War Savings Programs for Schools at War: Tested Plays, Program Ideas, a Handbook of Dramatic Material
A 95-page handbook, in its second edition, from the Education Section of the U.S. Treasury's War Finance Division, for teachers and students staging events that sell War Stamps and Bonds.
What it is
A 95-page handbook, in its second edition, from the Education Section of the U.S. Treasury's War Finance Division, for teachers and students staging events that sell War Stamps and Bonds. It opens with a line from Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. and sets three tests for a good program: it moves its audience, it reaches the largest audience it can, and it lets people buy on the spot. It names three appeals, patriotism, winning the war and the peace, and self-interest, with 3 dollars returned as 4 at maturity. Mechanics include a Stamp as the price of admission, War Bond premieres with seats placed by bond size, and a scripted exit appeal after the final applause. Then come lists of government and commercial plays, advice on writing your own scripts, and six tested plays, among them Message from Bataan, Something Really Super and Vacation: Limited.
Why read it now
The handbook is a field manual for turning an audience's feeling into a purchase before it fades, and most of its mechanics still work. Sell at the peak: the scripted exit appeal comes right after the last applause, and the show is timed for stamp day, just before sales open. Close the gap between wanting and doing: a booth by the door, students with order forms in the aisles, a stamp as the ticket. Use people the audience knows, not distant heroes, as Professor Savage advises. Research agrees on timing; Gollwitzer's work on implementation intentions shows that intentions left without a set when and where often go unacted. What has dated is the pressure. A show of hands in a hall of neighbors, and children cast as the sales force, turn persuasion into social compulsion, which today reads as manipulation, above all when aimed at minors. Use: at a live event, webinar or charity night, put the offer and the booking link or booth within reach in the last two minutes, while the room is still warm.
Passages worth keeping
A successful War Savings program is one which moves its audience.
مقياس نجاح الفعالية أن تحرك مشاعر الحضور، لا أن تسليهم أو تعلّمهم فقط.
Another good plan is to present the program on the day of sale, and just before Stamps are to be sold.
اجعل العرض في يوم البيع نفسه وقبله مباشرة، حتى يجد الحماس فرصة للشراء قبل أن يخفت.
Admission is free, but each listener must buy a Stamp or Bond.
الدخول مجاني في الظاهر، لكن ثمنه شراء طابع أو سند يبقى ملكًا للمشتري، فيتحول الحضور نفسه إلى عملية بيع.
Everyone wants to be Uncle Sam's partner, and not his competitor.
من يشتري السندات يصبح شريكًا للدولة، ومن ينفق ويرفع الأسعار يصبح منافسًا لها. صياغة تجعل الادخار انتماءً لا حرمانًا.
The important thing is that you think of the problem of writing a script as the problem of convincing people you know to buy Stamps and Bonds.
اكتب النص وأنت تفكر في إقناع أناس تعرفهم بأسمائهم، لا جمهور مجهول، فهذا يجعل الكلام قريبًا وصادقًا.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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