| | | National Announcements & Opportunities This Thursday, March 30th at 1pm ET, the US Department of Justice is hosting a webinar to provide practical steps to protect LGBTQI+ communities from hate-motivated attacks and threats of violence. Register for the US Dept of Justice Webinar. P.S. There is still time to register for our PFLAG National virtual ALICE Active Shooter Response Training with Navigate 360. Register for the ALICE Active Shooter Response training. Laura McGinnis, our Senior Manager, Press and Public Relations, will offer bi-monthly Media & Messaging virtual office hours as follows: - The 2nd Thursday of the month from 2-3pm ET/11am-noon PT
- The 2nd Saturday of the month from Noon-1pm ET/9-10AM PT
Additionally, beginning in April, Liz Owen, our Director of Communications will offer bi-monthly Branding virtual office hours as follows: - The second Wednesday of the month, 7-8pm ET/4-5pm PT
- The third Saturday of the month at 1-2pm ET/10-11am PT
The first Branding Office Hours will be held in April, on Wednesday, April 12 and Saturday, April 15. You can join via Zoom at any time during the office hours to get support and get your questions answered; the link to join is always the same, passcode: PFLAGZ0Z0. We’re happy to provide you with this important communications support. On Transgender Day of Visibility, Friday, March 31st at 12pm ET/9am PT, you are invited to join the Congressional Equality Caucus National Town Hall: Fighting for Trans Rights. Hosted by the co-chairs of the Congressional Transgender Equality Task Force, Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Rep. Mark Pocan along with Rep. Sarah Jacobs, this virtual event will feature special guests Delaware State Sen. Sarah McBride, Athlete Ally Ambassador Kaiya McCullough, and Whitman Walker Institute's Dr. Kellan Baker. Register for the Congressional Equality Caucus National Town Hall |
| | Regional Roundup Are you seeing low attendance at your chapter’s support meetings? Consider some varied strategies you can use to attract new attendees to your support meetings: - Spread the word: Advertise meetings through different channels such as social media, flyers, posters, and word of mouth. Use targeted hashtags and join relevant online groups to reach a wider audience. Use testimonials from existing members to showcase the benefits of attending the meeting and share them on your website or social media channels.
- Reach out to related organizations: Connect with mental health clinics or community centers, and ask them to share information about the support meeting with their clients or uplift it in their newsletter.
- Offer incentives: Reward attendees who bring new members to the meeting with free PFLAG swag or discounted membership.
- Collaborate with others: There are other nonprofits or businesses that have similar goals whose meetings or events you can co-host or attend. All events are an opportunity to highlight your chapter's support space.
Check out these tips from around the PFLAG Chapter Network from chapter leaders like you: - PFLAG Greensburg uses their members' connections to local social service agencies, colleges, churches and other organizations to attend and support their events. They often support each other’s efforts by hosting information tables and trainings to provide outside presence, in addition to other, in-kind opportunities. They have a constant presence on our Facebook pages with upcoming events for PFLAG and the other organizations with pictures, LGBTQ+articles, books, movies.
- PFLAG Santa Clarita believes the most successful way of bringing new folks to our meetings is community outreach. By attending and tabling at many events - pride activities for local hospitals, libraries and schools; whenever they are invited to speak, they do. They invite media to their larger events to spread the word that the chapter exists and want to help humans who are in the LGBTQIA+ community and those who love and support them.
- PFLAG New Orleans leans into the connections already established and dug deeper into how those relationships were made.This was done by surveying their community members, affiliates, and partners. The information they gather highlights where their new members are coming from and makes sure to continue to foster those connection points.
I’d love to hear about how your chapter engages in these activities to continue building out additional tips, tricks, and resources to support all of our chapters. If you have any questions about building your audience, attendance, and membership? Reach out to me for further ideas and brainstorming. |
| Stay safe, Shaun Connors (he/they) |
|
|
| | Shaun Connors | Chapter Engagement Coordinator Eastern Region (CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, VT, WV) Pronouns: he/they PFLAG National | P: (202) 558-3839 | pflag.org | straightforequality.org |
| | |
|
|
|
|