Marina’s Recipe for Breaking into her Region
First of all, I just want to say that each person’s region is different.
Mine doesn’t have a lot of grown-up industry other than farming – which I’m still figuring out how to break into –
The Wairarapa:
Population:
Industries:
Number of secondary schools:
The Wairarapa is a relatively poor region with great income gaps between the haves – generations-old farming families – and farm or other low-income workers. I believe instinctively that OB can help with some low-income young people in terms of helping raise their horizons.
At least, speaking at high schools will have helped to plant the seed of the idea.
When I joined the Members Council 4 years ago, Diane Leytencame up to the Wairarapa a couple of times to give talks to Rotary Clubs. I came along and listened, at first intimidated and eventually thinking“Yeah, I can do this.”
So I did. Our region has 5 Rotary Clubs, and I try to speak to each one about once every two years, give or take.
What has happened with two of our local clubs is that the committees in charge of Youth Leadership and Education were inspired to donate scholarships for local young people.
One gave “me” the money to distribute as they saw fit. This means that they forward me the requests for funding and I decide who gets what – and then OB bills the club for the agreed amount when the person goes on the course. This isn’t very much - $1000 over however many applicants; but it’s still something.
Another decided to hold their own scholarship application round, giving 2 x $1,500 scholarships. They held their own dates & timeframes and evaluated the applications directly, but I also publicised it on my speaking round of schools.
Then, out of the blue in 2014, a local bank – Wairarapa Building Society – has decided to donate a full scholarship for Outward Bound. It’s done it for two years now and it looks as though it will continue into the future.
When this happened, I took it as a go-ahead to go speak to each of the secondary schools in the region. I just do a 5 – 10 minute talk on OB.
It’s not the standard presentation on OB – it’s my take on what it will provide you. I’m happy to share my presenations; but Katie and Abby at the Head Office have also provided an official presentation that might be a really good starting point for you.
- I speak about OB, what it can offer, who the courses are good for (this is where some of the trial courses that Victor is speaking about are great), and what scholarships are available and how to apply.
So, what I did was:
- Email the principals, asking if I can have 15 minutes to present at an assembly to speak about Outward Bound. (This is where having such good name recognition is so helpful. It’s pretty universally recognised as A Good Thing, and principals want good things for their students.).
I usually need to get on the agenda anywhere up to two months in advance.
- I try to get access to an overhead projector for the presentation – but be aware, this has failed on me about a third of the time. After giving your talk a couple of times, it’ll be natural to speak without the slides anyway.
- I try to get a meeting afterwards with the person who coordinates Duke of Ed. This is usually the natural starting point. If there is no such person, try for a time with the principal.
Building a relationship here is key. Use the contacts you make to build a spreadsheet, so you can easily contact these sorts of people in the future. Keep notes as to their specific situations, info they will pass on to you at the meeting.
If you can get Krishan Kumar to come along for this, do. He’s not good at public speaking – that’s your part – but he knows the ins and outs of OB for schools. It’s also good if he can build a direct communication link with the school for answering questions and speeding up the process.
- If I can’t get a meeting with the principal or Duke of Ed person, I ask if we can put a blurb into their next newsletter, and in it, I re-cap the main points of the scholarships and where to get more information, drop off applications, how to contact me or Krishan for more info. I do this regardless, also if I do get a meeting with the principals.
In doing this, I made a couple of really neat discoveries: There were two funded scholarships which had fallen from visibility, which belonged to specific schools.
Also, up until the financial issues in the early 90s, there was a strong Members Council group in my region. There may still be stragglers in yours that just need tapping into and rouding up. Ours had a bank account with some funding that had been raised in the 80s. It’s now sitting in the Foundation, tagged for a Wairarapa student.
We’re using it to encourage filling the April, July or September courses. The December and January courses fill themselves with full fee-paying students.
Then there’s work answering queries and coordinating scholarship applications. This is where involving Krishan will be good, so not everything needs to go through you.
For instance, Krish met with the WBS Marketing Manager who coordinates the scholarship applications.
They only choose one, but what happened was this:
Because we had 17 applications from keen students who just needed funding, Krishan was able to use these names to help do some last-minute fill his September MBS course when people starting dropping out due to whatever reason. It was a win for OB to send the course in full, and a win for my region because so many students got the opportunity to go through.
Yes, for some of them, it was a draw on OB Foundation funds, but it’s winter course fill. It also will have really raised the profile of OB in my region.
Next year, I will shoulder-tap a student in each school to come along and give a presentation on their experience, on my speaking tour.
So, you can see, the more you get out there and speak about OB, the more coincidences, neat opportunities and connections there are.
I’d also really like to communicate more with the group of OB volunteers that helped with the 50th Anniversary celebrations and the Fun Run in our region. I have sort of dropped this in the last year, but I think this is key. Having an active group of OBers in your region will only lead to more magic. This is also something we can connect keen alumni to.
If you ask me, it’s time to resurrect OB Armies in the regions again.