| Recruiting Members |
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This section of the organiser's guide explores some of the techniques for recruiting members by running a stall and challenges some of the ways we think about the people we call our members! Fresher’s Week and Community Events. If you want to recruit new members and engage people, then the best way is through running regular stalls on campus or in your local community. You do need to judge when is the best use of your time and resources to do this, so look out for major events in your community. On campus the rules are much clearer, you must engage with fresher's week and organise a few recruitment sessions for the first week of term. For student groups, fresher’s week is going to be the most important time of the year to go out and let people know your group exists and is one they should want to join. On campuses across the country, there is a huge flurry of activity around the time when students return to their studies or new students sign up. One aspect of these celebrations, involves the student societies and activity groups. Students join these groups to make friends, to pursue a passion and to try new things. A good campaign group will make sure that participation of their members is a chance to experience all of the above. The best chance you will get to talk to students who are interested in joining student societies is at your student union’s activities fayre. This is very often a hectic affair with hundreds of students passing through an cramped space with countless groups vying for their attention. You have to remember that for the first few weeks of university, many students get overloaded with information and bombarded with leaflets - for this reason it is absolutely essential that you make your group stand out and that you talk to people who pass your stall. Rate the Drugs! One of our more successful experiments in engaging people on our stalls has been with the Rate the Drugs game. This is a game designed by one of our members and is based on Professor Nutt's study ranking drugs according to relative harm. Passersby are encouraged to come over and rank drugs based on an index of relative harm. More often than not, passersby will get it wrong and this will give you a chance to explain to them the extent to which evidence is overlooked when determining drugs policy. Our groups which have used the game as a tool to increase interest have noticed marked levels in membership and participation. While you may understand the values of SSDP and the soundbites we use to promote interest, you have to remember there are many potential members who hold these values but may not understand the conversation that you are trying to have with them. Perhaps you can think of other innovative ways to engage people? If you come up with an idea that works then share it with us! To get a copy of Rate the Drugs contact the national organisation. Running a Stall Running a stall, whether during freshers’ week or some other time of the year is a very important way of letting people know you exist and talking to people about drug policy reform. It is usually cost effective and actually a very good way to brush up on your drug policy advocacy skills. If running a student group, it is definitely a good idea to run a few sessions throughout the day Get a table - Your student union may have tables available for student societies to borrow and set up around campus. If not, you could consider asking another student group to lend you a table. For ease of access, you may wish to purchase a pasting table from a local hardware store. These are foldable and easily portable tables that you can set up anywhere you are allowed to when you have permission to do so. Find a location - Ideally you want to set up your table at a location where there is a high flow of traffic. This could be outside or inside your student union building, near the canteen or even outside your local shopping centre. Always make sure you have permission to be where you are. Make it work - Your stall needs to automatically have the relevant information about your group. Do you have a visible banner? Do you have literature about the group to give out? Is a mailing list clearly visible? Is there anything else you want to give out? Perhaps you have the Rate the Drugs game set up - but have you thought about other sign posts or items that could get the attention of passers by. Above all make sure the stall is set up nicely, perhaps even consider bringing a table cloth. You should also consider having a visible donations column and donation’s jar. There’s no harm adding a few quid to it to get it going... Preach it - Don’t just stand there! Make people come to you. Talk to passersby. Sure you will get dirty looks, people will ignore you but some will stop and talk to you. If you get someone to sign up to the mailing list straight away then fantastic, but do not get put off by people who are against what you stand for. It is these individuals that it is most important you speak to, because this is when you actually start changing people’s minds. Get email addresses - This is the most important reason you should be running a stall. If you do not get email addresses, how do you expect to continue having a conversation with the people you have started to communicate with? Make sure people write out their email addresses clearly, although this is less of a problem if you have a laptop with a spreadsheet up so people can just type up their email addresses. The Pitch - Can you explain what SSDP is about in 15-20 seconds? If not, you best learn how to do so! You don’t need to give a history of SSDP or what we think the end goal of drug policy reform should look like exactly. Do not rant at or lecture people, open up the conversation with the pitch and then start asking them the questions or let them follow. Talking Points - Do you know how to articulate the arguments for drug policy reform concisely and passionately? Practice makes perfect - You should be trying to get as much practice running stalls as possible, it is not only a great way to promote your group but is very much one of the things you should be doing throughout the year as an activist. For some people it can be incredibly daunting at first, so you might want to consider a trial run at a meeting as an interesting fun activity for your newer members. Workshop:
n.b. Participants should have had the opportunity to practise their pitch for SSDP, some talking points and have had practise dealing with a number of different scenarios. |