MoveOn Council Organizing Meeting Guide and Agenda

Organizing meetings are a great way to make your Council stronger and to plan your upcoming strategy and tactics. They're also a great time to get new folks involved in the Council.

Here's a short guide on how to organize a great gathering, and a standard agenda for organizing meetings. You can find all the updated materials you need for your organizing meetings on our one-stop-shop, available through your Council page: http://www.moveon.org/team.

Getting ready

Get your Council core involved: Organizing meetings are relatively easy to plan. But the best way to get everyone involved is to share responsibility, such as hosting, recruitment, and agenda prep. Pick a date, time, and place, and register your meeting online at http://www.moveon.org/event/meeting.

Invite your Council: The most important thing you need to do to get ready for your gathering is to invite the folks on your Council. Since these gatherings are for council and new members, there aren't centralized recruitment emails for them— so recruitment is up to you. Here are the two things you need to do to recruit your council and potential new council members:

• Send an email: You can easily send an email to your entire Council through your Council tools page. Just click here, check the "Email your entire Council" box, and write your note in the box below.

• Get on the phone: Emails aren't enough to get people out to events—even fun ones like this. Ask Council Core members to all help make phone calls. One easy approach is to assign 10 numbers—about a half hour of calling—to each person on your Council Core. If you're not going to be able to call through your entire Council, you should put a special emphasis on any new folks who joined during the last action or two. These gatherings are a great way to get them more involved in the Council.

Get ready to facilitate the meeting: It's always useful to remind yourself of what makes for a strong meeting. Below are some additional guidelines for what makes for a successful meeting. If you are new to facilitating meetings, click here to access our Facilitation Training.

Send attendees the materials they need: Check with your Regional Coordinator or Organizer to access the materials you'll need for your monthly gathering.

Remind folks the day before: A reminder email and quick phone call go a long way. So the day before your event, go to your host page (if you can't find or forgot the link, click here to get it again) and contact all the folks who signed up online—and don't forget to do the same for anyone who said they'd come but didn't RSVP online.

Agenda

Here's a suggested agenda for the MoveOn Council Organizing Meeting. The goal is to get your Council together, continue to build your organizing and strategic skills, debrief your last MoveOn Council event and start planning the next steps in your campaign.

A strong meeting can have a few different components (not necessarily all of them every time):

• Welcome and check-in
• Review recent campaign work and debrief recent actions
• Discuss strategy and plan next tactics
• Discuss how to strengthen your council and core
• Trainings

Here is a detailed sample agenda for an hour and a half-long meeting. It's up to the facilitator and core group to plan the most effective agenda for each meeting.

Welcome and go-round (8 min)

Thanks so much for coming to our council Organizing Meeting. We have these meetings about a week after each council action, and they're a great time to celebrate, reflect/debrief, and think ahead about the exciting organizing we have ahead of us.

Since there is quite a bit for us to cover on the agenda, and we definitely want to have time to socialize at the end, I'll be helping to facilitate this conversation so that we have enough time to cover all these topics.

* Give a quick overview of the goals for the meeting, briefly review the agenda and ask for note-taker and time-keeper. (1 min)
* Quickly re-cap your council's recent organizing work. (2 min)

If you have extra time, and you are meeting in person, do a "pair 'n share" (i.e. break into pairs) between newer and more experienced council members. Ask the pairs to share what brought you out.

* Go Around: What was your favorite thing about your most recent action? What was one moment where you felt like you were making an impact? (5 min)

Review current campaign work + debrief most recent action (15 min)

Note to facilitator: Remember to keep celebrating!

Review national results from current campaign (5 min)

• You can use the national email reportbacks that you received to share anecdotes and our national results for our actions
• Check with your Regional Coordinator or Field Organizer for specific updates

Debrief local action (10 min)

This is a chance for your council to discuss and evaluate your most recent action. Here are some suggested discussion questions:

• What went well with the recent action? What led to our success in organizing a successful event?
• What was especially challenging? How did we overcome each challenge?
• What could have been better? How could we have organized together more effectively?
• As a council, how did we get stronger (more core members? new leaders trained in new skills? did we move up in the council rating system?) This month, how can we continue to strengthen our council and build a stronger core group?
• How can we ensure that we have full participation in the council? Are there any barriers to council members full participation?
• How did working with local coalition partners go, if we did for this action? How can we continue to build local power?

Planning Your Next Action (30 min)

Check the one-stop-shop for the current organizing story and upcoming tactical plan.

Note to facilitator: There are two goals for this conversation:

• Council members think strategically about our goals and what will move our campaign forward
• Council members decide on and begin to plan the next tactic and/ or action

Goals and Strategy (10 min.)

Note to facilitator: If your council has never done a power-mapping exercise for your target, it's a good idea to take extra time in this section and power-map your target. Click here for our power-mapping training. (coming soon)

Review the current national organizing strategy and story, and discuss national and local goals and strategy.

• What is our national goal? (For example, passing a strong clean energy bill or winning health care reform).
• What is our local goal? (For example, we will organize to make sure that Senator X votes for the strong clean energy bill).
• What is our strategy? (For example, we will organize small businesses and health care professionals to meet with our senator to show them the community support for the health care legislation that we're trying to win).

Tactics (15 min.)

Note to facilitator: This is a great opportunity to allow everyone to share gut reactions to the plan. It is important to acknowledge the excitement, challenges and questions and arise but don't get stuck here. There is a lot to plan so make sure you move to the next agenda item.

Review the next steps in the tactical plan: either organizing nationally coordinated tactics, or tactics that your council will organize at the local level.

Update, Brainstorm & Discussion of Tactic: (8 min.)

If there is a plan for the next nationally coordinated tactic, share the updated plan at the beginning of this section. Here's some general background on the MoveOn approach to tactics, and general ideas if you're brainstorming your own tactic).

MoveOn councils have a great deal of experience in organizing powerful public actions. Some of our actions are coordinated nationally, so that we build national power and momentum as a network at critical moments in our campaigns. Some of our tactics are locally driven. In either case, it's crucial that we think strategically about our tactics, so that they earn local media and impact our target, and our community.

It's critical that actions are public and have as a goal to earn local media coverage-- that's the best way to influence our elected representations and our communities. From strong supporters to strong opponents, all senators need to feel pressure from their constituents right now to stand up for progressive change, or stand down and be known as an opponent to reform. Coverage in the local media and direct advocacy on all of our targets are key components of all of our actions. Public events are also the best way to give all MoveOn members a chance to participate in our community.

Good examples of actions to organize include birddogging events, rallies or marches, vigils, flyering, and canvassing, as well as less public actions like district meetings and letter to the editor parties. There are materials to help you organize all of these types of actions on the health care one-stop shop: http://www.moveon.org/healthcareorganizing. (The direct links for some of these materials are also at the bottom of this organizing story).

Discuss the upcoming tactic, and brainstorm how this tactic can be most strategic:

• What tactics have been most effective for us in the past?
• What kind of public tactic do we think would bring out the most MoveOn members in our community?
• What will have the biggest impact on our target?

Planning: Nuts and Bolts: (7 min.)

Note to facilitator: each tactic will require a slightly different discussion, but here are some standard questions to help your planning. It's useful to check in with your Regional Coordinator or Field Organizer to help think about the specific planning that you'll need to do for each tactic.

• What is the date, time and place for our action?
• Who can post it online?
• How can we coordinate with nearby councils? (if applicable)
  What did we learn from our recent actions that might apply to this event?
• Where in our community will our action be most effective? Can we find out if our target is planning to be in our community anytime in the next few weeks?
• What can we do to make our tactic most likely to earn local media?
• What can we do to make our tactic most likely to recruit other MoveOn members?

Making our Council Stronger through Roles - 5 min

It's useful to talk about what roles will be needed for your upcoming tactic, and what roles you already have filled. Go through the roles that your council will need filled, and ask for volunteers. Some of these may be standing roles within your core group, while some of them will be specific to this particular tactic. (For more information about regular council roles, click here: Council Roles)

Some suggested roles are:

• Recruitment Coordinator: Coordinate a team of 2-3 people who contact members before the event, recruits new members at the event and follows-up with new members after the event. (This should be a standing role on your council).
• Media Coordinator: Coordinate a team of 2-3 people who build and maintains a local media list, contacts reporters a few days before & the morning of the event and looks for reporters at the event. (This should be a standing role on your council).
• Speaker Coordinator: Coordinate a team of 2-3 people who brainstorm a list of speakers, reaches out these potential speakers and prepares them to speak before the event.
• Visuals Coordinator: Coordinate a team of 2-3 people who brainstorm creatives visuals for the event, creates the visuals and coordinates the visuals at the event.
• Greeters prepped to work the sign-in sheets, keep the count for the media, invite new members to join the council
• Crowd Coordinators
• If necessary, Security/Police liaison to act as point person for permitting, law enforcement communication and instructions.
  

Council- Building Discussion and Trainings: (30 minutes)

Each council will have to be strategic about what council-building and trainings will be most useful for your council at this meeting. Here are some suggestions to help you plan your agenda.

Council building and Strengthening

Here are some discussion questions for your council to think about:

• How can you build your council core?
• What roles does your council need to fill? (Click here to see all council roles and job descriptions)
• What trainings would help to strengthen your council?

Trainings

Trainings are a crucial part of developing your organizing skills. Your council or training coordinator can plan a series of trainings at your organizing meetings, and work with your Regional Coordinator or Field Organizer to prep to lead these trainings at your meeting.

Click here to access the MoveOn Council Training homepage: http://www.moveon.org/team/training , and make a plan with your council core for what trainings will most benefit your council at your next organizing meeting.

• Who will post our event online at http://pol.moveon.org/event/standforhealthcare? This will help us to do phone recruitment, and as long as it is a public and target-focused event, an email will go out to MoveOn members in our area two days before our event.
• Ask all coordinators to pick a 30-minute time in the next three days to meet in person or hop on a conference call to coordinate your work.
• Set a time and date for the next council-wide check-in call or meeting (no later than three days before the actions).
• And, set a date, time and place for our next organizing meetings. Who can host, and register the next meeting online?

Closing:

• Go around: ask everyone to re-state what they committed to during the meeting, and their next steps.
• Thank everyone for being part of the meeting, and conclude!
• Eat and socialize. Community-building is an essential part of a strong council!

After the gathering

• Register your next organizing meeting online: http://www.moveon.org/event/meeting
• Add or change council roles on your council page: http://www.moveon.org/team

More Guidelines for how to run Organizing Meetings

(click here for our more detailed Facilitation Training if you're going to be running the meeting)

Room set-up:

• Food should not be set up behind the speaker to reduce distractions. The door into the room should also not be behind the speaker.
• Take notes on a large sheet of butcher block paper. Post the paper on the wall. Keep visuals up on a wall during a meeting.
• Sometimes, you will have to settle for a room that may have some weird quirks. If you do, make the best of them. If there is a obstruction in the room set up use it as a symbol.
• Whenever possible, arrange sheets in a circle so people will be facing each other.
• Make sure everyone signs in on a sheet. You need to keep track of those who come to the meetings for follow up.
  

Groundrules:

When people come together from different cultures, backgrounds and organizing experiences it is important to have groundrules. Groundrules are agreed upon ways to operate during a meeting. These should be listed in a visible spot, explained and agreed upon. The facilitator can then facilitate under these groundrules. Here are some good ones:

• Clarity : the what and why
• Shared airtime: everyone gets a chance to speak
• Respectful listening : don't be one of the people who is thinking of what they are going to say next while other people are talking.
• Humor/ Informality: encourages creative approaches
• Openness Bias : listen particularly well to those you don't understand. This will help you think outside the box. Don't worry about the things you already know about and do well; these are habits and come back easily!
  

These can be changed or added to depending on the goals from a meeting.

You can imagine it is a lot easier to interrupt someone who is talking a lot by saying: "We agreed to shared airtime as a rule for the meeting, so we need you to wrap up what you are saying and allow others to speak." Or if someone is taking too long to say what they mean, a good facilitator can say, "We agreed that you can just say what you mean. Get to the point."

A few other important tips:

• Non verbal/ vibes are behavior. You can comment on them. If someone looks confused, ask if they have any questions.
• Build in time to eat together. This will help build trust.
• Set the tone early for participation by doing a group introduction or feedback by going around the group so everyone gets a chance to talk one at a time.
• When more than one person has hands up to say something, take a quick list, say it, so people can then put their hands down.
• If the group tends to go off task, have a very structured agendas. Have specific times for topics.
• An agenda can be created with 15-20% unstructured time. There will be time at the end to tie up loose ends.
  

Ways to lead a brainstorm:

• Ask group to shut eyes and reflect on brainstorm question. Each person writes down two ideas on a note card.
• The facilitator asks each person to say one of their ideas and it gets recorded on a flip chart. Once they are all recorded, ask someone in the group who did not say it to advocate for it. Then ask for straw votes to prioritize, without voting for your own idea.
• Put the priorities onto another list.
  

After the meeting, you will have great success if your members are:

• Clear about and committed to organizing
• Feel appreciated about how their time was used and how their brains were used
• Learned something
• Agreed to take some next steps
• Fell accepted, respected and safe
• Increase trust in local MoveOn council
• Clear about next two events or check-ins
• Reach a substantive focus
• Participants are being engaged around self-interest