WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?
Each year the top DeMolay Leaders from across the map gather together to... ummm... vote on Congress Officers? Debate minute changes to the bylaws? Offer non-binding "suggestions" to the Board of Directors? Don't get us wrong, there is some importance in all of that, but we really want to be an agent for progress. Washington DeMolay has been up to some pretty exciting stuff lately and we want to share. ALSO, we want to hear from your jurisdictions about what you have been doing, creating, and kicking ass at. We DON'T feel that we need to keep our ideas close to the vest and despite what the leaderboards say, we are not in competition. So let's start a conversation and come away from DeMolay International with new ideas and energy.
Washington DeMolay has its own App!!! Several years ago, Washington DeMolay joined the D-Mobile Revolution. It was great to be able to send a mass text to our members, Advisors and supporters to get the message out about events, registrations, and important reminders. But, sadly, that service came to an end. We fumbled around for a few years looking for other options including simply creating a mass email with everyone's email to text feature, but this became too burdensome to manage so we started looking for something different.
We settled on an App so that we can use our members' and supporters' smart phone' push notification options and we didn't want to have to think far enough ahead to ask DI to send it for us. From there, we started adding additional resources. Best of all, the App is fully customizable at an instant without the need to push updates through the App Stores. Feel free to download the App in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and have a look around. (Also NorCal has jumped on the bandwagon so you will see their App their too).
Some of the features and highlights:
Overall, the design of these Apps was a bit of a labor of love. The cost to set up is about $3,000 and has some residual annual renewal expenses (to keep on the App stores) of about $350. But we love our App. If you want more information, contact [email protected].
We settled on an App so that we can use our members' and supporters' smart phone' push notification options and we didn't want to have to think far enough ahead to ask DI to send it for us. From there, we started adding additional resources. Best of all, the App is fully customizable at an instant without the need to push updates through the App Stores. Feel free to download the App in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and have a look around. (Also NorCal has jumped on the bandwagon so you will see their App their too).
Some of the features and highlights:
- Push Notifications. This is what it was all about. Being able to send a push reminding our supporters of important registration deadlines has had a huge impact on our attendance. How many people ultimately don't show because they forgot to register and don't want to register late. Not only are we getting more overall registrations, but we are seeing fewer last minute registrations.
- "Update." The Update feature operates much like a facebook wall. Users can post status updates and pictures of themselves or their Chapter doing awesome things.
- "Facebook Feed." This pulls our facebook feed directly into the App.
- News. This is the place where all Push Notifications get stored for later reference.
- State Event Info. This is where we post important state event information and "Need 2 Know" packets.
- Registration. All of our event registrations are done using JotForm. This service allows us to put our registration forms not only on our website, but also inside the App, emails, anywhere. It also allows us to collect registration payments to our PayPal account. How easy would it be for your Chapters to register for a state event, if all they have to do is pull out a Smart Phone during the meeting?
- Calendars. State, Regional, and Local Calendars along with the ability to add Chapter events on the fly...
- Groups. We have group discussion boards which no one seems to care about, but we have them...
- Directory. All of the need to know names and contact information available all the time.
- Music Player. Specially Registered "DeMolay" and "Advisor" users who register with the "Password of a DeMolay" can access specially edited ceremony music. Got a Ceremony of Light coming up, pull out your app to play the music to increase your performance.
- Ritual. Yeah, we got that...
- Leadership Materials. Find out when the Obligatory Days are, how to do Introductions and give Good of the Order Remarks. And more is coming...
- Membership. Find membership recruitment materials. Show a prospect a recruitment video, have them enter their name and email address and a drip email will give him some information and help move him toward membership.
- Library. Want to read "Hi Dad!" or "The Life and Times of Jacques DeMolay." Okay, we get it - you don't. But if you did...
- Values and Policies. Repository for the Bylaws and other policies.
- Secret Pages. We have some secret pages that are only visible to some users such as our State Corps. This allows them to enter reimbursement requests, see real time registration information, and more.
Overall, the design of these Apps was a bit of a labor of love. The cost to set up is about $3,000 and has some residual annual renewal expenses (to keep on the App stores) of about $350. But we love our App. If you want more information, contact [email protected].
Many, many, many jurisdictions have played around with the idea of a Big Brother Program. Some have Bro Ties (which we think are pretty cool) and others have different incentives. The reason so many jurisdictions have played around with this concept is because it works. New members that are immediately engaged, in the right way, are more likely to stay involved and recruit others. Determining how to engage the new member is the trick...
Washington recently put out two pamphlets. One for the Big Brothers and one for the Little Brothers. These pamphlets guide each in their role as a Big or Little Brother through the first 6 months of membership. In crafting these pamphlets we thought about what actions and steps could be taken to (1) Get a new member immediately involved, (2) Encourage parent support, (3) Obtain Proficiency, and (4) Begin the process of becoming a DeMolay Leader.
In the next few months we plan to move this program from merely a paper pamphlet program to an automated email drip program. Each week, or other time period, the participants will receive an email with reminders, useful videos, and other information to help them along the priorities outlined above. Take a look a feel free to copy and edit. If you want a copy of our AutoPilot Journey when it is complete, please email [email protected].
Washington recently put out two pamphlets. One for the Big Brothers and one for the Little Brothers. These pamphlets guide each in their role as a Big or Little Brother through the first 6 months of membership. In crafting these pamphlets we thought about what actions and steps could be taken to (1) Get a new member immediately involved, (2) Encourage parent support, (3) Obtain Proficiency, and (4) Begin the process of becoming a DeMolay Leader.
In the next few months we plan to move this program from merely a paper pamphlet program to an automated email drip program. Each week, or other time period, the participants will receive an email with reminders, useful videos, and other information to help them along the priorities outlined above. Take a look a feel free to copy and edit. If you want a copy of our AutoPilot Journey when it is complete, please email [email protected].
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At the Executive Officers' Conference, we were introduced to AutoPilotHQ.com. We immediately loved the potential of this relatively new tool. While we have had ConstantContact for many years and have utilized it for our newsletters, Constant Contact wanted to charge some serious money for drip email services. AutoPilot seems to fill that nitch at a fraction of the price. Best yet, if you sign up for the free trial, they will send you discount offers a few weeks later.
First impressions - dang, this has a learning curve. This program is not the easiest right off the bat. As mentioned above, it is a newer company and they are changing things for the better. In some cases this means their tutorials are out of date. After a bit of playing around however, the concepts began to mesh. If you don't already have a database of users, you can start with the Members and Advisors lists from eScribe. I recommend cutting out some of the useless information and of course, only importing those contacts that have a phone or email address on record.
What have we done:
What we plan to do next:
First impressions - dang, this has a learning curve. This program is not the easiest right off the bat. As mentioned above, it is a newer company and they are changing things for the better. In some cases this means their tutorials are out of date. After a bit of playing around however, the concepts began to mesh. If you don't already have a database of users, you can start with the Members and Advisors lists from eScribe. I recommend cutting out some of the useless information and of course, only importing those contacts that have a phone or email address on record.
What have we done:
- Birthday text messages and emails. If it is your birthday and you are on our list, you are going to know that we remembered you. And by remembered you, I mean that we created a "journey" to remember you in our place. We probably didn't remember... Sorry about that, but we got busy and... on the other hand, you probably don't know that because we crafted the texts and emails to look custom tailored to you because we know things about you. That came out wrong. We know your name and such, nothing too creepy. Can we still be friends?
- Anniversary emails. If you were or are in DeMolay, you will receive an email reminding you of that important anniversary. We hope this might draw some people back. In the future, we plan to put a donation button in this email (couldn't hurt right?). In the future we also plan to expand these anniversary type emails to include Chevaliers and Legion of Honor recipients on their respective November and March celebration dates.
- New Member Welcome. Each new member, when reported, will begin receiving a series of welcome emails. We are also asking for the parent(s)' names and email addresses and have a "journey" to get them involved early in their son's DeMolay experience.
What we plan to do next:
- Big Brother Program. See above. Oh, you skipped over it? Well in that case, see above.
- Break up with Constant Contact. AutoPilot has the functionality of Constant Contact and we don't see a point in maintaining two services.
Have you heard of DeMolay University? Okay, we know some other jurisdiction have events called DeMolay University (we see you Minnesota and Massachusetts), but have you seen DeMolay.University? A few years back, we began development of DeMolay University as an online resource for DeMolay, Leadership and Life knowledge. Anyone can enroll in classes, take quizzes and earn badges. This was / is a very ambitious project and progress is moving along steadily. We have outlined over 100 of these courses and are currently in the lesson writing phase. Once the lesson is written, it will appear on the site and a video lesson will be created to accompany the lesson.
Please have a look around and if you have a gift with words and want to become an instructor, please let us know. We would be happy to help you create a lesson, course or even use this site to upload your jurisdiction specific content. There is absolutely no cost to use and unlike other non-traditional, non-accredited online universities, we are here only to help and not make a profit.
So check out the course catalog, suggest a lesson or two and stay tuned for the updates / content dump coming in 2019! For more information, please contact [email protected]
Please have a look around and if you have a gift with words and want to become an instructor, please let us know. We would be happy to help you create a lesson, course or even use this site to upload your jurisdiction specific content. There is absolutely no cost to use and unlike other non-traditional, non-accredited online universities, we are here only to help and not make a profit.
So check out the course catalog, suggest a lesson or two and stay tuned for the updates / content dump coming in 2019! For more information, please contact [email protected]
Hey there. You seem like a pretty cool guy... Did you know that video is currently driving the internet. Literally every second there is more video uploaded to YouTube then we will have time in our lives. Video attracts, no doubt about it. A little over a year ago, our then SMC had a goal to create a membership oriented "Explainer Video" that would attract our target audience of 12-16 year olds. We love the result. Given that it received 40,000 views in the first week on Facebook, we know it struck others as pretty cool too. We have received a few requests from other jurisdictions to change the logo at the end for their jurisdiction. Please let us know if you would like to be included in that group by emailing us at [email protected]. We anticipate the cost to be about $50 per jurisdiction (to cover the editing costs / time). Check it out...
As an aside, we want to throw some shoutouts to some other really awesome videos we have been secretly envying in the past year or two...
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For the love of all that is good and right in the world, we could not find the Wisconsin DeMolay Advisor Recruitment video on YouTube!!! So here is a link to the video on facebook.
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We are shifting our mindset on Membership. Through the process of "Display & Discover" "Engage & Educate" and "Move and Motivate" we are hoping to revolutionize the membership recruitment models for the new generation. I hope that you can agree that DeMolay is a good brand, one that we can all agree would benefit far more young men then currently become members. So if we have a good product and good brand, then why are we not seeing results using the same models? The answer might be in marketing. Check out a presentation guide and a pamphlet handout that we have recently rolled out to our members. Who knows, it might strike a chord and have you chanting DEM ~olay!
| DEM~olay Presentation Guide.pdf |
| DEM~olay Pamphlet.pdf |
DEMOLAY'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
What if you could tailor your support and resources for your Chapters based on what they need, versus a one-size-fits-all model? This it the premise behind the "DeMolay's Hierarchy of Needs." This program is a concept model for approaching your Chapters where they are, so that you can help get them the specific support needed to raise their level.
Adapted from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the DeMolay Hierarchy acknowledges that Chapters need to focus on different aspects and have different priorities depending on where they are in their cycle of development and that a Chapter who doesn't have a place to meet should not be encouraged to complete a 3 year long-range plan until their immediate needs are met. This program examines what a Chapter needs as it is in each level of development. It then takes a step further in determining what tasks various key players may take in moving the Chapter up (or at least not down) the pyramid.
This model is particularly useful for State Corps planning and retreats. Start by analyzing each Chapter to determine their level and then begin strategizing what supports and resources can be provided to meet the Chapter where they are and help them up.
Attached are the full program along with a sample evaluation form.
Adapted from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the DeMolay Hierarchy acknowledges that Chapters need to focus on different aspects and have different priorities depending on where they are in their cycle of development and that a Chapter who doesn't have a place to meet should not be encouraged to complete a 3 year long-range plan until their immediate needs are met. This program examines what a Chapter needs as it is in each level of development. It then takes a step further in determining what tasks various key players may take in moving the Chapter up (or at least not down) the pyramid.
This model is particularly useful for State Corps planning and retreats. Start by analyzing each Chapter to determine their level and then begin strategizing what supports and resources can be provided to meet the Chapter where they are and help them up.
Attached are the full program along with a sample evaluation form.
| DeMolay Hierarchy of Needs.docx |
| Chapter Survey.docx |
Let's face it, there is always room for more promotion of DeMolay and what we do. Whether it is through videos (see above), t-shirt designs, or other promotional opportunities, promotion of DeMolay creates impressions that might turn in to opportunities for conversation. We wanted to share some of the promotional designs that we have run with the past several years. Again, feel free to use, copy, adapt, or in any other way use these to your benefit. If you want a specific format type, such as .psd or a higher res image, please feel free to email [email protected].
NOW WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
We hope that you have found something useful to take away, adapt and make better. But we don't want this to be a one sided conversation. Help us out by leaving a comment below about what awesome things you are doing (including your contact info). We would love to follow up with you to keep the conversation going. Together, we can keep DeMolay strong into the second century!
