Dear friends:

This year Business Professionals of America has put together a great partnership with SugarBush, a gourmet foods company in Columbus Ohio. We support this company, the products and the opportunity for our students to raise money for the local chapters and we encourage your participation.

Below, we have included instructions for implementing the program in your chapter and ordering the SugarBush product online.

Implementing the SugarBush Fundraising Program in your Chapter 

1. Planning Meeting-Hold a planning meeting of the chapter members, review the fundraising plan and provide a copy of the student email and directions for ordering.
2. Student Letter-Each student will save a copy of the letter for their own email list.
3. Student Customer List-Each student will develop an email list of friends, family, parent colleagues etc. -- look into corporations that would buy multiple baskets for holiday give-a-ways. Ask for a person in the HR department or employee relations. This is not only about people that will buy a basket for personal consumption but moreover people that want to buy a gift for a relative far away, a shut-in, a neglected friendship (brainstorm) you will come up with numerous situations.
4. Personalize Letter-Each student will take their individual list and personalize the letter in the link and email accordingly.
5. Send & Follow Up Letter-Additional lists can be generated and sent as time goes by. Follow up emails are recommended throughout the fundraising period.
6. Submitting Orders-All order transactions are intended to be completed by the customer, online and the baskets are to ship directly to recipient from SugarBush. Students, advisors and parents are advised not to handle any cash transactions or accept any credit card information. All transaction should be completed by the buyer online. If you have someone that doesn’t use credit cards or doesn’t have online computer access have them call the SugarBush order number @ 800-837-2929. Be sure they have your BPA-Chapter #.

The fundraiser will run from October 31, 2007 –January 1, 2008. SugarBush made it clear this is the peak time frame for holiday sales!!!

Proceeds from individual chapter sales will be distributed by January 31, 2008.

Please call or email breardon@bpa.org or call 614-895-7277 ext. 103

Good Luck!

Barbara Reardon
Special Projects Manager

OPEN AND CONVERT THE SAMPLE PAGE TO EMAIL:

1. Click here to open the link: http://sb-gourmet.com/bpa/sampleemail.htm
2. Click the “File” tab on the top left of the screen
3. Click “Send” in the “File” tab
4. Click “Page by e-mail” from the “Send” menu
   • At this point, an e-mail window should open up with the fundraiser information already in place.
   • If you see something else, see the workarounds below*

EDIT AND SEND YOUR CUSTOMIZED EMAIL:

1. Now that you are ready to e-mail, type the address of one of your recipients.
   • Each e-mail you send will be personalized so please only send to one recipient at a time!
2. Change the subject line so the recipient will know it is from you and that it is important. 
3. Example: “just a note from Michelle – I could use your help!”
4. Use your mouse to hi-light the ‘(blank)’ in the salutation and type the recipient’s name.
5. Use your mouse to hi-light the ‘(blank)’  of the BPA chapter code and type your chapter’s code. 
   • Please be certain that the chapter code is red
6. Use your mouse to hi-light the ‘(blank)’ in the closing and type your name.
7. Feel free to add a line of text to further personalize the e-mail.  Examples:  “Can’t wait to see you this weekend.”  “See you at Grandma’s for Thanksgiving!” etc..ect…

*NOTE: If your mail program is set to create only "plain text" email, using the above method will insert the HTML page as an attachment in a blank email, which will not allow you to edit the text. If this happens, cancel the operation and do ONE of the following workarounds:

WORKAROUND A: Go into your email program's preferences menu and temporarily choose to create email in the HTML format, then follow the above instructions. (Revert your system to plain text when finished.)

or...

WORKAROUND B: Open the linked web page, choose edit | select all (ctl+a) and use your favorite method to copy the text to the clipboard. Then in your email program start a new message, change the format to HTML, then paste the selected content into the email body. Edit the mail as instructed above before sending.

 (ALSO NOTE: If a recipient's email program is set to READ mail in plain text, they will see code instead of pictures. Recipients will need to select the option to view your mail in HTML format.)

Remember:  Thanksgiving & the Holiday Season are
the best times to sell these gifts!