Time and date
- Think about the sort of people you want at your meeting and when they might be available – working people might prefer after hours meetings on weeknights, while stay-at-home parents with young children might prefer during the week, especially if they can bring the kids!
- Check carefully to make sure the date you’ve chosen doesn’t coincide with things like school and public holidays, or major events in the area.
Venue
- Try to find somewhere that will comfortably hold the group you’re expecting – too small and people will feel awkward, too large and it’ll feel like no-one is interested.
- Think about transport - will people who prefer to walk or take public transport be able to get there easily?
- Ask around to find somewhere free – local hotels and restaurants with function rooms will often host community groups for free, especially if there’s a chance the attendees might buy food or drinks. Also consider neighbourhood houses, community centres, local sporting clubs, school and church halls and council meeting rooms.
- Check that there will be enough chairs for everyone you expect to attend.
- Make sure you get the address of the venue exactly right, so people can find you easily.
- Always, always make a booking and check the booking the day before the meeting.
Refreshments
- Decide whether you’re going to provide light refreshments (which will also mean organising things like cups, plates and cutlery), if the venue serves refreshments, or whether you could ask people to bring a plate.
Let everyone know
- Email, phone or write to everyone who’s contacted you to let them know that the first meeting has been scheduled.
- Ask people to RSVP – this will make it much easier to organise everything from the refreshments to the agenda.
- Invite people who can’t attend but would like to be involved to send through an email or letter, outlining what they see as they key issues.
Publicise the meeting
- If you have the time and the resources, it could be worth publicising the first meeting. A second round of information might catch people who missed the message the first time, or convince people who were in two minds about getting in touch.
- As well as the ideas covered in finding other people you could:
- Ask if local real estate agents would be willing to sponsor a board promoting the meeting (you will need permission from your local council if this is going to go up in a public space).
- Contact the local media to see if they’re interested in promoting the meeting (see working with media).
- Put a notice in the community noticeboard section of your local newspaper.
Rope in some friends
- As well as helping you stay calm, getting a bit of help will make that first meeting run much more smoothly.
- Ask friends to act as greeters as people arrive, collect contact details from attendees, and act as ‘scribes’ or minute-takers while you run the meeting.
Set an agenda
- Even if you want to run an informal meeting, it’s worth thinking about what you want to cover, so you’ve got plenty of material ready in case you end up with a room full of introverts. That’s unlikely, but having an agenda can still help you get off to a good start.
- There is more detail in the section on your first meeting, as well as some sample agendas in the resources section, but as a starting point:
- Remember to introduce yourself, talk about what’s prompted you to bring people together, and what you hope to achieve.
- Invite people to introduce themselves and indicate why they want to be involved. (Obviously, this won’t be possible if you fill your local town hall at the first meeting.)
- Have a brief session where people nominate what issues particularly interest them – and remember to write them down and keep them! This could be done in small groups if lots of people come to the meeting.
- Ask people to share their ideas about whether forming a group is a good idea, and discuss how the group might run – although it might be a bit early to nominate a committee yet.
- Discuss some of the research you’ve already done, and see whether people think that more research is needed to scope the issues. Other research might involve (for example) short surveys of people in the street, watching busy intersections to observe traffic and pedestrian behaviour, or conducting walking audits along more routes.
- Make sure you allow time at the end of the meeting to decide what you’ll do next. It could be organising another meeting, doing some research, or circulating a letter or petition for people to sign.
Stuff to get
- Make sure you have stick-on labels or name tags, and plenty of pens for them.
- Check that you’ve got butcher’s paper and markers, or other paper for taking notes.
- Have multiple copies of the agenda so you can hand it out to people as they arrive.
