[NABS-L] Student Division Building - Outreach

[Janae Burgmeier]

Suggestions for the question "How can we get more students one our calls?"

Continue to have calls even though not that many people show up. Invite
affiliate board members to join your calls and start building programming.
Even if only a few students come to each call, if you are being intentional
about keeping to your schedule, that is still a valuable lesson you are
learning by planning a conference call and reaching out to people who can
present.

Make it fun. Be sure you are reaching out to the students you know just to
say hi. Done just call on people when you need them. Put their birthdays in
your phone and treat each other like real people. If you are working on a
tough project, remember to crack jokes and rag on each other a bit (within
reason). Its not like anyone is getting paid for this gig so making it fun
is really important in making sure you are maintaining existing
relationships.

If you are trying to reach a new group of students, have an outreach event.
See if your affiliate is willing to pay for pizza and advertise everywhere
you can. Invite people on facebook and e mail the disability offices in
colleges in your state. Iowa has made a spreadsheet which has the name, e
mail, and phone number for every college disability office in the state.
The work was time consuming, however now we have an easy outreach list.

Hope this helps!

Janae Burgmeier

Board Member | National Association of Blind Students

   A proud division of the National federation of the Blind

(319) 899-4329
Janae.burgmeier at gmail.com | www.nabslink.org