New Member Kit

The following is based on emails sent by Rob Brooks to the Executive Committee on April 1, 2017 and updated on October 11, 2017.

The Membership Kit is sent to all new members. It consists of:

• A welcome letter and membership card (8.5"x11" card stock with a scored card in the lower right corner, need link to template);
• The latest Bulletin;
• 1 square button with the Party name;
• 2 round small buttons with just the trillium logo; and
• If requested, a copy of The Law by Bastiat.

These are inserted in a 6"x9" bubble envelope. Stick on an address label, return address label and postage. The cost is about $4-$5 per unit.

It takes about 90 minutes once a month.

Procedure

Select all new members who joined in the previous month

1. Click on <Memberships - Find Memberships>
2. For Member Since select "Previous Month." and click on [Search].
3. Select all records, "Export Members" under -actions- and click on [Go].
4. (Step 2 of 3) - Select "New Member" saved field mapping and click on [Continue].
5. (Step 3 of 3) - Click on [Export].
6. Open the downloaded file if it doesn't open automatically in a minute or two.

It's a good idea to clean up each new CRM record first. A quick scan of each record will indicate formatting problems. Copy the SortName and use it to search for the new member's record.

(An Alternative is to do the cleanup after step 2 above. You will need to use the <Search - Advanced Search> function and scroll down to the Membership section to select "Members since" the previous month. Then click on Member's Name on the first record, make changes as required, including creating the "Unknown" in the Electoral Details. Then click on the [Next] link to get to the next record selected by the Search.)

• Clean up the upper / lower case typing on the name and mailing address.
• Add a space in the postal code.
• Delete the billing address since that is usually the same as the Home Address and not needed.
• Put dashes (-) in phone numbers. Delete the Home-Phone-Phone if it is the same as the Home-Phone-Mobile.
• Go to Electoral Details and click [Edit] then [Save] to enter a record with "Unknown" for their federal and provincial Districts. (Do this for every record.)
• if they have indicated an interest to be a candidate and if we've created the Record for the next General Election, click on the Ontario 43rd General Election tab (or current), check "Could be a candidate" and [Save].

After all records have been cleaned up run Update Electoral Districts. This procedure fills in the correct riding information for anyone with "Unknown" in the Electoral Details record.

If you will use the exported data (with mail merge) to create labels, envelopes and membership cards, redo the search and export to get a clean file.

In addition, For those who said "Yes" to the question, "Would you like us to forward your information to the Libertarian Party of Canada?":

1. Rerun the search to get a 'cleaned up' New Members file,
2. Filter it for "Yes" in this column,
3. Export the records to a new file.
4. Send this file to the LPoC. (Contact to be identified),

This version of the file can be used with Mail Merge to create address labels for the New Member Kits. It could also be used to create a personalized welcome letter and membership card.

Technical Setup

CRM sends an email "Thank You" to the donor and CC's info@ontariolibertarian.ca. This is a "Transfer" email account which is forwarded to Allen Small (Party Leader) and Scott Marshall (Campaign Director). It also sends a BCC to donations@ontariolibertarian.ca, which as also a Transfer account. Currently it is forwarded to cswift9@hotmail.com, Chris Swift, the Party Secretary, who sends out New Member Kits and copies of The Law. This is the best way to identify members and donors who have requested a copy of The Law as a premium.

Rob Brook's Input

From 2015 to 2017, Rob Brooks was Campaign Director and took responsibility for sending New Member Kits. The following is from an email he sent to the Executive Committee.

I have scrapped the booklet idea (an election platform) and I have also scrapped the sending out of The Law idea.

1. The booklet, I guess I decided was just too much Rob telling people what they should do, and in the end I didn't think it would actually help. Although I wasn't planning to use The Bulletin before, but I now think inserting the most recent Bulletin is a better choice and the Bulletin has similar content.
2. The Law had two problems. One, we already have it as an incentive option for donations at a certain level, so I would be giving away what we were using as an incentive. And more importantly - I've just gotten tired of trying to create libertarians. I don't think we can go very far if we are the party exclusively for people that self-identify as libertarian and we work hard trying to create libertarians. Instead, I think we should just say what we suggest and those that agree will, and those that don't agree won't. Of course we keep our principles. Hell, lots of people that identify as libertarian think completely stupid shit - so I don't think this evolution of thinking is in any way limiting while remaining consistent with our principles. We don't have to explain why we think a carbon tax is a bad idea. We just have to say we are against it and those that agree, will agree and those that don't won't. In this society, where the best you can hope for from most people is to skim content, trying to educate without a budget or captive audience just seems like a plan destined to fail. I hate failing.

The member kit is now much lighter and much less expensive to assemble and send out. Maybe $4-$5 per unit instead of $10-$15 as I had originally planned.

I am pretty well set-up office-wise. It took me between 2 hours and 2.5 hours to do 22 envelopes. It is labour intensive. I make the mailing labels one at a time. Of course the membership card is an individualized item. I hand-write a short note on each thank-you card. I don't mind doing it. I think it is important. I just want you to have a sense of the time it takes, in case you haven't done this kind of thing before. fyi

Also 30 minutes time to drive to the mail box and home. I have some expenses that I will send to Jim in another email.

If you want to get a membership kit, just go and renew for a year, it costs $10, and I will send you a membership kit!