Rainbow Rollerskating Tasks

Don Baker - November 2003

This page describes the tasks that Elton and I currently do to make Rainbow Rollerskating work. Many of these tasks are not set in stone, but they can serve as guidelines for the tasks to be done by future coordinators of Rainbow Rollerskating.

I have discovered that consistency is vital to keeping the momentum of the event going.

Tasks that occur per Rainbow Rollerskating event

Per-event publicity, which includes 2-3 reminder notices, one a week before the event, and one the Monday before the event. If there is a 3-week gap between events, I also send out a notice two weeks prior to the event. I usually piggy-back any press releases that benefit our charities on this newsletter. Occasionally, the designated charity for the event will participate in the publicity or have something special at the event that requires some extra work, such as an event theme (e.g. the Halloween costume contest). I post information about the Rainbow Rollerskating events on the Austin_info Yahoo newsgroup, as well, but this is done monthly as they prefer lower traffic.
Running the event, which includes the following tasks:

Participating.
Meet and greet of new people and community building.
Interaction with the rink, the designated charity, and any special guests.
Taking photos for posting on the web site.
Putting out the fliers and clipboard to gather e-mail addresses.
Collecting any pay out for the designated charity.

Post-event work, which includes sending the donation to the charity along with a cover letter, updating the web site with upcoming dates, posting the photographs, sending out a recap notice, and updating the records.

Besides the event itself, I usually spend 2-3 hours per month on these tasks.

Other periodic tasks

Negotiating dates with the rink. We've renegotiated dates and times as necessary. Beware that every change here requires a non-trivial publicity effort, such as printing new fliers.
Deciding the calendar for designated charities. This is always difficult as there is so much need and so little money to go around. Once the number of dates per charity have been decided, I draft a calendar, usually in November and send it to my charity contacts for possible date switching. Sometimes, the charities like to combine the Rainbow Rollerskating event dates in a meaningful way with their own event calendars.
Publishing fliers (postcards). I think it's important to have something to hold all the information about the event. They can be placed in public places, shared with friends, etc. Unfortunately, this is one of the more expensive things that I do. I usually spend about $80 per run of 800 at Kinkos.

Ongoing publicity

Nearly all of the ongoing work is publicity related. Publicity is one area where Rainbow Rollerskating is weak. I've Below is a list of things that we do on that:

Encouraging word-of-mouth and for people to bring their friends to events (part of "meet and greet").
Keeping the web site running and up-to-date. (We have donated web space.)
Adding and removing subscribers from the e-mail reminder list.
The Texas Triangle runs a repeating item in their calendar on our behalf.
I've already mentioned the periodic e-mails and postings to the austin_info newsgroup.
The postcards are placed in a number of locations around town, including Lobo, Tape Lenders, and Waterloo Counseling Center. There may be other locations where they've been placed that I don't know about. Periodically, the designated person checks that the cards are at these locations and visible, refilling as needed.
My phone number is listed on the postcards, web site, and the Texas Triangle ad. I don't get a lot of calls, maybe one per month. Once people find the web site, that usually takes care of their questions.
Lonnie Stern from KOOP has occasionally invited me on his radio show to promote Rainbow Rollerskating.
We have occasionally run the process for posting events in the Austin American Statesman.
Many many people and organizations rebroadcast our information to their membership and friends. Many of these people do this without my knowledge. While this is a wonderful service, occasionally the information gets out of date. I try to keep an eye out for our listings in charity newsletters and such. When I see a problem, I contact the person responsible and correct the information. I usually encourage them to list the web site which allows people to get the most up-to-date information. Below is a list of groups that either promote our event or have in the past:

Austin Chronicle -- Their calendar person is on our mailing list.
ClubSkirt mailing list -- echos our e-mail announcements.
Most of our charities have helped promote Rainbow Rollerskating, most notably Project Transitions, Out Youth, Interfaith Care Alliance, and AIDS Services Austin.
The Austin Outdoor group usually repeats our announcements.
There is an Austin Gay Sports web site that promotes us, but it's horribly out of date.
Austin Mens Project, AGLCC, AGLFF, and MidTown Spa have all promoted our events at one time or another.
Again, there may be others that I don't know about.

More work could be done about getting others to link to our web site.

Suggested division of labor

A number of people have said that they thought that there was too much to do for one person, as far as running the event. Adding more people introduces a fair amount of communication overhead. My recommendation for a division of responsibilities would be for there to be two people with the following responsibilities:

Front (Wo)man

Such a person would be mostly responsible for publicity, charity interaction, rink interaction, and ongoing PR. Ideally, this person should be an extrovert who is either already connected with the community or who is willing to do that. This person would be the key decision maker for Rainbow Rollerskating. This person would also coordinate any volunteers for special projects, such as publicity booths.

Back (Wo)man

This person would largely be responsible for all computer-based work, including maintaining the web site, e-mail list, electronic newsletter, and other web-based publicity efforts. Ideally, this person could also take (digital) pictures at the event and post them regularly. Some computer skills are essential for this job.

Any tasks, above, that do not obviously fall to either of these roles, for example the publishing of the postcard, can be decided based on the skills and interests of the people running Rainbow Rollerskating.

Our pages
Rainbow Rollerskating Information about the event	Staying in Touch Group mailings & feedback
Our Charities Charities that we support	Publicity See what others are saying about us.
Photos Photos from recent events

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