Match-O-Matics
HEY ASB!
Match-O-Matics is an event that took place from February 6th to February 10th, and we distributed donuts on February 16th at the Valentines Club Market. Lynbrook students had the opportunity to fill out a cute questionnaire to be paired with someone else at Lynbrook and hopefully become bestest friends. The incentive for signing up was a free donut.
Signups were held in the quad during lunch, and Community Link had a table where volunteers helped students sign up on their computers. We also promoted the event through Instagram stories and posts featuring graphics created by GOAT Shreya Somani.
On the day of the donut distribution, we ordered 240 donuts, but because not enough people showed up with their matches, we started selling them for two tickets and eventually gave them away for free. About a quarter of all matched participants came to pick up a donut with their match.
Here are some prompts to discuss:
- What other ways can we creatively promote Match-O-Matics?
- Should we give donuts away even if they don’t have a match, as long as they signed up?
- How do we make the nature of signing up for a friend feel less intimidating?
- Was the length of the form a turn-off for people?
- Should we have distributed donuts at lunch (like previous years, since generally more people are present during lunch) or distribute it during the valentines club market to increase attendance?
Hello!
ReplyDeleteFor the second question, I think that as long as we ordered enough donuts to give one to every person who signed up, they should have the opportunity to get one. Although I believe we should still promote claiming the donuts with your match, sometimes people's matches don't get back to them and it feels a little unfair for them to have to face the twofold rejection (T_T) of not being able to make their new friend and also not getting a donut. If they come up and say something along the lines of "hey, I tried reaching out but they never got back to me, could I still get a donut?" I think we should say yes <3
- Allison
hi clink!!
ReplyDeletecongrats on another successful event! i loved the way you guys emphasized it was an event to find a friend, i think a lot more people liked this concept. if you guys are buying enough donuts for everyone who signed up to get them, i think everyone should still be given a donut even if they do not come with their partner. if a pair who got matched does show up together, maybe they can be offered a different reward. as an example, people who come alone but signed up can get a cookie but pairs who come together can get a donut. it would be harder to estimate the number of quantities of each item to buy but i think it would provide a better incentive for people to show up with their matches -- or still receive a prize for participating. either way, people who made an attempt to contact their partner should still be rewarded. i think it was harder for people to meet up with their matches outside of school. i liked the idea of having distribution be at the valentines club market so the event can gain more attraction, but it may have been why people werent able to get their free donut with their matches. once again, great job clink!!
-aarya
hey clink!!
ReplyDeletegreat job on match-o-matics!! in terms of creative promo, you could partner with tech and work together to release some sort of funny-ish video getting people to make friends and sign up. In terms of giving away donuts, I think that if they signed up they should recieve their donut. Probably don't advertise the donuts that way, but if they show up without a match, they still signed up at the end of the day, and should still get the incentive. The length of the form was a bit too long imo -- I was volunteering during lunch and quite a few people stopped by and looked at the form with the intention of signing up, but in the end just left without finishing the form. In the future, maybe making the form shorter, or providing multiple choice questions instead of open ended/fill in an answer yourself could also make it easier for those interested. For the last question, I think it's still nice to find some sort of way to get more people to come to the club market. If budget allows, you could buy donuts for lunch, and maybe for those that come to the club market give each pair like a few tickets (just a small incentive, but just enough to encourage them spend more to buy more expensive things from clubs) for them to buy things at the club market? great job clink!!
-- amy
hi clink!!
ReplyDeletei think matchomatics was a huge hit and it sparked a lot of excitement in everyone! here are my suggestions/ideas:
1. creative promo: next year, we should enforce that all asb members do a PS announcement in their classrooms to promote matchomatics. they can: (1) explain what the event is (2) write the link on the board (3) emphasize when the form shuts down. i did it in my math class and for a lot of people who didn't have instagram, it was their first time hearing about it!
ALSO: genuinely take into account the data from the forms. for ex, if you notice that more seniors are filling it out, we can expand promotion for other classes through their CO groups!
2. having donuts as an incentive was great because it made a lot of people want to actually meet up with their matches. however, i know that some people weren't able to attend valentine's club market (sports, ec's, etc) and therefore did not sign up. if you had a small prize for everyone - regardless if they met with their partners - that would be great!
**OR, you could have the pairs meet up in their OWN time and take a pic together. therefore, if one of them can shows up at the market, they can show you the pic & they still get something**
3. i think that the vibe of the event was pretty chill. however, i think that matching seniors with freshmen was a little unfair to both parties - as maturity rates differ a lot and it can get awkward. sticking to matches between 2-year-difference grade levels would be good (ex: junior + fresh = ✔, but no senior + fresh)
4. the form was pretty lengthy which may have been a turnoff for some people. i think that because a majority of the questions were short/long-answer, it seemed like a lot of work (when it really wasn't). if you aren't planning on taking all the answers into consideration, then decreasing the # of questions by 5-7 would be good. even having more multiple-choice/select boxes questions would be great!!
5. WOWZA one more question left!!! i think promoting valentine's club market by tieing these two events together was very smart on your part (go clink!!!) and many people wanted to get free donuts so they showed up (leading them to spend MORE money mwahahaha). though i also think that having distribution at lunch would be better for matchomatics because more pairs could meet together and get their prize. as this was the first year val club market happened, the situation was a bit different because promotion had to be hardcore and very extensive. maybe for next year, you could stick to distributing donuts during school times/directly after school.
i really want to thank you guys for being such amazing people to work with and being so flexible and kind. thank you so much for sending all the information early and being communicative.
sorry for such a long blogger haha
love you all ♥♥
- shreya
hi clink!
ReplyDeleteI didn't really experience matchomatics first hand but I did volunteer several days for signups. in the future just make sure facility requests are set since I think there was a bit of confusion with the lunar new year event and vertigo's bittergrams happening at the same time. there was even a day were signups were supposed to be happening but there was no table at all. also, maybe try to limit the volunteer signups a little - some days had way too many people and you don't exactly need 4 people running a table for signups with QR codes/laptops.
- gio
Hi clink!!
ReplyDeleteSomethings I've noticed when volunteering at the table for signups.
- whenever someone starts filling out the form and they realize how long it is they don't even bother signing up. Definitely cut the length of the form as that discourages many students to sign up.
- There was lunar new year event going on at the same time so maybe think about events that are going on in advance before booking facilities.
- Lastly having the form out in the quad for the entire week might not be as necessary. I think keeping it out in the quad for the first few days when the form was released might be good, but towards the end of the week most students that want to sign up might've already and even if they want to, the ASB instagram and possibly schoology has the link to it.
Finally I think distributing it at valentines club market is a great idea to increase the attendance for the event, however since it is an after school event students might be busy and it'll be hard to make it to that. It would still be ideal to distribute it during lunch but I really like the idea of having them claim their donut at club market. Other than that, awesome job!!
~stuollalalalalala
hi clink!
ReplyDeletematch-o-matics was great! for more creative promo, some ideas off the top of my head would include commissioners promoting in other classes as well as more qr codes on flyers/board around the school. i think extra donuts should be given away, but should definitely be prioritized for matches (or if the matches can't come together, maybe have some kind of verification metric like showing a pic instead?). not sure how the matching works (whether y'all can see the names alongside the responses) but if u can match anonymously that might(?) take away some of the intimidation? and for the form multiple choice + and option for "other" if ppl wanna be specific is probably the ideal way to go. for distribution... why not both? maybe have a spreadsheet with all of the matches and check them off after they claim their donuts at lunch or at the market. really good event, guys! i personally loved my match this year and i think this is a good event especially for students feeling that loneliness/ostracization during the valentine's season.
-ed
Hi Clink!
ReplyDeleteGood job with Match-O-Matic's this year! I think it is a really good idea to have people who signed up but didn't have a match get donut's, just cause it may be unfair to people who really wanted to participate but didn't have their match accompany them. There was one person I met who had just that happen to them and was really sad they couldn't participate. Plus, it helps to resolve the donut surplus we had lol. I do think it was a little bit of a long form and thus we should probably aim to cut out some questions in the future, especially if we want 100% retention on the form.
~peter
hi clink!
ReplyDeleteI always love match-o-matics, I think it's a really cute event and of course people always appreciate the donuts. I think it was nice to have the donuts at the valentine's club market because it definitely helps promote the event more and gives people an incentive to come, but I think there is also the possibility of people not being able to make it whether it's sports/time conflicts, and since it involves two people one person might not get their donut because of their match, so I think it might be nice to offer some alternate day time so it's a little more fiar for them. I definitely think in order to foster friendship it might be nice to have some activities/games throughout the week that maybe involve like a bingo or stamp card to encourage the matches to have more interaction and become friends! Other than that, great job!
- katie
hi clunk!
ReplyDeletematch-o-matics was super duper fun this year, great job!
here's my feedback:
-making dates & commitments more clear. on the match-o-matics graphic & early in the signup form, it should be made clear WHEN the donuts will be passed out (so if ppl KNOW they can't make the date, they won't sign up...) // also making it clear or adding onto the instagram post caption as to what pairs can they when they realize 1 person can't make it to the valentines club market
-additionally, to make this event feel more centered around actually making friends, having the pairs come in for cute lunch activities to bond together would've been great. free food could've been passed out at EACH of these events so pairs are AWARDED every time they meet. ex/ cookie decorating together, free popcorn while watching a movie, etc...
-the length of the form was definitely a turn off. additionally, telling each pair WHY exactly they were paired would've been great (especially after answering all those questions..)
YAY!
-maple
hey clink!!
ReplyDeletematch o matics looked super fun and from the looks it seemed to be pretty successful. i think that it probably would have been smarter to distribute donuts during school hours (whether thats lunch or brunch) just in case some students wouldn't be able to make it out to valentines club market. as for promo, i honestly think the social media attention given was pretty good and that we could maybe consider making an announcement in the morning announcements. but as always, clink didn't disappoint with the promo video LOL. great work on match o matics!!
-Colin
hi clink!
ReplyDeleteGood job on the amazing event! I think promo could've started a bit earlier, or the form out for a longer amount of time, but overall it was good. For the second question, I think the donuts should have only been given to those with a partner, as it creates a bigger incentive to show up to the event with your partner. As someone who filled out the form, I think some of the questions were a bit of a turn off (as terrible as it sounds it required people to think --> people don't want to fill it out). A lot of people had sports practices after school, so I think the donuts should have been passed out during lunch.
GOOD JOB!
-ali
Hi clink!!!
ReplyDeleteAmazing job with match-o-matics :))) Here are just some things about this event--
1) I don't think you should give away donuts if their match isn't here unless it's near the end of the event and there are still many events left, as it kind of defeats the purpose of matching with a friend
2) The form was a bit long in length (I heard some people asking why it was so long). Maybe you guys can try keeping the length but making it optional? We did that for matching CSF buddies and people definitely still responded to most of the questions.
3) I think having the donuts during club market was a smart move because it also encouraged people to go to the event. However it made it difficult because some partners couldn't make the event and it was difficult to communicate. So personally i think having donuts during lunch would be a better move, and we can have a different event to promote club market.
OVERALL AMAZING JOB!!! very proud of our clink :)
<3 stephanie
Hey clink
ReplyDeletegreat job with the event, I rea;lly enjoyed eating my donut and helping out with chloe. However, I think its better to put the event at lunch if you goal is to reach more students. putting it at the night market to attract more people to show up and spend money in my opinion was not the move because firstly it killed match o matics (not enough show up) and the people who came for match o matics got the donut and left. The length of the form was especially unnecessary if it wont be taken in account for to the pairings. In the future, if the goal is to help students form connections, then the form would be necessary because you will be matching up the sign ups up with ppl with similar interests. However, if not, I think the point of the event isn't compelling enough to continue it. A donut isn't enough to justify all the work. Every ASB event has a vision to somehow make the student body experience better and giving free dounts doesn't really make sense because that isnt our job to feed the student population. Its our job to use the donuts to motivate them to make new friends so I think the vision for matchomatics needs to be reconsidered.
-hao
hey clink! great job w/ match-o-matics :)) in regard to your discussion points:
ReplyDelete1) i do think that you guys should give the donut even if they don't show up w/ a match. i know a couple of friends who had matches that couldn't go, were sick, etc. i think match-o-matics gives people the opportunity to meet more people. however, because there's so many different circumstances, it's easier to just hand everyone who signed up a donut.
2) the length of the form was a bit of a turnoff. i think to make it easier, it would be good the increase multiple choice questions and decrease free response questions. or, the form could just be made shorter in general.
3) i think donuts should be passed out during lunch because everyone's after school schedule is so different. however, you guys could pass it out during lunch and valentines club market for those who can't make it to one of the two.
otherwise, great job clink!
- nina
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehii clink! amazing job w match-o-matics! such a cute event. a cute way to promo the event is perhaps asking choir to do one of their valentines related performances in the quad and including match-o-matics in their lyrics. it's specified that people only get donuts if they come w their match so sticking with that seems fair. distributing during lunch seems smarter but the line will definitely be longer so that's something to consider.
ReplyDelete<3 anika
Hey Clink!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the event! One thing I would heavily suggest is to make the form shorter. I worked 2-3 days for the event and a lot of students complained about how long and specific the form was. I would suggest either making options to make it less long and also creating more broad questions that make it easy for students to fill out.
-Seren
Hey Clink!!
ReplyDeleteHere are my thoughts on the discussion prompts:
To promote Match-O-Matics, you could try creating a video that explains how the event works and features students who have participated in the past. You could also try partnering with other school clubs or organizations to help promote the event to a wider audience. Additionally, you could create more eye-catching posters or flyers to hang around the school.
It might be a good idea to give away donuts to everyone who signed up, even if they didn't have a match. This could encourage more students to participate in the event, and they might still have the opportunity to meet new people at the donut distribution.
To make signing up for a friend less intimidating, you could emphasize that the purpose of the event is to make new friends and meet new people, rather than to find a romantic partner. You could also try to make the form more lighthearted and fun, with questions that are easy to answer and don't require too much personal information.
The length of the form might have been a turn-off for some students, especially if they were rushing to get to their next class. Consider shortening the form or making it more streamlined so that it doesn't take too much time to fill out.
It might be a good idea to distribute the donuts during lunchtime, as this is when most students are on campus and able to pick up their donut. You could also consider having the donut distribution in a more central location, such as the quad or the cafeteria, to make it easier for students to find.
Overall, it sounds like a great event and I hope these suggestions are helpful!
Claire
hi clink!!
ReplyDeleteamazing job on match-o-matics!!! this event is always so much fun because everyone's able to meet new people and make friends. i think its definitely a good idea to give out donuts to everyone who signed up since a lot of the time there may be unpredicted circumstances. i think the length of the form was a big turnoff since it was pretty specific and many did complain about it. donuts being distributed at lunch is a good idea since most people will definitely be there at lunch or you can even have two pick up times available one after school and one during lunch just in case people have clubs or other events. overall match-o-matics was a really successful event and i can't wait for it next year!!
-carrie
Hey Clink! Great job with matchomatics! I think it's a really fun idea and has a lot of potential that can also be expanded on in the coming years. I had two main problems with the event, the first being the usage of the form. Matching people up using similarities in the list is a great idea, but i feel like it was vastly underutilized. I think something as simple as just telling people which choices matched up so that they could have something to talk about it. I understand this would take a little extra time, but without it it just dissuades people from filling out such a long form for such little reward. Another thing is incentivizing interaction, since even though I was already friends with my matchomatics pair up, we only talked the day we got the email to decide when to meet up to get the donuts and the actual day of the donuts. It would be nice if we had to do some activities together as well in order to build more friendship. Otherwise I think it went fine, looking forward to next year!
ReplyDelete-zayan
hi clink!
ReplyDeletegreat job with match-o-matics! i love the purpose of this event and i think you guys did a great job carrying it out. regarding the donuts, i think passing it out at the valentines club market is a good idea, since people won't miss out on too much if they dont get a donut, meanwhile, an increased market attendance would help out clubs a lot. i also think its okay for people to get donuts without their match, but it shouldn't be advertised as such, otherwise people wont have a reason to talk to their matches. overall, great job clink!
-emma
Awesome job on the event! I've got one major suggestion that I think would really help. Let's make the form shorter, like significantly shorter. I've heard a lot of students complaining about how lengthy and detailed it was. let's provide options to make it less time-consuming, and create broader questions that are easy for students to fill out. This way, we can streamline the process and make it more user-friendly.
ReplyDeletethanks, sagar
hi clinkies :D
ReplyDeleteto weigh in on some of your discussion points:
- more scripted skits similar to the bachelorette for winter formal could bring match-o-matics promo to the next level! you might consider a range of contestants for this skit, where most are friend pairs but one becomes a romantic pair for extra spice!
- i think you could solve the extra donut problem next year by just ordering less donuts instead of giving them away for free, which discredits those who actually earned their donut by meeting up with their pair.
- the length of the form could definitely be a deterrent to signing up, unfortunately. maybe you could have less required questions and pose the other longer ones as optional, so they can choose to make their match more or less similar depending on how much effort they put into their form.
super adorable event clink :,)
kyrsten
Hey Clink!!
ReplyDeleteI would recommend making match-o-matics a more animated event! Similar to the WF dress up promo, ASB can wear more red or pink on a certain day and pass out flyers during homeroom. Also, I think the matching process can be simpler with a shorter form and some online algorithm. There's bound to be something on the internet!
Thanks for a great Match-O-Matics!
Best,
Esha
hi clink-
ReplyDeleteMatchomatics is an event that sort of confuses me every year, as I feel like it is difficult to generate participation based on the nature of the event. Even though this year it was emphasized as being a platonic pairing, the fact that it is pairing students together around valentines day could come off as awkward and scare off participants. If the purpose of the event is to allow students with like interests to meet each other, maybe the event could be altered so that the forms lead to a list of clubs that the student may be interested in or an activity after school where students with similar interests participate and interact.
Hey Clink!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on Match-O-Matics :) I know it takes a lot of time haha! I think that in order to emphasize the friend part of match-o-matics, you should host this event in the beginning of the year as like a "find a buddy for the year" typa event. This way you can also have link crew help you promote it to their freshman or even make it one of their activities! As for the donuts, I think that everyone who did it should get a donut, but since match-o-matics is sort of a down low event, we can bring it to the surface by having the partners play some sort of game with the winner winning a prize!
- Sophia <3
Hello Community Link,
ReplyDeleteAmazing job with the event. Personally, I wasn’t able to experience it, but I had a lot of friends participate in the event. Listed below are the answers to a few of the prompts:
You could creatively promote Match-O-Matics by perhaps filming some reels or tiktoks of your own for promotion.
I would recommend perhaps changing the name so that people will not get the wrong idea about the event. This could help with promotion as it will perhaps free up the themes for the promotions as well as what types of promotion can be done.
I think that for events like these, perhaps having a shorter form would be better or just easier for people. However, typically, if you have opened up the form you’re planning on doing it regardless.
I think making the event more of a lower and upper classmen meet and greet kind of situation would be good as well. Perhaps making people have different tasks that they have to do and screenshot in order to get the donut would work as well.
Lastly, I believe that it would be best to have it distributed at lunch as it is much easier to distribute and that is the norm that people expect.
- Ivan
HEY CLINK!
ReplyDeleteGreat job with Match-o-matics this year. I think I have mentioned this in the outro, but I think it'll be cool to incorporate this event into a series of games the pair can participate in throughout the week (maybe a collab event with spirit). I have seen this all of my years, but I feel like everyone just meets up with their partner only for the donuts. We need to look into kind of forcing their interactions LOL. And for the donuts, I think the problem will go away next year as more people will come to Valentines Club Market as it becomes more established into Lynbrook Culture. Great job as always guys
-satvik