My Campaign Pitch

The following is intended for the voting members of Omaha Atheists.  I'm running to retain my seat on the board of the group, and this is my campaign pitch.  If you're not interested in our politics, please feel free to skip this one.

As I see it, marketing for us should be a combination of 2 approaches.  Visibility and appeal.  If you saw my bid for President, I've already said some of what I mean by this, but I'll go into more detail here.

Visibility

People cannot join what they do not know about.  Booths at events is one of the things I've already proposed.  But it's far from the only thing we should be doing.  It's the minimum we should be doing.  We should also be handing out generic cards for the group to all members, so they can hand them out to atheists they meet who do not know about us.  It's something that's already been happening on a small scale.  I'm proposing we make it a full scale policy.

I also plan to continue working with the rest of the committees to make sure we're publicizing their efforts.  We do some great things in our community service efforts, and while getting credit for doing good things isn't why we do them, we should still be showing the community that we do them and encouraging more people to do these good things in the process.

The website needs an overhaul.  I've already been speaking with the amazing RJ about potential ideas for a new website and she's agreed to help with this project once we've finished with the complete redesign for the Midwest Freethought Conference website that is to be revealed later with some other major changes to the conference that are coming soon.  I'm very excited about these changes, to point that I'm disappointed about not being able to go into further detail than that at this time.

The new website would include, among other things, a form for seeing the inventory of our lending library and requesting a book, a page for the videos mentioned below, revamped contact options, a picture gallery, an in-depth description of our community service efforts, atheist friendly businesses, and a description of the perks of membership.

Appeal

I see this problem as similar to what Tony Pinn talked about at Skepticon 5.  People simply won't join if they don't think there's something here for them.  We need to give people a reason to join.

A marketing campaign I am planning would be a series of videos (similar to the style of We Are Atheism), of members stating in their own words why they're a part of this group.  We all get something different out of our participation in this group, and having us all give those reasons would be a great way to highlight this variety of reasons.  These videos would show people unsure about joining our community why it's something that they would benefit from.  It would also have the added benefit of putting a face on the group (something we definitely should be doing more of).  I've already arranged for help from one of our video experts on this project.

We also need a way to appeal to the people who have tried the group out but didn't find something for them.    This is why I've been pushing for us to be more family friendly and more accommodating to atheists with children.  Too many times I've seen people, who appear to want to participate, not do so because of their children or because of the group's attitude (as a whole and individual people) toward children.  This is not acceptable to me, and it's our job to fix that, not the parents'.  These people want to be a part of our community, and we would be fools to not do what we can to welcome them.

Parents are not the only group I want to make a point to accommodate  but they're a great place to start.  Any time we see this many atheists who are being excluded from our community, it needs to be addressed.  All atheists in the Omaha area should be made to feel as welcome as I was when I found this group.

Closing

I see big potential for this group.  That's why, this Fall, I proposed the changes to the bylaws I did and worked with the rest of the board to mold them into the changes we implemented, including the creation of 2 new positions and the reassignment of the duties of another.

This position also involves co-chairing the Fundraising committee, which I've already begun work on.  I got us an Amazon Affiliate link, which has already begun working for us.  I've already begun looking into options for other fundraising options, including the effort I've proposed to raise enough to help send some kids to Camp Quest KC.

I've only had this job a few months and I've already been able to bring big, positive changes to the organization.  I would absolutely love the opportunity to continue these efforts.