Bellevue 10K/5K Run/Walk

Team,

Thank you to those who attended the meeting this past Friday and to those who provided apologies with their updates.  I really appreciate the engagement from all, in spite of our busy lives.

Now, onto business with the latest updates from the meeting and others.  I will go by each area as usual and please feel free to comment or add any other information to the details below, especially where I have missed anything.

Autism Partners

The biggest news on this front is with the news that Seattle Childrens will not be sponsoring the Kids Dash for the event.  I have asked Mike to work on getting a meeting with Seattle Childrens through his contact, so we can see what support we can secure from them for the event.  I do not hold out much in terms of support as past experience has taught us that we are not really big enough for their attention.

Out of disappointment there is always opportunity and I think we can explore the ideas from the committee around other autism groups we can partner with and see if we are able to secure another partner.  We can also expand on the ideas for making this event more accessible to smaller autism groups with the intent of expanding our marketing reach for the run.  Please let me know if you have any ideas and keep John and Jenny copied into the exchanges, so we can keep the sponsorship channel engaged with the conversations.

BBRC Internal Promotion

Paul Osborn is going to work on a whiteboard idea that allows us to radiate updates to the membership on our key metrics for the run.  We will use this to gamify engagement with the club in the same way that he has successfully accomplished with the Foundation drive in November.  The plan is to have key metrics around sponsorships secured, registrations, dollars raised and other useful numbers to help us manage our event against our goals.

A couple of other areas will be the development of collaterals and skits for the event as well and to tie these into the external PR plan, so we can have something every month starting in the New Year to help keep the visibility of the event high amongst the membership.  This will include encouraging our membership to promote actively through our and their social media channels.

Course Planning

Steve Luplow is looking for support to stage the event in the south parking garage of Bellevue Square.  He will be requesting this through the Bellevue Collection.  Jeff will also be reaching out to Titus and Lt Sanabria on Monday to see if they have any updated info or if they would like to sit down to discuss options.  I will let you know as soon as we have news, so the collaterals for the event can be printed and made available for distribution.

PR-Marcom

Alex and Michel have pulled together the PR plan for the event.  I have asked them to start to execute on the plan as it is a good plan and I thank them for making this happen.  Here is the latest iteration for you to review: https://www.dropbox.com/s/irfy61zfqix2v0s/BBRC%20PR%20Plan%2011-18-16.doc?dl=0.  Please take the opportunity to read this and see where you can leverage it or support it with Alex and Michel.

I know that there has also been a request for the latest version of the logo from some of you so that it can be used in your work.  The logo is located here in DropBox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9aj80oh44bmw9td/AADuuEaRAQKlRVV3BpNz_jkHa?dl=0.

We do need to start leveraging the social media channels for the promotion of the run.  This is an easy thing to do and I encourage all of you with Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter accounts to start the kick off on your own using the registration page: http://allinforautism.org/registration/.  We can all take the initiative here to make this happen.

I also want to see if we could also come up with some ideas for guerilla marketing campaigns that allows us to go out into the community and promote the event.  This will allow us to raise the visibility of the event and it will allow us to do something creative.  Big ideas welcome.

Registrations

We are definitely behind on our registrations compared with last year, so we need to get cracking on the promotions.  To this point there are a couple of things that will be happening:

• We will be offering a $5 promotional discount to drive up registrations and this will be coming out next week.  It will be for a short period of time, so we can create a sense of urgency.  To my point above, please start to promote through your social media channels.
• I will be sending out a note to all the membership to engage them in the promotional activities of the event and have them also drive traffic to the site through their respective networks.

I will be looking to each of us to help push this effort to make sure we can secure early registration and allow us to take some of the risk out of the event itself as a result.

Sponsorship

John let me know that the team are starting to gear up for reaching out and securing sponsors for the event.  Please lend John and Jenny all the support that they need in finding sponsors for the event.  We do want to find sponsors who can provide the trifecta of support, which is money, runners and volunteers.  Let’s make sure that we seek sponsors with this in mind.

Also, guerilla activities in this area will be much appreciated, where we can secure information or opportunities to promote the event:

• Last year Carmela went onto the Google Campus to register runners and secure matching funds from the company – this was an awesome approach and we can expand on this idea by reaching out to other companies in the area and see if they will allow us to do something similar
• Please find out if your company supports volunteer programs and see what it takes for us to register our event on the website.  For example, Bellevue City will allow us to leverage their website and facilities to promote the run.  I know that there are others like Microsoft, etc. who offer the same.
• There are youth groups we are connected with like Rotaract, Student of the Month schools and DECA that we can engage with, so any of you who have connections there please let me know and we can start to plan our activities around them sooner.  For example, I have found out that Eastside Prep now has a services committee which is looking for projects and will approach them for support – I will be approaching them next week.

Volunteers

Dustin has made available the planning information around volunteers and it is available on DropBox as well: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/crouq6ytoy6nius/AACy7aBPXDQO6Z5ToDPhHe2Ia?dl=0.  Please review as it gives a great view into the scale of the challenge that Dustin takes on for the run each year.  We do not want to lose the emphasis on getting volunteers as well as runners for this event, so per the comments above keep this at the forefront of thinking as well.

Conclusion

As I mentioned in my closing comments last Friday, it is important for us to proactively engage with each other where you see opportunities to support the run.  Please make sure you keep Chris Boland and me copied into those activities/engagements, so we can make it visible to the whole group.  Our goal is to keep the communication around the event at a high level to ensure we leverage the collective capability of this team in making this a successful event.  So, if you see something where you can make a difference, do not hesitate to do something and make it happen.

Team,

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and that you are able to enjoy the time with your friends and families.

I do have a couple of quick updates for the team.  My intent is keep these emails coming so we can all be on the same page during the ramp up to the actual event itself.

Sponsorship

We have heard back from Seattle Childrens and they have confirmed that they are unable to be the sponsor for the Kids Dash ($2500).  We have made the decision to keep them as a beneficiary, but this news may warrant another conversation.  I welcome thoughts on this in terms of alternative sponsors.  In the meantime, we have left them off the website until we make a decision about the partnership and we will work on speaking with them to see how they can assist us in spite of this decision.

In the meantime please continue to work with your network and others to secure other sponsors for the run.  Pass the information onto John and Jenny, so they can work with you.  Also, please make sure you are able to ask questions around how potential sponsorship partners can support the race beyond financial considerations, i.e. volunteers, race teams and marketing.  This will help increase our reach.

I have attached the first draft of the sponsorship brochure that we will use to promote and hopefully secure sponsors.  Please provide me with your feedback and then we can work on the next steps of producing it.

Marketing

Alex and Michel have pulled together the first draft of the marketing plan for the race.  I will be finalizing my review of the document with the intent of then sharing amongst the team to make sure we have a couple of things resolved: (1) an understanding how we can leverage this event to support the general themes behind the race – run, give, volunteer and BBRC membership and (2) to make sure we are telling the story of Rotary within our local community.  This will make it easier for us to build momentum and engagement with the event itself as others see the overall benefit.

Website

Good news – our registration page has gone live!  Please take advantage of promoting this to your friends and others within Rotary to make sure we get traction around the event itself.  Here is the link: https://secure.getmeregistered.com/get_information.php?event_id=125588.  My thanks to Orswell events and Paul Osborn for the effort in getting this up, to help us secure registrations.  Now we need to promote it!

Course Update

We have no update at this juncture.  You will see we have positioned the website to secure engagement without necessarily detailing the course.  We will make sure to get this sorted out once we have details.

I will call another committee meeting after next week’s club meeting, so we can address any questions or issues in person.  Until then, enjoy the long weekend.

My thanks to everyone for attending the kick off meeting for the run.

This article will quickly recap some of the decisions from the meeting and to tackle a few housekeeping items.  Please feel free to get back to the list if you have other items to add, or if there was something missed in my update.

Run Objectives

After the meeting, it was clear that we have an opportunity to increase our visibility in the community with respect to the work of Rotary and Autism.  To this end, our key goal for the run is to increase the number of runners – targeting to register 3000 runners this year, so we can have a strong showing at the event itself.  Our secondary goal will be to increase visibility of our club’s involvement in the community with a view that we can demonstrate the value of Rotary and attract new members.

This will be achieved in the following ways:

• Leveraging Jeff Orswell Events to drive traffic through community outreach campaigns and promotions
• Connecting with our key partners and working with them to increase their involvement in promoting the run
• Working with other Autism related charities to drive up visibility and engagement through these organizations to support our goal
• Seeking strategic sponsorship opportunities that will engage the local business community to support our goal
• Raise the profile of Rotary and seek support from other Rotary clubs and the district in supporting our efforts
• Increase the visibility of the run through our own club’s membership to increase engagement and support for our key fund raising event
• Finally, work with the City and other strategic partnerships (chamber of commerce) to support the goals of our event through alignment of interests

We will work on aligning each of these key areas across the areas of responsibility that you have each agreed to own for the Run this Rotary year.  It is going to be tremendous as we all align our activities in the areas above to drive up registrations and, ultimately, success in raising awareness for Autism in our community.  By highlighting Rotary’s involvement, I believe we can find an opportunity to connect like-minded individuals to join and play their part in making “Service Above Self” a part of their lives.

Course Selection

We still need to secure the course for next year’s run.  Jeff Orswell and Steve Luplow will work on securing the new course with the City.  Initial thinking is that we find a course that leverages the Chamber of Commerce’s route, coupled with park paths, to help minimize the expense of police and city support.  Joellen will work with the City to register the administrative aspects of securing permission for the run.  This being said, we are committing to the last Sunday of April and all promotional activities will reflect this date.  When we have the route confirmed we will be able to add this information later.

Dropbox

We will be using Dropbox as the main tool for capturing and sharing information related to the event and the planning activities.  This will continue to leverage the work already captured in this location from prior events.

My expectation is that we will all use this for our respective areas of responsibility, so we can stay coordinated across each other’s area of ownership.

Key Partners

It is our intention to make our key partners for this event more engaged and involved.  We have already received a strong indication from Kindering to be more involved and we will be meeting with them to discuss the number of ways that we can support each other.  Mike Ralph has kindly agreed to broker a meeting with Seattle Childrens, so we can have a similar conversation and work out this partnership can work for us both.

We are also going to look at other partnership opportunities to support our goals.  To this end, Kim has agreed to work on researching other Autism groups that are out there.

Kick-off on Registrations

Jeff Orswell will initiate the activities to get the early registration process kicked off.  We have approved the key activities with respect to Website, “Keep the Date” cards and other promotions to engage runners with our event in April.  Jeff will work with us closely to support the engage runners across the community and we need to make sure we tie our media and internal promotions with Jeff as these activities get kicked off.

Activities

• Co-Chairs: Chris Boland and me will work together on this year’s race – please make sure we are both copied into communications related to the race.  This will make sure we are in lockstep with coordinating across activities.
• Sponsorship: this will be led by John Martinka with support from Jenny Andrews.  Please work with them in passing on sponsor questions or contacts.  We will communicate this out to the club.  We will also have to come up with some slightly different sponsorship packages due to lack of information on the course.  We will also want to look at other ideas for sponsorship – one being around medals (promote Rotary) where we can have sponsors on the medal and the medal strap.
• Booth Sponsor: this will be led by Colleen Turner.  This year we need to lock down where the Race Village will be located.  We also have an opportunity to make two changes this year: (1) offer free booths for key Autism partners and (2) make a bigger splash on Rotary.  Jeff Orswell made the good point of mixing these booths in amongst the business sponsored booths, to improve traffic flow.  Any other ideas or booth sponsors should be passed onto Colleen.
• PR/Marketing: this will be led by Alex Chehab and supported by Michel Carter.  We will be aligning our PR/Marketing with the goals above and with the activities of Orswell Events.  All PR/Marketing ideas should be directed to these two individuals.  We want to increase engagement with our local press/media outlets; social media; website; and think Race Day PR activities to increase visibility, excitement, i.e. have the Mayor make the last Sunday the Run for Autism day, etc.
• City Liaison: this will be led by Joellen.  We are looking for a support person to assist Joellen with this important activity.  The City of Bellevue is incredibly supportive of our run and have made city outlets for run brochures and posters available to us to increase visibility.  We have strong relationships and we want to continue to leverage the good work of Joellen in this area.
• Course Coordinator: this will be led by Steve Luplow.  This is an important year for us as we need to find a new course for the run.  Steve will be working with Jeff Orswell in finding a route that works.  We will also be looking for an additional person to support this activity.
• Day of Race Coordinator: we are looking for someone to lead this activity – please let me know if you have any good suggestions.  In the meantime, Steve Roberts will support us and will be on hand to train up the person who will take lead on this activity.
• Club Promotion: led by Wendi Fischer and Carmela Ramaglia.  This will be an opportunity for us to raise the visibility of our progress in securing our goals with the membership and across the district.  We will also use this to drive up engagement with our own membership to drive up runners, sponsorship opportunities and to raise the profile of Rotary.
• Finance: this will be led by Howard with support from Jason.  A critical aspect of the event and it is good to have these two chaps making sure we focus on the top line while managing the expenses.
• Registration Coordinator: this will be led by Francine Weaver and we are looking for a support person.  Francine will work closely with our finance team and promotional teams as we track the registrations and use this to measure our progress against the goals.  We will also want to use registrations as an opportunity to promote Rotary this year with a view to engaging more prospects for membership.
• Kid’s Dash: this will be led by Traci Tenhulzen.  A great event and we will want to make sure we find an opportunity to get this great PR/sponsorship event supported with the course changes.  Traci will represent our interests here.
• Website/Program management: Paul will continue to ably lead our efforts around the website and internal promotions.  Paul has also kindly agreed to work with all of us in terms of managing our activities to keep the cross-collaboration and communication at a high level.
• Announcer / Membership: Tim Leahy will be the race day announcer and will also work to drive the membership objectives for us during this coming race.
• Volunteer Coordinator: Dustin Walling will be leading this area for us this year.  The good news is that we have some ideas that will allow us to make it easier to secure volunteer support for this year.

 Conclusion

I want to thank all of the team for supporting our fund raiser this year.  I am super excited to be working with you all on bring this event to life and to making a splash in our community.  You all have great ideas and it will be brilliant to see these contributions weave into our planning and execution of the Run for Autism.  We have taken the first step in a long journey and I feel great about the team that I will be sharing this journey with.