National Outreach Meeting – October 17

Stand Up, Take Action

A Guide to Making the Most of Your Meeting

Table of Contents

1. Get Excited!

2. Support and Timeline

3. Brainstorming Your Guest List

4. Laser Talk for Inviting Folks

5. Other Helpful Social Networking Tools for Inviting

6. Sample Outreach Meeting Agenda with Script

7. Tips for Making Your Meeting Great

8. Follow Up!

9. Appendix

1. Get Excited!

On October 17 RESULTS chapters around the U.S. will be leading outreach meetings to bring in more activists and grow our groups. We've chosen October 17, International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on purpose. People around the globe will be taking action that day with Stand Up, Take Action. To do our part that day we can Stand Up with the rest of the world, but we will things a step further by asking people to make a commitment to eradicating poverty by being part of a RESULTS chapter.

Together, we can make October 17 a phenomenal, galvanizing day. This is our chance to spread the word about the national and global impact of our organization – the way we develop powerful relationships with our legislators, media, and community to get the end of poverty on the agenda and make real solutions a reality. Thanks for taking on this terrific and wonderful challenge.

People Are Looking for Us

Have you ever thought about how many people all around the country who are looking for a group like RESULTS? There is so much resignation and disillusionment about the difference a person can make in the face of heart–breaking and overwhelming poverty and hunger statistics. But we know that year after year, meeting after meeting, action after action . . . we are creating champions for the end of poverty.

In 2008 alone we accomplished . . .

  • Over 300 meetings with congressional offices
  • Over 330 educational community outreach events
  • Over 200 strategic media placements

And we contributed to the achievement of . . .

  • Authorization of $48 billion for AIDS, TB, and malaria with $4 billion of that for global TB
  • Moving the World Bank toward taking a larger role in microfinance
  • Increasing the number of low–income families who qualify for income tax refunds through the Child Tax Credit, benefiting 13 million children and their families in 2009
  • Inspiring over 100 members of Congress to co–sponsor the Education for All Act

. . . and so much more . . .

So pat yourself on the back and know that you have proof that we make a difference. This will help you invigorate your local RESULTS group and your community.

2. Support and Timeline

You will have a lot of support to create a successful outreach event like the following:

  • Prep Guide (You are reading it!)
  • RC training on group leader calls, and training calls open to all activists (see timeline) on telling your story, inviting, creating a powerful agenda
  • Poster and “Save the Date” e–mail that you can customize for your group
  • September Global Action Sheet on inviting people to your event
  • For global volunteers: Sept. 12 National Conference Call with guest speaker Heather Booth, founder of Midwest Academy, to give us tips on building our movement.
  • A vision to share with your guests and an action to take for the day of the event.
  • Draws to the event:
  • International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
  • Stand Up, Take Action (register your event so people can find you) and link to the international Stand Up —Take Action Event for your group
  • Dr. Paul Farmer from Partners in Health on brief conference call (or via video conference, if we can make it happen)
  • Training and support to make sure your group is ready to receive new activists.
  • Training series for new partners after the outreach event.

Timeline
Week / Ways to Prepare
September 7 /
  • Have you formed your inviting team yet? Listen to training call on forming your inviting team and setting targets.
  • Browse the Stand Up and Take Action Against Poverty website.

September 14 /
  • Get started on your fantastic agenda.
  • Keep working on your inviting. How many yesses? Nos? Maybes? (Try to eliminate those maybes!)
  • September 17: Training Call on Creating a Powerful Agenda and Logistics. Call in a 9 pm ET: (712) 432-3100, passcode: 761262. Listen to the call here.
  • Start securing a location.Needs: phone access with speaker, internet to stream web conference if we do that. DVD player to play Everyday Heroes.

September 21 /
  • Keep working on your inviting.
  • Check out the dedicated National Outreach Meeting page on the RESULTS website.

September 28 /
  • Start the home stretch on your inviting.
  • Start finalizing meeting agenda and logistics.
  • Make sure your event is registered with Stand Up and Take Action Against Poverty.
  • September 30 Training Call: Bringing in New Activists: What Will They Find When They Get Here? Call in a 9 pm ET: (712) 432-3100, passcode: 761262.

October 5 /
  • Finish up your inviting.
  • Prime your group to welcome new folks.

October 12 /
  • Make guest reminder calls – and then hold your event!

October 19 /
  • Turn in partner and donor forms. Follow up with your guests. Make sure all new partners are invited to your next gathering and know about New Activist Orientation.
  • Turn in your participant count to Stand Up and Take Action Against Poverty.

October 26, November 2, 9, 16 /
  • New Activist Orientation. It's a 4 sessions series to help get new activists' feet on the ground with Basics training, and gain experience taking action.

3. Creating Your Invitation List and Setting Goals

Now that you’ve begun dreaming about you exciting event, let’s get a head start on the inviting! Gather your inviting team and brainstorm your possible guest list.

Inviting Team: RESULTS partners and people in your community who care about RESULTS and would be willing to do some inviting to your event (letter writers, part time activists, community leaders, donors).

1. Work with your inviting team to answer several questions:

  • Who have I invited before that I should invite again? Note: there are many stories of RESULTS activists who finally got involved with RESULTS after hearing from people like us for months and years. Seeing your enthusiasm and continued involvement will eventually make a lot of people curious enough to want to come. People you've asked before are good candidates.
  • Who is in my life daily, weekly, monthly, annually that has never been invited to a meeting?
  • Who is involved in battling poverty directly in my local community and might want to be introduced to advocacy?
  • Who is “pre–qualified” to be invited in other ways (i.e., they are engaged in public health, promotion of civic engagement, education, faith communities, or economic opportunity through their work or hobbies)? See this tips on coalition building for ideas.
  • Complete the phrase, "Wouldn't it be great if ______from our community was involved in RESULTS?" Create an inviting strategy.
  • What would happen if I walked up and down my street inviting my neighbors?

2. Create a running list of people you could invite and keep adding to it.

3. Set some goals: How many new partners do you want? New donors?

  • Do some math:

If 1 in 5 people at a meeting join your group, and

1 in 2 people who commit to coming to the meeting actually show up, and

1 in 5 people you invite say they will come to the meeting, then

You need to invite 50 people to get one partner: 1/5 x 1/2 x 1/5 = 1/50 people.

  • Figure out how many people each person will invite.
  • Set a timeline so you check in regularly on your inviting.
  • Decide on other strategies such as inserting announcements in newspapers, putting up flyers, tabling, etc.

4. History has shown us that personal follow–up after an initial invitation and then in the form of an event reminder 24–48 hours before the event maximizes turnout.

4. Sample Laser Talk for Inviting

Take the laser talk draft below, make it your own, and invite someoneto your amazing event.

Hi, XXX! I am calling because I wanted to invite you to a great event I’m helping to plan here in _____. I think I’ve mentioned to you before that I am part of a group called RESULTS. RESULTS is a grassroots group focused on advocacy, and we’re organization of several hundred activists all over the country who work on ending hunger and the worst aspects of poverty. I really love it because we get to learn about the root causes of hunger and poverty but, more importantly, we get to learn about real, effective solutions. So we then talk to our members of Congress and build relationships with them and with the media, letting them know we’re committed to getting rid of hunger and poverty. I personally got involved in RESULTS in ______(date) because ______, and the reason I’ve chosen to stick with it is because it has allowed me to ______.

So on October 17th, RESULTS groups all over the country are hosting outreach events to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, and we’re really excited because, for a portion of the meeting, we’ll be on a live call with Paul Farmer who created Partners in Health. The event will be kind of like a RESULTS open house; we’re rolling out the welcome mat and inviting folks just to check us out. There’s no pressure or obligation; we’re just got an interesting agenda planned for the hour, and I’d love to have you there. Would you like to get the details?

5. Helpful Social Networking Tools for Inviting

While they don’t replace personal invitations, social networking sites can be good tools for widening your inviting “net” and promoting your event to the community. Try these on for size:

  • E–mail – Great for getting the initial invitation and details out to many people at once. Just be sure to blind copy everyone and do personal follow–up a few days after the e–mail is sent.
  • Facebook – This is multi–generational and is a fun way to create an event, post the details, and invite your Facebook “friends.” Don’t worry about this tool if you’re not already on Facebook-- chances are, someone in your group is. Create your page, create connections, connect to RESULTS.
  • Stand Up Day! – This website is where you can register your event and make sure the Stand Up and Take Action Against Poverty folks in your area can find your event and take part.
  • E–vite – This is a free service that lets you create a custom event and do excellent tracking of guests, event updates, and more. Like any online tool, however, it requires offline follow–up
  • Meet–Up – This is another service that allows you to promote an event and invite others to join, but it requires a) a maintenance fee to create a group, b) is more passive because people find your group on their own and c) anticipates that you will use the service on–goingly to manage an active group.
  • Check out blogs in your local newspaper, your local chapter of Organizing for America, and other sites for active people in your community.

6. Sample Outreach Meeting Goals and Agenda

The best way to stay excited about your event is to begin planning for the kind of event you yourself would want to attend. Paul Farmer, co–founder of Partners in Health. Dr. Farmer is an anthropologist, an author, and a Harvard–trained expert in infectious disease, he and received the 2003 Heinz Award for the Human Condition. He will join us by conference call and can be a centerpiece for your meeting. Think now about where you want to embed the Paul Farmer call in your agenda.

Now is the time to be creative and dream about how you will round out your event. Below is a basic suggested outline for your outreach meeting. Make it your own. A fuller agenda, including scripts, is attached in the appendix.

Goals of Your Event

  1. Bring x partners into the group (you decide).
  2. To inspire the people attending about the difference they can make with RESULTS.
  3. To give attendees insight into what their journey might look like by sharing the story of your journey.
  4. Give attendees and opportunity to take action (learn laser talk, write letter, Stand Up).
  5. Make a powerful request to the people in the room to join the group as a partner and/or become a RESULTS donor.

Sample Agenda (Suggest 2 to 2.5 hours)

  1. Welcome
  2. Inspiring Story, Reading, or DVD (“Focusing Activity”) and Group Introductions
  3. The Basics of RESULTS, perhaps showing Everyday Heroes and/or telling activist stories
  4. Discussion of Political Will—How RESULTS helps you exercise your personal power.
  5. Paul Farmer as guest speaker.
  6. Issues/Action Component—We will be provide a laser talk and action sheet.
  7. Big ideas, big change, big commitment. Invitation to Become Involved as a Partner and a Donor.
  8. Close and Thanks

Note:

  • Remember to find the perfect spot (20–25 minutes) for the Paul Farmer call or videoconference (we are working on the video conference part)!
  • The sample script that will be made available is longer than you will likely have for your meeting, so you will have to tailor it for your purposes.

7. Tips for Maximizing Your Outreach Meeting

Below are top tips to guide your creativity as you fill out your meeting agenda and look to the big day.

Logistics & Timing

Make sure there is a point person for the arranging of your logistics (location, locking/unlocking of facility, tech needs, building signage) and publicity (any additional advertising you are choosing to do above and beyond your targeted inviting)

  • Be sure to register your event at Stand Up, Take Action, and have a camera handy to take a picture of your event to upload to their website.
  • Assign hospitality to someone – food and drink helps make everyone feel welcome!
  • Know when folks have to leave: poll group at start of outreach event to ask if anyone has to leave before meeting end time.
  • Give yourself enough time: don’t start your “ask” at the meeting end time — give yourself at least 10 minutes
  • Have plenty of partner and donor forms on hand. Allow time (3–5 min) to walk through the forms so folks clear about how to fill out
  • Have copies of the Basics training to hand out. We can send you CDs or you can ask folks to find it on the web. Contact Cynthia Stancil () for copies.
  • Sam Daley–Harris’ book Reclaiming our Democracy offers lots of inspiration. Get your copy by calling the RESULTS office in DC at (202) 783–7100.

Messages

  • Be clear and enthusiastic. What is RESULTS up to? Transformation and creating champions! We’re offering people the chance to help end hunger and the worst aspects of poverty. We’re up to big things, including generating political will. We’re everyday people exercising their citizenship so that Congress can do nothing but act to help make change! Invigorate the room with that thought.
  • Be up front at start of your meeting that the purpose is to get a certain number of new activists and a certain number of donors. Be clear that no commitment is being required, but everyone who would like to be a partner is very welcome.
  • The effectiveness of repetition: tell folks what activists do (a.k.a. “partner agreements”) several times before the “ask” to participate. When talking about how we work during the meeting, emphasize the key role activists and donors play.
  • Weave a personal story to underscore how powerful RESULTS is and what their participation could mean for the end of poverty.
  • Strong, relevant quote with known sources, read with momentum – by the host or by guests – can be powerful additions to your agenda.
  • When talking about donations, be clear about how money is stewarded, that it takes approximately $1200 per year to support a group, and yet don’t uncomfortably overemphasize donations.
  • Challenge the group: you may want to do what Sam Daley–Harris often does, which is to make it a group activity by asking some questions: “How many are excited to sign up tonight to be activists?” “How many are nervous but checking that activist box anyway?” “How many are signing up tonight to be monthly sponsors?”
  • Make the most of it: celebrate the new folks and have clear next steps for those interested in getting involved. (Have next meeting scheduled or give enough time to do so before people leave that event.)
  • Follow up!

8. Follow Up!

Follow up is key—if you don't follow, you have wasted the effort of organizing the event.

  • Prepare your group to have new partners. What "job descriptions" do you have open? Are you meeting regularly (at least twice each month)? How will you make new people feel welcome?
  • Every attendee and co–host deserves a thank you.
  • Make sure your new partners and donors have given you their forms so that you can get them to the DC office and have been invited to your next meeting as well.
  • See that new folks have been placed on your group’s roster so they can stay in the loop, and let them know they are invited to the next New Activist Orientation series that will begin October 26. (People can contact Lisa Marchal at or 317.529.5182 to sign up.)
  • Register your meeting’s attendance at Stand Up and Take Action Against Poverty.

9. Appendix

Sample Agenda with Scripts: See on website page with October 17 Resources.

Participation & Donor form: See on website page with October 17 Resources.