Uni O'Week Recruitment

[Dens]

Hi All, 

While it's a little way off there will be thousands of prospective recruits coming along to O'weeks around February and I'm keen to get a little knowledge sharing going on what strategies and what resources work best for recruitment and retention for a university club and what past experience there is.     

Cheers

[simmo]

I'll address this in a lot more detail sometime down the track, but straight off the bat I have one word: presence.

As many people as you can get in jerseys throwing discs. Have a TV with a Nationals DVD or something playing. Bring a stereo from home to have some music. And most importantly, your players have to go and talk to the first years! They're not going to come to you.

I have seen many, many examples of a really impressive O-Week set up masking the fact that the club/society is actually quite shit.

[Jangles]

It all comes down to what your uni will let you do.

for example we have very little room at QUT so we cant have demo games or throw at all(damn security). So we have to make do with posters and dvds etc. Where as UQ have enough room to have a 5 on 5 demo game and are allowed to throw discs. Plus have a lot more memebers so more people can man the stall at once(not that i think they do).

inessence you got to be creative i have heard talk of promo mini golf discs you can get printed for cheap and other things like that if your club wants to put some cash into promo.

But you do only get out what you put in.

[thebozzman]

Bathurst are lucky enough to have a senior member of the falcons working as an O-Week Coordinator

[JdR]

More O-Week advice in the back issues of Australian Ultimate - http://www.afda.com/newsletters/australian_ultimate_2006_01.pdf

[gref]

UQ's plan at the moment in our limited space, is to set a up a game of Goaltimate, to give people and idea of how to play and give experienced players a reason to get down there.
Apart from that we will probably be wearing jerseys and throwing discs. I don't see much in way of ultimate videos, but we'll probably have flyers as well.

[ulty_arnie]

Gref, if you can get a laptop with lots of battery or an extension cord, I can get you DVDs to play.  So, we can definitely have a DVD playing.

[gref]

Ok...I take that back. Apparently we have dvds.



 

[JdR]

Here's one I always wanted to see on campus (could eventually have it happen nation-wide with Disc-Week).

Everyone in the Club or who was on last year's UniGames team or some group like that (a list of people who were into the club last year), has to have a visible disc with them at all times when on campus or going to and from campus during O-Week and the first week of lectures.

Its an easy way to raise the profile of frisbee - lots of people will see them around as you put them on your desk in lectures or the lab, sit in the refec or walk around.  Visible means not in a bag or something.  Make a frisbee the most common piece of sporting equipment seen around.

Being caught without a disc incurs a one drink penalty.  The catchee owes the catcher(s) a drink at the next Club session.  Heckling and shaming should also be involved.

Additional rules can be made about calling and throwing the disc to any new club member you see around - to keep them connected to the club.

[Jangles]

well lets see what do I......i mean QUT want to do this year. Well ill bring down my laptop each day i can make it and play a DVD. Maybe some flyers and shirts and disc and make the younger members do all the recruiting while i chat to the other clubs to make contacts .

[oshep]

here's my tip. lurk beside the stalls of netball, touch, and soccer. give a flyer to anyone wearing sneakers who just visited that stall, or looks at it twice. targetted marketing is better than talking to randoms walking by...

[Chris]

Here's one I always wanted to see on campus (could eventually have it happen nation-wide with Disc-Week).

That is a freaking awesome idea!

I don't know what other unis do, but I think collecting names, emails etc is probably more important than handing out flyers, and as Simmo mentioned getting attention and standing out is critical and it always helps to get as many people there as possible. UQ normally manages to have at least 6 - 10 people manning a stall.

[simmo]

I'm still trying to chase up contacts for each uni. Here's who I'm yet to receive confirmation from (in brackets is the name I have down at the moment)

UWA (Tim Delane)
Monash (Mikey Hui)
QUT (Jangles)
Murdoch (Andrew Hutcheon)
USydney (Brett Latham)
CSU (Nathan Dukes)
Adelaide (Stephen Harfield)
Griffith (Stefan Rappazzo)
Flinders (Alec Deslandes)
Latrobe (Tim Wise)
UWS (Tim Gee)
Deakin (Jason Gibson)
Vic Uni (Timill)

If you know who is supposed to be the key figure at any of those unis, can you ask them to drop us an email? Cheers

[Brettski]

I've been involved with USYD O-week the past two years (since in my first year it was I who was signing up!) and we've always been really successful in attracting new players.

It starts way before O-week, by having an up-to-date website with all the relevant contacts. I have already received almost a dozen emails from people looking to play, having heard about it from their friends in our ultimate community.

Some of our O-week tecniques include:
- Large colourful posters of lay outs etc, and of girls playing (the mixed aspect should be advertised to both sexes)
- A mini-tournament where people can play and learn the rules, get as many club members down there to encourage people, and there is free pizza and drinks. Flyers are handed out everywhere.
- People throwing a disc EVERYWHERE (especially in front of other stalls), sometimes hitting them with a disc is a good way to initiate converstation, however SUUFA in no ways condones harming people to get them to play ultimate.
- Heaps of people on the stall, very very important
- We ended up having a little competition where new (beginner) members are encourages to join with the promise that if they can knock a can off my head, they will get a free disc (though you do it from far enough away that no one ever gets it)
- Lollies in a bowl
- A booklet explaining what the club is about, the rules, lingo, some photos, contacts, etc
- Lots of stuff on the bench, to encourage people to look at it all
- Hate to be sexist, but having lots of girls attracts more guys, especially if they go up and talk to them

This year we are experimenting further by collecting details as people sign up (since SU Sport were unreliable with keeping track of members) to make our own member database. During O-week, we will sign them up to our email list, our website, and the AFDA - so we can get them involved in our Intervarsity tournament at the end of March.

I love the disc carrying idea, because I know whenever I see a disc around, it's like a beacon you become drawn to...or perhaps I've been playing a bit too much...

[simmo]

It starts way before O-week, by having an up-to-date website with all the relevant contacts. I have already received almost a dozen emails from people looking to play, having heard about it from their friends in our ultimate community.

Last year we used Myspace as a good way to keep up with newbies as most of them had pages. We created a profile for BUUF and added people who signed up based on their email address. This year we'll be using Facebook to the same effect (group for BUUF that already has current and past players).