Summer is almost over. Time to return to schools and work. It’s time to learn new things. Sitting down for a moment to write this I realize how much new I have to learn. I can learn new things every day. Also tasks as a president of a club are so different than to ones as a member or participant. There are so many things happening that people may not even realize. It is somewhat demanding, but also rewarding. Skills are something nobody can take away from me.

This is time for me to learn about marketing.

Basics of marketing 

I am a social person, but I do have some background beliefs. I grew up in the environment where I was not exposed to advertising a lot. We were not taught to ask for help. And even less – it was impolite to talk about oneself and at no circumstances we could brag about ourselves. This is ideal mix of beliefs to see any marketing activity as incarnation of evil himself.
I am forced now to step out of my comfort zone and learn new things. Scary, terrifying, new things – to learn to market my club. It does not come easy, but my want and need to tell to the world about Lions Club Stamina is huge. I want people to know who we are, what we do, how we help. And I want to help more people, move more lives…

Reaching out to the people

For excel oriented person figuring out creative ways to reach people turns out to be a task (note to myself – need undervalue people who do marketing!). I am happy I have my club around me with great, supportive and active people. I want our club to be visible and recognized. I want people to feel we are easy to approach, easy to talk to, easy to join. I want to see the day when our name and logo is recognized by people who do sports and want to do good. And I wish LC Stamina day would one day become tradition people look for. Ok, I know, I do dream big and get excited about things.So how to become visible and get there? My own feeling is that good plan and consistent work is way there. I made myself small to-do list:
– update web page
– regular insta posts
– t-shirts for club members
– market when needed 

Big charity run

That last sentence – market when needed- in an interesting and challenging one. There is a lot to learn and develop. LC Stamina is organizing three larger events during my presidency. I will have a lot of opportunities to learn new things. The biggest event what challenges me now is out fifth charity run from Helsinki to Tampere. There are other club members who take care of it, but I want to help and be part of it. So it is a big thing personally to make this run successful. 
One of topics is also to decide how much of money is reasonable to invest in marketing. Our target is 3000€, so we go for 30-50€ for marketing. Let’s test Facebook efficiency. Great learning for us as a club. There is also plan to publish posters – not something our club has done before – we need to see how that works out. I  am very eager to see how we will succeed in our endeavor. Target is clear. Now only work towards our goal.

It has been 2 month as a presi­dent. I have to learn new things all the time. Many tasks are outside my comfort zone. Many I never imagined were there. But I guess that is good… New skills are useful, aren’t they? I also hope this will allow me to help more people and help members in my club. New dreams give inspiration and energy. And feels like my comfort zone is growing rapidly. And I hope growth will bring value to many people around me. My last day of summer I finish on note:

Dream big. Learn fast. Have fun!

Yours,
Kristine Savolainen