Your first meeting
From SecularPortal
Your first meeting is probably the most important meeting you'll ever give - but no pressure or anything ;). Actually initial meetings are great for getting people interested but it's not the be all and end all and you can generally repeat them at the start of each semester or term (and certainly at the start of each academic year) to get more interest.
Your first meeting is a chance for people interested in your society to find out what the society is about and whether they should get involved or not. Therefore you need to make it look exciting and something that is really worth their while turning up to (and handing over cash to join!).
Contents |
Meeting content
The main points you want to cover in your first meeting are...
- What the society is about
- Who you are
- What events you have planned
The presentation doesn't want to be too long as you don't want people to get bored. You probably want to allow about 20 minutes of talking and then open it up to questions. It looks good to have questions, particularly if you have good ones, so pre-plant some friends in the audience with a few questions.
What the society is about
Here you want to talk about the aims and objectives of the society. What does the society stand for? Who is the society aimed at? What will the society focus its resources on? Generally you want to keep these answers wide - the society is aimed at everyone, the aims are to represent everyone and your focus will be on everything - members, socials, awareness, campaigning, the whole gig. Be realistic about what you think you can achieve, but don't be afraid to be ambitious at the same time.
Who you are
Here you want to introduce yourself and your committee. Explain what each person does, what kind of issues they deal with and how to get in contact with them. Although email is an obvious choice, you may also want to set up a Facebook page or give out your phone number (at least at first!)
What events you have planned
Here is where you really get people excited. After all, the main reason for being part of a society is the events they run. Make sure you have plenty of events planned beforehand, even if it's just a rough plan ("We're planning to organise a trip to Alton Towers next year" is good enough if it's 6 months away).
Try and have an event planned very soon after the first meeting, to show people that membership of your society has immediate benefits. Pub socials are by far the easiest to organise in this way, requiring only some people, a bar and a point of debate or discussion.
After the meeting
People will hopefully want to sign up straight away so you need to make sure they can and importantly, take their money there and then if you are charging a membership fee. Have someone set up on a table with membership forms, a float and whatever you are giving out (such as membership cards or packs if you are doing such things) so people can sign up straight away.
To make sure it's memorable you should hold a social immediately after the meeting. This is so people can get to know each other and hopefully form friendships as well as hopefully having a memorable night.
You want to lose minimal people so hold it somewhere close - indeed, if you can afford some snacks and alcohol the best place to hold it is in the same room you held the meeting, so people don't even have to leave! However the union bar (if you're holding the meeting in your union) is also an excellent location. Somewhere everyone knows and is free to get in so people can come and go as they wish is generally the best place to hold it.
If the meeting turnout is very good, you may wish to add a little bit more interest by allowing the attendees to vote on where to head on to after the meeting. This is one to play by ear: if it's patently obvious that there isn't going to be a consensus then it's not worth doing for all the hassle it will cause!
