag on you and know that our experiment yielded results!

Please let your voice be heard. Write your ideas, and send them to Governor Beth for publishing on “Thoughts From the Mighty Ninth.”

 

Tags: Facebook, Membership

Meetings for Members (and Potential Members!)

On Tuesday night I attended the DFW Club’s installation banquet. I had a fabulous time! The food was great, the company was great, and of course, the cause was great. I want to tell you, though, about something in particular this club did very well. They hosted an event that was effective for both guests (potential Altrusans) and members (Altrusans we’d like to retain). It was amazing, and looked almost effortless. You can do it in YOUR club, too. Make every meeting an EVENT, and you’ll “gain and retain.”

GAIN GAIN GAIN

I bet DFW gets at least two new members out of this meeting, and perhaps one for another District Nine club. Why? Because they showed off their programs and their members were thrilled to tell the guests all about them.

• A presentation showed off their projects from the entire year. Just pictures set to music. I heard guests asking all about the projects, and I heard members enthusiastically describing them.
• Display boards, along with samples of some of their projects like blankets they are making, set at opposite corners of the room, drew guests in as they wondered “what is up with that cute blankie!” and allowed guests to explore the offerings of their club on their own time.

Cute, cute, cute, napkin ribbons and adorable
programs put the special touch on this
fabulous meeting.

RETAIN RETAIN RETAIN

• DFW has a great group of ladies. They are all chatty and engaging, and they are proud of what they’ve accomplished. The slide show really allowed them to reminisce and reflect about the great things they’ve done. With that combined with the inspirational installation program, current members came away with some inspiration to make the coming club year even better.
• Adorable (yet simple) decorations added a special touch. They had their napkins tied with ribbons … that had our great new logo! I kept my little yellow bow and attached it to my pin ribbon. It’s fantastic!

If I had one suggestion for the club, it would be to make sure to get the contact information for your guests and follow up. You don’t need to “close the deal” right away, just send a note to say thanks, and give her a call about a week before your next event to invite her along.

Thank you, Altrusa International Inc. of DFW, for a wonderful evening. Linda Pavona, you put together a great program and installation. Carla Helstrom, you’re going to be a great president. And Altrusans of DFW, please invite me to your next event. I want to be part of the amazing service you provide!

Beth Blair
Governor-Elect