Meeting Minutes October 15, 2012

Minutes
MLA Marketing and Membership Committee

October 15, 2012

1:30 p.m., BCPL-Arbutus Branch

 

1.         Orientation at MLA conference                  

-Preliminary conference proposal due Oct. 15

-Decided to remove official mentor program

-Committee will create a FAQ to send to all “first time attendees”

-New orientation session: Invite Division, Interest Groups and Committee representatives to act as “mentors” and to give an elevator speech about their group. Room will split up into tables (or rotate around tables) of interest, and to ask questions about MLA and the conference.

-Natalie will fill out conference proposal and email Emily about our plan

 

2.         Marketing & Membership Plan

-Need to communicate value of being a member to our target groups (Library students, Potential members, Current members)

-Brainstormed value message: Enhances your resume with a professional organization, gives you leadership opportunities outside of your job, you strengthen the library community by sharing information with your colleagues, local level means impact where you live, networking opportunities to collaborate with others, people you meet and work with through MLA can serve as references (esp. if you’re in a difficult work situation).

-Need for a value sheet – Natalie will investigate measurable items to show how being a member of MLA can make an impact (stats from FY2012) to use at the conference, and to send with membership renewal forms

-The old Marketing Plan should be archived and removed from the website – it is no longer current (talk to Margaret)

• External audience

-Ameera & Paula gave a report on the external task force

• Brochure distribution

-Brochure should be at all training sessions

-Should be available at College Park and Catholic University (see DEAL?)

-Will be at conference and conference orientation session

• DEAL sponsorship for students

-DEAL would like to get the word out that people can sponsor an MLA student membership – passed along the information to the external task force committee, but we should consider avenues for distributing the information

• MLA Coffee Marketing

-Shipping cost is over $5 for one ½ lb. $8.50 of coffee

-Suggest MLA office make a bulk order of coffee and facilitate the purchase to decrease shipping costs

-Suggest MLA office send out emails for coffee as a holiday gift

 

3.         Toolkit            Plan for distant members

-Heidi will send out an email to find those that want to participate, but can’t in-person

-Heidi will follow up with an email giving action items for the toolkit

4.         Social Media User Group Report

-Natalie reported on the activities of the Social Media User Group