PLANNING AN EVENT

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PLANNING AN EVENT

• Tips on planning events that will be remembered
  and move things FORWARD!

October 3, 2006
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Context

• According to NASA chief climate scientist James
  Hansen, we have less than 10 years to halt and
  reverse our pollution to prevent catastrophic
  climate change.
• Global Warming IS the challenge of our
  generation but not everyone knows that.

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Context (contd)

• In the US, college campuses only consume about
  5-6 of our electricity. So even if every campus
  in the country went climate-neutral tomorrow, it
  still wouldnt be enough to stop global warming!
• Thats why in addition to passing policies, we
  need to educate everyone we can about this issue
  and what they can do to help.
• Events are a great way to do this!

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Why Plan Events?

• Educate your fellow students (and yourself)
• Spread the word about your campaign
• Recruit more volunteers
• Build your organization
• Work with other groups and individuals
• Media opportunities
• Action opportunities
• Create a buzz on campus
• Have a good time!

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Different Strokes for Different Folks

• Big events vs. small events
• Quick events vs. events that take months of
  planning
• Education vs. fun (and everything in between)
• Targeting the whole campus or just a small portion

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Brainstorm Types of Events

• State summit
• Green fair
• Concert
• Green film festival
• Clean car show priuses, etc
• Enviro speaker
• Movie night
• Climate kegger
• Kegs not coal
• Wandering bear
• Dorm energy contest
• Boxing match
• Dance-off between wind turbine and coal
• Duel between smokestack and windmill
• Screening of old capt. Planet episodes
• Show the waterline with kayaks

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PLANNING AN EVENT

• A big event requires a lot of advance planning.
  Some events, like a screening of An Inconvenient
  Truth or a big campaign kick-off, might take
  weeks or months to plan.
• Other events only take 1 day to plan, like
  tabling, petitioning, and visibility. It depends.

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PLANNING AN EVENT

• Either way
• Set concrete goals ( of people there,
  signatures collected, media hits, etc.)
• Work backwards from those goals
• if you want 25 people at your event, how many
  names do you need?
• If you want music at your event, what do you need
  to get it there?
• For small events create a checklist
• For big events create a work plan (well go over
  this in a later slide)

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7 Steps To Organizing an Event
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1. Plan Out the Logistics

• Start planning early (especially for big events)
• Set the date
• Find a location
• If necessary, line up food, supplies, etc.
• Reserve any necessary equipment (eg. microphone,
  and speakers)
• Make visuals
• Tips Make a logistics checklist
• Confirm everything

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2. Build a Coalition

• The more you can involve other groups in your
  events, the better! They bring
• Credibility
• Resources
• People
• Time
• Diversity
• How-to
• Create a target list of coalition groups
• Contact all targeted groups to ask them to
  sponsor/sign them up for some level of
  involvement (endorsing the event, helping to
  publicize it, providing volunteers, etc.)

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3. Find Speakers

• Depending on your event, you might want to invite
  an on-campus or off-campus person to speak. If
  you do
• Research and prepare a list of potential
  speakers.
• Invite them.
• Some speakers (eg. some legislators) will ask you
  to send them a letter requesting their
  attendance. In that case, send them the letter,
  then call one week later to follow up.
• Make sure that all presenters are familiar with
  the topics, the format for the event, how much
  time they will have to speak, etc. well in
  advance of the event itself.
• Tip Designate a point-person to take care of,
  inform, and guide your speaker(s)

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4. Visibility

• Visibility is helpful for two reasons
• 1. Advertising your event beforehand
• 2. Getting the word out afterwards

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4. Visibility (contd)

• Tips
• - Get the media to cover your event (campus,
  local)
• Ask them to do an announcement before the event
• Ask them to cover the event when it happens.
• Hang posters around campus.
• Chalk the campus sidewalks.
• Hand out flyers.
• Make announcements in related classes (even
  better if professors agree to give extra credit
  to students who attend!)
• Email, Facebook groups, etc.

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5. Ensure Turnout

• In addition to visibility, there are other more
  active tactics you should use to ensure turnout
• Go to other groups meetings and invite them
  (campus groups, Greek houses, etc.)
• Ask coalition groups to recruit their own members
• Hold tabling events for sign-ups and visibility
• Phone-bank everyone who expressed interest AND
  everyone on your volunteer list
• Remind all volunteers who said theyd help with a
  phone call the night before

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6. Actually Hold the Event

• Be early! Get there in advance to set up
  chairs, equipment, hang banners and signs, clean,
  etc.
• Greet presenters as they arrive have
  volunteers assigned to take care of them
• Set an agenda with times for the event and stick
  to it
• Have a volunteer coordinator who can plug in
  volunteers as they arrive
• Make sure that EVERYONE (including you) puts down
  their information (phone, email) on a sign-up
  sheet
• Have a great time!

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7. Follow Up Afterwards

• Follow up with the media to confirm coverage.
• Send thank you letters to presenter(s).
• Debrief with leaders.
• Check in with coalition partners.
• Celebrate!

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Sample Event Save the Ales Week

• Background - Major climatic shifts and dry
  summers will hinder the harvest of hops and
  barley (key ingredients for beer brewing) in the
  US.
• Idea Host a party and speaker as part of Save
  the Ales week on campus to highlight this great
  injustice, draw in a new constituency, and have a
  great time.
• Example at http//www.findarticles.com/p/articles/
  mi_m3469/is_47_52/ai_80757908

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Save the Ales Party - Goals

• Primary Goals - Present global warming as a
  problem everyone should be concerned about.
• Secondary goals
• Recruit 200 new people to your list (50 at talk,
  150 at party)
• Build 5 new coalition partners (fraternities,
  sororities, etc.)
• Engage 25 people into planning
• 4 media hits
• Use the ales draw to bring 50 people to a
  keynote address on global warming impacts (and
  solutions) and use to recruit

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Potential coalition partners

• NORML marijuana legalization
• Lobbying on enviro groups
• Mtn justice summer
• Assoc energy engineers
• Hillel
• Irish club
• Minority student groups EJ issue
• Political groups political not moral
• Religious groups
• greeks

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What Events Have You Done? How did they go?
(What was the goal, who was invited, how many
people came, how did you get them there, etc.)

• JMU earth club live green benefit bands
  250 people split - raised for projects
• Windmill and smokestack fighting each other
• Signatures on a scroll
• I heart voting cards
• Pomona 1000 pinwheels with info about wind
  power

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What Events Are You Planning to Do?

• If you havent yet, we suggest you plan 1 big
  event and 1 small event for the month of October
• Do it in the dark halloween
• State summit ME students come to coll of
  atlantic
• Kickoff event costume competition, concert
• Questions
• How get people to more wonky events?
• Extra credit
• Tabling
• Ideas for speakers
• Local student leaders
• People on campus faculty, other students
• Local officials, politicians, etc
• Networking!

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Thank you for coming! Have fun at your events!
We cant wait to hear about them!
Stay in Touch!

• Please send all feedback the good, the bad, the
  interesting to jon_at_ssc.org
• Especially feedback related to these questions
  Do you think the registration form is a barrier
  for some people (i.e. they dont get on the call
  because of the form?) Are there other things
  that may be preventing more people from joining
  the calls?
• Feel free to contact us, too!
• Maura Cowley, SSC Northeast Organizer,
  maura_at_ssc.org
• Mary Nicol, Student PIRGs, mary_at_studentpirgs.org