An annual tradition on the blog – a ton of stuff you can use on campus these first few weeks. Hopefully it saves you some time or gives you ideas.
First Week Fliers, Snapchat Filters and Fall Retreat Resources
The Cru design folks have put together some phenomenal stuff at cru.org/fieldops. Best of all, it’s editable (making most of it is usable for non-Cru ministries)Â and FREE.
The Fall Retreat stuff is incredibly helpful:
- There are Fall Retreat designs (includes a flier, powerpoint slides, and social media)
Cool Music
Here’s an all-new 2017 Spotify playlist that we use at all of our freshmen cookouts and our weekly meeting.
It’s a mix of Indie Rock, Pop/Dance, and Christian Hip Hop.
We pay $10 for the month of August to get Spotify Premium so you don’t have annoying commercials.
As I’ve said before:
While cool, upbeat music may be #27 on the list of important things about a Christian meeting, it’s important nonetheless.
What’s the first thing students encounter when they come to your meeting? Your music that you’re playing before the meeting.
And what happens when they hear Newsboys or Michael W Smith pumping out of your speakers? You immediately confirm their worst suspicions that you are cheesy and out of touch with their reality.
As much as I am not a big fan of hip hop nor dance music, at our weekly meeting we include quite a bit of hip hop/dance. I run the music at our regional winter conference and can conclusively say that hip hop & dance makes a marked difference on the “vibe” of the crowd. It makes your meeting a party. Literally. People dance. Especially if you add beach balls and glow necklaces (we have our first 2 weekly meetings outside – beach balls may be a little less fun indoors).
Spiritual Interest Survey
We’ve put a lot of effort into streamlining our Spiritual Interest Survey card. We do it with 3000 freshmen/students the first week of class – so we want it to be quick and effective. Click here to download the editable PDF (open in Photoshop – it’s set up 4/page and it uses “smart objects” so if you edit one flier it changes all 4 fliers). Click for an adapted version we use at a Community College - pdf or Photoshop. And here’s one we use with athletes for AIA - pdf or Photoshop.
And this is NC State Cru’s sharp looking survey card (click to download – unfortunately it’s in Apple Pages – so Mac’s only):
Cru Card
Our Cru Card that we use for our weekly meeting is similar but a bit different from the survey. You can download the editable PDF (open in Photoshop – it’s set up 4/page and it uses “smart objects” so if you edit one flier it changes all 4 fliers) file here.
Simple Cru Flier
Nothing special. But I always think it’s fun to see what other campuses do for promo. Here’s the editable PDF for the first (open in Photoshop – it’s set up 4/page and it uses “smart objects” so if you edit one flier it changes all 4 fliers). And the Photoshop file for the color version.
We used to do them in color but have found that b/w is just as sharp looking IF:
- You print them on card stock
- Have them “cut to bleed” (so that there is no white border)
First Week Events Flier
A few ideas from across the U.S.:
Ours:
Florida Cru:
Christian Challenge – Chico State – Paul Worcester:
Older Fall Retreat Brochures
If you don’t like any of the aforementioned Fall Retreat designs, here’s some other designs we have used before.
Here’s our 2016 Fall Retreat brochure (designed by Cru designer Jamie Wang).
Besides the basic flier that you can edit and make your own, Jamie has a folder full of goodies: Facebook profile pics, slides, etc.
For Printing Flyers: You should be able to fit four of the flyers on an 8.5 x 11″ page. Tell FedEx it has a 1/8″ bleed.
Here’s our 2015 brochure (designed by Cru designer Libby Slaughter). And here’s the photoshop files so you can edit it and use it!
Here’s our 2014 brochure and a post with 4 different (older) Fall Retreat Brochure designs we’ve used. Photoshop file
Campus Brochures
A leaving piece that explains everything we do offer in Cru.Â
First 4 Weeks Calendar
Always fun to see how other ministries operate. So here’s an overview of what our First 4 Weeks calendar looks like. Here’s a template you can use.