Next Community Rep Newsletter/Email

Hi, Community Tree Rescuers Representatives,

This is our first official communication specifically for everyone who has volunteered to relay information to their neighbors about invasive plants. There are a lot of those plants out there, so we plan to send this out twice a month, but we will undertake to keep it really short!

Information to send out to your community

English Ivy is the most common tree-killing vine on residential properties. Here’s a little article to distribute. Please feel free to use or adapt these blogs in any way that fits your situation. And here is a 1.5 minute video on the same topic. A lot of people prefer those, and they do really well on social media.

Tip for organizers

The first thing everyone needs is a way to get out information to the neighbors. There are lots of ways you could do that, but if you don’t already have a communication system going, a simple way to start would be by posting on NextDoor.com and setting it just to reach your own neighborhood. The trick is to use a title that encourages engagement with the first few words, and to make it personal and relevant to your community. An example could be ā€œIs anyone else dealing with English Ivy in (name of your neighborhood)?ā€

News

So far,140 Fairfax communities have Community Representatives! You can see their locations on the map on our Community Rep webpage. (Don’t see yours as a polygon on the map? Please send us the boundaries of your neighborhood.This is how we can see where there are gaps.)

Video of our Week of Action - See what it was like to get out and get the job done in this nice 12 minute video.

Success story

Here is where we’ll link to a success story on our website. But we need many of you to write one so we can do that! Share how you did what you did (whether a big or small accomplishment), with any lessons learned, include a photo, and we’ll get it up on our website.