All in for Autism Run: Meeting Update – 24th February, 2017

Weekly Key Metrics:

• Registrations (Goal: 3000): 410 – up 10%
• Sponsorship Totals (Goal: $70,000): $71,000 – no change
• Volunteers (Goal: 243): 61 – up 3.3%
• New Members: 0
• Total Amount Raised (Goal: $120,000): $84,410 vs. $116,411 (2016 Total)

Summary

We have received word that the Mayor has agreed to make the proclamation for Autism Month at our club on 7^th April.  This will be used to leverage more visibility for our event and the timing is perfect.  We also published our latest press release and we are looking for pickup.  We are in process of securing our major sponsor agreements, and the work around collateral/cards will be started so we can have them ready for distribution.  Reaching out to booth sponsors has also begun.  We are now focused on getting started with race logistics, while pushing aggressively on registrations as we are lagging here.

Registrations

This is the area that we all need to get behind and to work our magic in rallying the club to push hard on this front.  The internal PR machine is already in motion to get the membership motivated, which I think will be easier since we are asking them to lean in to find runners/volunteers rather than sponsors.  Experience tells me that club members find this an easier ask versus requesting money.

Howard has done a tremendous job on the analysis, which I have reproduced here: our “registration numbers fall 534 short of last year’s total.  This is simply the difference between the 944 registrants at this time last year (2016) less the 410 for this year (2017).  The average payment per registrant in 2017 at the 8-week out point is slightly more than double what it was a year ago ($31.80 to $15.08).  This is good news in that the dollar differential between the two years is not all that great, namely, $13,140 in 2017 to $14,473 in 2016.  In other words, in the all-important variable of $ generated by registrations, we are only $1,333 behind the 8-week out point of last year.  With a good push over the next few weeks, we should be able to close that gap and hopefully extend beyond it.”

We have some PR events that will help and more detail will be provided below.  We will also start to engage our members through skits, especially as I think this is an easier ask from our members in terms of supporting the event.  We will continue to push promotions, where appropriate to get more registrations.

In short the next eight weeks are critical and we need to get 323 registrations per week to make our number and this is only possible if we all lean in to make a difference.

Sponsorship

We are in the process of sending out the sponsorship agreements for those sponsors who have donated more than $2,500 to the race.  Others who have made $1,500 donation will have a booth and appear on the t-shirts.  Logistical activities to bring it all together is underway now.

We do need to reach out to all our sponsors and make sure we are helping them to push and promote our event to their own employees.  This will be a major source of support for our race, so we will want to make sure we do not lose the opportunity for engaging our partners’ reach in securing volunteers and participants for our event.

Marketing

We are continuing to build on our momentum for marketing.  The key updates are as follows:

• Zach Scott will be speaking at our club this coming Friday (https://bbrc.net/speaker/finding-success-and-overcoming-adversity/) and it is my hope that we can tweet and push through the social media channels comments about his talk, while promoting our event.
• We have secured the Mayoral Proclamation for Autism month – thanks to Joellen for getting this locked down. We will have the Mayor come to a club meeting on 7^th April to make the announcement.  We have plans around this event to make sure we can bring the media in to cover the announcement, meet with families impacted by Autism and learn about our event.
• Our press release has been pushed out to our local media, website, Facebook account and social media sites.
• The next reach out will be to our partners/sponsors, so we can use their channels as a way to reach a wider audience for sourcing participants and volunteers.
• We will also be in the Kindering Brochure at their upcoming auction next month and we hope that we can leverage their network for driving up participation in our event.

Internal Promotions

Wendi and Carmela will be working on an internal skit to drive up engagement with our membership, so we can get their support in tracking down runners and volunteers for our race.  It is important we do secure our membership’s involvement since this is the easiest way for us to increase participation in the event.

Booths

Colleen has started the process of reaching out to potential booth sponsors.  This is also an easy opportunity for us to secure additional funds with small businesses who want to be a part of the event.  Let’s find ways to promote this with our members and see if we can get other supporters via our network.

Volunteers

A small increase in volunteers this week – two.  Dustin will be back in the fray this coming week as he continues with his reach out to the schools and brings in volunteers from this community.  Paul Osborn is managing the process with our members and working to get support from our club.

Logistics

We are now at a stage where some of the logistics for the event have to be kicked off.  There is work to be done with getting our t-shirts produced and I have kicked off the process with the negotiations.  We also need to get our new collateral published and I have reached out Orwell Events to inquire about the next steps around this activity.  We will also need to get ready for the preparations with respect to the course, organization of the event, race village and other related activities that are necessary for us to bring this event to a conclusion.

Finally

If there is anything that any of you want to get involved with, please let me know.  There is plenty of work to go around and there is no need to be shy if you are interested in making a contribution.

Onward and forwards – let’s get our registrations in and the preparations for the race going.  It is only eight more weeks to the big day!