What a whirlwind summer it's been so far!
I've had the incredible opportunity to meet up with three other Crew Members from this area. NA has implemented Chapter meetings, where CM's from each region or area can get together and brainstorm, share ideas, and learn from each other on how to build thier business. It was wonderful!!
One lady lives only 25 minutes north of me in the same town my mom lives in. Another is 30 minutes south east of me, and the third is 30 minutes east.
What I find incredible is that there are more CM's in the Bay Area than I realized! Our next chapter meeting is supposed to be in San Ramon, which is about 1.5 hours away, but should have nearly all the CM's from the Bay area attending. Hopefully I'll be able to attend this meeting.
I've also been busy with trying to make more contacts and introduce Noah's Ark to as many people as possible. I'm attempting to get into this fall's Rock N Blues By the Lake Festival as a vendor. The concert is September 27 this year, and promises to be amazing!! Third Eye Blind and the Plain White T's are performing!! Yes you heard me right!! Therefore, there will be a much younger crowd, and hopefully more children! If I don't hear back from the organizer by Monday evening I will look up her phone number and call her on Tuesday. I will also need to find some corporate sponsors to help me with ordering the animals and t-shirts I will need.
The end of June I did a 2 day workshop for a local daycare. The owner/head teacher was impressed by the animals, and the kids really loved to hug them!! She is interested in purchasing a couple more animals for her assistants! I have to send her a catalog and a thank you card ASAP... now that I'm thinking about that!
I will be doing a mailing in a couple weeks to promote the Stuff-out-Fires, Hearts for Hope, and Octo'BOO Fest workshops. I will be adding a few other larger centers into my mailing list- just have to go through the phone book!!! ;o)
I was also introduced to a really neat fundraising idea called Project Night Night- check out thier website at http://www.projectnightnight.org/. I will be bringing this idea to the Marin Boy Scout Council at the first Roundtable in September (only if I'm not in the hospital with a newborn) as a great way to raise money for the packs and troops, but also do the Good Turn for America. I think that doing it this way (instead of the way I did it last year with my own pack) will bring more participants and more money will go to the scouts. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it works!!
I'm hoping I can book a few more workshops for this fall, ASAP. I really need to get out there and promote and advertise, but my $0 budget is hampering that.
