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Re: Using the internet to sign-on shareholders



Hi Anna,

I have been reading the conversation on the CSA-List regarding websites 
and internet use as potentially beneficial for CSAs.  I am a founding 
shareholder in the CSA at Mill Valley Farm in Stratham, NH.  We started 
with the 1995 growing season and are about to enter our fifth year.  
Presently we have about 70 memberships, some "full shares" for larger 
families of vegie-eaters but mostly "half shares" for one or two adult 
vegetable-eaters.  Pickups are divided fairly evenly between Wednesday 
and Saturday pickups at the farm.  

One thing we were thinking about is giving ourselves a presence on the 
internet (with email or website or both).  But we're not sure if it's 
worth the effort in the context of our goals for community support.

You said in the following posting, "I'm not sure that we could justify 
our web page if we had to pay for it given our traffic level. However, 
most of the querries we receive from it, do end up joining."

How would you characterize your traffic level?  And about how many 
queries and new memberships has it generated?  AND, the big question:  
how many of those new internet-generated memberships do you retain from 
season to season?

We want to increase our membership, and we dream of finding additional 
shareholders who are likely to be committed to the farm and csa for the 
long-term.  We're wondering how to do this here in the seacoast region 
of NH.

Thanks!

Chrissy Fowler

Christine H. Fowler
ktaadn_me@hotmail.com
Mill Valley Farm CSA, Stratham, NH

----Original Message Follows----
Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 12:00:15 -0600
To: csa-l@prairienet.org
From: Anna Barnes <ambarnes@uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: Using the internet to sign-on shareholders

At 08:46 AM 12/1/98 -0500, Dan Hook wrote:


>I betcha most of us don't (have web pages).
I betcha you're right.  At Prairieland CSA, which is located in one of
Newsweek's newly appointed top 10 tech cities of the world, Champaign, 
IL,
we have access to an entire bastion of the code literate, including CSA
list moderator John Barclay who is now in grad school. The speed with 
which
these people can pull very powerful on-line tools together is simply
awesome. For example, check out 
http://co-op.champaign.il.us/fp/index.html
for what two such individuals did in a couple of afternoons for a local
buying club. As a result of having the National Center for 
Supercomputing
in our backyard, we have long-enjoyed a free web page on what was once 
an
entirely free net. Thanks to volunteers like John and now David Riecks 
our
farmers have a page (that currently needs some updating and redesigning
itself). But, I wouldn't wish designing and maintaining one on any 
farmer.
Also, I'm not sure that we could justify our web page if we had to pay 
for
it given our traffic level. However, most of the querries we receive 
from
it, do end up joining.

Thanks for the URLs:

>So I will list:  Located in central Massachusetts Green Hill Farm 508
>842-2588.  e-mail guldann@ix.netcom.com
>>I think the best place to send interested CSA-ers is:
>>http://www.umass.edu/umext/CSA/us/StateList.html
>>http://www.umass.edu/umext/CSA/canada/Canada.html
>>
Anna Barnes
1998 Mktg Mgr PCSA
http://www.prairienet.org/pcsa









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