Welcome to November! It's been a busy time, and you've probably taken the chance to catch your breath from all the planning and look around you. If you've been successful, you probably have a core group of people that show up on a regular basis, with some others who are intermittent or show up for special events, like card tournaments or some such. Chances are also good that you've noticed a drop in attendance, and that the energy level has decreased somewhat as well. You may be wondering if you're starting to fall apart.

Don't worry--this drop is normal, considering people might need to focus on studies, and the lack of energy is also normal as people fall into a routine. However, it can be dangerous to assume that because it's the middle of the semester, you're not recruiting anymore. Recruitment has to occur all the time, and this month, we're going to look at ways to promote the club and keep the group's name in the public eye.

Your Web Page and the Digital Nesting Instinct

Before you start, it's important to make sure you have some central information source to direct people to if they're interested. Setting up a clearinghouse makes it unnecessary to repeat information over many different forms of media. This clearinghouse is likely to be your group's web site, so let's go over the items you need to have on your web site:

• A description of the club's focus
• Up-to-date contact information
• Regular updates

That's it.

"But Alec!" you declare, as if your response was scripted by a brilliant RPGnet column writer, "We can't possibly attract people to our site with such a minimal site! We'll need some kind of flashy graphics, or links to cool places, or maybe even a forum!"

No, you don't need that, and don't start fooling yourself into thinking you do. The focus of your club is the club activities, and too many people think that a flashy club web site is either a) one step from being a local cyberhub for regional gaming news, or b) a great place to show off their l33t coding/flash/graphic design skillz. I've seen it happen many times, and every time, the web page becomes a digital albatross that no one can get rid of without ditching the entire project and starting anew. The main problem is often an overextension of resources and a lack of usability--the one person coding the site knows what's going on, but the moment he or she disappears, updating it becomes a problem. And the likelihood of the site becoming an internet meeting place for local gamers doesn't make much sense, either, because the point of the club is to provide a physical meeting place, and most people prefer that kind of interaction. I'm not saying it can't be done, but

What this comes down to is what I've mentioned before about the web site--it's a one-off activity, and putting more effort into the information on it, rather than the presentation of said information, will be far more rewarding than attempting to become the RPG.net of your corner of the state. One of the best web pages the BGGS had while I was there was one that we made with Rapidweaver. It wasn't real fancy, but it allowed us to create pages quickly and with minimal fuss, letting us focus on updating the page with new information rather than messing around with the was it looked. If you're a new club starting out, this kind of focus will help you out far more than a professional HTML code monkey can.

While we're talking about the club's digital domains, I want to stress that the mailing list is less useful as a promotional tool than an easy way to contact people who have already expressed interest in your group, so I won't focus on it here.

Establishing A Media Empire, Or At Least An Outpost

If you're going to keep promoting, you need to make sure you know who is in charge of said promotions. This person is usually a sad, sad soul, since promotions can be an endless job with few volunteers. However, it's important that there be at least one person who understands exactly what the group's promotional efforts are at any given time in detail so they can all be finished successfully. If you have to, make this part of an officer's description, but don't let it slide and assume you can coast off of the success of your fall Org Fair success--such groups tend to be dangerously close to folding by spring, which is when you'll need to renew your charter.

The promotional director is going to need to know how much money they can reasonably ask for, what other resources they have available, and how many people they can get to volunteer to help. This means the treasurer needs to consider the cost of materials that can't be obtained easily from sources and plan accordingly.

The good news on the materials front is that most universities have a supply room for student organizations filled with poster paints, reams of colored paper, scissors, and other craft materials. Most organizations usually also have access to a copier with a reduced rate for printing, since the university recognizes the need to photocopy flyers and other materials. With the money you get from dues and the materials available, most groups have a pretty good base to create interesting decorations, flyers, and other promotional materials.

The bad news is that said decorations, flyers, and other promotional materials need people to make them, and this is where the volunteers come into play. If you rely solely on volunteer help, then it's a good idea to rotate people in and out so you don't end up burning out the two or three people that always show up to help. It's a good place to get freshman involved with the planning of the group, so eager new faces can usually be recruited to help out with the promo effort. If you've really planned ahead, you may have set up standing committees and required everyone to be a part of one, in which case, the promotions committee can usually be counted on to help out, with others volunteering as needed. The more people helping, the more likely others will join as well, since people don't want to be stuck cutting out shapes for a flyer on their own--if you make it a social event, it helps the work go faster.

Finding Your Happy Media

Having the resources to promote is only half the issue. The other half is knowing where and when to promote. You'll need to pay attention to make sure you figure out the particularities of your campus calendar, but here are some general helpful tips:

--You need to promote an event at least one full week in advance to get a big response, and earlier than that helps as well. Anything less than that runs the risk of not having enough time to seep into people's memories.

--You need to have at least three methods of promoting an event if you want to expect some sort of reasonable response for your effort. Putting up flyers is easy, but everyone else on campus does that as well, so you either need really good flyers or other ways to promote as well.

--Having something available for free will help attendance somewhat, depending on the usefulness and the novelty. Free pop is pretty common because it's easy to get a hold of and it's everywhere on campus, but even so, it's nice to have. Free food is even better, but it's costly.

So how can you promote? Normally, the following options are your most likely and best options. You want to use as many as you can, but also make sure you're using them effectively.

Posters/flyers: Fairly common, and usually fairly easy to make as well. If you can, take a look at a graphic design book, such as Robin Williams' The Non-Designer's Design Book before you do this, since graphic design isn't all that difficult to understand, and it makes your posters stand out a bit more. This is good, because everyone else makes posters, too, so standing out is necessary. This also means that flyers shouldn't get posted too soon before an event, or else they'll get buried under new posters.

Make sure you know the campus rules for where posters can go. Breaking these rules can result in penalties that could really hurt you, like a ban on posters or fines or such.

Pro. Easy to make and copy

Con. Everyone else makes them, too, so it's hard to stand out.

Chalking: Fairly easy to do, and the materials are cheap--a few buckets of sidewalk chalk are all you need. However, you need people to help cover different areas, which usually means getting a lot of volunteers. It's also vulnerable to rain, so make sure you look at the forecast before setting out. In addition, make sure you don't chalk on the sides of anything; colleges really hate it when students make extra work for their maintenance teams.

Pro. cheap, makes a good group activity.

Con. Vulnerable to weather, requires a lot of people to do well.

Info table: Most colleges have tables that can be set up in the student union for informational purposes. It's like setting up for the Org Fair table, but without the hassle of the Org Fair. If you cover during the usual lunch hours, you get some exposure for the group. It's a very good idea to have people on hand to answer questions, though, which also means you want said people who can be sociable and answer questions about the group. This is sometimes a harder requirement than it first appears.

Pro. usually in high-traffic areas for good visibility.

Con. Requires people-friendly people to sit at the table and take questions.

Newspaper Calendar: Usually there is a calendar of local events published by some official university department--if you have a school newspaper, it's probably in there. Getting on to this calendar is usually just a matter of sending in your event by a certain date. The calendar is not the most popular section of the paper, however, so it's not always the most effective. Still, if it's free, there's no harm in putting it there. If your school has a TV station, check to see if there's a community calendar you can get put on, or ask the local cable operator as well--most cable companies have a public access station that has a community calendar to fill dead air time.

Pro. Usually free.

Con. Usually not seen by lots of people.

Paid Newspaper Advertising: This is where you start moving into the big boy territory. Paid ads have the advantage of being targeted, and you sometimes get the help of one of an ad designer. If you place it in the college newspaper, it's also likely to get seen by more people. There are a lot of benefits to this, which is why it will also cost you far more than the other options. Chances are if you're a new group, you don't access to this kind of cash. However, if the event is large enough, and people are willing to chip in some of their own money, this can be a good option to use. Personally, I wouldn't go this route unless you're holding an event where you're likely to make the money spent on the ad back.

Pro. Professionally designed, targeted at a likely audience.

Con. Expensive.

In all of these cases, pay attention for where you can get the most bang for your buck. Papering the campus with flyers is a great idea, but let's be honest: no everyone is interested in your event. If there are groups on campus with similar interests, however, it's worth your time to go over there and talk up your event, or at least leave some flyers. 100 flyers at a friendly club or a game store is probably worth more than a 1000 flyers in general announcement boards on campus.

Checklist for November

• Make sure everyone understands the need to constantly promote the club.
• Make sure the club has a standing promotions committee and a responsible person in charge. If not, get an officer to volunteer.
• Examine your free advertising options, such as community calendars and university event emails.

Next month, we'll discuss different kinds of events and other ways to get your club in the public eye. As always, comments and constructive criticism is always appreciated.

See you next month!
Alec "Kid Twist" Fleschner