Communications

The goal of this page is to provide Chapter Presidents and Communications Vice Presidents with the information that they will need to effectivly communicate with their chapters. You will find a number of resources here which should help with that goal. If you have any questions about communications, would like to suggest a resource, or just feel like emailing me, you can do so by using the contact form or by sending an email to chazakusy@gmail.com.

The Basics

When it comes rights down to it, communicating with people isn't all that difficult---even though it is the most crucial and most important aspect of having a succesful Chapter. It's just as simple as picking up a phone and calling people. For larger chapters, it may be infeasible for one person to make all the calls, in which case phone trees or just breaking up a list among your board members comes in handy.

Also easy is snail mail. That's right, sending things by mail is actually one of the most effective ways of communicating with members after phone calls. Think about it, who amoung you dosen't love to get email? Don't overuse snail mail though...eventually people get bored with simple fliers and will just throw them away without reading them.

The final “easy” way of communicating is through email. This is extremly risky though because not everyone checks their emails often. I would suggest using email sparingly and only to reinforce what is elsewhere.

Websites

Websites are a great method of getting information out because people can check them 24 X 6. The problem is that many chapters do not have members with the expertise to desgin a website, and even if they do, they need to find a place to put the website. There are three possible solutions to this problem: first, is the chapter yellowpages, ideal for any chapter with very little web-expertise; second, is putting your website under your shul's website, better if you can design but don't have any where to host; finally, is mystery solution X. This solution is a program that I have just started working on; essentially, it will be a version of the Chapter Yellowpages, except the code will be written specifically to accomodate Chazak's needs. This solution may take a while to get finished (at least until after College Apps are in).

To summarize the paragraph above for everyone who skipped over it because it was too long: Websites good. Feel free to email me if you would like to set up a website for you chapter but aren't sure how.

Other Stuff

USY Chapter Records---USY Chapter Records is an application that helps chapters do what chapters are good at. It is meant to help with managing membership (including keeping track of when members need to renew their dues), keeping track of members’ religious knowledge, keeping track of member attendance at events, keeping track of members’ birthdays, creating phone trees, printing mailing labels, printing directories, keeping track of events, and so much more! (Taken from the Manual)

If you would like to use the chapter records for your chapter, please contact the Communications Vice President to get the password for your chapter's account

For a better idea of what the Chapter Records program can do, check out the manual.