Publicity and a Role for Tabling

Label for this discussion is "Publicity and a Role for Tabling".

I've found tabling to be an inefficient tool of publicizing DAC's activities and promoting its advocacy campaigns. However, it is a very good tool when it comes to promoting our visibility on campus, and it is true that without tabling some students will forget that we exist (I've come to learn that Facebook cannot solve this problem, so without tabling, we only exist in virtual reality).

My suggestions for publicity:

-For tabling, volunteers simply make themselves available at the table and take idle time to get homework done. Hopefully this will give incentive for people to make the commitment to table, knowing they can get homework done while they're there. If anyone approaches the table, the volunteer can ask them to sign up for the mailing list, sign the letters, hand them flyers, and answer any questions they might have about the situation in Darfur or DAC. It's my belief that there are too many distractions for students passing through Bruinwalk to lend meaningful attention to our cause and too many ways for them to ignore volunteers and the message they're trying to send. Even going door-to-door to get letters signed and pass out flyers is more efficient than tabling, since you're actually engaging individuals. Tabling may give passers-by some DAC facetime, which is valuable, but that facetime is interferred with by the numerous Bruinwalk distractions, the deadliest one being the iPod/iPhone.

-There are other, better tools we can use to publicize. Putting out flyers on classroom desks (in the reliable, early morning, and only in the early morning) before classes ensures that the flyers reach more students. Classroom announcements also captivate the student audience's attention. Chalking also works well in grabbing the attention of students who are bored in lecture. Row walking, when done right, works very well for getting letters signed. Also, showing up to student group meetings to get letters signed is effective as well, especially when you grab their attention with an announcement about the letter's content. We may want to focus much more attention to organizing with these tactics rather than tabling.

I'd like to reiterate that I don't think this means we should do away with tabling, not at all. I just think we can use tabling for the purpose of DAC's visibility more than anything else, but it's not the best tactic for successfully advocating for a cause or promoting events. The other tactics I discussed are a little more difficult to organize with, but they yield much greater gains than tabling. For instance, I hear people compliment us on our events' visibility in the classrooms a lot, but I never hear the same thing with regards to Bruinwalk.

Let us know what you think!