Managing NT User Groups [Index] [Starting] [Managing] [Growing] [Appendix] Financial Management Alternative Income Publicity Membership Issues Recruiting New Members Keeping Members Volunteers Getting Volunteers Volunteer Benefits 2. Managing NT User Groups The more professional and business-like the user group is run, the easier it is to attract additional supporters and participants. This includes creating stationery, business cards, logo, and promotional materials. Some user groups join their local chamber of commerce and encourage the chamber to become a corporate member of the user group. Financial Management If a user group is to succeed and grow, not enough can be said about the importance of sound financial management. Haphazard attention to income and expenses has brought the downfall of many groups. Take some simple steps: Identify a person who is responsible for handling your affairs--in many cases this falls to the Treasurer. Protect your group by having more than one person responsible for signing checks; limit expenses that can be paid without full review of the executive board; use receipt books; set up a process for deposits; make the procedures part of your bylaws; hold an annual audit; and publish Treasurer's reports regularly. Choose a good standard, easy-to-use, computerized accounting package--one that a new person coming in can use with little training and one that will capture the various areas of income and expenses, giving a clear picture of how financially sound your group is at any given time. Accounts usually required by user groups include: Income Expenses Advertising Bank Charges Photocopies Contributions Web Pages Postage Interest Earned Charity/Contributions Printing Member Dues Computer Promotion Sales Cost of Goods Sold Rental - Depreciation Repair Sponsors Dues (group) Services - Entertainment Supplies - Equipment Taxes - Freight Telephone - Insurance Trade Shows - Interest Paid Training - Janitorial Travel - Legal or Professional Utilities - Miscellaneous Wages - Office Expense - Know what services your group can afford. A group can survive without an annual budget plan, but those that have real success will point to carefully planned budgets as a must. Identify your estimated income and expenses for each service as accurately as possible. Don't add additional services without carefully estimating all expenses. Services such as a resource center or bulletin board are not normally considered until a group is large enough to support such projects. A new group customarily begins with a general meeting, newsletter, and SIGs. Review your budget and books to identify when your dues and other established means of income are not keeping up with expenses so that your group can address, in a timely fashion, other possible funding activities. One of the main guidelines for most groups is to keep costs low and overhead to a minimum. Often discounts, donations, or equipment loans are available, especially if the group is a registered, nonprofit organization. User groups that succeed don't limit their income to membership dues. Be creative! Take your itemized lists of operating, services, and special activities expenses to your membership and ask them to contact the Treasurer with names of sources that might make a donation of funds or equipment. You'd be surprised at how many expenses can be offset this way. Alternative Income User groups have discovered numerous activities to raise revenue to carry out the goals of the organization. These include auctions, shows, fairs, swap meets, shareware sales, group purchases, training classes, certification classes, seminars, and WWW advertising. Some groups (if allowed by local laws...)sell raffle tickets at general meetings for whatever the vendor donates. This could bring in $50 to $200 a month, depending on audience size. Members get one free ticket, any additional tickets cost $1 to $5, depending on the value of the product being raffled. Other groups report that they have received extra money by selling copies of their mailing list or email distributuion lists to different vendors who use the list for specific purposes, such as seminars and workshops. Another avenue for additional income is conferences and seminars. The group may put them on entirely by theirself or they may arrange to receive a percentage of money collected by the company that produces the conference or seminar. The group may provide speakers and access to their mailing or distribution list. Publicity Successful user groups have many things in common, including an informative newsletter, interesting meeting presentations, comfortable and accessible facilities, and good promotion. Successful techniques to encourage computer users to become members almost always involve getting the user group name before the public. Promotional opportunities can be found through: Membership in international or national organizations that help promote user groups International, national, and local computer trade shows Newsgroups and web pages Local shoppers' guides Community service announcements Public libraries New computer sales from local dealers to include free 90-day user group memberships Local media coverage of meetings and events Speakers at business groups like Rotary, Lions, or Kiwanis Brochures through newcomer services like Welcome Wagon Publicity is an ongoing job and involves creating strategic relationships with the media, computer dealers, libraries, schools, and other community service organizations. Vendors will often do a mailing to their installed base of users to announce when they are presenting a program at your group. These added guests are all potential user group members. Additionally, informed local computer dealers, solution provider companies, and training centers can be a major source of support, as long as the user group makes certain to treat all equally and to remain impartial. The best promotion or advertising comes from word of mouth--from a satisfied member. Additional sources for exposure for your group include: Newspaper ads Community calendar Computer Dealers Bulletin boards, both electronic and community Web pages (or links to your pages...) Local radio talk shows Press releases can make a big difference in the promotion of a user group. A sample press release is included in the Appendix. Remember these tips: Get the editor's attention. Get to know the local editors. Proofread your copy. Be professional. Continue to send releases even though not all are printed, thus keeping your name before the editors. Send copies to the city editor, lifestyle editor, and business editor. Let them know that you are providing an educational service to the community. Be certain to clearly state who, what, when, where, and how it impacts the readers. Be sure to include a contact name and phone number. Membership Issues Membership privileges usually include attendance at meetings; access to a group library of promotional literature, press releases, publications, manuals, and books; newsletter subscription; FTP Shareware File access; discounts available on hardware, software, and services; entry into door prize drawings; and training opportunities. NT User Group leaders need to know members' interests to provide appropriate speakers and programs. It is important to continually survey your membership to better understand the needs and concerns of the constituency that you want to serve. Membership surveys are accomplished as easily as a simple show of hands at a meeting to see how many are interested in a subject, a short two- or three-question survey to be completed at the meeting in order to participate in a door prize drawing, or an annual full membership survey. Something of value attached to the submission of a completed survey will often increase the return rate. This can be anything from a drawing for a software package to an extra month or two of free membership for all who return the survey. Not only can a survey help to identify the topics of interest and levels of expertise, but members can be encouraged to identify topics that they are willing to present or assist others in using. The membership application is a tool that can be very useful for meeting the needs of the members. The demographics contained in the information is often helpful to a vendor when targeting a presentation for the group. Often a membership list is requested by dealers and vendors; it is important to first get permission from members to release this information. Information on the membership application form should be coordinated with the needs of the membership tracking database. Information that you may want to collect includes: First and last name of member Street address, city, state, and zip or postal code Phone numbers--home, work, and fax E-Mail address Date joined Occupation Company Demographic information--company size, dollars spent, etc. Interests Amount paid In addition to this information, the membership database usually includes the membership expiration date, a field to indicate whether or not mailing information can be released, and information on volunteer involvement. Recruiting New Members There are many successful techniques for recruiting members, but don't forget them after they join. Be sure that there is a new user or a mentor program to make the new members feel welcome. A new member kit is also a welcome addition. You need both the experts to service the beginners and you need the beginners to keep the experts interested. Offer a free trial membership (from one to three months) to a new computer owner who purchases at a local dealership. You not only gain new members, but you cement good relationships with participating dealers. Flyers or brochures promoting the user group should be available at computer shows, fairs, or other local events where computer users are present. Keeping Members Retention is an activity that should be planned. Expiration notices sent well before the renewal date, plus reminders in the newsletter often help. Some groups offer renewal rates at a reduction from initial membership rates or a bonus for prompt renewal. Phone calls to follow up on nonrenewals will often retain those who forgot to send in their membership, and equally as important, can detect problem areas within the group that can be corrected before additional members are lost. In the Appendix are samples of an invitation to participate in the forming of a new user group and applications to join existing user groups. Volunteers Your user group will be much more successful if members are actively involved and enthusiastic about the group. Allocating even small tasks to a larger number of members requires more up-front time, but pays off in the long term by getting and keeping good volunteers. Also, the more that is done by several people, the less chance there is for burnout to sap the enthusiasm of key volunteers and officers. Getting Volunteers The most successful way to recruit volunteers is to first identify specific projects and then ask for volunteers individually. Getting members to volunteer in a large meeting generally is not quite as successful. Often this is the main task of a volunteer coordinator; however, it should be a task for all leaders to help identify and recruit potential volunteers. A good place to start is with a check box on the membership or renewal form to identify skills and interests. In one group, one of the officers volunteered to call every member (more than 600 members) to see if there were people willing to take on specific tasks. He asked each member on the phone what he or she was interested in, what excited them about the group, and what they disliked. He also asked if members were willing to serve as a volunteer, and asked what task they would be willing to do from a list of tasks that included setting up equipment, calling other members, working at shows or fairs, and other such necessary jobs. There now are more than 150 registered volunteers in this group of just more than 600 members--quite an impressive percentage. Volunteer Benefits Members volunteer for a variety of reasons, often as simple as giving back assistance that they have received and appreciated themselves. This is often all that is expected or needed in return. However, recognition or additional perks can often increase volunteer participation. Those who do not volunteer still get the basic services, while those that do can also receive additional opportunities such as: Recognition at meetings, on web pages, or in newsletter An annual recognition dinner or pizza party User group personalized business cards Free or reduced rate membership Identification badges Front-row seats at user group events Entry into a special prize drawing just for volunteers [Index] [Starting] [Managing ] [Growing] [Appendix]