YouTube makes sharing video easy. Creating a YouTube account for your club, you can help showcase the work of participants, benefactors, and volunteers. Filming, editing, and posting videos takes time and energy but there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit -- simple videos that booster clubs can make. What’s great about YouTube is what’s great about online video in general. Ditto for what’s not so great. PROs Easy to digest. Videos grab attention in a way that an 800 word blog post with … [Read more...]
posted on March 10, 2014 by
Club Recruiting: We want you!
It’s that time again: as we head toward summer, volunteer recruiting will top the agendas of most booster clubs. If your school doesn’t already have a club of its own, it’s the perfect time to start one! Rounding up officers can be a challenge, but there’ s no shortage of resources out there for fledgling clubs. Get the word out by contacting your local newspapers, broadcasting and radio stations. A brief, straightforward announcement like this one from the Shelter Island Booster Club packs a … [Read more...]
posted on February 27, 2014 by
LinkedIn for Booster Clubs?
LinkedIn is a professional networking site. For some, it’s just a place to post a detailed resume. For others, it’s a forum for discussion, especially related to job searching, business practices, and industry news. For booster clubs, LinkedIn offers a number of opportunities. It’s a good space to recruit for volunteers, and has a few lively discussion groups focused on booster clubs themselves. (We’ve been following discussions on AMP, the Association of Music Parents, as well as the Sports … [Read more...]
posted on February 14, 2014 by
30 Things to Tweet your Booster Club
You understand Twitter, you want to make it a part of your booster club's social media strategy, but you're hitting some writers block? Don't dismay, we've got a huge list of things to post. Photos of your participants doing things Rainouts Photos of sponsors and/or their business Playoff schedule Arch rival updates Articles about your club in the local paper or segments on local television Photos of volunteers doing things Updates on alumni (Did they get a music scholarship? … [Read more...]
posted on September 23, 2013 by
You Do Not Have It Covered: 20 Tasks for Volunteers
Sometimes a volunteer catches you flat footed. “You guys need anything? Can I help out?” There’s certainly a lot that you, a booster club leader, need to do. You could use some help. To-do lists are so tightly spooled in your head it feels like they’re going to start fluttering out. Yet it feels like more effort to train this volunteer than to do things yourself. You’re tempted to tell them that you have it covered, or that there’s nothing small enough for them to take on. Don’t give in. Do … [Read more...]
posted on August 26, 2013 by
Booster Club Officers
Chairperson? Officer? Here are booster club board member responsibilities. In this post, I take a look at the most basic and most specialized booster club officer positions. Maybe you are starting a booster club and you’re asking yourself “how many officers do I need?” Maybe you are joining a booster club, and you’re asking yourself “what do all of those titles mean?” Think of the booster club officer positions less as people and more as collections of responsibilities and skill-sets. They need … [Read more...]
posted on August 15, 2013 by
How Good Record-Keeping Saves Nonprofits from High-Turnover
Watching the 2000 film Memento again, I realized that high-turnover volunteer organizations such as booster clubs suffer from serious amnesia. In the film, 30-something Leonard can’t create new memories because of brain trauma suffered during an assault. Imagine a person who can’t remember the lessons of the past, or the opportunities set to present themselves in the future. Lacking a system of good record-keeping, that’s the situation of most booster clubs. In Memento, Leonard compensates for … [Read more...]
posted on July 22, 2013 by
6 Tips for Recruiting Booster Volunteers
In late spring and summer, recruitment dominates booster club agendas. Extracurriculars rely on booster club support, which in turn rely on a rich pool of volunteers. Both general and board member volunteer recruitment is a challenge, leaving booster clubs vulnerable. Booster club meetings I’ve attended at election time often include brainstorms about which person to ask to do what job. Frantic texts get sent to potential volunteers in the middle of meetings, and candidate lists are compiled … [Read more...]
posted on July 16, 2013 by
How to Start a Booster Club
This is my step-by-step guide to starting a booster club. It’s intended to be a checklist, not an exhaustive manual. You can click links for more detailed advice on how to accomplish each step. I also put them in what I believe to be the correct order of tasks for starting a booster club. For example, you don’t want to register with the IRS with one mission statement, and then realize that the school doesn’t approve of its governance structure, or waste time trying to get a business bank account … [Read more...]
