[3526] in APO News
umoc
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bradley J Lichtenstein)
Tue Oct 27 23:56:05 1998
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 23:54:26 -0500 (EST)
From: Bradley J Lichtenstein <robocop2@MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: bjl@alum.mit.edu
Cc: bjl@alum.mit.edu
To: apo-news@MIT.EDU
Ok,
I'm a bit frustrated right now. I worked three hours this
afternoon at the UMOC booth and I discovered some things that were not
effective. I did not think to bring them up until today because I had
forgotten my very similar frustration with Big Screw. I feel my
points, below, are very important, but if you take only a couple
things to heart:
If you are not scheduled to work and all you are going to do at the
booth is read or work, don't come. That makes us look like we don't
care: imagine how it looks to someone walking through the lobby.
"UMOC--but I don't care enough about your vote to even look at you."
ACT ENTHUSIASTICALLY!!!! Don't just sit in the chair! Act animated,
get people's attention, and do your best to get them FIRED UP!!
Otherwise we will all have not used our time to its best extent. We
would have been able to more quickly earn, for man-hours, far more
money by calling our friends on the telephone and soliciting for
donations that way.
1) 99% of the people walking through lobby 10 are willing to donate a
dollar to charity. A possibly different 99% of people walking through
lobby 10 ACTIVELY try to avoid eye contact with each other and with
the booth workers.
2) We had one sign on the dexion that I can remember. It faced
building 13 and said "U.M.O.C." My estimate is that 75 to 95% of the
people walking through lobby 10 don't know what UMOC even stands for.
Remember, about 30% of those passing thru are freshmen who may not
have heard of UMOC!! The upperclassmen don't have as much excuse to
pass through lobby 10; I only did my first two years at MIT.
Lest I am accused of simply complaining, I spent almost all of
my shift making signs for the sides: if they aren't there tomorrow or
any of the other days, THEY NEED TO BE REPLACED. By the time people
walking through are in a position to read the banner, their cone of
vision excludes the booth because they are ACTIVELY trying to avoid
eye contact or other distraction. They are probably worried about
getting to lecture on time, or making sure they turn in their PS
before points get docked off. I know because that is usually what I
was thinking when I went thru in the last 7 years.
3) booth workers CANNOT just sit there. At a minimum, they must
continually try to make eye contact with those entering the lobby at
both sides, before they deliberately look away, and even if eye
contact is not made, must LOUDLY proclaim "DONATE MONEY FOR UGLINESS,
ALL DONATIONS GO STRAIGHT TO CHARITY!"
4) Now, if there is a second person at the booth, one of them should
be in FRONT of the booth. (Note that someone should ALWAYS sit behind
the booth to make sure the jars of money don't grow legs.) The person
in front MUST try to break up the flow of traffic, MUST try to make
eye contact, and MUST loudly say they are working for charity, please
vote for UMOC. This would be at least triply, if not 10 times, more
effective if there was a simple handbill to give out:
"Contest for Ugliest Manisfestation On Campus (UMOC). One
vote is one penny, and ALL donations go straight to charity. In
addition, the winning charity gets an additional $500 above what is
raised in votes, so your vote counts--and please tell your friends!
This public service announcement by MIT chapter of APhiO."
Then the person in front need only stand in the middle of the lobby
and say, "Working for charity, please read this." And try her/his
darnedest to hand out the bills to *everyone.* The bills don't need
to be big, except for the "$500" because that will grab their
attention should it wander after the first five words (and I guarantee
it will for 75% of those passing through; remember, they are in a
*hurry*.)
5) All lettering on all sides must be EASILY legible at 10 feet.
Little scribbled paper plates taped to the bottles don't grab
attention and are hard to read. Letters should be at least an inch
high if they are meant to be read within 5 feet, at least 1.5" if 10
feet, and if you want any chance of catching attention at the ends of
the lobby where people will first be looking around before seeing
whose eyes to avoid contacting, turn the dexion around 90 degrees and
use letters between 4 and 12 inches high. I'm serious, I've done
presentations for auditoriums, I've seen ineffective use of
blackboards, and I stepped back from our booth today at several times
to see how well I was doing with my signmaking.
If we do all of those, and even better have real contestants also
campaigning for votes, then we stand to make far more money and hence
not feel frustrated for wasting time and not being hosed for it.
--Brad L.
