Club Marketing

[Ramrod]

I'm curious what other clubs have done in the way of marketing their classes, organizations, tournaments to the public.

Anyone have ideas for growing a clubs membership?

Rick

[wflaschka]

Put up notices on Public Library bulletin boards. I have heard that this is a good thing to do. We're going to try it for our next term.

[Faggot the Hutt]

Good lord, man. Don't follow wflaschka's advice if you have an ounce of pride. You'll get nothing but book worms and nerds going to your club. If you want exposure, put up the money for an ad in the papers. Also, see how much radio ads cost. Everybody listens to the radio- not many people who aren't half-blind/fat/ridiculed by the rest of society go to libraries.

What the hell does wflaschka mean, anyway? Is that Polish for "dumbass?"

[oiuyt]

Serge Timacheff will be leading a discussion about club marketing at Summer Nationals in Austin. I've deleted the email I got about it (today or yesterday), but IIRC it will be Wednesday, July 2nd at 7pm at the convention center. Fairly certain I have the day right, the time might be off.

I went to the equivalent of this last year which also featured Boston Fencing Club's Linda Merritt and Sacramento Fencing Club's Ted Smith. If available that evening I plan to attend again this year. Not a great source of information, but getting people together than run clubs and having them talk about strategies for how to expand membership and local interest is a good thing in my opinion.

-B :)

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Originally posted by Faggot the Hutt
not many people who aren't half-blind/fat/ridiculed by the rest of society go to libraries.

For example: Mr. Hutt...who has to sit on one cheek, because his wad of library registration cards has made his wallet the size of a Weimaraner.

[Faggot the Hutt]

That was both uninspired and witless. You make a slack insult based on nothing other than a loopy notion that I would have more than one library registration. Go to Fencingsucks and get some practice before you try to insult me. You need to start with basic swearing before you work your way up to intellectual commentary. Fencingsucks will supply you with all the swear words you'll ever need.

[Faggot the Hutt]

Ah, here's one thing Fencingsucks doesn't have on Fencing.net: editing of posts. I do so hate typos.

[wflaschka]

Originally posted by Faggot the Hutt
Ah, here's one thing Fencingsucks doesn't have on Fencing.net: editing

Hutt, I guess all you need now is someone who will read your posts.

Yawn. I.g.n.o.r.e.

[Mo]

One of the fencing clubs near by does a great job marketing to home educated kids. The club has a fitness program that any kid can take three or more times a week.
From this they gets a lot of interest in fencing. There are a growing number of home educated kids fencing now days.
Teaching classes at local high schools and colleges also draws people in.

Posting in libraries also seems a very good idea. Fencing draws people with brains who are often found in libraries.

[Sarah]

I love weimaraners! We foster them! Oh, I love them so much! lol

Edit: I'm also homeschooled. < that's the word, one word, not two. I love homeschooling too!

[KBayDog]

I hesitate to say "we," as I have never actually participated (due to scheduling):

A group of local fencers gets together on Saturday afternoons to fence outside by the Battery (an old sea wall). It is a major tourist area, so there are plenty of people who stop to see what is going on.

*For the record, I am going to participate this weekend...*

Another event put on by a local club is an open-air epee tournament (next weekend, btw) under the pier at a famous local beach. Again, plenty of "laypeople" around, and it apparently draws quite a crowd.

If it piques the interest of even one person to begin fencing, it is worth it.

[a517dogg]

my university team recruits at supermodel photo shoots. or at least i think so. i mean i wouldn't be surprised.

[Queen of Hearts]

Well, actually I have a few things to say.
1) The library bulitian thing is good. That is actually how my brother and I found the club we are at now.
2) The schools. Most schools in my area have EBB's (electronic bulitin boards) All you have to do is have someone in that school in your club, send them to the nationals and hope they get a medal. the school will be all over it. Also if you are still in school like me. then you just let everyone know that you are going to be the best fencer in the world. Nobody will belive you so they will have to try to prove you wrong. They will come to fencing to try to make you lose. You fence them and they will see how great fencing really is. They will stay and talk to thier friends who will talk to thier friends and so on. Just hope your club is in that area so they can get there and home on time so they can go to school the next day and do more "advertiseing"
I don't know....
It was just a thought.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Originally posted by Faggot the Hutt
That was both uninspired and witless.

Ooooooh, you're right. We should all let a denizen of fencingsucks.com, that bastion of puerile banality populated by frothing, sophomoric twits obsessed with innuendo and character assassination decide for us what should be "witty."

Originally posted by Faggot the Hutt
You make a slack insult based on nothing other than a loopy notion that I would have more than one library registration.

Actually, the insult was precisely based on the "methinks he doth protest too much" school of behavioral analysis. If you speak so rabidly of "half-blind/fat/ridiculed by the rest of society" library patrons, then perhaps you've injected a bit of self-loathing into your commentary. The taut part was then extrapolating that notion of you ridiculing what you embrace to the idea that you frequent so MANY libraries...underscoring the ludicrousness of your post.

Originally posted by Faggot the Hutt
Fencingsucks will supply you with all the swear words you'll ever need.

Just listening to my wife and teenage daughter talk supplies me with all the swear words I need. Honestly, the other day, a car full of longshoremen pulled up to us, rolled down the window, and told them to clean it up...they had kids in their car.

[Queen of Hearts]

Ahh, you wouldn't be near any kids on my bus. Usually they are the ones swearing. Most of them are only 11 or 12. I do not want to know what they are like as adults.

[Catlady]

Generally Mr. Hutt, I ignore you, but I must say that I, and I suspect most others on this board, know plenty of obscenities, in several languages. The difference is that we have managed to expand our vocabularies beyond them.

Now to make a useful contribution. I know that our club offered fencing to a local private school as an activity for kids who are in their extended day program--an after school program, run by the school, for kids with working parents who don't want their kids being unsupervised after school. Once the kids in the extended day program started coming and learning how fun it was they started talking to their friends about it, and they wanted to try it too. It could probably work with a public school too.

[Wizardly]

Originally posted by a517dogg
my university team recruits at supermodel photo shoots. or at least i think so. i mean i wouldn't be surprised.

While possibly a reason to join fencing, what you've definitely got is a reason for a fencer to attend your university. Which one would that be?

[Queen of Hearts]

Originally posted by Catlady
Generally Mr. Hutt, I ignore you, but I must say that I, and I suspect most others on this board, know plenty of obscenities, in several languages. The difference is that we have managed to expand our vocabularies beyond them.

Yes, I agree.......

[Faggot the Hutt]

Actually, the insult was precisely based on the "methinks he doth protest too much" school of behavioral analysis. If you speak so rabidly of "half-blind/fat/ridiculed by the rest of society" library patrons, then perhaps you've injected a bit of self-loathing into your commentary. The taut part was then extrapolating that notion of you ridiculing what you embrace to the idea that you frequent so MANY libraries...underscoring the ludicrousness of your post.

How long were you in the thesaurus section of dictionary.com to come up with that one?

[Faggot the Hutt]

Originally posted by Catlady
[b]Generally Mr. Hutt, I ignore you, but I must say that I, and I suspect most others on this board, know plenty of obscenities, in several languages. The difference is that we have managed to expand our vocabularies beyond them.

Ah, ha! Fool. That's where you're wrong. If you'll read my posts, you'll see I use hardly any swearing, with the exception of dumbass and asshat. The same holds true at Fencingsucks.com. I made the suggestion to use swearing for Slow's benefit. Now, be a nice lady and STHU, foo.