Club Connection is the online newsletter with helpful content for the Club Directors at our 14 nationwide All-Stars Clubs.

Dear Club Leaders,

We hope your 2024 has started out with great success and tremendous hope for what the Lord has planned for you and your ministry. We are incredibly thankful for each of you and the effort you put forth to bless so many in your communities with special needs. You are valued and appreciated more than you know! And we want to reinforce that we are to here to walk this journey with you and ensure your success - please reach out any time if a question or need arises with which we can assist you and your team.

As we look to expand our toolbox of resources for you in this coming year, we will be sending a club leader specific enewsletter like this every other month. We hope to share meaningful content that will encourage and sharpen our efforts as club leaders and help connect us with collective experience and knowledge.

These newsletters will have a mix of best practices, club news and inspirational stories, helpful tips, prayer requests, and other helpful content that you might request. This is one of the primary reasons why we will emphasize the importance of submitting a POST EVENT QUESTIONNAIRE within 48 hours of your event. This questionnaire helps us to understand where we can best support you and it allows us to share the photos and stories that encourage all of us towards our collective mission. We not only hope you find this content useful, but also ask that you give us feedback on content that might be meaningful for future editions.

Sincerely,

Scott Russomanno

Executive Director

All-Stars Club

Benefits of Stories through Quality Photos

As I'm sure you've seen, we post lots of photos of our club events to our social media pages. We love sharing the joy and excitement that's displayed on the faces of our All-Stars and volunteers. We would often hear from parents & caregivers how much their All-Stars loved seeing themselves in these photos/videos and so we kept it up. Early on in our ministry's development we recognized the many benefits of maintaining our efforts to consistently capture quality photos.

BENEFITS

• Increased Donations

• All-Stars Club Central Support

• Volunteer Retention

• New All-Star Recruitment

• Social Media Growth

• Increased Community Interest

• Archives Great Memories

For the purposes of this article we want to focus on the top two benefits in the list above that directly impact financial giving for your specific club and All-Stars central. Much of our growth can be attributed to the support of our donors, sponsors, and grantors - many of whom have given us the feedback that our photos were impactful and a deciding factor in their giving. When donors can see tangible proof of the joy and impact we create through our programs, they not only stay as donors, but many have increased their giving. This focus not only supports your individual clubs with items you might need, but when we, as the central office, are able to share your stories through photos, it allows us to gain the financial backing needed to effectively serve your club with ongoing coaching and consulting.

As our model continues to gain steam and additional churches are expressing interest in hosting an All-Stars Club club, our central office is in need of expanding our internal resources to help these new churches - all while staying committed to providing your club with top-notch service. So we encourage you to join us in this effort in making 'stories through quality photos' a priority in your 2024 event planning and ensuring these are posted to your Google Drive folder within 72 hours. We obviously don't charge for our All-Stars model and plan to always keep it that way, but your attention in this area goes a long way to helping us pursue additional funding opportunities that allows us to maintain our service level. If you have a photographer then that's awesome, but with the quality of smart phones you don't even need a professional - simply a dedicated volunteer with a smart phone who can follow our Media Guide Best Practices and roam the event capturing special moments. The more quality photos we can post and share with our constituency along with some of the stories you share through your Post Event Questionnaires, can only serve to benefit all of us and strengthen the resources of our ministry. If you have any questions at any point about marketing and promotional best practices including how to improve your photo generation, please contact scott@allstarsclub.org. Thank you for joining us in this effort!

  • Congratulations to Jenna Vanderpol & Andrei Stringfellow at NCCTK All-Stars Club in Lynden, WA for a successful launch this past November. They hosted 22 All-Stars for their first event and already have 25 registered for their encore event this Friday night.

  • We are excited to launch our newest All-Stars Club this Friday at North Park Baptist Church in Sherman, TX. Congratulations to Club Leaders, Kaitlyn Barrett & Desiree Adams for your hard work in recruiting an incredible 19 All-Stars for your grand opening.

  • Congratulations Mary Kenney & Sheila Watkins for stepping in as Club Leaders at our Jubilee Fellowship location in Centennial, CO. They have taken over responsibilities and will host their first club on February 9th.

TIP FROM PHIL - FIRST IMPRESSION

The atmosphere we present at the entrance as families and volunteers enter can set the mood for the night. It can either lead to an enjoyable experience with people returning or it can lead to one and done for volunteers. Keep in mind that a smile can always be met with another smile and help to break the nerves for first time volunteers. Most of our volunteers do not have experience or a passion yet to serve this community but the way we portray ourselves can be that difference. Keep up the good work and help to get these life changing events off to an exciting start!

TIP FROM SCOTT - SOCIAL MEDIA ADVANTAGE

In the heart of our opening article, we want to focus on the effective engine where stories through quality photos can exist - social media. If you are not currently utilizing social media, we recommend strong consideration towards these useful tools. It allows you to create your own All-Stars following to consistently stay in touch with your community. Social media definitely has some down sides, but if used effectively, you can improve volunteer retention, reach new All-Star families, and share the impact of your ministry. We recommend Facebook and Instagram as great options to get started. We know some churches have strict rules about social media rules and using their name, so we recommend asking your church if they will approve naming your pages after the city you host - check out Lynden All-Stars Club or All-Stars Club Centennial as examples. Happy posting!

If you have a prayer request that you would like to share with other Club Leaders, please email scott@allstarsclub.org.

Please join us in praying for Jordan (pictured right in blue), the daughter of Allisa Brown, our LaGrange All-Stars Club leader. Jordan experienced a brain bleed in mid November and was rushed into neurosurgery. She is now embarking on a long road to recovery so please pray for complete healing for Jordan and that God would restore her back to perfect health. Please also pray for Allisa and her family as they ask for guidance in choosing the best neurosurgeon for this very rare disease that Jordan is facing.

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Luke 14:12-14

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