One of the best ways to launch the organization on campus is to hold an AIDemocracy event such as a mini-conference, videoconference, or documentary screening. To learn how to host one of these events, just check out the specific toolkits available under each program theme on the web-site at http://www.aidemocracy.org/programs.htm.
While you can see our organizers’ toolkits online for all of the information on how to plan your event, there are four special tips you should be sure to follow at your launch event:
A. Advertise AIDemocracy and the Event Itself
There are many different ways to advertise for an event on campus and posting fliers is the most common and useful way! You can find posters for your specific event in our organizers’ toolkit online. In addition to posters about the event, you also want to have posters about Americans for Informed Democracy, advertising that this is the launch event for the group on campus. Just tailor the launch event poster on the next page (and also available at www.aidemocracy.org/chapter/launchposter.doc). Plastering your campus with hundreds of our free launch posters is a great way to get word out about an upcoming event. Also, here are some of the best practices for fliering around your campus:
- Don’t waste time with bulletin boards! Fliers on bulletin boards will be covered in a matter of days, if not hours. Put your fliers someplace they’ll get noticed.
- Do flier in unorthodox places. Bathrooms, tables, the ground, building entrances, lounges, etc. are the best places to put your fliers. If it’s a strange place to put a flier—it’s probably a good one!
- Don’t flier too far in advance. Your fliers will probably just get ripped down or covered.
- Do flier with all your energy the afternoon before and the morning of your event.
- Don’t hesitate to e-mail groups or departments that seem unrelated. Reach out to new groups—Greek houses, campus ministries and random departments—to engage more people in global issues.
- Do stand at the entrance to your campus’s busiest dining hall or student center at lunchtime. Spend just half an hour handing out quarter sheets at the entrance and reach hundreds of students.
- Don’t forget to put fliers in the community. Use tables or bulletin boards at local shops and cafes.
- Do choose two large lectures to make announcements at on the day of your event. Show up ten minutes early to ask the professor if you can make a 30 second announcement before class.
- DO MAIL MERGE! Consult our guide online.
B. Be Inclusive
The launch event is not only a chance to launch AIDemocracy to your campus community, it is also an opportunity to further strengthen the interest and participation of the students serving on your Steering Committee. For this reason, make sure to include as many Steering Committee members in the event in a meaningful fashion as possible. One way to do this is to have multiple Steering Committee members speak at the event. For example, you could give the introduction to AIDemocracy using these opening remarks (see www.aidemocracy.org/download/SampleOpeningRemarks.doc) and then if you’re having a mini-conference event with three speakers, you could have three Steering Committee members come up, each say why they’re excited about AIDemocracy on campus and then each introduce one of the speakers. The goal of this is to make everyone on the Steering Committee feel included – and, at the same time, this helps to make AIDemocracy feel broader and more inclusive to your audience.
A second way to showcase your Steering Committee members is to ask them to sit toward the front of the room and have them stand during your introductions to be recognized. When they stand, you can tell the audience “If you have questions about AIDemocracy, here are the leaders of our new chapter! You can ask any of us for more information.”
C. Keep a Focus on AIDemocracy’s Mission
Throughout your launch event try to pause briefly to consider how the event relates to AIDemocracy’s mission. For example, if you’re holding a mini-conference, after the presentations and before the questions, you might thank the speakers and then say “there are a number of points made by the speakers that really resonated with me and that I think really help to explain why we’re starting this organization on campus. So many of today’s challenges cross borders and we really need the U.S. to take a collaborative leadership role in envisioning global institutions to deal with these challenges.”
Another way to help re-affirm the importance of AIDemocracy’s mission is to ask your speakers to speak to the importance of AIDemocracy’s mission. In the toolkits, there are confirmation e-mails that you will use to confirm the participation of speakers at your particular event. We suggest you add a paragraph just before the last paragraph of the confirmation e-mail which says the following:
“I also wanted to let you know that this event is the official launch event for the Americans for Informed Democracy (AIDemocracy) at INSERT UNIVERSITY. AIDemocracy at INSERT UNIVERSITY is a non-partisan, student-led organization that seeks to bring the world home to the next generation of leaders. We are planning to host mini-conferences, global videoconferences, documentary screenings, and more—all to get Americans talking about our country’s role in our increasingly interconnected world. We believe that the United States is at a historic moment in its role in the world. Global poverty, climate change, HIV/AIDS, terrorism, and other global issues cross borders and require global solutions. We are a group of young leaders who want to ensure that the U.S. uses this historic moment in its role in the world to work collaboratively with other countries to address these compelling and urgent global issues. We hope that you can address the importance of collaborative U.S. global leadership (and perhaps even of AIDemocracy’s mission) as part of your comments.”
D. Invite Students to the First Organizational Meeting with Elections
Your launch event is now building momentum for the new group on campus and you want to be sure to transform this momentum as quickly as possible into an organized leadership for the chapter on campus. The best way to do this is to have an organizational meeting shortly after your launch event that you can announce at the event. It is ideal to hold elections at this meeting
E. Get E-mails at the Event and Follow Up Quickly
To follow up we’ll send you sign in sheets and clipboards – be sure to pass these around during the actual event to get students in attendance to sign up! Throughout the event, encourage students to sign up at the list. By the end, you should have a decent number of people on your e-mail list. As soon as possible after your event, send a follow up e-mail titled something fun and friendly like “Bring It!
