CO Manual:Section 4

Commanding Officer's Manual
Main Page	Welcome	Command Responsibilities	Organizing a Chapter	Chapter Activities	Commissioning a Chapter	Awards	Chapter Types & Commands

Chapter Activities

Many chapters struggle as they try to find an identity and cater to the needs and wants of their members. This can make your job as Commanding Officer very difficult and frustrating, especially if you have no experience in leading or participating in other clubs like the RMN. In order to assist you in getting started, here are some ideas for chapter activities that can help you get your members involved and make them feel as though they belong to a unified and active group of people. Additionally, you can contact any member of the Steering Committee for more ideas. Their job is to collect all the various Chapter Activities for their sub-groups and help advise Chapters on possible events and activities.

Chapter Activity Ideas

Surveys:

Poll your chapter members as to what they would like to do. The odds are you will get a variety of answers, many of them having nothing to do with the Honorverse. The books of the Honorverse will serve as a common bond and a way for them to meet new and similarly minded friends and have fun with those friends. Your job as CO would be to help provide them activities that will them all have fun together.

Bowling Nights/Tournaments:

Whether you get together for friendly games or start an intra chapter tournament for bragging rights, bowling is a fun and cost-effective method for large groups of people to have fun and enjoy each other’s company.

Movie Nights:

Simply have everyone meet at a central location (or member’s house) and watch movies together. Each member can bring their favorite movie and the majority rules as to which movies get watched that night.

Model Building:

People who read Honorverse often have a tactile creative flair that is perfect for model building parties and workshops, plus they make great gifts.

Charity Events:

From giving books and models to kids at local hospitals to shut-ins at the local VA centers, Sailor Homes, or other retirement communities.

Oral History Collecting:

Both the Naval Institute and its Army Counterpart are constantly on the lookout for volunteers willing to conduct recorded interviews with service veterans from our’ past conflicts.

Role Playing/Gaming Nights:

From playing Saganami Island Tactical Simulator to current RPGs and perhaps design your own Honorverse RPG.

BBQs: Again, choose a central location or member’s house and have a potluck BBQ where each member brings part for the food for the group to enjoy.

Costuming:

You could get with your members and see who has sewing skills and everyone can then work together to create uniforms for themselves to wear to conventions.

Conventions:

Attend local/regional conventions as a group, maybe wearing Chapter T-shirts or Honorverse uniforms. It might be possible for you to get a fan table at the convention as well. Maybe you could even host a room party for the convention attendees to meet you and learn more about your chapter and the RMN. This could also be a great recruiting option for your group!

Recruiting

Techniques for Recruiting

While there is no one technique (or set of techniques) that will work for every situation, The Royal Manticoran Navy: The Official Honor Harrington Fan Association does try to keep its recruiting message as uniform as possible. As such, please check with your Fleet Commander about some of the various recruiting aides that exist, such as the District’s Table Banner, the Convention Recruiting Packets and Convention Advertising. The ideas below are some other possible suggestions which may help you recruit other fans of the Honorverse and help you grow your chapter.

Holding Chapter:

The holding chapters are for all TRMN personnel not assigned to a chapter; the is the holding chapter for all GSN personnel not assigned to a chapter. You can request a list of persons in your local area who are assigned to the and/or the by sending an email to the Bureau of Personnel (bupers@trmn.org). Please remember that some of these folks will not want to join your local chapter, so please respect their decision.

Word of Mouth:

This by far the simplest and least expensive method. Simply talk to your friends and family members and tell them about the Honorverse if they are unfamiliar, possible give the first book or two as a gift for Birthdays. When they come back and tell you how much they enjoyed the books, tell them about the RMN and try to sign them up.

Book Clubs:

Another cost-effective technique Simply check with local bookstores and see if you can start a book club that meets there on a regular basis. Make the focus of the club the books from the Honorverse and see how many new members you can recruit from this technique.

Bookmarks:

There are various templates on the web for bookmarks that can be created in word processing programs with your chapter and RMN information and printed on heavy cardstock from your home computer. Once they are printed and cut apart, see if your local bookstores will let you seed the various Honorverse books on their shelves so when people buy them, they will learn about the RMN and your chapter at the same time.

Book Release Parties:

Get with your local bookstore and see if they will work with you to hold a party for the release of new Honorverse novels. You never know what kind of results you will get from this type of event, but they could be surprising.

Conventions:

If you have a convention in your area that you would like to recruit at, contact the Second Space Lord. They can assist you with getting a table for the convention, a room if you wish to have one for a meeting, and also in getting information for advertising in the program book. The Second Space Lord will also coordinate with your District Commanding Officer to get you the Table Banner for recruiting. Convention goers are generally looking for like-minded people, and you can present them with a valuable opportunity to find other fans of the Honorverse. This is particularly helpful at literary focused but can also prove very fruitful in almost every con that has a science fiction element or component. Contact should be made with the Bureau of Planning via your Fleet’s BuPlan Liaison or you may post to the ‘RMN Bureau of Planning’ page on Facebook.

The Internet:

From social networking sites to just communicating with friends, get the word out, and let your friends know, not just about the club, but about David Weber’s books, too. Many chapters choose to set up a Facebook group so that members can communicate with each other online. It may also be a good idea to set up a Facebook page which is the chapter’s public forum for announcements. Some chapters even create websites.