Kulanu-Cameroon Speaking Tour

Event Planning Kit

2012: Serge Etele

Thank you for hosting Serge Etele in your community during his speaking tour through the United States! The Event Planning Kit is available online here for your convenience in coordinating the speaking tour presentation in your town. Please contact us if you have further questions at www.kulanu.org/contact

Contents

  1. About the Presentation
  2. Promotional Materials
  3. Setup at Your Event
  4. Concerning Serge Etele
  5. Kulanu Literature and Merchandise
  6. Expanding the Event’s Impact

I. About the Presentation

The original speaking tour announcement gives an overview of what to expect from Serge Etele's visit in your town. In general the presentation lasts one to two hours, depending on what the group prefers. A typical schedule involves:

  • 20-30 minutes about the community's Jewish history and struggle to survive
  • 15 minutes on a slide show, which highlights the Beth Yeshourun's people, Jewish and secular activities
  • 15 minutes of singing (Serge is a wonderful performer!)
  • 30 minutes question and answer

Each of these segments could be shorter or longer depending on the community's schedule.

Before and after the presentation, we also hope you set up a table with more information about Kulanu and its work, and with merchandise for sale. The merchandise benefits Kulanu's work with isolated Jewish communities around the world. See the Merchandise and Literature section, below, for more about table displays at your event.

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II. Promotional Materials

Let these materials inspire your publicity and marketing strategies to promote Serge Etele's presentation in your community!

  • Click here for a sample press release you can use to publicize the event with your local media.
  • Click here to see our template for a poster or flyer which you can fill out with your own event details to help promote Serge's visit to your community.
  • See below for an example of how to publicize your event in a bulletin or online calendar:

    The Jews of Cameroon

    Kulanu is bringing Serge Etele of the Beth Yeshourun community of Cameroon to the United States for the first time! On this ground-breaking speaking tour, audiences will learn about this emerging community practicing Judaism in the heart of Africa. A relatively "new" community, Beth Yeshourun was founded in 1998 when its leaders turned away from Christianity. Increasingly observant and deeply committed to Jewish rituals and practice, the 50-member community has made amazing progress, educating themselves through the Internet by downloading Jewish liturgies and prayers, and studying Judaism, Hebrew, and Torah on Jewish websites. They have also composed their own African-Jewish music, which Mr. Etele will perform as part of this inspiring presentation.

    This promises to be an exciting event full of learning, music and prayer.

  • For photos, click here or visit www.kulanu.org/press
  • Serge Etele's biography is available as a pdf you can download by clicking here.
  • The original speaking tour announcement is available here.

To find out where else Serge Etele is traveling during this tour, check out our online calendar. More details are added all the time, so check it again before the event near you!

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III. Setup at Your Event

Audiovisual and Other (optional for Shabbat events)

Presentation Slideshow and Music (optional for Shabbat events)

Serge will be carrying a zip drive with him that contains his PowerPoint slideshow as well as music arranged by the Beth Yeshourun community. For your convenience these files are also linked to below. You can review them ahead of time and save them to the computer and projector that will be used during Serge's presentation. Please let us know if you have trouble with these files. Thanks!

Merchandise Sales Setup (if you choose to sell Kulanu goods)

  • Someone to order merchandise and receive the shipment of products (more info below)
  • Table(s) for product sales and chairs for volunteer sales staff
  • Someone to staff the merchandise table at the event

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IV. Concerning Serge Etele

He is shomer Shabbes and does not generally travel by car on Shabbat, but will ride to shul.

If your event is on Shabbat, he will speak with or without the slideshow and will not object if the microphone and slideshow are managed by someone else.

He keeps kosher. He will eat dairy/vegetarian foods, including fish, prepared in a non-kosher kitchen.

We will be sending you his itinerary and details of his arrival when his schedule and transportation have been confirmed. We ask that you tell us who will be meeting him on arrival in your city (usually by plane or train) and who will be helping him travel to the next location in his tour. This is so we know who to contact in case of an emergency. Generally speaking, our goal will be to have him in each new location by early afternoon. Please remember that most of his flights will not include any meal so we ask that you make sure he has a bag lunch with him when he leaves your city.

During his stay in the US, he will be carrying a cell phone and we will be sending you that telephone number with the arrival information.

We hope that whoever is hosting Mr. Etele will talk with him regarding his needs while he’s staying with you. For example, you might ask him whether he would like to check email, have time to rest, go sight-seeing, or do laundry.

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V. Kulanu Literature and Merchandise

Kulanu Literature to Display at Your Event

These documents will be mailed to you, but some are also available online (see links below) for your convenience so you can make additional copies as needed.

Please display the following on the sales/literature table:

  • Mailing list sign-up sheet - encourage attendees to get on Kulanu's mailing list. We send out short and informative "Kulanu Updates" every 4 to 6 weeks.
  • About Kulanu - please copy and display these colorful 2-sided sheets that provide more information on other Kulanu projects and communities. They also look great in black-and-white, so you can print them in gray-scale if you prefer.
  • Kulanu's Overseas Volunteer Opportunities hand-out - A list of Jewish communities who welcome volunteers and the type of volunteer they seek.
  • Suggested Activities for Religious Educators - This sheet has lots of great ideas to raise students' awareness of Jews around the world.
  • Bar/Bat Mitzvah Project brochures
  • Kulanu newsletters
  • Donation envelopes

Kulanu Boutique Merchandise To Benefit the Communities Kulanu Supports

In conjunction with Serge Etele’s visit to your community, we invite you to sell Jewish items made in Africa (kippot, challah covers, and more!), and Under One Canopy: Readings in Jewish Diversity, a wonderful book compiled and published by Kulanu. If you purchase products in bulk Kulanu offers discounted prices; you can choose whether or not to mark them up to their normal retail price and use the proceeds either to offset the speaking tour fee or to donate back to Kulanu -- it's up to you! You can take advantage of the great bulk rates on these and other unique Judaica products through the Kulanu Boutique website, www.kulanuboutique.com

image: book under one canopy for sale

Under One Canopy: Readings in Jewish Diversity A wonderful compilation published by Kulanu and edited by Karen Primack. It is a delight to read, containing reflections, essays and poems by Jews worldwide (US$15; bulk prices are $5ea for 40 or $7.50ea for 10

Check out www.KulanuBoutique.com for other lovely products that benefit and are made by Jewish communities around the world!

Tips for Selling Kulanu Boutique Items

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VI. How Can Your Community and its Members Expand Support of Beth Yeshourun and Kulanu?

Before the Visit

  • Show the Cameroon photo album and the "Holidays" album to your congregation
  • Educate Hebrew School students about the Beth Yeshourun community
  • Seek additional synagogues, churches, and other organizations to co-sponsor the event -- including interfaith and diversity groups, and those interested in religious and Jewish studies, and African studies
  • Invite African and African-American residents of your area to attend
  • Teach Cameroon melodies to the congregation

While Serge is in Your Town

  • Hold small patron-style event (lunch, reception) for select donors and other individuals to give them time to meet Mr. Etele
  • Hold exhibit of photos taken in Cameroon. (Click here and here for two different albums on Kulanu's Phanfare site)

At Any Time

  • Promote the Kulanu, Inc page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/kulanu) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/kulanu_inc) and share how to "Like" or "Follow" Kulanu to show support
  • Encourage people to sign up to be on Kulanu’s mailing list (just send an email to database[@]kulanu[.]org with your name and email address!)
  • Adopt Kulanu and Beth Yeshourun as an ongoing Tikkun Olam/Social Action/tzedekah project for a religious school or youth group, women’s or men’s club or tzedekah collective
  • Encourage bar and bat mitzvah candidates to select Kulanu as the focus of their Mitzvah Project by distributing Kulanu’s printed bar/bat mitzvah flyers to the students in their own synagogue and to leaders in nearby synagogues and day schools
  • Ask friends and family to make contributions to Kulanu in honor of special lifecycle moments, including high school graduation, adult bar/bat mitzvah, weddings, anniversaries and birthdays, etc.
  • Make donations to Kulanu (www.kulanu.org/donate) earmarked for the Beth Yeshourun community in lieu of gifts
  • Plan a congregational visit to the Beth Yeshourun community in Cameroon
  • Run booth about Kulanu and the communities that we work with at Jewish community fair
  • Hold concert or other special event to raise funds for Beth Yeshourun and Kulanu
  • Work on getting press coverage for this event and for Beth Yeshourun in general, in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV shows, and on blogs, etc.
  • Introduce Beth Yeshourun and Kulanu to potential large donors or foundations in your area

On collecting donations:

We have found that audiences are often moved to contribute to Kulanu after learning about the inspiring lives of Jewish people across the globe. The funds Kulanu receives from events such as this are directed to our work supporting these isolated and emerging communities.

  • When sending us donations, please do not send cash. We accept checks, money orders or online donations.
  • All checks should be in U.S. dollars, payable to Kulanu.
  • Checks should have the donors' mailing address and phone number.
  • If someone would like to make a donation after the event, they can give safely and easily online via our Donate page or mail checks to Kulanu, 165 West End Ave, 3R, New York, NY 10023.
  • Visit www.kulanu.org/donate for other ways to give and become a fundraising leader.

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Didn't find the information you were seeking? Please contact us or call Katie or Harriet at 212.877.8082 with any additional questions or comments.

Thank you for hosting Serge Etele in your community, and for supporting Kulanu and our work with Beth Yeshourun!