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 “Is anyone else dealing with English Ivy in (name of your neighborhood)?”

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.