December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
It was in the wake of WW2 that Jews, among other ethnicity's, became "white". Prior to the war and the economic development of the 1950's Jews, along with Italians (pronounced Eye-taalyuns), Eastern Europeans, and Irish were considered "Ethnic Whites". Where previously the Jew had lived in the immigrant ghetto of the Lower East Side or similar communities they were now mainstreamed modern Americans. I am not one to extol as a vile evil, the notion of cultural cross-pollination. That the Jew has contributed as much to America as America has contributed to the American Jew is a certainty but what was lost was a degree of Jewish free space. In sociological terms, a free space, is a area or institution that exists for and of only members of one group. It allows them breathing space from the rest of society to self-conceptualize and to grapple with their unique identity on their own terms. Many of the endeavours of the Jewish people in America as of late have been an attempt to recover some free space. Moishe House is a prime example, creating an area, an institution of and for young Jewry to conceptualize themselves, the world around them, and their relation as Jews to it.
Monday, December 7, 2009
MH HOBOKEN BLOG
The most effective way to bring people to Moishe House events has been by talking to them in person. The internet is amazing, email, facebook messages, evites, etc .... are terrific tools but are, until you actually know someone, rather anesthetized ways to communicate with people. The best way to spread the good word is by having a good product and leting people bring their friends over and partake in the community. It has been our experience that when we get a random email or facebook message from someone they more likely than not will not actually come to the next program. By anaecdotal and unscientific methods I would guess this holds about 60% of the time (making a program attendance rate of only 40% for those who contact use through the internet). On the other hand, when we meet someone face to face and invite them to the next program the succes rate is much higher, say at 80-90%. When we meet someone in person we also follow up with adding them to the email list and continue to email them about events in the future.
MH cleveland. getting people to events.
The most effective way to bring people to Moishe House is word of mouth. There are a few people in our community who have brought the most people to Moishe House and if these individuals do not attend an event, then the chance that we will have new people at our event goes way down. We use facebook invites as an integral part of inviting people to events. Whatever is posted on facebook is what is officially going on at our house. Furthermore, we do call or email people about events who expressed that facebook was not a good tool to reach them. We do also send out mass text messages and make phone calls to remind people two days before an event and the day of. In the month of December we are going to make a poster of the dates and times of all our events for the month and post it in our living room. This way, anyone who is at an event can easily see what else is going on during the month. Depending on how this goes over, we are considering making a postcard for the month of January, with the dates, times, locations, and descriptions of events. We have not had so many new people at are last few events. So we are looking for new ways of promotions that do not include making fliers and posting them.
MHP - Outreach
For MHP, outreach is all about straddling the line between utilizing new media and maintaining close, personal connections. When MHP opened its doors in 2007, each of the founding members contributed the names and emails of their friends in the area who would be down for some Moishe-style community. We spoke with our friends personally and did a lot of emailing/phone calling to bring in people for those first few events. From there we received some press and started a weekly email list with over 500 members. As we have evolved, so has our technological outreach.
Now in our third year of operation, we have moved from a Facebook group to a Facebook fan page, we've transitioned from an e-mail listserve to a google group with a more streamlined newsletter (that's still readable on everyone's fancy mobile gadget ) and we've started a Twitter account. Our members like to hear from us in many different ways and we're happy to provide them those various avenues. Facebook is a great way to invite a large number of people to specific events, and Twitter has been very useful for last minute event planning and just giving an extra "Hello" or "Shabbat shalom" to our followers. We have mostly used our own forms of technology, rather than utilizing the Moishe house website to its fullest capacity. Perhaps that is something we could try in the future.
Part of our success at outreach is that we treat each person who walks through our doors as a potential leader in the Moishe house community and one of our good friends. We try to learn names and faces quickly - we have a photo wall that not only helps us with that, but also makes our members feel like stars on a wall of fame - and we review new people who come to our events at our weekly meetings so we can figure out the best way to follow up with them. In addition to cultivating those people who walk through our doors, we also work to partner with other organizations in the city to bring in new faces and spread the word of MHP to more people. We would love to get more press now that we've been around a few years and hopefully expand our reach to further parts of the city - all in an effort to increase our outreach.
Now in our third year of operation, we have moved from a Facebook group to a Facebook fan page, we've transitioned from an e-mail listserve to a google group with a more streamlined newsletter (that's still readable on everyone's fancy mobile gadget ) and we've started a Twitter account. Our members like to hear from us in many different ways and we're happy to provide them those various avenues. Facebook is a great way to invite a large number of people to specific events, and Twitter has been very useful for last minute event planning and just giving an extra "Hello" or "Shabbat shalom" to our followers. We have mostly used our own forms of technology, rather than utilizing the Moishe house website to its fullest capacity. Perhaps that is something we could try in the future.
Part of our success at outreach is that we treat each person who walks through our doors as a potential leader in the Moishe house community and one of our good friends. We try to learn names and faces quickly - we have a photo wall that not only helps us with that, but also makes our members feel like stars on a wall of fame - and we review new people who come to our events at our weekly meetings so we can figure out the best way to follow up with them. In addition to cultivating those people who walk through our doors, we also work to partner with other organizations in the city to bring in new faces and spread the word of MHP to more people. We would love to get more press now that we've been around a few years and hopefully expand our reach to further parts of the city - all in an effort to increase our outreach.
MH Vienna
The most effective way so far, to bring people to our Moishe House, has been to put a chicken in the oven, open the window, and let the tasty smell spread in the street of Vienna. Crowds of people, eyes closed, follow the sensitive sense of their smell and end up having a great time at the Moishe House forgetting why they came here at the first place.
From our first events a year ago (House warming party, Mezzuza fixing party&Pizza) the word of mouth has been a very useful tool for getting new faces to join our events. Therefore, our job is to make sure that participants have such a good time, that they will want to share it with all their other friends.
Another way, which has been quite useful is..... Facebook! Yes Facebook definitly helped us to promote our events; We were very surprise to see how many more people started to join our events when posting on facebook. However, because not every single person has a profile, or use it on a daily basis, we still have to put the chicken in the oven and assure that people have a great time when they come.
The last method, which has also been playing a key role in developing our Moishe House Vienna community, is to simply take the phone, and call people to keep them updated, get them involve personally (for example, helping to prepare the event) or just to check how they are, in other word, to develop a real friendship and this is the best thing that can happen.
We wish you all a wonderful Hanouka!
All the best,
Daniel, Eytan, Michael.
From our first events a year ago (House warming party, Mezzuza fixing party&Pizza) the word of mouth has been a very useful tool for getting new faces to join our events. Therefore, our job is to make sure that participants have such a good time, that they will want to share it with all their other friends.
Another way, which has been quite useful is..... Facebook! Yes Facebook definitly helped us to promote our events; We were very surprise to see how many more people started to join our events when posting on facebook. However, because not every single person has a profile, or use it on a daily basis, we still have to put the chicken in the oven and assure that people have a great time when they come.
The last method, which has also been playing a key role in developing our Moishe House Vienna community, is to simply take the phone, and call people to keep them updated, get them involve personally (for example, helping to prepare the event) or just to check how they are, in other word, to develop a real friendship and this is the best thing that can happen.
We wish you all a wonderful Hanouka!
All the best,
Daniel, Eytan, Michael.
Moishe House Great Neck
At Moishe House Great Neck we've tried many different ways to bring people to events; Facebook, Email, Word of Mouth, and Text Messaging. We feel the most effective tool has been sending mass texts. Texting works best because we get more of an immediate response than email and facebook.
Additionaly, at our events we also tell our guests of the next upcoming event, and we ask them to bring new friends to our next event. In the future, we might look to other technologies like twitter to post our upcoming events.
Have a great week,
Moishe House Great Neck
Additionaly, at our events we also tell our guests of the next upcoming event, and we ask them to bring new friends to our next event. In the future, we might look to other technologies like twitter to post our upcoming events.
Have a great week,
Moishe House Great Neck
Sunday, December 6, 2009
MHSeattle, 12/6/09: Outreach
Our house has relied pretty heavily on Facebook to make people in our community aware of our events. Perhaps, at times, we've leaned too heavily on it. If we had the Moishe House experience to do over again, we might call more people personally around the time of the event to rally the troops, but also to make people feel more included and desired as members of a vibrant community.
On a related note, we'd like to thank David, Summer, and everyone at Moishe House HQ who made this a rewarding experience for us during the past couple years. We wish you all the best in the years ahead.
On a related note, we'd like to thank David, Summer, and everyone at Moishe House HQ who made this a rewarding experience for us during the past couple years. We wish you all the best in the years ahead.
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