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Our "Friends Group" is called the APPLAUD board. When people contribute or donate money to our theatre, they join or become members of APPLAUD. From those 275 APPLAUD members we elect a board. APPLAUD developed their own bylaws and have a monthly meeting. The mission of the APPLAUD board is to be the social support and fund raising group of our community theatre. Basically, they throw the opening night receptions for cast, crew and APPLAUD members only. They also send the annual fund raising letter or brochure. They have a committee to design and take a re-look at what we send out each year. The APPLAUD board also is now taking over a couple of other fund raising events for our theatre that include an auction and a golf tournament. APPLAUD is an acronym for Association of Proud Patrons Loving the Art of Unforgettable Drama. it's also our phone number: 319-APP-LAUD.
We have cross representation. We have a couple of people on our theatre board attend the APPLAUD board meetings and a couple of people on our APPLAUD board attend our theatre board meetings. So, we're all on the same page.
Send an email blast, put a blurb in your newsletter and on your web site, and send a press release to newspapers within a half hour radius of you explaing what you want to do/start and see what kind of interest there is out there in starting or joining a group like this. Some people like to get involved to throw parties or be a part of that and some people like to help plan events and or be part of that. It's all in how you word it. If you go out asking for people to be part of a friends group and you're going to have to raise money, well, that scares alot of people off. It's all in how you set the expectation.
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John
cfct@cfu.net
http://www.osterregent.org
http://www.facebook.com/osterregent
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