Raising NCF's Profile and Membership:  A Proposed Method
========================================================  Nov 98
As has been noted many times, a large part of NCF's mission is to help
people get online for the first time.  Also, NCF depends on support
from members.  However, in reach times the influx of new members has
leveled off or declined.  Consensus is that NCF is still an attractive
place for first-timers, but people just don't know about NCF (or they
have an out-dated idea of NCF).

NCF has little money, but lots of potential volunteers.  What can NCF do
to reach the public?

At a recent brainstorm session, Chris Cope, Michael Mason and I came up
with this:

POSTERS on telephone poles, etc
FLYERS door-to-door
HANDOUTS at computer stores

Imagine a single sheet of paper printed on both sides.  Side one is
information about NCF, and side two is a registration form to mail in.

Side one might contain:
* Explanation of what internet is (browsing, etc)  (your motivation)
* What equipment you need
* What is an ISP and why you might care
* Who is NCF and what does NCF do (non-profit, community, "large group of
  people sharing...", "people helping people")
* How NCF has changed since you last knew about it
* Table of typical ISP costs, showing how NCF fits in
* How decide if NCF would be your best way to start
* What to do if you are interested, eg., where to find NCF diskettes/CD

Side two is a membership agreement (user friendly version) and whatever
else it takes to sign up.  This should be a straight-forward as we can
make it.

Then we enlist volunteers to distribute materials.  They hand out the flyers,
and maybe they follow up with phone calls to people who register, telling
them that their account has been created and who to call if they need help.
Whatever we can think of to help get new members.

This is a brainstorm direction.  Do you think it warrants more thought?
Does it seem like something NCF could do now with what it has now?  Are
there better ideas or ways to improve this?

Please come up with ideas so we can select the best one(s) at the next
board meeting.  Focus on things that NCF can do now with what NCF has now
(safer than plans that depend on others or future events).  I think we
need to commit ourselves soon to an action plan so it has time to
deliver results.

If you like the poster/flyer/handout idea, you might like to think
of good content and layout.  We could take a number of possible layouts
to someone professional and ask them to help us, building on the various
suggestions.  Maybe we could get someone to print them for free.  Maybe
one of the media outlets would carry it.

Or instead of content, you might think of steps we could take to make
sure it works well, eg., ways to test it, etc.

Actions requested:
* Refinement of ideas and selection of best
* Ranking of priority for ED (suggest 'high')