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The official ASA postering rules are here.
Design your posters
Copy them from previous years (listed in the wiki as child pages) and change the date and location, or get creative and design your own! Be sure to save them into the wiki (pdf and source format) for reuse in later years.
Double check that you have the dates for the start of class and the locations correct. In recent years (as of 2015), we've put QR codes on our posters and made these unique each semester to try to track effectiveness. It's unclear whether this is worth it.
Making copies
If possible, use colored paper, as it stands out more. Try to pick unusual colors, and if necessary go up another price bracket to get colors that fewer groups use. Using color printing can be effective too, but limit its use as it is expensive.
You can have the copies charged straight to our account, and that way you don't have to get reimbursed for the cost. Use the main account number listed on the Treasurer wiki page. Apparently this can only be done at the CopyTech main campus location, but you can also send files there electronically and the printouts will be ready when you go to pick them up.
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We counted that if you poster starting at the E25 lobby, work down to 66, 56, 16, over to the infinite corridor (picking up boards on spurs in 6, 2, 1, 4, 3, 7), and the Student Center, this requires just over 70 flyers. In W20 there are boards on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd (1 obscure board outside the bathrooms) and 4th floors. You'll also want more copies for postering dorms, and for Tech Squares members to give to friends. And to reposter each time the posters are cleared.
Posters in obscure locations may persist for months, so poster all over first, and they'll be there during the entire recruitment period with no more work from us.
When to poster
Ideally as soon as the blackout lifts (or maybe At least two weeks before the class starts), and maybe earlier. Keep postering up until and including the first day of class itself. We can only have two chances a year to recruit new members two times per year, so we need to make it count.
Finding space to poster
Bulletin boards at the Institute are cleared on Sunday and Thursday nights (depending on how busy facilities is). People are inconsiderate. My heuristics for "making space" on bulletin boards are:
- Get there early in the day. The boards are cleared after 10PM and students tend to get up later (after their first 9AM class) so being early means you don't have to work as hard to find a spot. It does mean you have to work harder to keep from getting covered over (see maintenance below).
- If the boards are suspiciously full, come by again the next day to see if they get cleared a day later.
- MIT stuff takes precedence over any commercial posters. I have no qualms postering over ads. If they're offers to employ students, I leave them for a second pass.
- Outdated flyers also go without a second thought.
- Any postering in violation of the rules (multiples for a single event/purpose) are toastedtoast.
- You can poster over outdated or rule-breaking posters (and often should, in order to get a better spot), but don't tear them down (that's against the rules).
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This isn't a passive business; our presence needs to be maintained. Other groups are much more cut-throat and you
have you have to keep things up. If I'm walking and find someone has covered one of our flyers, I don't think twice moving theirs. GET HELP. Other MIT-frequenting members should be recruited to police the postering.
Table-top cards in the dining halls now require a reservation to be made at the ARA office, W20-5th floor. By my last count, Lobdell has about 90 tables and Walker has 55 tables. I haven't done Baker and I think there is another dorm-based dining hall in a west campus dorm.
Postering Blackout
At the beginning of the school year, during rush/orientation up until the activities midway, the ASA limits how student groups may recruit new students. This may interact with early postering you want to do. Check the official ASA rules or ask them for clarification to be sure.
Infinite Display
We can also get free postering on Infinite Display, the large flat screen displays in the Student Center and Stata Center, and for nominal cost, posts on the displays in the infinite corridor as well. We should at least do as much as we can get for free (3 days per semester in the Student and Stata Centers), and possibly more.The ASA seems to have stopping having a blackout period, but check http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/asa/rules/recruitment-rules.html and make sure we're following recruitment rules.