Outreach in Moishe House Boston

The blog's prompt for this month asked about outreach/turn-out/recruitment to Moishe House Boston events. How do we attract new faces?

Before I became involved in the Moishe House community in Boston, I would have guessed that the best way to reach out to Bostonian Jews was through Web 2.0 technology. Send out to email lists! Post it on our Moishe House website! Announce it at local Gesher City events! Put it on Facebook.

Well, these communication forms are undoubtedly important and serve as an effective "heads-up" to the community members about upcoming events. Indeed, we send out a weekly email on Mondays that list all the upcoming events for the next two weeks, as well as maintain our own website and Google calendar so people can see for themselves what is going on.

But, in all honesty, we don't count on this technology as our major recruitment tool. Rather, we rely on good old-fashioned relationships. In our opinion, receiving one, or even two emails, isn't going to be enough to catch someone's attention, unless they are actively looking for things to do. The way we see it: everyone in our community is part of a network of relationships. The best way to get someone to an event is to have a friend ask him or her to come. (Think of the parties you go to-- or even family gatherings....it's all in the people you know). So, for any given event, we first set our goal for turn-out. Then, we ask all those involved in planning the event to identify and call a set number of people. So, for example, we have an upcoming housing justice event planned. We want to make sure that around 30 people come-- so the 7 people helping to plan it each committed to bringing 4 people. This, combined with the weekly email announcements and web advertising, has been a very successful recipe!

We also use our Shabbat dinners as a way to introduce Moishe House to new faces. Generally, our dinners need little specific turn-out effort, since, by now, word-of-mouth is enough to get a solid 50 people. So, we see Shabbat as a time to welcome new people, gauge their interest, and give them a little "taste" of our community. One way we do that is by having a "dvar tikkun" at Friday night after services-- a brief overview of a specific social justice project that someone in or allied with our community participates in. This introduces a concrete project that anyone in our community can get involved with, and perhaps more importantly, sparks conversations throughout dinner about other events/social justice intiatives/etc that we have on tap.

Finally, I would say that the most effective way to get someone to turn out to an event and stay engaged with the Moishe House community is through involving them in the planning process for the event. This is a surefire way to up the investment level, sense of ownership and pride, and feeling of community. Even giving someone a small task can increase his/her excitement level exponentially, since they now feel "part of something." I challenge you to try this within your community. I would love to hear what happens!

Happy Thanksgiving!
--Michelle, Moishe House Boston