Business Cards for Locked Out Patrons

When I was in the Twin Cities, I was lucky enough to get to talk with many of you. I heard many genius ideas about how to move forward, but one of them really stuck out:

Business cards for locked out patrons.

I know!

It’s brilliant.

I do not know why I did not think of this, say, six months ago. But…better late than never.

The idea is courtesy of LOMoMO spouse Beatrice Blanc, who gave me the permission to share her brilliant idea here on the blog. (Thanks, Beatrice!)

How many times have you been in conversation lately…people have asked you what you’re up to…the Minnesota Orchestra lockout comes up…and you’re left trying to explain the complexities of an intractable labor dispute that even the best writers in the business have trouble summarizing? How many times have you been at concerts and overheard someone say something that technically isn’t 100% accurate, but you don’t want to be rude by interjecting that they might find Drew McManus’s essay on that topic interesting? How many times have you seen someone who is more influential than you, who you know knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who could do something to help…but you don’t want to be forward by launching into a long explanation of the whole mess, so you let the opportunity slip away?

Well, instead of a lecture, give them this card. Personalize it with your name, email, phone-number, whatever. (Email addresses are important tools to enable anyone with any specific questions to contact you and begin a dialogue.) Take out links you don’t use; put in links you do. Write a sentence or two about why this is important to you. Evangelize, evangelize, evangelize. Start conversations with others. Ask those people to start conversations. And those people to start conversations. The more people we network with, the stronger our web of advocacy and activism will grow. One person can absolutely make a difference, as Rolf Erdahl so memorably put it in his essay “What Can One Person Do?”

So. Everyone has different word processing programs, and different templates that they like to use, different printers, etc., so I thought I’d just include a sample PDF (one document for each side). You can either print them out on plain cardstock and cut them out yourself, or you can design your own using your own word processing program and your own business card templates.

Here are links:

Business Cards Side 1

Business Cards Side 2

Here’s what the card looks like…

Of course feel free to customize or change. Share what your cards look like and what they say, whether in the comment section here, or on the Song of the Lark Facebook page. Let me know if these spark any discussion with any of your friends, family, or acquaintances. I know I’ll be carrying a batch in my purse…