FAH Donor Business Cards - We Can Do This!
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 8:31 am
Last Friday I drove my foster sister to a Christmas luncheon for her Tai Chi group. (Parkinson’s patients do Tai Chi exercises to help with balance and motor functions.) My sister’s legs were not working, so I was doing my best to help her get around. As Cherie struggled to move, I couldn’t help but think how frustrated I would be if I were having to cope with her predicament. I realized in an instant: This is why we are folding!
On my drive home I got to thinking: “There has to be more we can do! There has to be some way of increasing FAH donor participation without incurring great cost.” That’s when the light came on. Here’s something that all of us within the FAH donor community can do. It will cost money, (namely the amount of money required to have a box of business cards printed), but this is entirely voluntary – the decision is totally yours.
A few nights ago I had dinner with a lady with whom I crossed paths. Naturally, this lady asked me what I do for a living? On a totally spontaneous lark, I told her a bit of a white lie. I told her: “I’m a medical researcher.” (OK, it was more like a 100 percent whopping big lie!) This peaked her curiosity, so she wanted to know more. I told her I use a computer to simulate protein folding dynamics. (Another furrowed eyebrow.) I asked her if she would like to become a medical researcher? (This really piqued her attention.) She furrowed her eyebrows again and said, “Well, I don’t know. How much would this cost?” (Now I knew I had set the hook, so all I have to do is reel her in.) I began explaining what FAH is and how she could become a medical researcher by downloading the software and letting her computer process work units. She seemed interested (or at least she listened politely) as I attempted to give a concise explanation of FAH and what the Pande Group is working to accomplish.
Neither one of us had a pen or paper to write on, so I was reduced to repeating “Folding at Home” several times and encouraging her to go on the internet and look up the web site when she got home. She seemed interested, but she told me “I’ll ask my son to help me with this the next time he comes over.” I thanked her for listening and told her I thought she would make a great protein folder. From there we went on to talking about other things.
So I’m returning home from taking my foster sister to her luncheon when it suddenly dawns on me: “What I need for these type situations is the standard communication device used by most business professionals: The business card!” Specifically, we in the FAH donor community need a carefully composed straightforward business card which spells out:
(a.) Your name
(b.) Your affiliation as a “Donor Participant” with Stanford’s Folding@Home distributed computing project.
(c.) The FAH home page: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/HomePage
(d.) Your local phone number and email address (optional)
(e.) Your folding ID moniker (optional)
(f.) Other important information I haven’t thought of (The FAH logo perhaps? See below.)
This business card can’t be too “busy” (i.e. too cluttered with details) but it also needs to convey enough information to pique a person’s interest and attract them to the web site. (I’m open to suggestions concerning how the information should be laid out and presented since I’m not a business card design expert.) I suppose the most important detail is: (c.) – the web site URL. It would also be nice if there were an easy way to get the Stanford FAH logo onto the card, but I don’t know of an “easy” way to do this. This logo:
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-main#ntoc41
would be really impressive on your very own personalized FAH business card.
I’ll be very grateful for any and all comments (i.e. constructive criticism) along with suggestions on how best to design the card and present the information. I’m thinking, in order to save space and maximize “real estate” on the card, options (a.) and (b.) should be combined into a single line since print on a business card is generally small and space is limited. I’m not sure about option (d.) although it might be a good idea to have a way for a new donor to contact you in case they have a question about the software or an issue comes up that they need help with. Option (e.) should probably be deleted since your own personal folding ID is not vital information on a business card of this nature. Taking all these factors into consideration, a personalized FAH business card might appear as follows.
The FAH logo would appear (centered) at the top of the card. Immediately below the logo would appear your name with the following text and description.
Alan C. Lawhon – Donor Participant in Stanford Medical School’s “Folding@Home”
distributed computing project. The goal of the Folding at Home project is to study
and better understand Protein Folding Dynamics and computational biology in order
to fight debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, influenza, the
HIV virus and numerous forms of cancer.
Web Site URL: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/HomePage
Below this, space permitting, you might include your own local phone number (in the lower left-hand corner of the card) and your email address (in the lower right-hand corner of the card) as a local point of contact. (If the front of the card is too crowded with the above information, your local phone number and email address can be printed on the back of the card – or not printed at all – depending on your own personal preference.)
I’ll be very grateful for input from folks in the Pande Group as I don’t want to step on any toes or do anything that is not legal or causes a problem. That’s why I’ve decided to use the term “Donor Participant” in lieu of “Medical Researcher” on these business cards. I’m also concerned about use of the logo and whether that would be a problem with Stanford’s legal affairs office. Before I go to the expense of having cards printed, I want to make sure I pass muster with all concerned.
A direct-to-the-point (well thought out) business card containing basic information would be easy to pass on to potential new donors. (Hopefully such a card will at least pique interest since one doesn’t run in to a “business card” like this every day.) If you carry five or six of these cards with you in your wallet (or purse) at all times, you’ll be able to pass a card (or even 2-3 cards) to a potential donor you might meet or strike up a conversation with. (I keep thinking if I had a card like this a few nights ago at the restaurant, that lady might be our newest folder.) You might want to carry ten cards with you at all times – just in case a potential donor says “Hey, I know a bunch of folks at work who might be interested in this! Do you have extra cards I could give away?” Better yet, if you can speak to a large group of potential donors, you can pass cards out to each person in the group and they will automatically have the web site URL. After I get my cards printed, I intend to try and arrange a large meeting with the local Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Support Groups, the local AIDS Action Coalition, and local cancer patient support groups. If I can get a meeting arranged with several hundred people in attendance, that would be great! I intend to get several hundred (make that several thousand!) new folders donating CPU cycles to FAH if it’s the last thing I do.
It will cost money out of your own pocket to get FAH business cards printed, (and this is a totally independent decision for each member of the FAH community), but I would guess it can’t cost more than $100 to $200 max to get a box of 1,000 cards printed. If you settle on buying 1,000 cards, I would think the cost/card should be in the neighborhood of 10-12 cents per card – since you are buying a bulk quantity – although the Stanford FAH logo could add several cents to the overall cost per card since the logo is a color graphic. (The positive about the FAH logo is that it will, or it should, attract peoples’ attention. The negative is the amount of space it will take up on the card – plus the extra cost – so it’s a tradeoff.) Whatever the case, I can’t imagine the cost being greater than 15 cents per card for an order of 1,000 cards. Maybe somebody reading this has more knowledge and expertise concerning the printing of business cards and can offer a more accurate cost estimate.
I’ve given this quite a bit of thought. I can’t think of a more “cost efficient” way of publicizing FAH and drawing attention to the web site. It seems that the key to this is getting people to the web site. If they go to the trouble of typing the URL into their browser, if they show that degree of interest, there’s a good chance they’ll download the software and start folding.
On my drive home I got to thinking: “There has to be more we can do! There has to be some way of increasing FAH donor participation without incurring great cost.” That’s when the light came on. Here’s something that all of us within the FAH donor community can do. It will cost money, (namely the amount of money required to have a box of business cards printed), but this is entirely voluntary – the decision is totally yours.
A few nights ago I had dinner with a lady with whom I crossed paths. Naturally, this lady asked me what I do for a living? On a totally spontaneous lark, I told her a bit of a white lie. I told her: “I’m a medical researcher.” (OK, it was more like a 100 percent whopping big lie!) This peaked her curiosity, so she wanted to know more. I told her I use a computer to simulate protein folding dynamics. (Another furrowed eyebrow.) I asked her if she would like to become a medical researcher? (This really piqued her attention.) She furrowed her eyebrows again and said, “Well, I don’t know. How much would this cost?” (Now I knew I had set the hook, so all I have to do is reel her in.) I began explaining what FAH is and how she could become a medical researcher by downloading the software and letting her computer process work units. She seemed interested (or at least she listened politely) as I attempted to give a concise explanation of FAH and what the Pande Group is working to accomplish.
Neither one of us had a pen or paper to write on, so I was reduced to repeating “Folding at Home” several times and encouraging her to go on the internet and look up the web site when she got home. She seemed interested, but she told me “I’ll ask my son to help me with this the next time he comes over.” I thanked her for listening and told her I thought she would make a great protein folder. From there we went on to talking about other things.
So I’m returning home from taking my foster sister to her luncheon when it suddenly dawns on me: “What I need for these type situations is the standard communication device used by most business professionals: The business card!” Specifically, we in the FAH donor community need a carefully composed straightforward business card which spells out:
(a.) Your name
(b.) Your affiliation as a “Donor Participant” with Stanford’s Folding@Home distributed computing project.
(c.) The FAH home page: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/HomePage
(d.) Your local phone number and email address (optional)
(e.) Your folding ID moniker (optional)
(f.) Other important information I haven’t thought of (The FAH logo perhaps? See below.)
This business card can’t be too “busy” (i.e. too cluttered with details) but it also needs to convey enough information to pique a person’s interest and attract them to the web site. (I’m open to suggestions concerning how the information should be laid out and presented since I’m not a business card design expert.) I suppose the most important detail is: (c.) – the web site URL. It would also be nice if there were an easy way to get the Stanford FAH logo onto the card, but I don’t know of an “easy” way to do this. This logo:
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-main#ntoc41
would be really impressive on your very own personalized FAH business card.
I’ll be very grateful for any and all comments (i.e. constructive criticism) along with suggestions on how best to design the card and present the information. I’m thinking, in order to save space and maximize “real estate” on the card, options (a.) and (b.) should be combined into a single line since print on a business card is generally small and space is limited. I’m not sure about option (d.) although it might be a good idea to have a way for a new donor to contact you in case they have a question about the software or an issue comes up that they need help with. Option (e.) should probably be deleted since your own personal folding ID is not vital information on a business card of this nature. Taking all these factors into consideration, a personalized FAH business card might appear as follows.
The FAH logo would appear (centered) at the top of the card. Immediately below the logo would appear your name with the following text and description.
Alan C. Lawhon – Donor Participant in Stanford Medical School’s “Folding@Home”
distributed computing project. The goal of the Folding at Home project is to study
and better understand Protein Folding Dynamics and computational biology in order
to fight debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, influenza, the
HIV virus and numerous forms of cancer.
Web Site URL: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/HomePage
Below this, space permitting, you might include your own local phone number (in the lower left-hand corner of the card) and your email address (in the lower right-hand corner of the card) as a local point of contact. (If the front of the card is too crowded with the above information, your local phone number and email address can be printed on the back of the card – or not printed at all – depending on your own personal preference.)
I’ll be very grateful for input from folks in the Pande Group as I don’t want to step on any toes or do anything that is not legal or causes a problem. That’s why I’ve decided to use the term “Donor Participant” in lieu of “Medical Researcher” on these business cards. I’m also concerned about use of the logo and whether that would be a problem with Stanford’s legal affairs office. Before I go to the expense of having cards printed, I want to make sure I pass muster with all concerned.
A direct-to-the-point (well thought out) business card containing basic information would be easy to pass on to potential new donors. (Hopefully such a card will at least pique interest since one doesn’t run in to a “business card” like this every day.) If you carry five or six of these cards with you in your wallet (or purse) at all times, you’ll be able to pass a card (or even 2-3 cards) to a potential donor you might meet or strike up a conversation with. (I keep thinking if I had a card like this a few nights ago at the restaurant, that lady might be our newest folder.) You might want to carry ten cards with you at all times – just in case a potential donor says “Hey, I know a bunch of folks at work who might be interested in this! Do you have extra cards I could give away?” Better yet, if you can speak to a large group of potential donors, you can pass cards out to each person in the group and they will automatically have the web site URL. After I get my cards printed, I intend to try and arrange a large meeting with the local Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Support Groups, the local AIDS Action Coalition, and local cancer patient support groups. If I can get a meeting arranged with several hundred people in attendance, that would be great! I intend to get several hundred (make that several thousand!) new folders donating CPU cycles to FAH if it’s the last thing I do.
It will cost money out of your own pocket to get FAH business cards printed, (and this is a totally independent decision for each member of the FAH community), but I would guess it can’t cost more than $100 to $200 max to get a box of 1,000 cards printed. If you settle on buying 1,000 cards, I would think the cost/card should be in the neighborhood of 10-12 cents per card – since you are buying a bulk quantity – although the Stanford FAH logo could add several cents to the overall cost per card since the logo is a color graphic. (The positive about the FAH logo is that it will, or it should, attract peoples’ attention. The negative is the amount of space it will take up on the card – plus the extra cost – so it’s a tradeoff.) Whatever the case, I can’t imagine the cost being greater than 15 cents per card for an order of 1,000 cards. Maybe somebody reading this has more knowledge and expertise concerning the printing of business cards and can offer a more accurate cost estimate.
I’ve given this quite a bit of thought. I can’t think of a more “cost efficient” way of publicizing FAH and drawing attention to the web site. It seems that the key to this is getting people to the web site. If they go to the trouble of typing the URL into their browser, if they show that degree of interest, there’s a good chance they’ll download the software and start folding.