Publicity and Recruiting

· Now available from ARRL HQ, tv Public Service Announcements featuring astronaut Linda Godwin, N5RAX, and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Joseph Taylor, K1JT. The PSAs were designed to attract all types of people to Amateur Radio, and are available for broadcast television and cable. The spots are 60, 30 or 10 seconds, and in 1", ¾" or VHS formats. If you'd like a copy to deliver to the public service director of your local TV station, contact the Public Information Department at HQ at (860) 594-0328,or at 225 Main St, Newington CT 06111-1494.

· Jodi Lambert, N7FFP, reports that she and her friends demonstrate packet radio, voice and CW at area computer users groups' monthly meetings in order to get new recruits for Amateur Radio classes.

· If you need students, let local dealers sponsor an "instructor/student" night, says James Akre, WA9TZE. Get a good speaker to talk for 10 minutes about the joys of the hobby. The dealer serves refreshments and has gear set up to demonstrate. You publicize the event beforehand in newspapers and to area radio clubs.

· ARRL has a toll-free number for prospective and new hams. It operates 24 hours a day: 1-800-32-NEW HAM (800-326-3942). pass it on!

· Brian Lantz, KD4BGH, is responsible for 43 phone callers (in a three-week period) who asked how to join a licensing class. Brian came up with the idea of placing a quantity of special Tampa Bay Amateur Radio Society (TBARS) club newsletters where people would see them. What's special about the newsletter? Club members inserted an attractive flyer into the newsletter that included general information about ham radio, TBARS and names of members to contact about classes. Ken Harkcom, KD4BLV, says: "Due to the response TBARS got, I recommend newsletters. We sent them to schools, and had them at events such as Field Day, public service events and message-handling displays at malls." Brian says: "Prospective new hams need a contact point in order to direct their questions about ham radio to knowledgeable people."

Getting Candidates For Your Classes

by Al Alvareztorres, AA1DO

In October the club hold registration for fall classes. They've successfully offered classes in past years, pulling in between 15 and 20 candidates the first night, and netting between 10 and 12 licensees. They consider their success rate to be excellent. This year, however, 36 applicants packed the house!

The ad campaign was the same as ever, news releases to all area newspapers and radio and TV stations. The cable TV companies did a great job of showing the ARRL video, New World of Amateur Radio, on the access channels several times during the preceding month. They plastered flyers in all area electronics stores, and on supermarket bulletin boards. They set up a fair booth with live QSOs and message handling.

Each person was then sent a flyer advertising classes and an invitation to visit the club.

They taught all of the material needed to pass any Novice or Tech license, and let the students decide which tests they wanted to take. At the orientation meeting they described the differences between the licenses, and suggested that those people not interested in code give it a shot anyway, with no pressure to continue. "If after three weeks you decide you don't like code, just return the practice tapes to us and keep on with the theory. No one will pressure you, but you might find you like code (and look at the extra privileges you get)." When it came time to sign out material, most of the people took CW tapes!

Advertise!

by Dwayne Kincaid, WD80YG

If you want more students in your class, advertise -- it brings in a continual large enrollment. But you say advertising is too expensive. Not so! His club finds free ways to advertise--public service announcements (PSAs) to radio stations, and place ads in daily papers and smaller classified-ad-only newspapers. A class survey revealed that ads in small papers brought in as many students as radio ads. It's a good idea to write follow-up letters to thank the people who printed your ad or aired the PSA (it helps assure they'll run the ad next time).

Here is an example of a 15-second radio PSA that SPARC sent to a radio station:

The Southern Patuxent Amateur Radio Club will sponsor a 10-week Technician and General License class starting March 14. Classes meet every Wednesday at 6 pm. Contact the Southern Community Center in Calvert County at XXX-XXXX for more details.

In your cover letter asking the source to run the ad, include a "use until" date so the station knows how long to run the ad. Record the time (in seconds) the ad should take to read. Anything the station has to rewrite to fit a 10-15 second spot will usually get tossed in the trash. When delivering a radio or newspaper PSA, address the envelope to the PSA Director.