How you can join in and spread the word about the 10th Continental Bioregional Congress…
Effective Outreach –> More Vibrant Congress
The Bioregional Congress is a grassroots/streetroots event, and as such its success depends on the effort of many people to spread the word, show up, and make it happen. Whether you have five minutes or five weeks to contribute to the Bioregional Congress effort, there’s a way for your outreach effort to be effective. Whatever you do, please add your action to the Outreach Log (by clicking here) so that we know where the message is and isn’t going. Read on to choose actions that work for you (and share your outreach ideas).
Resources
- Public Relations Kit
- Bioregional Captain’s Kit
- Sponsorship Kit
- Welcome Letter
- Postcard 5×7
- Poster 8.5×11
Actions
Online social networking: The Bioregional Congress has a presence on the following online social networks. If you’re part of these networks, then you can join the CBC-X group and invite your friends. If you use another social network, then you can add an event or group about the Bioregional Congress to your social network (feel free to copy words and images from this site or any of our social network posts).
- WiserEarth
- Transition US (Ning)
- facebook - event
- facebook - group
- facebook - cause
- MySpace - to be created (by you?)
- LinkedIn - to be created (by you?)
- idealist.org - to be created (by you?)
- volunteer.org - to be created (by you?)
Email, phone call, email: Choose someone who you think would enjoy the Bioregional Congress and send them an email with a statement of “I think you’d like this event because it matches with your passion for ______.” and a link to biocongress.org. The next day, call them and have a conversation about the Bioregional Congress. Then, if it seems appropriate, follow up that conversation with another email encouraging them to register for the congress, start a local bioregional congress, and/or spread the word to other folks.
Presentation at a gathering or a house party: Wherever you find an audience, you may have a chance to mention the Bioregional Congress. No matter the length of your presentation (10 seconds, 10 minutes), focus on giving a clear invitation and do something to get folks talking about it. One method that works well: after you invite the audience, ask them to turn to a neighbor and each take one minute to share what they think of the Congress, why they might go, and what they’re curious to know more about. If it’s a long presentation, do this within the first 8 minutes and again at the end. You may be surprised how quickly the room bursts into conversations.
Hand out postcards: Want some postcards about the Bioregional Congress to hand out at an event? Fill out the Outreach Log with information about the event, and in the Ideas box put your address and the number of postcards that you want.
Organize a Caravan: Folks coming from your area can travel together, and if you’re really enthusiastic you might make a caravan with a bus that runs on used vegetable oil (instructions coming soon)! More details for this section are coming soon.
Convene a local bioregional council: You can convene a bioregional congress for your bioregion! There’s a reason that participants at the Continental Bioregional Congress are called “delegates” — your local council can choose to send a few delegates and help gather funds to pay for their transportation and registration. This is a great way to get to the Bioregional Congress if the registration fee seems beyond your budget, and it will make the Continental Bioregional Congress even more effective at weaving a wise network across the Americas.
Declare yourself a Bioregional Captain: If you have a lot of attention to put into outreach for the Congress, then you can act as a Bioregional Captain. What’s that? A Bioregional Captain gets familiar with the ideas and details of the Congress and acts as a point person in their bioregion, a catalyst spreading the invitation and welcoming collaboration. Start by downloading the Bioregional Captain’s Kit from the Resource section above.
Share you outreach idea: To write your idea, click here: Share Outreach Ideas. To read outreach ideas shared by other folks, click here: Read Outreach Ideas.
