Issue No. 6 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features another book and a bucket idea. If you’re read all six issues so far, you’ve figured out this complex editorial strategy: a book and a bucket!
The hot new book, Applebee’s America, predicts “rapid, bone-jarring change” ahead for society. It’s based, in part, on research that began at the Applebee’s restaurants—a slice of middle-class America. It says a lot about The Volunteer Bucket also. Share one or both ideas at your weekly staff meeting.
It Takes $350 to Get a 50-year-old Male to Change His Beer Choice, but an 18-year-old Will Try Your Brand for $50
Bob Buford endorsed this book. Buy it. Study it. Implement what you learn. Applebee's America: How Successful Political, Business, and Religious Leaders Connect with the New American Community was just published in September. The chapter on megachurches is worth the price of the book. The three co-authors are outsiders looking in and they have incredible insight on what they call Gut Values Connections, LifeTargeting (lifestyle marketing), and Navigators (opinion leaders).
According to Applebee’s America, “The first rule of Marketing 101: Target the audiences just on the entry edge of consumption. Find them before they buy, before they listen to competing brands, and you will get them for life. A little expense up front and they will consume far longer than some middle-aged wanderer who will haphazardly take or leave your brand.
“If you ever wonder why American advertising is targeted at adolescents, it’s because it would take about $350 of marketing to get a 50-year-old male to change his beer choice, but you can get an 18-year-old to try your brand for $50.”
Read the reviews and buy the book.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1. What percentage of our donor/communications/public relations budget (people and money) is invested in 18-year-olds and under, versus 50-year-olds and over?
2. Who are our “audiences just on the entry edge of consumption?” What are we doing to reach them?
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Insights from the Management Buckets Workshop Experience
Peter Drucker said there are two kinds of volunteers: paid volunteers (staff) and unpaid volunteers. Most churches and nonprofit organizations are volunteer-intensive. So who gets the perks: the volunteers or the paid staff?
Idea #1. Host a 27-minute, invitation-only, stand-up meeting with five or six of your key staff and volunteers. Bring coffee, muffins, post-it notes, and two flip charts. Divide into two groups and brainstorm 10 ways (per group) to more effectively recruit, mentor, lead, honor, celebrate and (maybe) retire volunteers.
Idea #2. Ensure that all volunteers have one-page job descriptions that list their supervisors, their service terms (a quarter, one year or two years—never leave it open-ended), the expected outcomes or results of their volunteer service, and the date for their “volunteer review.”
Order this resource:
Simply Strategic Volunteers
In our Management Buckets Workshop Experience, we deliver practical implement-immediately tools and time-tested systems for recruiting and blessing volunteers. Great volunteer systems are incredible revenue-producing machines!
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1. If you could change one thing about our volunteer program, what would it be?
2. The Bible says that Christ-followers have spiritual gifts, such as administration, leadership, hospitality, giving, mercy, etc. Do we recruit volunteers for specific roles, based on their spiritual gifts?
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Download the Management Buckets brochure
