Wireless Hill 'Lift The Lid' walk Sunday morning.
The day was perfect, the walk itself and the Wild flowers fantastic, the site set up looked good .... BUT, where were the punters to support this Rotary mental health project????
Plenty about the place checking out the wild flowers, but less than 10 actually joined from outside Rotary.
Soooo, despite the effort of Warwick and his organising team, the social media campaign, signage, brochures, on line check-in and the like, for whatever reason, the event just did not resonate at all with those whom the messaging was aimed at.
Two things do stand out.
- Rotary buy-in, at club level, was virtually non existent. We had the volunteer support, but not the member support. When members and friends join in, the numbers build. (Applecross, Melville and Attadale were all aligned) But of course, only a part solution.
- The messaging to Joe Public, in terms of seeking engagement and support completely missed the mark. Are they 'over walks', are they over perceived fund-raisers, are they just not resonating with this sort of publicity and promotion, what ever the cause??
In terms of 'bang for the buck' it did not meet the minimum, and basically acts as a negative for similar future Rotary community actions.
My thoughts are that Australian Rotary Health, in terms of these walks, need to review what works, what doesn't, and why, and set some stronger guidelines around ensuring community engagement for future events.
Further, is this also somewhat symptomatic of how the broader community now leave this sort of activity, and its social purpose, to the various layers of Government to take up?
However, well done to Warwick and his team for the strong effort of putting the event together.
For the future, we just need to make sure that it is a worthwhile outcome for all involved.
JACFEST now less than 8 weeks away!!!!!
No reminders necessary, I'm sure, but Sunday, 15th November rushes forward at a gallop and will be on us before we know it.
Sue and Market Life are doing a great job in keeping the overall event and management on track, and it will be great to have Chris W back on the team again..
However, there is a lot to be done over the coming month to make sure that our messaging is out in the market, that all of the required agreements are finalised, that our assets are updated and prep'd, that signage is ready, and the key stakeholders, including local traders and residents, are all on side.
A special thank you to Michele for successfully negotiating the Lotterywest Sponsorship which now sits in the bank account. Well done Michele!
AND a big shout out to our AxR for the $10,000 donated to the Nepalese flood disaster. Generous donations from the PMM car parking collection were a wonderful extra to the over $5,000 from our Activities Account. Happy to put in the long hours in support of our generosity for those truly in need.
Kenn.