Some of the most effective ways we have found to reach out to people (both "newbies" and "regulars") include using our listserves, which we maintain through Yahoo! Groups and Facebook; personal outreach (via emails, phone calls, and conversation); local calendars and listservs (on occasion); partnerships; and a variety of good-quality, innovative, unique programming - which is a draw in itself! Yahoo! Groups and our Facebook group are very useful for us in sharing weekly event invites / info. and are easy for people to join. Yahoo! is especially useful for those who do not have Facebook profiles or do not otherwise utilize Facebook regularly.
We have been recently creating "Events" pages (one page per event) through the Facebook "Events" application. It is nice that these can be tied to our Facebook group and all Facebook group members can be invited by clicking a single button. People can also invite friends individually. Unfortunately, a person has to be someone's Facebook friend in order to invite them -- it's not possible to invite people who may be interested to whom your profile is not directly linked. It is possible to send the event page by manually entering people's e-mail addresses, if you have them. We don't use this feature -- too much searching, too much work. What we do tend to do is include the individual event page's URL in our weekly event announcements.
The Facebook "Events" pages are a useful way to track RSVPs. However, not everyone uses Facebook. Occasionally, an individual resident creates an E-vite for an event he or she is leading. It is nice to have the colors and images, to tailor the E-vite to fit theme and feel of event. This can be time-consuming, but is very convenient in reaching people and tracking RSVPs. Also helpful is the feature that allows the creator to create a URL of the invitation, so that the URL can be included in our event announcements as the way for people to RSVP (as opposed to having to track RSVP e-mails).
We created for ourselves a website (www.MoisheHouseSS.org) which contains information about MHSS -- who we are, photos from past events, ways to contact us, ways to learn about our events (Fbook group, Yahoo! Group, online Google calendar), etc. -- as well as a connection to the greater MH organization, all compiled in one easy-to-utilize place! We included on the page a link to our Google calendar and employ a gadget on our website that creates event announcements visible directly on the page based on what is on our Google calendar. The website URL is in the signature of all messages sent from our house e-mail address (MoisheHouseSS@gmail.com) and in the signature of at least one of the residents' personal AND Moishe House e-mail communication. We try to make sure the URL is included in Facebook announcements as well. (The URL is included in the Facebook group page, too.)
For purposes of in-house communication, we use e-mail constantly. And we, of course, have house meetings and phone calls (individual and conference) and in-person ad-hoc meetings as well.
Specifically addressing how we bring in new people: forming partnerships and co-sponsoring events with other organizations, welcoming and encouraging attendees to bring people with them to events, creating a variety of events, frequently introducing some new type of event, hosting a monthly open Shabbat, and talking about MHSS with people as we first meet them (ie. at other Jewish / young adult events, family, etc.). Rachael occasionally sends events to the Washington Jewish Week to be included in their calendar of local events. When an event is appropriate for a certain community or demographic, we reach out via local listservs catering to that demographic -- dance, environmental, neighborhood Jewish, neighborhood community.
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