January Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

February Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

March Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

April Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

May Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

June Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

There was no January newsletter

February Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

March Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

April Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

May Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

June Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

July Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

August Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

September Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

October Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

November Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

December Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

January Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

February Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

March Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

April Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

May Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

June Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

July Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

August Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

September Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

October Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

November Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

December Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

November Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

December Neighborhood Leader Newsletter

SOCIAL EVENTS

Social events not only break the ice, but also give neighbors a relaxed time to discover matters of mutual interest. These events often pave the way for future meetings on common neighborhood problems, crime prevention, a neighborhood watch program, recreational needs or other projects.

Social events can be held in a neighbor's house, a local business, in a nearby park, or on a neighborhood street. If you choose to have a large community social event, such as a block party, be sure to contact the City to learn about any required permitting. Contact the Parks and Recreation District to reserve park space.

Examples of social events to consider:

• Block parties
• Holiday parties
• Christmas caroling and lighting tours
• Potluck dinners
• Progressive dinners, during which the meal moves from one house to another for each course
• Neighborhood game tournaments
• Scavenger hunts
• Neighborhood garage sales

SPECIAL PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

Sometimes, Neighborhood Associations lose momentum when there’s not a particular issue driving interest. Programs and projects can help build community and develop sustained engagement from your membership. By working together your neighborhood association members can also make Bend better, especially when neighbors who need some extra support are taken care of by the team.

There is no end to the good programs and projects your team could devise. Just remember that it’s important to build on success rather than tackling everything all at once. Be reasonable with your expectations of neighbors’ time and resources.

Examples of programs and projects to consider:

• Neighborhood cleanups
• Visits to shut-in neighbors
• Baby-sitting cooperatives
• Crime prevention programs and neighborhood watch
• Fundraising events for neighbors in need
• Collection events to provide supplies for the needy in the community
• Traffic calming and traffic safety advocacy
• Sidewalk improvements
• Street and alley lighting
• Ride sharing
• Bicycle access ways
• House watch for neighbors
• Food buying clubs
• Discussion groups
• Painting projects, in which neighbors pitch in to help paint a neighbor's house
• Database of items neighbors are willing to share, such as a post hole digger, extension ladder, pressure washer, or an air compressor
• Weed pulls

LEARNING TO USE WORK PLANS

As you begin to consider developing events, programs and projects with your team, go back to your neighborhood assessment and member surveys to make decisions about where to focus your energy.

What kind of events would attract the most interest? What projects are most valuable to engaged members? What programs can you create that would truly benefit the neighborhood?

Talk over the possibilities at your general meeting, at monthly meetings with your key leaders and during casual conversations on the block. Do your best to get everyone’s input on where the priorities lie.

Once you know what you’re ready to tackle, it’s time to get serious about work plans.

Successful Neighborhood Associations live and breathe work plans. Putting down on paper the goals, the pieces of work that must be accomplished, who will do them and on what timeline gives everyone a chance to weigh in and consider their own role in the success of the project.

Work plans are your best bet for keeping a project on task and the team oriented toward moving forward.

Elements of a good work plan:

• Project purpose and goals
• Project timeline
• Resources required
• Tasks that must be accomplished
• Assignment of tasks to specific people
• Plans for celebrating success
• Follow-up steps
• And most importantly—realistic expectations of the team of volunteers

When drafting a work plan, consider copying the bullet points listed above as the sections of your work plan. Ask team members to each complete a section and send to everyone else for review and editing. Just the act of making a plan together can be a powerful first step toward accomplishing it.

Be realistic. Set yourself up for success by taking an honest assessment of how much time, money and ability your team has to take on the event or project. Remember, you can build on small successes fast, but it’s hard to keep up morale if volunteers feel overwhelmed.

More tips for organizing the team:

• Set up a committee. A committee makes organizing an event much simpler. Projects are broken down into pieces, with people assigned to each task. The committee meets regularly to discuss progress. The size of the committee will depend on the size and nature of the event. It is not unusual for most activities to take place at the committee level. This is also the level at which a member can become most involved.
• Appoint a committee chairperson. This is a major responsibility. The chair is the coordinator of the event. Chairs must make sure that everyone is accomplishing the assigned tasks so that everything is done for the event. The chair should work with the event committee to make all the necessary arrangements.
• Try backwards planning. Create the timeline for your projects by starting at the end date. For instance, if you want to hold a block party on June 15, work backwards to figure out that the registration for the event must be opened on May 15, which means the quarterly newsletter sent in March must include an announcements, which means you’ll need to know your event time and venue by then.
• Build and use checklists. Start a record of all the steps that must be taken to hold successful events, or meetings, or even to put together the newsletter. Checklists are a great way to ensure that all your knowledge will be passed on to the new neighborhood leaders when it’s their time to take over the reins. See the sample checklist below!

MAILINGS

Some members of your Neighborhood Associations may prefer to receive a paper version of a letter, newsletter or postcard because they don’t use computers or online tools. It can take extra work to print and manually distribute paper versions, but it might be worth it to ensure you are being inclusive to all.

• Letters: Letters can be appropriate for uses such as encouraging members to become engaged in a major community issue.
• Newsletters: Newsletters are useful for bringing your members up to speed on projects and happenings in your neighborhood.
• Postcards: Postcards could advertise upcoming meetings, surveys or volunteer opportunities.

MAILING LISTS

In an effort to reach renters, the City purchases a mailing list from the United States Postal Service (USPS) annually. This list is then divided by Neighborhood Association. The list includes "unit" numbers, meaning it captures renters, and essentially anyone registered with the USPS at the time the list is purchased. It also captures businesses. 

Last purchased August 2024. 

DOWNLOAD YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION MAILING LIST

THE BASICS OF MAILINGS

Mailing Lists

• Download a copy of the names and addresses of property owners in your neighborhood from the City of Bend using the link above. It is essential to download an updated mailing list prior to doing a mailing to ensure that all the information is current.
• Find a mailing house! Mailing houses can check your mailing list for duplicates, vacant addresses and address changes that the City's list may not have filtered. 
• The City's lists are great for reaching property owners, as they use data from the tax assessor's office, but they aren't the best for reaching renters, or leasing organizations and businesses. See the link above for specifics on the benefits and shortcomings of these lists. Because of these challenges, the City recommends you maintain your own lists of registered members and use the City's lists for reference.
• Purchasing a list from a mailing house is also troublesome because they are not able to filter by Neighborhood Association, which means you may miss some addresses in your neighborhood, but also have some that aren't within your boundaries.
• In addition to neighborhood residents, be sure to include local organizations, churches, schools, businesses, city officials and the media on your list.
• You can send bulk mail for a discounted rate but you must send several thousand letters to qualify. Collaborating with other Neighborhood Associations when appropriate could qualify you for this type of discount.
• Some neighborhoods use businesses that deliver door-to-door. This is usually less expensive than postage.

 Designing Your Document

• Apart from mailing services, most mailing houses offer graphic design and printing services.
• You can design your document using a word processing program, or design program such as Publisher or InDesign. You could also hire someone with design experience to do this.
• If you prefer to do the design and have less design experience, user-friendly programs with pre-made templates and graphics like Canva can be extremely helpful!
• If you use an electronic communications platform or email marketing tool like Constant Contact and MailChimp, those emails can just be printed and mailed or hand delivered, though it is against federal law to put anything in anyone’s mailbox
• If your document uses a large number of links, you might need to add additional text to a printed version

Printing 

• A newsletter can be printed on either one or more 8.5 x 11 pages stapled together or a legal sized sheet folded in half.
• You can use a printer, copy machine or local print shop to print the newsletter.
• Mailing houses can also offer printing. 

WHAT TO INCLUDE

• Maximize the postage and include plenty of information whenever sending a letter to your mailing list. This could be a calendar or flyer advertising upcoming events, the latest newsletter, or an appeal for volunteers.
• Photos and graphics
• Event information
• Upcoming meeting times and agendas
• Profiles of leaders or members
• Updates on neighborhood issues
• Updates on neighborhood association programs or projects
• A calendar of meetings or events
• Volunteer opportunities
• Contact information for neighborhood leaders
• Buttons linked to places to register for events
• A donate button linked to the donate page of your website

PRINTED MATERIALS

Your Neighborhood Association may find it helpful to create a brochure, pamphlet, flyer or poster to serve as a communications tool throughout the community. Brochures, pamphlets, flyers and posters are easy to make and can be visually grabbing. 

THE BASICS OF PRINTED MATERIALS

• For many activities, a simple flier or poster announcing the activity, location, date and time is sufficient.
• Fliers and posters are often used in conjunction with other forms of publicity.
• Design of any of these documents can be created using a standard word processing system, or it may be possible to find a graphic design volunteer living in your neighborhood.
• All can be printed on simple copy paper, or by a professional local printer on sturdier paper and widely distributed.
• Create a list of locations in your neighborhood with good bulletin boards for posting fliers or posters.
• You can divide up this larger list into smaller chunks that so volunteers can post a manageable number.

WHAT TO INCLUDE

• Time, date, place of the event
• Contact information for organizers including your website and phone number
• A brief synopsis of the event
• Visually appealing art

WEBSITES

Websites have been the most enduring online communication tool for organizations for many years. 

THE BASICS OF WEBSITES

• You’ll need a URL/domain name, a hosting service and an "interface" or website platform, to create the site.
• Most Neighborhood Associations in Bend already have a website address that people may know, so try to stick with the same URL to avoid confusion.
• The most commonly used interface is Weebly because of its ease of use, but there are many others such as Zyro and WordPress.  
• There are many, many kinds of hosting services available online but sometimes local Internet service providers are willing to offer discounts to groups like Neighborhood Associations.

WHAT TO INCLUDE

• Information about how to join the association
• Calendar of events and meetings
• An archive of your meeting minutes, newsletters and press releases
• Neighborhood Association projects and programs
• A blog, which is a rolling diary of little stories or updates
• A photo gallery
• A volunteer sign up form
• A list of volunteer needs and duties
• Contact information for neighborhood leaders and for City Councilors
• Links to important resources for members
• A donate button linked to your Neighborhood Association bank account, if relevant

EMAIL NEWSLETTERS & ALERTS

Packed with a wallop of information in an attractive format, email newsletters are free or cheap and can reach thousands of contacts in an instant.

THE BASICS OF EMAIL NEWSLETTERS & ALERTS

• Find an online program that fits your budget, needs and is easy to use.
• Good options are Constant Contact, which requires a monthly fee but allows you to create event pages and surveys, and MailChimp, which is free up to 2,000 emails but offers limited features beyond mass emails and a contact database.
• Create a template that can be quickly updated every month without starting a new design from scratch.
• Link short intros or teases in the newsletter back to the full page of information on your website or blog.
• The more visually appealing your newsletter, the more likely that people will eagerly await the next one.
• Reserve alerts for important communications like land use applications, Council actions, emergencies...etc. 

WHAT TO INCLUDE

• Photos and graphics
• Event information
• Upcoming meeting times and agendas
• Profiles of leaders or members
• Updates on neighborhood issues
• Updates on neighborhood association programs or projects
• A calendar of meetings or events
• Volunteer opportunities
• Contact information for neighborhood leaders
• Buttons linked to places to register for events
• A donate button linked to the donate page of your website, if relevant

SOCIAL MEDIA 

Having an active social media presence with relevant content can go a long way to help increase engagement with your residents. We discuss four options below: Facebook, Twitter, Nextdoor & YouTube.

FACEBOOK

Best estimates are that 71 percent of the U.S. adult population is on Facebook—this is an incredibly important way to communicate with your people. It’s free to get a page going and other costs can be minimal. You can also invite people to events and keep track of who’s said they are coming. Of all the communication tools you could consider, it’s the fastest and easiest way to stay in touch once you get the hang of the system.

The Basics of Facebook

• Go to facebook.com and create a page for your Neighborhood Association.
• Have photos ready to upload to make your page interesting from the get-go.
• It’s a good idea to have a mix of posts that you schedule to run later and on the spot posts that you can add with your phone.
• You can also create event pages loaded with information and a button where people can commit to attending. You can continue to remind them to come.
• Several people on your team can become administrators and assist in posting.
• Most cell phones allow you to download an app for Facebook that can make posting very easy and fast.
• One drawback is that most posts are only shown to a few of the people that follow your page. You must pay to have your posts promoted to your members so they see them frequently in their feed but it is often worth it.

What to Include

• Photos from events
• Articles about the neighborhood or other city news
• Links to surveys
• A sites-around-the-neighborhood campaign
• Reminders about meetings
• Pictures and a short profile of volunteers
• Quotes from meetings
• Snapshots of neighborhood leaders being out and about doing the business of the Neighborhood Association
• Events pages for meetings and other gatherings

TWITTER

This social media site is very popular, but it can take a big investment of time and energy before it becomes worthwhile. Information is shared in 280 characters or less, meaning everything is bite-sized. The best content for Twitter is quick observations, retweets of what others have said or links to articles or things that are cheeky and funny.

NEXTDOOR

These kinds of sites are becoming more widely used all the time. They’re like a bulletin or message board for a neighborhood. Sites such as Nextdoor are a real grab bag, and can include everything from lost dogs to a truck for sale to a need for a babysitter to a forum for venting about neighborhood issues. Neighborhood Associations can use these bulletin boards to advertise meetings, programs, new projects and more.

One important item to note with Nextdoor is that business and organization pages have limitations in what content they have access to, and are not be able to see or interact with neighbor posts. This is a privacy function for neighborhood members. In order to maintain that personal touch with neighbors, it is recommended that if Neighborhood Associations choose to create a formal organization page, there be neighborhood "ambassadors" using their personal profiles to monitor neighborhood conversations and offer help when needed.

YOUTUBE

YouTube has turned everyone into a videographer. All you need is a cell phone and an account online and you can begin sharing videos of Neighborhood Association functions, meetings, forums and other events. Minor video editing skills are helpful.

PRESS RELEASES 

Press releases are the language of media. You send a good one, they respond with coverage—it’s a simple system that works well for all parties.

THE BASICS OF PRESS RELEASES

• Press releases are usually one page long and include key information, a quote or two from key players, and contact information for how media can follow up for a story.
• Sometimes press releases are printed or read on air as is, but with many news outlets the release is just a resource as they work to put together a separate piece on the topic.
• Don’t overthink a press release. These are rarely beautiful and instead are a utilitarian tool. The information is the most important element.
• Once you have sent the release, it’s very helpful to follow it up with phone calls to the media outlets you really want to cover the story. A list of local media contacts can be found below.

WHAT TO INCLUDE

• Start with a bold headline that summarizes your press release in a catchy way.
• Put the date on the release that you would like the information to go live. Often releases are sent on the day you hope coverage to begin.
• Include your Neighborhood Association's name, plus the address, phone number and email of the contact person.
• Draft quotes from one or more key sources, but be sure to have them read and approve their quotes.
• If you are publicizing an event, be sure to include time, date and place of the event.

LOCAL MEDIA IN BEND

Newspapers

Radio

Television

EVENT SIGN-UP WEBSITES 

Attendance at events goes up dramatically when people register to attend. Maybe it’s psychological, maybe it’s the fun of having a ticket—but whatever it is, you should be having people commit to coming to events through online registrations when you can. Simple RSVPs work just fine for a pancake breakfast on your block, but for larger meetings or forums, you should consider using an online program to register attendees.

THE BASICS OF EVENT SIGN-UP WEBSITES

• Some systems such as Constant Contact allow you to manage communications in many ways including maintain your contact database, send mass emails and manage registrations for events.
• If you aren’t using an all-in-one service, which often require payment, you can use free standalone sites such as Eventbrite, Eventzilla, and Eventsmart to share information about your event and register attendees. You can even charge for events through these sites.
• Facebook has an events feature, but there is no way to collect payment if you’d like to through Facebook and the commitment is less secure when you say you’re planning to attend an event on Facebook.

WHAT TO INCLUDE

• A registration site will give you all the necessary prompts to help you share the right information with your audience, but be prepared to share a few paragraphs about the purpose of the event.
• You can also share links to your website, news articles or other resources as you share information on these sites.

ONLINE SURVEYS

It’s important to survey your members, even on an annual basis to learn of their experiences and opinions and to help prioritize projects in the neighborhood.

THE BASICS OF ONLINE SURVEYS

• Like event registration, surveys can come part and parcel with a larger management tool such as Constant Contact.
• But other sites can be free or cheaper and offer a better interface for creating and analyzing surveys.
• A very commonly used survey manager is SurveyMonkey. It offers free surveys for up to 10 questions—even really complicated ones—and a variety of other payment options.
• Be careful when designing your questions to ensure they aren’t leading people to give the answer you were looking for.
• There are many ways to accidentally misinterpret data, weight an answer wrongly, or construct a question in a confusing way. Always get multiple eyes on both survey design and analysis to be sure you’re getting good data.

WHAT TO INCLUDE

• Questions about the most important topics in the neighborhood, which are often around land-use or housing, transportation, crime, etc.
• Questions about prioritizing time and other resources.
• Give plenty of space for people to comment freely.
• A “what didn’t we ask” question.
• A place for folks to say whether they are interested in volunteering.
• Demographic data questions.

DOOR-TO-DOOR CANVASSING

In politics, nothing moves people to vote with more consistency than a person speaking to them at their door. The same is true of engagement in a neighborhood.

THE BASICS OF CANVASSING

• Canvasses can be targeted or just simply intended to hit every door. Before going out, have a very clear sense of purpose.
• A canvasser often has a clipboard to help carry and quickly show information.
• It’s a good idea to establish some ground rules for canvassing for the team. For instance, don’t go anywhere unsafe, do or do not knock on doors with “No Soliciting” signs, don’t leave fliers in mailboxes because it’s against the law.
• It can be helpful for canvassers to have some kind of identifying t-shirt, button or hat to help people understand the purpose of the visit right away.

WHAT TO INCLUDE

• Talking points to help the canvasser get across the point of the visit right off the bat.
• Something to leave behind with the neighbor or some kind of request that should be made with the neighbor.
• A sign up sheet for folks interested in getting more involved.
• A question and answer sheet to help the canvasser share accurate information.

PHONE CALLS & TEXTS 

Text messages, phone calls and phone trees are very effective ways to communicate directly to your residents.

TEXT MESSAGES

Text messages can be very effective at reminding people of meetings or inviting them to upcoming events and there are some services that allow the same text to be sent to many numbers at once. But because text messages are an incredibly direct way to get in touch their use could make some people uncomfortable. No matter what, avoid group texting to prevent phone numbers from becoming public.

PHONE CALLS & PHONE TREES

Phone calls and phone trees are often used to alert people in the neighborhood of something that has happened. They are also used to recruit volunteers or encourage participation at events. Organizers differ on whether to leave voice mail messages when calling through a list, but either way it’s important to remember that, like texts, phone calls can also feel very direct and must be made with good coaching and customer service skills.

BOOTHS & YARD SIGNS 

Booths and lawn signs offer a great way to recruit new members, share information about what your association does and show support and unity on an action your neighborhood cares about. 

BOOTHS

Bend offers many festivals and events throughout the year that could be dynamite for recruiting new members or sharing information about what your association does. Having a banner printed and some other materials on hand are important if you want to create a booth. You might also consider giving away prizes, hosting an easy game or another fun reason for people to stop by the booth.

LAWN SIGNS

There may be times when you want to increase a sense of unity in the neighborhood or encourage everyone to take a specific action. You may want to link your association to a particular political issue or other similar community question. Lawn signs can be just the ticket. Be sure to review City of Bend sign codes before investing in lawn signs, which often have to be ordered online.