Washington State University NSO   

IVCF staff at Washington State University did three target events and an all campus event- 1 event catered for the target audience of each (of 3) small groups, and 1 all-campus event.  The target events were a spa night (women's' dorms), spaghetti feed (men's' dorm), and Ultimate Frisbee (co-ed frosh dorm), and the broader event was a BBQ at the regular time/place of the large group meeting. 

• Student Response: We had a raffle at each event where students entered by filling out information/interest cards (downloaded from the staff site).  There they could indicate interest in SGs, etc., and we had IV students follow up with them.

• Event Format: Most of the events were around 1-1.5 hrs, with casual interaction opportunities but at least one clear point where someone announced that IV was sponsoring the event, what future events were happening, and where the raffle prizes were drawn. 

• Number of attendees:

• Spa night - 10 people, light snacks, enough food. 

• Spaghetti - 50 people, spaghetti, meat sauce, bread, ran out of food. 

• Ultimate - 20 people, water & watermelon, enough food. 

• BBQ - 30 people, burgers/chips/soda, enough food.

• Advertisement: The targeted events were all by personal invitation alone - going through the dorms with some kind of hook & inviting people - we'd give away cookies or offer to empty their trash & invite them.  For the campus event, we had an info table/proxy station on campus the day of the event, which was great for meeting people (almost an event in itself), but not a lot of people came from there to the event that evening.  The proxy station read, "What is Your Most Dreaded Class," and we asked passing students to write their answer on a post-it note and stick it to the board.  Then we introduced ourselves as IV, offered them a free notebook w/our website on it, and invited them to enter the raffle at our info table.   We also kept a current schedule of events on our chapter website and Facebook page, handed out notebooks at the proxy station with our web address on them, and hung a banner on campus.

• Leadership Prep: We have an events team of student leaders who brainstormed some ideas last spring, so we were able to get some materials (website, posters, note cards, notebooks to give away) over the summer.  We invited all leaders to an NSO retreat where we planned the events, then recruited other returning students/leaders to help as they arrived on campus.  We also spent some very valuable time at the NSO retreat talking about ministry coming out of our loving relationship with Jesus, how NSO fits into our overall vision, and praying/worshipping for NSO & the school year.

• Final Thoughts:

•  The targeted events were great, although Ultimate Frisbee had a smaller draw than hoped. 

• The broad event was okay, but we've had minimal return attendance from it.   

• The events were very well organized - after deciding on the events as an NSO team, we delegated responsibility for organizing them to teams of students.  They did the shopping for food, prizes, & email reminders, while the staff helped with some logistics (tables, info slips, databasing responses).

   

Questions or Comments about this website can be directed to aubriewoods@multnomah.edu