How to work an Outdoor Club information table

If we remember to bring them, everyone should wear a name tag with their name clearly printed in large letters, up on their chest where people can read it. You are a representative of the club and should be clearly identifiable as such.

If you have time to prepare, read the trip handouts and/or receipts before answering questions, or else get someone who understands the trip to answer questions. Get someone who understands the trip we are promoting the most to show you the pictures on displays that best describe the trip so you can point out things to people.

If you are inexperienced with how the club works, you can pass out flyers and let other people answer questions. Be willing to say "I don't know the answer to that, let's see if someone else does" instead of making up things or guessing.

Examples of things to not say:

A volunteer at one table told people we would be camping on the beach on a Sunset Beach Park camping trip, but the campground is not on the beach, and a potential camper could be disappointed when they arrived and found they wouldn't be camping/sleeping on the beach. Plus, someone might give the faculty person or trip leader trouble during the trip if they were told they couldn't sleep on the beach when they got there.

A volunteer once told people we would be snowshoeing across Yosemite Valley on a winter trip. The Ranger snowshoe walk that we can go on is at Badger Pass ski resort, not in the valley, and that's a BIG difference in scenery, and a big potential letdown.

Yes, people can go skiing on our winter trips, but you have to make it clear it's something they do on their own. People signing up for a $10 trip have actually been unclear enough to expect we'd pay for skiing at that price as well as the campsite.

A volunteer once pointed at the photo display about equipment and told a potential member that they could rent a tent and the club would bring up the rest of the equipment shown. The club doesn't bring up equipment, individual people do. We've had trips when no one wanted to bother with the dining canopies and we didn't have any when it rained. We've had trips when they're weren't enough stoves. We usually can get a lot of firewood, but don't tell people we will, ask them if they can find/transport some.

Don't tell people we do things that we don't always have the time to do.

Sometimes we send out an email newsletter, but you should always say that it's only IF we have the time and people-power to get a mailing done.

Sometimes we call members, especially when we need help for a table or other project, but we don't always have the time to do this, so don't tell people we'll keep in touch with them. Tell them that they need to check our website regularly to keep up on new things. (A member complained that we hadn't been calling him - someone had told him we would.)

When people say they'd like the club to do a trip to XYZ or....

don't make them think that their idea for a trip is a sure thing. Trips take more work than most people realize. We have to convince a faculty person to go on each trip. Some trips are unlikely to be okayed by risk management. Some are just too much money or too exotic to attract enough people.

Have respect for people who approach the table.

Someone may not look at all like a camper to you, but don't talk down to them. Almost everything the club does is set up for beginners and we've even had people who've never camped and never even seen snow on our annual winter trip. (One volunteer talked down to a middle-aged woman, telling her she would need to do workouts to be able to participate in kayaking.)

Table staffing should be, at a minimum:

one experienced person sitting behind the table to fill out forms and take money, and a second experienced person standing near the main photo display, to be able to talk to people who actually walk up toward the booth.

Most extra people working the table need to be outside the booth handing out flyers to people. Sometimes we try to give them to practically everyone, sometimes just if people seem interested. It is a waste of time to just sit at the table and expect people to approach us...... they won't.

Try holding out a flyer toward people as they walk by and say "read this in class" or, if you are more outgoing, "you need to go surfing" or "you need to go camping."

Holding out the flyer and saying "Do you want info about the Outdoor Club?" doesn't work as well, because most people don't think they want the info .... until they read it and then a lot of times they come back later to check out things.

You don't have to hand flyers to everyone. If someone looks ornery, or is smoking right in people's faces, you don't have to approach them. If you personally know someone, and don't like them, you don't have to invite them to join us.

It's also effective to work in pairs, one guy and one girl, to try to talk to groups of people qho are standing around in the area, or in the cafeteria, etc.

Want to really waste time? Stand around talking to friends in the club instead of trying to work the crowd. It's especially a waste when people approach the table, look at the display pictures and then walk off without a flyer or even a hello, because the table staff was busy talking to each other.

If you have the time, you can get an education about the club by reading:

Outdoor Club Basic Info

Outdoor Club Coming Attractions

Membership benefits

Club Trip Leader Job Description

Outdoor Club Equipment

Outdoor Club Finances

Outdoor Club Sample Rental Agreement

Outdoor Club Constitution