Membership drive postal mailings

Run a Wild Apricot Saved search to determine who will get this mailing. The results of the search give the number of members who will get the mailing and, when exported, generates the Excel mailing list for the letters. 

• Log in to Wild Apricot
• Make sure you are in Admin view. You can tell whether you are in Admin or Public view by looking at the button in the upper right. The button is labeled with the view you would switch to if you click on it, so, probably counter-intuitively, if the button says "Public view" you are in Admin view, and vice versa. If it says "Admin view", click on it to switch.
• Click on Contacts - Saved searches from the menu on the left. If you don't see that, you can click on the Personify logo in the upper left to restore the menu.
• Run the following three saved searches to generate the three mailing lists. Be sure to note the number of members selected for each search to give you the count for copying.
  •  Member Drive 1st Notice Intro.
    
    Parameters for this search are: Deceased Date Empty and Member status is “Active” and Renewal due “This Year” and Membership Level is “Introductory Member” and “I Want to Receive” has none of our e-mail communications chosen. This selects all current introductory members who do not use email.
  • Member Drive 1st Notice Renew
    
    Parameters for this search are: Deceased Date Empty and Member status is “Active” and Renewal due “This Year” and Membership Level is “Renewal” and “I Want to Receive” has none of our e-mail communications chosen. This selects all current regular members who do not use email.
  • Membership Drive - Lapsed
    
    Parameters for this search are: Deceased Date Empty and Member status is "Lapsed" and City is not empty. This selects all former members for whom we have an address.
• Export the selected records with the fields needed for mailing by clicking the Export button provided by Wild Apricot.  From the pop-up window that appears select: First Name, Last Name Street Address, City, State or Province and Zip or Postal Code. Click on the Export button on the bottom of the pop-up window; this will create an Excel file on your computer, located wherever you normally store downloads -- for Windows users, this most often is your Downloads folder.
• These Excel files are the three mailing lists you will need for Mail Services and should be renamed to something you will recognize, e.g., IntroductoryFirstRenewalNotice.

Supplies that are needed for the renewal package should be collected ahead of time so that they are available when needed.

Renewal package

The renewal package contains three sheets. Only the cover letter differs from package to package. To create the three mail packages: Make sure the Membership Committee has reviewed the letters before you proceed.

• Cover letter - Download the three notices below (see List of Postal notices on Membership drive notices page for links to the three letters below) and open in Word. Be sure to replace "Date" with the expected mailing date and save. Finally save the notice again but this time save as a PDF document.
  • Renewal due - introductory members
  • Renewal due - "renewal" members
  • Please rejoin - lapsed members
• Renewal enrollment form  -  renewal enrollment form (see Update enrollment forms if link is bad)
• Book drive -  Book Drive information flyer (see Book donation forms if link is bad)

Envelopes

In addition to the material listed above, each renewal package contains a self-addressed envelope (i.e., addressed to ASURA). The envelopes do not provide for postage-free return.

Note:  Mail Services keeps a supply of mailing envelopes and ASURA's self-addressed envelopes. Check with them to make sure there are enough of both envelopes for the mailing (see the "helpful people" page for contact information). If there are not enough then ask the Office Coordinator to arrange for more to be delivered to Mail Services.

Since the May mailing has three different renewal packages, the packages are color coded to reduce confusion in Mail Services. The color coding also means that it takes three separate emails to Alphagrahics requesting printing (see Helpful people page for contact). For each request email, attach the appropriate three documents in the renewal package, copy the Financial Operations Manager, and include in the text:

• The number of copies (round up slightly from the count that you actually expect to be mailed, just in case some get spoiled at Mail Services),
• Black and white printing,
• Assemble order is -  Letter / enrollment form / book flyer,
• Printing requirements - single sided for the letter, double sided for the enrollment form, and single sided for the book flyer,
• Paper color for all three documents in each package:
  • Introductory - pastel pink
  • Renewals - pastel green
  • Lapsed - pastel yellow
• Ask that copies be sent copies to ASU Mail Services and ask for a delivery date, Both you and the Financial Operations Manager should be notified of the delivery date.

• Ask that the invoice be sent to the Financial Operations Manager. One invoice for the three jobs is acceptable.

   

Since there are three different mail packages three different requests must be submitted to Mail Services. 

Complete a Mail Services online work request for each package. 

Mail Services request form

The following documents contain information to supply for each of the requests. The items that change each year are highlighted in yellow.

• May Membership Drive - Introductory Renewal
• May Membership Drive - Renewals
• May Membership Drive - Lapsed

Check with the Membership Chair to see if they want to include the lapsed members in this mailing. They have not been included beginning with the 2022 mailing.

Generate mailing list

• Run and export Saved Search 'Member Drive 2nd Notice"
  
  Search parameters: ​​ Deceased Date Empty and Member status is “Active” and Renewal due “This Year” and Membership Level is not “Honorary” and I Want to Receive does not include any of the communications that go out by email.
• Optional, at the discretion of the Membership Committee Chair. Run and export Saved Search "Membership Drive - Lapsed". Search parameters:  Deceased Date Empty and Member status is "Lapsed" and City is not empty. This will select all lapsed members for whom we have an address.

If the second search is done combine the two Excel files to generate a single mailing list and add the two counts to get a single mailing count

• Name the exported list something you will recognize, e.g., MemberDrive2ndNotice. Note down the number of people in the list for use in the next steps.

• Collect three documents and check envelope supply for the mail package 
  • Notice (cover letter) - Membership lapsed/first reminder
    
    Download the notice from the List of Postal notices on the Membership drive notices page and open in Word. Be sure to replace "Date" with the expected mailing date and save. Finally save the notice again but this time save as a PDF document.
  • Renewal enrollment form  -  renewal enrollment form (see Update enrollment forms if link is bad)
  • Book drive -  Book Drive information flyer (see Book donation forms is link is bad)
  • Check with Mail Services to see that they have enough envelopes both mailing and self-addressed return (see the "helpful people" page for contact information).

Email the mail package to Alphagraphics for copying (see the "helpful people" page for contact information) . The printing information is the same as for the May copying except the paper color is white.

Download the example Mail Services Request for July Membership Drive Letter.

Use the information on the document to complete and submit a 

Mail Services request form

Generate mailing list by running and exporting Saved Search 'Member Drive 3rd Notice"

Search parameters: ​​ Deceased Date Empty and Member status is “Active” and Renewal due “This Year” and Membership Level is not “Honorary”. This will select last year's members who have not yet renewed.

Export the results of the search to Excel, and rename the file to something you will recognize, such as MemberDrive3rdNotice.xls. 

Note the number of records for use in the next steps.

Collect three documents and check envelope supply for mail package

• Notice (cover letter) - Second reminder/end of grace period
  
  Download the notice from the link on the List of Postal notices on Membership drive notices page and open in Word. Be sure to replace "Date" with the expected mailing date and save. Finally save the notice again but this time save as a PDF document.
• Renewal enrollment form  -  renewal enrollment form (see Update enrollment forms if link is bad)
• Book drive -  Book Drive information flyer (see Book donation forms if link is bad)

Check with Mail Services to see that they have enough envelopes both mailing and self-addressed return (see the "helpful people" page for contact information).

Email the package of documents to Alphagraphics for copying (see the "helpful people" page for contact information) . The printing information is the same as for the May copying except the paper color is white.

Download the example  Mail Services Request for August Membership Drive Letter .

Use the information on the document to complete and submit a 

Mail Services request form

Generate a mailing list by running the Saved Search 'Member Drive Final Notice"

Search parameters: ​​ Deceased Date Empty and Member status is “Lapsed” and Renewal due “This Year” and Membership Level is “Renewal”. This will select last year's members who have not yet renewed.

Export the results of the search to Excel and rename the exported file to something you will recognize, e.g. MemberDriveFinalNotice.xls. 

Collect three documents and check envelope supply for mail package

• Notice (cover letter) - Third reminder. Download the notice from the List of Postal notices on the Membership drive notices and open in Word. Be sure to replace "Date" with the expected mailing date and save. Finally save the notice again but this time save as a PDF document.
• Renewal enrollment form  -  renewal enrollment form (see Update enrollment forms if link is bad)
• Book drive -  Book Drive information flyer (see Book donation forms if link is bad)

Check with Mail Services to see that they have enough envelopes both mailing and self-addressed return (see the "helpful people" page for contact information).

Email the mail package to Alphagraphics for copying (see the "helpful people" page for contact information) . The printing information is the same as for the May copying except the paper color is white.

Download the Mail Services Request for September Membership Drive Letter for an example of how to fill out the Mail Services Form.

Use the information on the form to complete and submit a 

Mail Services request form