...who you're going to meet along the way.
A week after we moved into the new West LA Moishe House, I was going through that all-too-familiar process of scouring Craigslist for a few little things we still needed to make the house feel more like home. Of course, Craigslist is always an adventure (I've met my share of unsavory characters and oddly scented furniture along the way) and you never know exactly what you're in for. This time, however, I responded to a random ad for a 'lightly used' bed frame, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the woman who had posted the ad was not only Jewish, but was also active in our community (she happens to run a website called All Things Jewish dot com )
I asked if she knew about Moishe House and told her a little about what were doing, and suddenly we went from guarded Craigslist strangers to new friends. "Wow," she said excitedly. "Now that I know where it's going, I've got some other furniture I'd be happy to donate to you guys."
Not only that, but she took the time to write a really nice blog entry about Moishe House which you can read here: http://allthingsjewish.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/allthingsjewish-discovers-moishe-house-in-la/
One more reminder of how fantastic our community is.
You can check out her website at allthingsjewish.com
Showing posts with label Jewish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jewish. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
What makes a succesful Moishe House event?
A four-part recipe for successful events from the Portland Moishe House.
1) Events must be interesting, fun or both.
Think about whether you would attend the event. If the answer is no, you probably shouldn't expect others to come.
Different people are looking for different things but nobody wants to waste their time on something that is stupid, boring, or at worse both. For your more intellectual crowd, offer them meaningful conversations and opportunities to learn. For the crowd that just wants to kick back, give them an easy opportunity to unwind. Or, as we do, mix the two. For example, we've had a lot of success with our "Torah on Tap" series. We've found that people come because 1) The topic is interesting and the discussion leader is appealing. 2) The "on tap" makes what could be an intimidating topic (Torah) and makes it fun and accessible.
2) Ratio is important.
If you don't have a good ratio of men to women at events, your numbers will fall off over time. Opportunities for mingling with people of the opposite sex is as critical as anything to sustained success. Go out of your way to "engineer" a good ratio.
3) Set goals and evaluate your events
Measure the success of your events on both qualitative and quantitative measures. Ask people what they liked and didn't like and store the information in your brain. Get a good sense of how many people are necessary for different kinds of events and make sure you reach your numbers. Also set goals for the number of new people, because its easy to fall back on your regulars but that won't help grow your community.
4) Use both mass and targeted communications
Since both the quality of a individuals experience and the number of people who come are important measures of success, conduct your recruitment and marketing accordingly. If you don't build a big list of people to tell about your events, you won't consistently get large numbers of people to come out for them. Equally important, however, is reaching out to people on an individual level. Mass emailing gets you a good distance, but there is nothing like a direct conversation to encourage someone to participate and build a relationship.
We hope that this post was instructive for other houses as they consider the ingredients for a successful event. If you you have questions or concerns, send us an email!
1) Events must be interesting, fun or both.
Think about whether you would attend the event. If the answer is no, you probably shouldn't expect others to come.
Different people are looking for different things but nobody wants to waste their time on something that is stupid, boring, or at worse both. For your more intellectual crowd, offer them meaningful conversations and opportunities to learn. For the crowd that just wants to kick back, give them an easy opportunity to unwind. Or, as we do, mix the two. For example, we've had a lot of success with our "Torah on Tap" series. We've found that people come because 1) The topic is interesting and the discussion leader is appealing. 2) The "on tap" makes what could be an intimidating topic (Torah) and makes it fun and accessible.
2) Ratio is important.
If you don't have a good ratio of men to women at events, your numbers will fall off over time. Opportunities for mingling with people of the opposite sex is as critical as anything to sustained success. Go out of your way to "engineer" a good ratio.
3) Set goals and evaluate your events
Measure the success of your events on both qualitative and quantitative measures. Ask people what they liked and didn't like and store the information in your brain. Get a good sense of how many people are necessary for different kinds of events and make sure you reach your numbers. Also set goals for the number of new people, because its easy to fall back on your regulars but that won't help grow your community.
4) Use both mass and targeted communications
Since both the quality of a individuals experience and the number of people who come are important measures of success, conduct your recruitment and marketing accordingly. If you don't build a big list of people to tell about your events, you won't consistently get large numbers of people to come out for them. Equally important, however, is reaching out to people on an individual level. Mass emailing gets you a good distance, but there is nothing like a direct conversation to encourage someone to participate and build a relationship.
We hope that this post was instructive for other houses as they consider the ingredients for a successful event. If you you have questions or concerns, send us an email!
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