acsrelay.org Monthly Newsletter - The Relay Times

Folks,

Each month I'll blog post some ideas on things that you can be focused on to make your event the best that it can be!... I used to send out variations of this newsletter for the Relay Ideas and Information Site I have maintain, http://www.acsrelay.org , as well as for the Relay Link extranet site we had for the South Atlantic Division. Thanks for all the folks who have shared great ideas in the past to create a brighter future for Relay For Life!

Going forward, I'll post this newsletter as the "Relay Times" on http://www.relayforlife.org as well as on the acsrelay.org blog I maintain. Hope you find it helpful! Note that these are my ideas as well as enhancements/additions from a wonderful cast of volunteers across the nation, and several wonderful staff leaders in the South Atlantic Division. Thanks for all the folks who have shared great ideas in the past to create a brighter future for Relay For Life!

Find below the October 2007 installment:

Relay Focus Areas of the Month

1. Team Retention

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.

2. 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.

• Team Recruitment and Retention Strategy
• Team Recruitment Wheel
• How To Recruit Captains and Teams
  

3. 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 goal.

• Fundraising Ideas

And fundraising with kids can be so important too! Here are some ideas for kids from A to Z! Get them involved early and help make it easy for them to do fun things to raise money.

• Fundraising Ideas For Kids From A to Z
  

"Taking Good Care of our Friends in Your Community" Tip of the Month

As the team retention committee is making their contacts with all of last year's teams, make a concerted effort to acknowledge their value to this community's fight against cancer – a nice note and/or personal call to each team is an added touch to show their significance in this Relay.

Other Hints and Suggestions

• When on http://www.relayforlife.org:
• Talk about your questions and ideas in the Forums - you can reach them in the left side navigation bar - "Relay For Life Forums".
• If you have a set of people that you'd like to share information with, a Group is a great way to communicate with them - see "Relay For Life Groups" in the left side navigation bar.
• Use the Search box at the top right to search for information you are looking for. Chances are you are not the first person with that question, and that prevents duplication!
• Remember to always check with your event committee and staff before applying an idea to make sure that there are not local/state considerations that you must take into account (sales tax rules in your state, particular things about your event or community that would make the idea inappropriate, etc.).
• If you have any feedback about this blog and its ideas, please send comments and suggestions to rflvolunteer@gmail.com.

There Is No Finish Line Until We Find A Cure!

Ramesh Moorthy

rflvolunteer

moderator, http://www.relayforlife.org

webmaster, http://www.acsrelay.org

What Do You Want From Relay For Life On-Line?

I have been involved in many conversations lately about how far we have come when it comes to our on-line capabilities for Relay For Life, and how far we still have to go.

I think it is important for us as volunteers and self-proclaimed leaders of this organization to 1. celebrate that we have more on-line resources than ever (http://www.relayforlife.org , http://www.acsrelay.org , http://www.cancer.org , and more!), 2. continue the dialogue on how we get better.

The fact is we can still improve our reach to volunteers out there looking for a cancer-related cause. Until we have 100% "hits" when a volunteer searches out a cancer-related cause and finds us as an option, we're not set up for the success I want. By having less than that, we leave many needs of potential volunteers unmet. And once a volunteer is giving their valuable time and talent to the Relay For Life, we have an obligation to continue to meet their needs.

On-line can be such an enabler
- it can provide a library of ideas (visit the Relay Library on relayforlife.org) so Relay For Life staff don't have to tie up valuable time searching for information like that to give to volunteers
- it can make it easy to find your event (visit http://www.cancer.org/docroot/par/content/PAR_1_Relay_For_Life.asp)
- I have received a lot of positive feedback about http://www.acsrelay.org 's Chairman's Manual
, which provides volunteers with a list of things every event should do

We need more stuff like above. What things do you want?

I get e-mails every day from volunteers who want these things who find me as someone to go to for help because I maintain http://www.acsrelay.org and moderate on http://www.relayforlife.org

Let's give them a benchmark experience with a charity on-line - 100% success when they search for RFL and ACS related information. 100% information provided; 100% user satisfaction; 100% success in getting them involved in the Relay For Life cause.

What do you think needs to happen for us to achieve this vision? E-mail rflvolunteer@gmail.com with ideas and questions!

Do You Have An Eye For Photography?

Do people say you have an eye for photography?

Or maybe your just a closet photo buff like I am. Either way our American
Cancer Society volunteers have found quite the cool photo sharing place
online. It's called Flickr.

And on Flickr our Relay For Life volunteers have created their own little
corner called the Relay For Life Photo Pool. So far this online photo pool
has 89 members and over 2,000 photos from all over the country.

If you would like to contribute your photos to this pool it's a simple
process.

1. Visit http://www.flickr.com/groups/relay_for_life/
2. Sign in with your Flickr account or Join Flickr if your not a member
(it's free)
3. Upload your favorite RFL photos to your own account
4. Then visit http://www.flickr.com/groups/relay_for_life/ again and hit
the join button
5. Then go to a photo you want to contribute and hit "Send to Group"

In the meantime you can check out some of my Central Texas Relay Photos
here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/relayforlife/sets/

______________
David Neff, CIW
Director of Online Communications
American Cancer Society - Austin Corporate Office
Office: 512.919.1908
Text : 5127895672@messaging.sprintpcs.com

The American Cancer Society has an easy way for you to get involved, stay
involved, and help save lives. Visit www.cancerenews.org to register to
receive newsletters that will come right to your email inbox.

Recruiting the Best Committee

One of the questions I get often is what to do to recruit the best committee... Obviously, there is no one right answer, but, here are a few thoughts on the subject:

1) Ask people you know and trust – Building your Relay For Life committee with people you know and trust is a great start – surround yourself with people you want to work with.

2) Ask every committee member to bring at least one additional committee member on-board – Your committee members are the best source of other people – ask them to bring someone they know and trust on-board!

3) Post for committee members and volunteers on high-traffic internet sites – Post at sites about volunteer opps with your Relay. Sites include:

a. http://www.volunteermatch.org - Volunteer Match - Largest online site with lots of volunteer opportunities – great place to post – you can expect a lot of responses

b. http://www.1-800-volunteer.org/1800Vol/OpenIndexAction.do - 1-800-Volunteer.org - One of the biggest sites for volunteers

c. http://www.craigslist.org - Craig’s List lets you post all sorts of things, including advertisments looking for Relay For Life volunteers – lots of volunteers look on Craig’s List

d. http://www.networkforgood.org/volunteer/ - Network For Good - One of the biggest sites for volunteer connections

e. http://www.servenet.org/ - Servenet.org - Big site of volunteer opps

f. Google Base - lets you upload volunteer opportunities so they show up on Google! Great idea!
http://google.com/base/help/mktgvolunteer.html?utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na_us-google&utm_medium=ha&utm_content=volunteer&utm_term=find%20volunteers

g. http://www.bethecause.org/vopp/volunteer.php - Be The Cause - Another site to post volunteer opps, with volunteer registration – particularly strong in Kansas, California.

h. http://www.idealist.org/

i. http://volunteer.monster.com/ - Monster.com’s take on volunteer opps – again a good place to post – they are collaborating with idealist.org for this project.

j. http://www.planetfriendly.net/volunteer/

Your post could look something like this:

WANTED: Volunteers for the American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Towson, MD @ Towson University – Friday May 13 6pm -Saturday May 14^th noon, 2003. An overnight event where volunteers walk/run to raise money to fight cancer. Volunteers needed to serve on event planning committee, put together teams for the event, as well as volunteer the days of the event for setup, support, and break-down. Relay For Life is a fun, carnival-like atmosphere where we will raise over $100,000 in the fight against cancer! YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND HELP US FIND A CURE! Contact towsonrelay@yahoo.com or call Sue at 410-555-5555 for more information.

4) E-mail everyone you know – Send out an e-mail soliciting interest in involvement in Relay For Life – you never know when someone has a link to cancer – by e-mailing those you know, you might find someone who has a personal connection and wants to be involved, but has never been asked. You can’t know till you ask!

5) Make The Weird Ask – Each week – make one “Weird Ask” – ask someone you wouldn’t think to ask otherwise. :) For example,

a. if your event has a lot of folks associated with the local hospital on the committee and heading up most of the teams, ask your committee to ask one person in the coming week who they meet while they are shopping – the grocery lane checkout person, the person who does their oil change, the person at the drycleaners, or the waitress who waits on them at lunch.

b. If your event is mostly people you work with, ask each person to ask someone they are friends with that you all don’t work with to join the committee, captain a team, or volunteer the day of the event

6) Post Flyers Around Town – Have a Spread Out Saturday, where your committee spreads out all over town and posts flyers, looks for corporate sponsors, and puts out coin cans. Also have them look for event volunteers, committee members, businesses that want to have teams, and donation items for your event (and for a silent auction if you are having one).

7) Promote Your Best Team Captains From the Previous Year – Ask your strongest team captains from the previous year to join your committee, bring what they did that worked, as well as their ideas for improvement. Great team captains recruit great teams… chances are they will be great at recruiting other team captains and will have some good connections. Team captains that join your committee will often work to get their team to “spin-off” into multiple teams

Just a few thoughts to get you started... Please post responses on other ideas or email rflvolunteer@gmail.com !

MySpace, Friendster, Flickr - Social Network and Cancer

As MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Friendster and others continue to revolutionize the internet space by changing how people connect with each other, it is impacting how people fight cancer.

We all know how blogging has given cancer survivors a new voice on the internet. Social networking is a way for events to have "MySpace" websites to find participants, cancer survivors to connect with one another (a new way to find a support group), and more.

Check out my acsrelay.org introduction to MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/acsrelay

In just a few days, I have 36 "MySpace" friends and I am sure will have more soon. The cancer "space" in MySpace is amazing - everything from prayers for those fighting, to memorials of those lost; from Relay For Life event websites for those who want to get involved, to those just want to talk about cancer in the context of what it means to their life.

Check out some great MySpace Relay For Life event websites at:

http://www.myspace.com/pittsbororelayforlife

and

http://www.myspace.com/relayforlifecenterville

The bottom line - social networking on the internet is becoming a significant part of the landscape - people are making friends and choosing their charities via sites such as MySpace. Events that have an active presence for their event via MySpace are also going to attract a younger demographic to Relay For Life, a great way to keep future generations of Relayers coming our way.

Go check out these sites and see what's out there when it comes to Relay For Life and the battle against cancer. You might be surprised at all that you find!

Extreme Home Makeover and Relay For Life

I received an email yesterday from someone who works for the company that is one of the contractors that did the Extreme Home Makeover, Kersteins Designs... There is an article about the project and the family at the company's website:

www.kerstienshomes.com/extrememakeover/meet_the_family.htm

How cool is that!

There Is No Finish Line Until We Find A Cure!

Ramesh

Top Downloads on acsrelay.org!

Here are the top downloads on acsrelay.org - check them out!

#1	FUNDRAISING IDEAS FROM A TO Z - One of the longest lists of fundraising ideas you'll find anywhere!
#2	RELAY FOR LIFE POEMS - A large collection of Relay For Life poems and links to cancer-related poems.
#3	FLYER - RELAY MINI POSTER - This is a flyer you can modify for your Relay For Life event.
#4	FLYER - RELAY INFO SHEET - This is a 1-pager info sheet you can customize for your Relay For Life event.
#5	MUSIC SUGGESTIONS LIST FOR RELAY - Luminaria, Opening, Survivor Lap, Caregiver Lap, and other Ceremony Song Suggestions is newly updated and bigger than ever... songs for every part of Relay! One of the most comprehensive song lists you'll find anywhere!
#6	TEAM DAY OF CHECKLISTList of the things your team should bring the day of to Relay!
#7	TEAM THEMES AND NAMES - Here are team and event theme ideas as well as team name ideas!
#8	FUNDRAISING LETTERS - These are great examples of fundraising letters used by volunteers that you can customize for your own fundraising!
#9	TEAM CAPTAIN RESPONSIBILITIES - A basic summary of your responsibilties as a team captain!
#10	LUMINARIA CEREMONY SCRIPT - LIGHT BY GROUP VERSION - A luminaria ceremony script for larger events - names are read by group of affected cancer survivor or victim.
#11	THE RELAY FOR LIFE CHAIRMAN'S CHECKLIST MANUAL - This is a manual that has the list of essential things you need to know to plan a Relay For Life event.
#12	ON-SITE FUNDRAISING IDEAS - Here are ideas that your team and event can use to fundraise on site!
#13	BANK NIGHT IDEAS - How to make your Bank Nights a success!
#14	OPENING CEREMONY AND SURVIVOR LAP SCRIPT
#15	RELAY FOR LIFE LOGO LINK - Here's a link to download the Relay For Life Logo!
#16	LUMINARIA CEREOMNY SCRIPT - READ ALL NAMES VERSION - This luminaria script is for smaller events;
#17	RAINY RELAY FOLLOW-UP LETTER - Did you have bad weather at your Relay? E-mail and post this letter to let your teams know that rain or shine, you want them to get their fundraising turned in.
#18	RAIN AND BAD WEATHER PLAN - Some things to consider for a Plan B if if the weather goes bad!
#19	LUMINARIA CEREMONY SCRIPT - READ ALL NAMES VERSION - An example of a script for the Luminaria Ceremony for smaller events, where you can read the names of all those who are honored, and light them one at a time.
#20	FEEDBACK FORM - A form you can ask team captains/participants to fill out to provide feedback on your event!

Remembering Those With Cancer This Holiday Season

When the American Cancer Society Relay For Life started over 20 years ago, one of the reasons given to explain why it was an overnight event was that "cancer patients don't get the night off from cancer, so why should we?". How true.

Well, those that we know who are battling cancer don't get time off for the holidays either. So one great way many Relay For Life participants honor survivors during the holidays is by turning their holiday letter into something more - a request for donations for the American Cancer Society Relay For Life.

I know several folks who request donations in lieu of a holiday gift - what great volunteers we have! And these holiday letters can be a great way to jumpstart fundraising - these folks raise thousands of dollars with their holiday letter alone!

If you'd like to see examples of fundraising letters, please visit the following link: acsrelay.org Fundraising Letters and scroll down to the fundraising letters.

Happy Holidays!