Sunday, November 10, 2019

November Monthly Newsletter


Heart to Heart Meeting Reminders for the month of November

HEART TO HEART MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

For November 2019
Hi Monica, 

Thank you to everyone who filled out a survey as they were very helpful in moving forward. The good news is there are going to be some great changes ahead so I encourage you to attend a meeting to see what is changing! I will try to summarize things below but it will be easier to attend a meeting and see in person. 
I am also adding a special drawing for a free dinner that will be only open to new attendees (or people we haven't seen in a while) and the people who invited them. I will do this at least through the end of this year. 
I am sad that our Oct Bunco Night had to be cancelled but there were not enough attendees. I could not find an available date at Shawn O'Donnell's for our next one so it will be held at Inspark instead. Since it costs money to rent Inspark and I will be providing some heavy appetizers for everyone, the cost will be collected upfront. I will still need a minimum of 20 people to RSVP or the event will be cancelled. I hope the new date works for everyone!
~Monica~

Thursday, October 17, 2019

October Monthly Newsletter (part 2)


Heart to Heart Meeting Reminders for the month of October (part 2)

HEART TO HEART MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

For October 2019 (part 2)
Hi Monica, 
Consider yourself lucky! Two newsletters in one month! I am behind in getting updates out and there is a lot to share right now so please read everything. 
We are collecting items again this year for Clothes for Kids and Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County. Please read more details below. 
I asked on Facebook if text messages to remind people to RSVP would be helpful and many said it would not. However, there were enough people who said it would be helpful so I will experiment through the end of this year with it. The service does cost money so this will be a service for our paid members to begin with. 
I am also experimenting with adding a bunco night 4x a year to our calendar. One of these will be our Anniversary Party so it will be free for our paid members. All other bunco nights will cost $5 to play. Plus, there is the expectation to purchase food/drinks please budget about $25 for a fun night out. Make sure to RSVP to the Oct 30th event!

~Monica~

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Aug/Sept/Oct Monthly Newsletter


Heart to Heart Meeting Reminders for the month of September

HEART TO HEART MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

For October 2019
Hi Mieko, 
Oops! I meant to get this out last month but the month slipped away from me. We have some more changes coming with our venue so I will explain it more below.
I am also going to experiment with adding a bunco night 4x a year to our calendar. One of these will be our Anniversary Party so it will be the only one that is free for our paid members. All other bunco nights will cost $5 to play. Plus, there is the expectation to purchase food/drinks so please budget about $25 for a fun night out. 
Finally, I have an event that I am hosting at our office at Inspark Coworking in Lynnwood and I would love to have your help by either attending or inviting someone. It will be all about Viking River and Ocean Cruises so come & learn! It is Oct 8th at 6:30pm with food and wine provided. Please RSVP and share. 

~Monica~

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

July Monthly Newsletter


Heart to Heart Meeting Reminders for the month of July

HEART TO HEART MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

For July 2019
Hi Monica, 

Hey, guess what? Am I really sending out a newsletter just one month after the last one? Good news from me! Since I am on vacation almost the whole month of August, this may be the last one until September. ;) 
I hate to keep harping on this subject but I will keep talking about it until I am blue in the face. RSVP. Please. We have 5-6 events per year (bunco anniversary, speakers, holiday party) that it super duper matters. I have now instituted a policy that there will be a $5 charge if you show up without RSVP'ing at those 5-6 special events. If you aren't a paying member, it will cost $5 to attend these special events. 
However, it is still quite important that you RSVP to EVERY. SINGLE. MEETING. Why? For an example, we had 8 people who attended our last meeting without RSVP'ing. We ran out of food. It just takes a lot longer to get everyone fed as the kitchen has to prepare more chicken. 
I also need your help this week as I have an event about Japan on Thursday July 11th at 6:30pm at InSpark in Lynnwood. We have free food and beverages and my presenter is flying in from Colorado. I want to make sure there are people there! Please reply to this email if you can come or register online as I am ordering food today and I need to know how much to order. 
~Monica~

Monday, June 10, 2019

June Monthly Newsletter



Heart to Heart Meeting Reminders for the month of April

HEART TO HEART MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

For June 2019
Hi Monica, 

It seems I can only send these out every few months. I will try to be better but no promises. You will just have to keep coming to our meetings to stay in touch with what we are doing. ;)
If you missed my update from last month on our Facebook Group, here you go...
I also wanted to give an update since we were a little light on attendance at the last meeting. I just have to say that 2018 was a bad year financially. Meetup screwed up and I went for about 6 months without income from dues and then when I got the website, it was double what I had budgeted. So yeah, that sucked. Right now, I am good but I can only hope it will carry me through the end of the year. If you haven't paid your dues or let it lapse or whatever... please pay as it is critical for me to keep the group going. No dues increase until the end of the year when I will re-evaluated again.
I did take another look ahead for the year and things look OK but I am still a little concerned. I have decided to eliminate Meetup entirely by Dec 1, 2019 as my next payment goes through a few days later. Meetup is now charging tax so it is a $200/year expense that we no longer utilize. It doesn't make sense keeping it. 
Finally, I made a few changes to the meetings where we have speakers, holiday party and the anniversary party. See below for more info!
~Monica~

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

April Monthly Newsletter



Heart to Heart Meeting Reminders for the month of April

HEART TO HEART MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

For April 2019
Hi Monica, 

Well, I am getting ready to head out for a family vacation to Cancun, Mexico in a few days so I wanted to make sure I get this email out. I will not be at the next meeting but Heather has offered to run the meeting for me!
We had a lot of new people come to our last meeting so welcome! I forgot to mention that we assign a free membership to everyone who attends a meeting. You have to manually renew it every 6-months by logging into your account on our website. Of course, we encourage you to upgrade the free membership to a paid one so you can access all the wonderful perks we have to offer. 
Also, this is the time of year when a lot of people's memberships are renewing. Most of you are on automatic renewals so please check to make sure your credit card on file is still valid. Please log into your account on the website and update it if necessary. Or use the Wild Apricot Member app! (see below for download details)
Finally, this is a critical time for our group because about 65% of our members are renewing their memberships in April and May. If I get enough people to renew or join, then I will NOT have to increase the membership dues in June. Unfortunately, Wild Apricot is increasing my website costs again this year BUT it only takes 3 new members at the $35/yr level or 2 members at the $55/yr level to compensate for it. PLEASE consider joining/upgrading/etc. if you have found value in this networking group. 
REMINDER: I know there have been a lot of changes this year with our group so please continue to read to get updated on what they all are. The main point I need to make is that it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to RSVP on our website as we are no longer monitoring Meetup and we only share the event on Facebook to get greater visibility and to make it easier to share & invite friends. If you are NOT RSVP'ing on our website, then I don't know you are coming to our meetings. 
I almost cancelled the meeting on Feb 25th because I had only 7 people RSVP the night before. We ended up having 20 people attend so it all worked out. However, I should not have to send out half a dozen messages to get people to tell me if they are attending or not. You cannot assume that there will be a meeting if you don't RSVP. 
~Monica~

Sunday, February 10, 2019

CANCELLED: Mon Feb 11th Meeting Due to Weather


Dear Monica,

I just got a message that school has been cancelled for Monday. I live in Bothell and it has started to snow again. They are not predicting that this snow will be that much but it is the one on Monday afternoon that has me more concerned.

I would rather have everyone home safe and sound just in case it snows again or the roads freeze over. Our meeting on Monday Feb 11th is CANCELLED.

I will refund or reschedule our spotlight tables. Please join us for the next one on Feb 25th and let's hope the weather cooperates with us!

~Monica~