Here are some general suggestions on starting a Relay, and included along the way are some specifics for a college event:

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First Things First
1) Contact your local office and let them know of your interest... Given you want to do a college relay, you have about 6 months to plan it! It can certainly be done, but you'll want to get started...

1a) If you are a University event, make sure you get permission to have a Relay on campus and get an idea of where you can hold it. University sites often fill up very early on, so secure a site as soon as possible.

2) Assemble a committee - Find people that want to be involved and/or you trust, and ask nicely  Get them involved, give them meaningful responsibilities, and get it all going.

2a) On an university campus, come up with a publicity plan - you'll need to post flyers in dorms, see if the all-university mailing system will send a note about Relay For Life looking for committee members and participants.

3) Get together a plan for your event - Put together lists of things that each committee needs to do... see the following link for a manual that tells you the things that the most successful events do!:

http://www.acsrelay.org/downloadzipmanualanddgis.php

Doing the Basics
Here are things you do the first time - ACS Staff leader with local volunteer if possible, parallel path:
a. If you are staff, find (a) PASSIONATE community leader(s) to work with
i. Present to local business organizations / university organizations - Deliver a presentation to the Chamber of Commerce, local clubs, etc. to find volunteers. Also ask them if they will add a Relay flyer to a monthly mailing they already do (often they will do this for the cost of the copies).

- If you are a University student, contact the Greek System, Student Leadership organizations, local businesses, etc.

ii. Network at your local ACS office - Find people at the local ACS office who know people in the area you are starting a relay in...

iii. Check ACS database for volunteers in your community - Call these folks and let them know that you are starting an event in their community.

iv. Find out about teams at other events that might have volunteers who live in your new Relay community - Talk to that event's staff and chair about letting those people know about the new event... Don't be high pressure... these folks might be interested in switching, but even if they are not - they will know people who might be interested in being part of the new event.

v. MOST OF ALL, YOU NEED TO FIND A PASSIONATE CHAIR!

b. Search for teams, teams, teams... Start with the basic MOST possible ideas:
i. Find out about teams at other Relays who might be from your new area - Other teams may have traveled and would be interested in being closer, or will at least know people in your community.
ii. Use the Team Relations Wheel of Fortune to search all the possible places that you could find teams! - it is a great list of where to find teams:

http://www.acsrelay.org/Darn_Good_Ideas/10-Team_Relations_Wheel_Of_Fortune_Where_To_Find_Teams.doc

iii. Post signs around the University in dorms, main buildings, etc.

c. Search for Survivors, Survivors, Survivors - An event without survivors isn't a Relay! Find survivors in every nook and cranny!
i. Contact Local Hospital for Survivors/Doctors for help
1. Call the public relations department, share what you are working on, and ask to come in and talk to them.
2. Ask your Cancer Control contact for contacts at the hospital... There might be a Reach to Recovery program, Road to Recovery etc. that will have volunteers.
ii. Ask each team you have to find at least 2 survivors to start!

d. Secure site - Work with your local contacts to secure the site - it could be at High Schools, Colleges, Parks. Call:
i. local Recreation Dept. for possible sites (and maybe an entertainment trailer)
ii. Board of Education
iii. Chamber of Commerce

NOTE: University sites can be particularly hard to secure - so start early!

e. Communication
i. Contact your local business associations (Chamber, Professional Women's Networks, etc.) and University organixations - These are great resources to get exposure to a large # of businesses very efficiently that could provide corporate sponsorship as well as teams...
ii. Do A Local Business Mailing - Do one to get the word out that a Relay is coming to the community.
iii. E-mail to PTA - often a group of highly organized professionals, etc who bring contacts and skills, (Thanks to Stacy Capra!)
iv. Local Schools - Talk to principals at schools to get them involved, (Thanks to Stacy Capra!)
v. Local Papers - Contact local paper for an article, or I would add, at least an ad in their community section if possible about a Relay coming to town... (Thanks to Stacy Capra!)
vi. Take A Walk - Hold a Postering Day - Collect who you have volunteering so far, and spend an afternoon (probably best on a weekday) walking around your local businesses and talking to employees, managers, and owners... Tell them about Relay, and ask about 1. Posting a flyer/poster, 2. placing a coin can, and if they seem very interested, 3. ask about a donation and 4. teams... There's no substitute for 1:1 contact and asking for their help... much harder to reject than a letter!

f. Use the Chair's Checklist Manual at http://www.acsrelay.org - give the Checklist for each committee to that committee's chair so they can plan their part of the event. Since it is your first year, there will be more work in finding your community resources. Visit:

http://www.acsrelay.org/downloadzipmanualanddgis.php

g. Use Darn Good Ideas at http://www.acsrelay.org - Darn Good Ideas are about just about any question you have about Relay - From Fundraising ideas to Team Themes, standard ceremony scripts to how to recruit teams. Visit:

http://www.acsrelay.org/manualandDGIs.php

h. Relay Open House - Do this with lots of publicity (ads in the Church bulletins and our local papers about the Open House. We also put fliers in the teacher's mailboxes, at the Community Center, the rec center, the local library, in stores, anywhere we could find a spot) - to find community members who want to help... Ads in local event brochures could be cheap and reach a lot of people at an event, say a local community theater brochure - might be cheap too - $25??? "Offered two different times 9:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. that way I could accommodate the schedules of the moms who are home during the day while their kids are in school and the working professionals. I served bagels and coffee (donated, of course). At the Open House I had the Terry Zahn video which I played to everyone who attended. I also had literature and a volunteer opportunities list. Several of those who couldn't make it - I had given a copy of the video and talked with at length about the different positions available." (Thanks to Stacy Capra!)

i. Committee Member Profile sheet - Put together a sheet of information about each of your committee members, and have them share it at your committee meeting so you can all identify contacts for other committees (business that a committee member works for that corporate sponsorship can contact, a PTA parent team recruiting can contact for a youth team, etc.) (Thanks to Stacy Capra!)

j. Make sure you train and keep your team captains in the loop - setup 3-4 team captains meetings
i. Follow standard agendas for your meetings (you can find them in the Darn Good Ideas)
ii. Give out fundraising lists to your teams
iii. Give out team names (theme theme suggestions) to your team captains

k. E-mail your team captains ideas and updates weekly

Hope this helps and is a start... Email rflvolunteer@gmail.com for more ideas and a file with college specific ideas.

 

Ramesh Moorthy Webmaster, acsrelay.org, Ideas for Volunteers Blogging about Relay at acsrelay blog Volunteer Content Advisor, SA Division Relay Web rflvolunteer@gmail.com