Christmas comes early (or at least the raffle tickets do!)

A lovely long weekend came crashing to a halt today with the arrival of the Christmas Raffle Tickets. I must remember to thank Philip Dumville (Promotor of the National Conservative Draws Society). Fifteen thousand books of Christmas Draw tickets is just what we wanted in August. Fortunately, having had a few quiet days last week we have already printed the covering letters, embedded labels and reply slips, so we are ready to roll!

After a year of treading water sending tickets only to long term supporters and donors, I feel sufficiently confident of our position in the polls to seek to expand the fund raising base this Christmas. Therefore, as well as sending tickets to known donors, I will also be prospecting for new donors, targeting 6,000 carefully selected households for the first time. If anyone would like details of how I have selected my targets, please feel free to get in touch using the "Contact Me" section to the right hand side. If we don't know each other, please provide your name what office you hold in your local Association when you email, as I like to know who I am sharing information with. A few people have also asked for another (downloadable) link to our West Kent Best Practice Guide for maximising income from the two annual draws, which I am happy to provide below.



Today we also launched our new email communications tool, using the same house-style across all West Kent Associations. e-coms will now carry one of four banners (News, Events, Campaigning, Meetings) each with their own tailored recipient list. Here is a sample of the banner which will be used in Chatham & Aylesford when we circulate Tracey Crouch's E-newsletter:

We are also working on an e-booking system for events, where recipients can click on a link to book tickets and pay online. The payment will automatically generate an e-ticket to the purchaser, whilst sending an email informing us of the booking and payment details. We are a few weeks away from launching this service, but early trials have worked well.

This coming weekend is shaping-up nicely. We have three campaign teams out across West Kent - including a team of 30 campaigners in one council ward, where we aim to survey canvass the entire ward in a day.

Finally, a massive well done and congratulations to Tunbridge Wells Councillor, Chris Woodward. A few weeks ago I posted about Chris raffling his motorbike to raise funds for a community centre in his ward. See HERE.  Well, he's done it!  The draw was held on Bank Holiday Monday (I understand Greg Clark MP pulled the winning ticket). Chris has worked his socks-off, selling tickets in TW Town Centre every Saturday and at various fetes, fun days and community events throughout the week. He has roped-in council colleagues, party activists and friends to sell tickets too. At the time of writing (with money still coming in) he has raised nearly £3,000.  A magnificent achievement.