Ahhhh….’tis the season!  Now is the time of year when I send an email, I am instantly met by an onslaught of “away” messages.  To be fair, I never thought much about away messages until a particular message caught my attention.  While I can’t remember exactly what it said, it was something along the lines of…

“Thank you for your email.  As you might guess, summer is a busy time for X County 4-H!  Currently our 4-H’ers are cooking s’mores at camp, creating projects for the Fair, and serving their communities through a variety of service projects…”The auto-response then of course continued to give the usual information.

Now, I’m not suggesting your next away message crafted such that it reads as the first chapter of the Great American Novel.  I’m also not suggesting that a clever away message is going to transform your programs.  However, I would suggest you think of it as another opportunity for marketing and sharing the “4-H story” of your county.  Further reading and examples can be found at:  http://wepropelle.com/creating-attention-getting-away-message/