How to Build a
Lease a Flag Program
• Coshocton Rotary
April 23, 2013
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How to Build a
Lease a Flag Program
By Ken Smith
& Jim Edwards
of the Louisville Rotary Club
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No Notes Required
www.louisvillerotary.com
CLICK ON: “How to build a Flag Program”
to view this whole presentation at home.
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Our Dollar Sized Application
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FRONT SIDE OF APPLICATION
Join your neighbors and show your patriotism. We will post your U. S. Flag on
the following 6 holidays: Memorial Day, Flag Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, 9/11,
Constitution Day, and Veteran's Day.
The Louisville Ohio Rotary Club will place a flag in your front yard a few days
before the listed holidays. A 3’x 5’ flag on a 10’ staff will be placed in a plastic
anchor pipe permanently buried in your front yard. The anchor will be flush with
the ground with a red plastic cap on it when not in use. The flag and staff will
remain the property of the Louisville Rotary Club. You must live in the Louisville
School District to lease a flag from us. The flags will remain posted from Labor
Day through 9/11 & Constitution Week.
In 2012: we awarded six $1,000 grants to benefit Louisville citizens; we sponsored
a Foreign Exchange student at LHS; we maintained a mile of the Nickelplate Trail;
we operated Punt, Pass and Kick and we donated to eradicate Polio worldwide. In
the past, we built the $60,000 restrooms at Metzger Park, and the Gazebo on the
Square.
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Flag Applications
Our Flag applications fit in your wallet, or by the tellers
window at a bank or grocery store.
We originally printed 5,000 applications. We used them
all in 3 years.
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“In a Nutshell“
We lease a flag for $25 / year.
Since the flag cost $8, we net:
$17 the first year.
$23 there after.
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Why our Flag Program works?
Louisville & Nimishillen Twp. have a total population of
19,000 or 7,400 households.
Every September, we celebrate the signing of the U.S.
Constitution with a Queen's pageant, and a huge
parade.
Flags and the Constitution Celebration go hand in hand.
Over time, I think we can subscribe 1,300 households.
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Spin offs!
Membership Growth: In 2003, we had 6 Rotary members, today we
have 44 members.
For the past 35 years, we ran our club on about $3,500 per year. - Pancake & Rose Day.
For 2012 our flag program made us $24,600, plus Pancake Day.
Goals: As a Club, we have pledged to back the planned Louisville
Community Center/Library ($4,000,000). (est. 2016)
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YOU’LL NEED 6 MANAGERS
Overall Flag Mgr.
Base Installation Mgr.
Manufacturing Mgr.
Treasurer
Database Mgr.
Route Supervisor
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Route Drivers
One for every 30 flags. We have
1100 customers and 37 routes.
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“Overall Manager”
Ken secured:
(1)
Tele # for our club is his Cell!
(2)
Club mailing address - he used the Treasurer's work address.
He has an answering machine.
(3) Barn to store and manufacture the flags. We were offered an unheated
brick barn with a concrete floor with a 10’ x 20’ work area for manufacturing.
(4) Permission from the city – he contacted the city manager and found out where
the city would like the flags installed. Either in front of, or behind the sidewalk. The bases
are normally 18" behind the sidewalk in the city. In the township, they are normally 54" off of
the road.
(5) Poles
$1.90.
X
- 10' Electrical Conduit, Lowes sells them to us for $1.50 each!
Retail =
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Continued
Flag Bases - white schedule 40 PVC - each base costs us about $.30
3’ x 5’ flags Made in America. $5.75 each.
We buy our flags
through:
Eder Flag Company 1000 W. Rawson Ave. Oak Creek, Wi 53154
Can you get us a better deal in Coshocton?
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Tele 414-764-3522 or 800-558-6044
Wire ties 8“
E-Mail: sales@ederflag.Com
We pay retail at Lowes
Red caps
(tapered plug model # T185) We pay about 3 cents apiece thru:
Sinclair & Rush 123 Manufacturers Dr. Arnold, Mo 63010
Tele 636-828-6800
www.sinclair-rush.com Model # T185
Any new customer leasing a flag after July 7th of any year will receive the remaining 3 postings of
that year plus all 6 postings for next year. Then it’s: “Fair to all concerned?”
“Rotary Flags”
330-417-1527
Our 2’ x 2’ outside signs were extremely effective.
Database Manager
We have E-mails for 75% of our clients.
We use Excel. Once a year, we export the Database to Quickbooks to E-Mail the
invoices.
On March 15th, we E-Mail an invoice to each UNPAID customer. 70% of the EMailed invoices were paid by May1st saving the Club $560 in USPS mailing costs.
On May 1st, we mail an invoice (USPS) to all the remaining UNPAID customers.
Overall, we have a 92% renewal rate.
Creating your own database is easy in Excel.
X
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Treasurer
Our database manager receives the checks and annotates the database, then he
gives the batch of checks to the treasurer for deposit.
For RENEWALS - - - - - No paperwork required, “just a check with name & address.”
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Manufacturing Manager
We use a team of 4 to produce 200 finished flags in about 4 hours.
We cover 3 saw horses with a 2” x 6” x 36” laid on its side. We lay 20 pieces of 10' electrical conduit (flag
poles) together & parallel on the 3 horses with the ends flush. Now we can drill through the conduit and
not damage the horses. We mark all 20 poles at the same time with a permanent magic marker. Then
we punch a dent in the conduit to help start the drill accurately. We keep 2 of the horses directly under
the drill holes for support. Using a 1/4" drill bit made of cobalt or titanium, drill the top hole 1" down
from the top. From that hole, measure down the pole a distance equal to the distance between your
flag's two grommet holes and add one inch. This will be the distance between the top and bottom
holes. The extra inch is needed to keep the flag taut when you draw the bottom wire tie finger tight. A
batch of 20 takes 10 minutes to mark, peen and drill. Then we buff the razor edges of the holes with a
stationary wire wheel grinder. To assemble the flag on the pole: Insert an 8" wire tie thru the top
grommet and the top hole on the pole. Pull this wire tie tight. Then stretch the flag down and make sure
it is not twisted, and insert the bottom wire tie.
Making the 18" long pieces of PVC for the bases is a little dirty (white flakes). It took one man 1 hour to
make 240 PVC bases. Using 5 sections of 10' PVC at a time, we set up a jig 18" from the cutoff saw blade
and cut all 5 at once. We attached a Shop-Vac to keep the area clean.
X
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Base Installation Manager
A base is an 18" piece of 3/4“ schedule 40 PVC (white). It takes us about 4 minutes to install
a base. To determine the location of the base, we consider road visibility, safety, and an
obvious reference for measurement.
“Important” Whenever possible, we line up the hole with a crack in sidewalk, or in line with
the end of a concrete drive. We used a 6' spud bar, cut it in half and ground the top half to a
point. We make 2 tools out of each $30 spud bar. The 1" shaft is perfect for the pilot hole
needed to drive the PVC section into the ground.
Example of dimensions:
18" back- 7' 11“ N. of sidewalk.
On the road, we paint a 9“ mark perpendicular to the road “exactly” in front of the flag
base. Then we install a red cap on the PVC to keep dirt out and log the dimensions for the
database.
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Web Site Designer –
Not required, but helpful
When someone calls our club #, we refer them to our printable flag
application posted on our web page:
www.louisvillerotary.com
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Route Supervisor
Ken sets up meeting times with each route driver prior to each posting and
retiring. He then meets the drivers at the barn to distribute the flags and the
route kits. We have 37 routes, 25 of which have a Rotarian as a primary
driver. The other 12 drivers are local citizens interested in supporting our flag
program.
Flags are posted 2 to 3 days prior to a holiday and retired 2 to 3 days after the
holiday.
Route Kits:
25' Tape Measure
Pry bar to find red cap in tall grass
Extra red caps & rubber bands
Aerosol can of white line paint
Route list sorted on; Paid - Street - House #
Applications for curious neighbors
X
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Route Driver's Duties
The average route has 30 flags that can be posted in less than 80 minutes and retired in one
hour . If you can’t find the base quickly using the white stripe, use the coordinates on the
printed route sheet. We use the curved end of the pry bar to jab the ground in the target
area until the red cap is found. When posting, keep the red caps and rubber bands in the
route box. When we retire, we roll each flag to store them neatly. If it is raining, we’ll wait
until the flags are dry before we pick them up.
Each base is marked with a 9" white hash mark in the road in front of the flag base. The
white mark, along with the red caps on the bases is usually sufficient to locate the bases for
flag postings. Write any corrections on the printed route sheets and hand them in.
Spend 3 minutes max looking for a flag base; a manager will come out and put in a new
base and "post a flag" with new dimensions.
Helpful note from all post offices:
Odd # addresses are on the north or west sides of the street.
Even # addresses are on the south or east.
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Complimentary Postings
LOUISVILLE H.S. FOOTBALL STADIUM (19 FLAGS)
SOLDIER’S MEMORIAL - CITY HALL
SOLDIER'S MEMORIAL - OLD HIGH SCHOOL
METZGER PARK
MOLLY STARK PARK
VFW & EAGLES
to ACCENTUATE the 2’ x 2’ SIGNS for “Rotary Flags”
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“Pace your growth!”
About a year ago, we saw a chance to quickly double our
customers!
If we would pay $17, (the first year’s net) to any group that would
sell a flag for us; then, we would receive all the profits for future
years.
Our club did not agree to hire other groups to help us sell because
our route system was running so well. Now, we have 5 additional
non Rotarians as substitute drivers and are ready to grow again.
Don’t outgrow your delivery capability.
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5 Year Projections
2009
Actual
2010
Actual
2011
Actual
2012
Actual
2013
Projection
Price / Flag
$20
$20
$20
$25
$25
Renewals:
New:
0
416 x $12
416 x $18
438 x $12
854 x $18
157 x $12
1017 x $23
73 x $17
1090 x $23
70 x $17
Net / Year
$4,992
$12,744
$17,256
$24,632
$26,283
95% renewal
93% renewal
92% renewal
rate. Tuff yr.
Future sales!
Year to Year
RENEWAL
We use a
saturation
Factor to
Determine
Projections
are
NOT
RELIABLE!
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ANY QUESTIONS?
We had “UNANIMOUS” support to MANUFACTURE,
SELL and DELIVER!
KEN SMITH 330-417-1527 ksmith@neo.rr.com
JIM EDWARDS 330-875-1595
jedwards@neo.rr.com
www.louisvillerotary.com
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Rules for night lighting Questions
ON THE NATIONAL LEVEL THE FEDERAL FLAG CODE1 PROVIDES UNIFORM GUIDELINES FOR THE DISPLAY
OF AND RESPECT SHOWN TO THE FLAG. IN ADDITION TO THE CODE, CONGRESS HAS BY STATUTE
DESIGNATED THE NATIONAL ANTHEM AND SET OUT THE PROPER CONDUCT DURING ITS PRESENTATION.
THE CODE IS DESIGNED “FOR THE USE OF SUCH CIVILIAN GROUPS OR ORGANIZATIONS AS MAY NOT BE
REQUIRED TO CONFORM WITH REGULATIONS PROMULGATED BY ONE OR MORE EXECUTIVE
DEPARTMENTS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. THUS, THE FLAG CODE DOES NOT PRESCRIBE ANY
PENALTIES FOR NON-COMPLIANCE NOR DOES IT INCLUDE ENFORCEMENT PROVISIONS; RATHER THE
CODE FUNCTIONS SIMPLY AS A GUIDE TO BE VOLUNTARILY FOLLOWED BY CIVILIANS AND CIVILIAN
GROUPS.
OTHER CLUBS HAVE HIRED THE BOY SCOUTS, SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASSES, OR OTHER
GROUPS TO DELIVER THEIR FLAGS. BY DOING THIS, THE CLUB LOSES SOME CONTROL OF
THE PROGRAM.
ON THE APPLICATION, WE NEED TO EXPLAIN WHY WE NEED AN EMAIL. PEOPLE WON’T
GIVE UP THEIR EMAILS EASILY.
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VISIT:
www.louisvillerotary.com
CLICK ON “How to build a Flag Program”
to view this whole presentation at home.
My tele 330-875-1595
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VISIT: www.louisvillerotary.com
TAKE TO SPEECH
Computer
Master list
Route list
Sorted DB street or alpha
PPT presentation
Applications
Route kit, caps, list, tape, pry bar, spare apps, rubber bands
Spike
Flags on staff
PVC base 18”
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