Ok, here I go. I'm kind of getting worked up hearing about the races not being put on because there is no "MONEY!!"
I have had this idea in my head for a while now and i think it's time I share it. I mean, why not????
I can understand how everyone asks or looks for sponsorship for their teams or for the association/races. But that's the "old" conventional way of doing it and I think the corporations or companies that we ask don't want to sponsor the races or teams any more because they see it as a one way win situation. And they're not on the winning side!
So....Basically, I think we need to look at the what we do have to offer the corp/companies that we ask to sponsor!! And what we have are numbers!! And that should be used to our advantage. HCRA has what? maybe 5,000 members throughout the islands. IVF has maybe double that with our international counter parts? What I'm trying to get at here is that we need to use that to our advantage to get these companies to want to sponsor us.
Here it is. We need to take our memberships one noch higher. Make it like a AAA, or costco membership. Where if you're a HCRA/IVF memeber you get a discount by showing your (HCRA/IVF) membership card at say, I don't know zippy's for a 10% discount, or special deals at Costco, or discounts on airfare/hotels/rental cars. Use our numbers to our advantage to give these companies traffic in their places. And give our members incentives to want to go to our sponsors when they are traveling/shopping/whatever!
I'm not quite sure if this came out as clearly as it should. Or if it even makes sense to anyone???? But what do you all think? I mean, i ain't no genius and I by no means know how to get started with this whole idea, but I would hate to see our sport get down graded because of lack of funding or support. ALOHA!!
Submitted by AlfredVG on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 9:12am
That's a very constructive suggestion Tom and worth of spending time to put together.
There are online survey websites where you can setup such a survey and direct people to it., that would at least get the ball rolling. Then obviously the forms would also need to be distributed offline to any paddler data base's that exist, like associations, clubs etc.
The survey would have more clout if it was done by a well known and respected professional survey company, who could be trusted to verify the accuracy of the info, obviously that costs money but would be more valuable.
Here are just few free online services
http://www.polldaddy.com
http://www.esurveyspro.com
Alfred or Tom, if you need some help with this, I'm willing to offer some time, obviously a lot of thought needs to go into compiling the correct questions. Maybe start by asking users here to submit questions and see where it leads
Cheers Rambo
#71 Tue, 11/04/2008 - 11:17am
Moloka'i races
Thank you to everyone for their awesome ideas. I am the person who has been soley responsible for soliciting sponsorship for the Moloka’i Hoe for the last 3 years of which some funding goes to the Na Wahine race.
Please note that this is a 100% volunteer position for everyone involved and we do this because we believe in the tradition of these races.
~ Paddlers can assist; patronize our sponsors.
~ You can write to your local representative and/or send letters to the C&C and State offices for more funding for our State sport. We paid $ 2000.00 in 2007 and had arranged to pay an additional $ 2000.00 for parking priveledges for the stalls for our trailers. NO ONE BUT 3 TRAILERS USED THIS IN 2007 and for the Na Wahine race 2 trailers utilized this priveldge.
We received no variance from the state, no special allowance, nothing! Yes we are trying to work with the state for 2009 but unfortunately too many of our clubs have abused the trailer access in the past by blocking the entrance etc…HOWEVER, this year we had no stalls for the men’s race and it was the most controlled than ever before. Why? because the clubs worked together. They helped each other and we had NO COMPLAINTS from DLNR. So when we speak to them about 2009 it will be so much easier to get what we need because we had no complaints from surrounding venues.
~ If you or someone you know has a company that may be interested in sponsoring these events we are “flexible” in our sponsor packets so that the sponsor will get the most of their marketing dollars. The options are endless and in 2008 we have had more marketing opportunities and more publicity on the race than ever before…thanks to our partners, Pacific Paddler, Makai Magazine and Ocean Paddler TV.
~ We are a 501c(3) entity, but unfortunately that doesn’t carry much clout unless you have someone who is willing to write grants on a full time basis to submit for funding and this is a yearly task. Anyone interested?
~ I have written the grant for HTA for funding for the last 4 years. Each year the support has been substantially less and anyone who knows about event building, (3) YEARS is the magic number, however, we have been delayed because of funding.
~ We do have a governing body that is fiscally responsible for the races and that is the Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association for the Hoe and the Na Wahine O Ke Kai committee for the women’s race.
~ Get involved! Get involved! Get involved!
~ We receive NO SPONSORSHIP from the canoe builders. We received NO SPONSORSHIP from the OC-1 makers and OC-6 paddlers are OC-1 paddlers so there is definitely a connection. Thank you to KIALOA PADDLES.
~ We have branded our race and have made some great advances this year and we are trying to make sure that we cover these costs so that we DON’T have to raise the fee of the race. The cost for each crew to cross the channel for the organization is $ 1104.00 and we charge $ 575.00 for each crew.
So when we ask you NOT to fly the flag of a competitive beer company or request that you paddle directly to the shores of Waikiki so that our sponsors can see the flock of supporters and have photo opportunity for their marketing efforts then please accommodate our request.
~ We will continue these races even in these difficult economic times. We will continue this tradition and offer it to our local crews and welcome our paddling ohana through out the world. However, in our efforts to bring this to the “next” level, be prepared for some changes in the upcoming years…and support our efforts.
~ I would be more than happy to send anyone the demographics of statistics that we were able to collect and a 2009 sponsorship packet via email or hard copy.
We are committed to these races and the sport of outrigger canoe paddling and will provide a venue for our paddlers so that they can concentrate on paddling and winning!
Mahalo for your suggestions, they are truly appreciated and will be taken into consideration…
Nazarene
Moloka’i Event Director
#72 Tue, 11/04/2008 - 4:05pm
Very nicely said Naz! You have done an amazing job with both of these races. I dont think the masses realize what goes into planning an event of this size. We all need to step up and help out.
Great job
Terry
#73 Tue, 11/04/2008 - 5:39pm