Tonight's Interview

1. What are some ways in the past you have tried to increase membership and were those strategies successful?

1. What would you have changed?

Membership has been flat for the past 10 years. I’ve been here for two years and tried being aggressive with gathering new members. A main issue is that we keep talking to the same audience. We need a creative way to reach new target audiences with a compelling message.

2.  In what ways do you engage with your current members? How would you like them to become more involved with NOFA?

Events and newsletters one on one communication The newsletter both online and print is the biggest way they engage members, mostly print rather than online. The online version sounded hard to find...

3. How would you like us to tell NOFA’s story? Blogging? Interviews?

Blog posts, profile stories on farmers, blog posts highlighting why people are members

4. If blogging is an approach you’d like us to use, would it make sense for members to be able to post their stories and ideas on the blog as well in order to increase their engagement with NOFA?

Only NOFA is blogging so far but it would be great if members shared their stories like a forum.

5. NOFA encompasses a wide variety of the Vermont farming community, is there a specific aspect of NOFA that you want us to focus on more than others?

Local, organic food and why organic food is worth the extra cost

6. Your Winter Conference is coming up and you mentioned you want help promoting that; what is the main purpose of this conference and what platforms do you think would most effectively spread the word while considering your audience? I.e. online, in publications, social media, etc.

The conference will have many workshops about healthy living, farming techniques, and will include highly regarded guest speakers. There are printed phamphlets being distributed and posters hanging around town. Information regarding the conference can also be found on the website.

7. We noticed that your organization doesn’t use Instagram as a social media platform, do you think creating one/using social media in general will help tell NOFA’s story?

We found out NOFA does have an Instagram-but it is not linked on their website. Kim agrees that people like us would be very helpful running the social media accounts. She would like us to create lists of tips/strategies that will improve their social media platforms. She doesn’t seem very open to the idea of us actually running the social media platforms because she is worried we will not have the correct content to do so.

8. We’ve noticed that NOFA is involved with many different programs, such as Farm to Consumer, Farm to School, Community Food Access, etc. Is there a specific program that you feel is most important for us to help you work on/raise awareness for during our partnership?

Abby Nelson is in charge of our Farm to Institution and Farm to School Programs. She would be a great person to talk to. She’s working on a new project to increase maple syrup into schools while decreasing sugar. This would include connecting local maple syrup producers to schools across Vermont.

2) Deliverable #1:

Communications asset report -- currently NOFA has a website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, sends out a quarterly e-newsletter, a printed newsletter, and has a staff blog.

What they’re missing is a strong social media presence, and blog entries from members.

By March we will have a full communications asset report of NOFA.

Deliverable #2:

Analyze the annual impact report and design a clear and effective infographic to better represent the information. Another task we discussed is the possibility of improving NOFA’s social media presence.

3) Interviews for 2/6:

Shea - Abbie Nelson, farm to school & farm to institution

Niki - Erin Buckwalter, food access & direct markets

Tate - Maddie Monty, policy & membership

Bari - Enid Wonnacott, executive director