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Publicity, Promotions and Recruitment Report 2018
The management of these issues was devolved from one person to the management committee during the year.
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Publicity of significant events such as the Classic Car Day at Easter time was handled on three levels. Firstly letting car clubs know, was a task done by Rona Goold creating a file with all NSW/ ACT clubs and their digital contacts.
The second way was the usual distribution of flyers and posters, contact with free radio and newspaper sites, the village newsletter and E News and banners at each end of town. Anne has helped with artwork and printing of many of our publicity flyers. We do this for all significant happenings such as our art shows, open garden weekend, dog walk, and train visits.
A new and effective means of attracting attention is the village electronic information sign and Facebook.
Neil has been placing periodic articles of interest in the Robertson Common FB page and we have been letting Jenny Kena know about events such as the Dog Walk for placement on the sign.
Cooperation with other community organisations such as FOWAS and the Garden Club to get our message out, has been a good move.
One of the problems with the current state of heritage rail in NSW, is the lack of steam hauled tourist trains. It is hard to stir up interest in the arrival of diesel hauled vintage trains but these are still important to the village businesses and to us as one of our unique offerings to the public, is that we are on a working train line with a station where people alight and use our facilities, even if only for a handful of occasions annually.
And finally, Rona Goold (as RHRS Secretary) distributes a monthly e-news letter to members. Rona, as webmaster. continues to add and edit our our Robertson Railway Website - www.robertonrailway.org.au ensuring the Coming Events Section is updated and any special events featured. Along with Rona, Anne Wilson and Lyndy Scott have also ensured the local tourism and other Highlands website have carried information about our events.This gave us state wide coverage to interested parties quite simply and was proved successful by the excellent attendance.
This is probably the limit to our efforts given our small number of volunteers and our ageing executive. As regards recruitment, Neil Harvey composed an excellent message for the FB page focussing on the enjoyable aspects of belonging to RHRS and stressing our need for new faces. To date this has not borne fruit but the team from Heritage Express when visiting us, stressed that recruitment was best done for limited time events, such as help for a few hours for a specific Event, and highlighting the positive aspects of belonging rather than begging for help and saying how dire the position is.
The best recruiter for practical railway associated membership has been the Modeller Group which may be the way forward for RHRS, in that it is a specific activity of interest to committed group, who will turn up every weekend.
We will continue these modest publicity activities in the coming year.
Rona and I want to extend our thanks to everyone who works with us. In particular, we wish to thank Ian Wallace, supported by wife Sandra, for his dedicated and meticulous attention to providing leadership for our team for the last three years, attending associated railway association events and the thousands of hours of practical work Ian has done in many area of the Railway precinct since Ian joined RHRS.
We would also like to thank both Ian and Neil for their considerable involvement in the local team that organised the building and opening of the Robertson Village Information Digital Sign and related structures - another avenue to let the significant volume of passing traffic, many from outside our village to know what is happening at the Robertson Railway.
Steve Carey
Publicity Coordinator
The second way was the usual distribution of flyers and posters, contact with free radio and newspaper sites, the village newsletter and E News and banners at each end of town. Anne has helped with artwork and printing of many of our publicity flyers. We do this for all significant happenings such as our art shows, open garden weekend, dog walk, and train visits.
A new and effective means of attracting attention is the village electronic information sign and Facebook.
Neil has been placing periodic articles of interest in the Robertson Common FB page and we have been letting Jenny Kena know about events such as the Dog Walk for placement on the sign.
Cooperation with other community organisations such as FOWAS and the Garden Club to get our message out, has been a good move.
One of the problems with the current state of heritage rail in NSW, is the lack of steam hauled tourist trains. It is hard to stir up interest in the arrival of diesel hauled vintage trains but these are still important to the village businesses and to us as one of our unique offerings to the public, is that we are on a working train line with a station where people alight and use our facilities, even if only for a handful of occasions annually.
And finally, Rona Goold (as RHRS Secretary) distributes a monthly e-news letter to members. Rona, as webmaster. continues to add and edit our our Robertson Railway Website - www.robertonrailway.org.au ensuring the Coming Events Section is updated and any special events featured. Along with Rona, Anne Wilson and Lyndy Scott have also ensured the local tourism and other Highlands website have carried information about our events.This gave us state wide coverage to interested parties quite simply and was proved successful by the excellent attendance.
This is probably the limit to our efforts given our small number of volunteers and our ageing executive. As regards recruitment, Neil Harvey composed an excellent message for the FB page focussing on the enjoyable aspects of belonging to RHRS and stressing our need for new faces. To date this has not borne fruit but the team from Heritage Express when visiting us, stressed that recruitment was best done for limited time events, such as help for a few hours for a specific Event, and highlighting the positive aspects of belonging rather than begging for help and saying how dire the position is.
The best recruiter for practical railway associated membership has been the Modeller Group which may be the way forward for RHRS, in that it is a specific activity of interest to committed group, who will turn up every weekend.
We will continue these modest publicity activities in the coming year.
Rona and I want to extend our thanks to everyone who works with us. In particular, we wish to thank Ian Wallace, supported by wife Sandra, for his dedicated and meticulous attention to providing leadership for our team for the last three years, attending associated railway association events and the thousands of hours of practical work Ian has done in many area of the Railway precinct since Ian joined RHRS.
We would also like to thank both Ian and Neil for their considerable involvement in the local team that organised the building and opening of the Robertson Village Information Digital Sign and related structures - another avenue to let the significant volume of passing traffic, many from outside our village to know what is happening at the Robertson Railway.
Steve Carey
Publicity Coordinator