Tag: meeting ideas

Planning a neighborhood meeting? You need this Planner!

Our neighborhood emergency group has traditionally taken a break during the summer.  Last year, because of COVID, we were forced to. This year, after practically a whole year of break, we are ready to get back together. So, we’ve pulled out our Meeting Planner for help!

Building a neighborhood emergency group just won’t happen without a strong and consistent plan for regular meetings.  If you agree with this principle, you might want to hold one meeting just to plan a year’s full campaign! Give people a calendar and block out appropriate meetings based on time of year, local events, holidays, etc.

In the meanwhile, though, here are key steps we’ve found to be essential for a good meeting. The image above gives you an idea of how to start your planning.

Step 1: What’s the purpose for this particular meeting?

How many of us have gone to “regular monthly meetings” with that sinking feeling that this one will be just a repeat of last month’s meeting?  Before you even begin your meeting planning, ask some questions like these:

• What do we want to accomplish at this meeting?
• Could we accomplish it a different way – like with an email survey, or a written report?
• Who needs to be at this meeting?  Everybody, or just team leaders? Or maybe it’s for possible recruits? Or potential donors?
• Given the purpose, then what KIND of meeting will be best? For example, a simple social get-together? An expert as guest speaker? A series of talks or show-and-tells by members?
• What will be our measure of success?

Once you establish the purpose and the format, you can move to step two.

Step 2: What’s the best venue for this particular meeting?

Some of us will have little choice about where to hold a neighborhood meeting. Still, maybe it should be outside instead of in your usual meeting room? Or maybe at a member’s home?  Horror of all horrors – maybe this meeting could be accomplished with a Zoom call?

Wherever, you’ll need to consider:

• Size of the meeting place
• Table and chairs and how to set them up to meet your purposes
• Screen, electric hook-up for computers, projectors,  etc.
• Parking
• Location of fire alarms, extinguishers, etc.

Step 3: The challenging part. How to get people to our meeting?

If you did your homework on Step One, you know WHY you’re meeting. This means you can tell potential attendees just how they will benefit by coming!

The more reminders, the better. Use email to your list. If appropriate, post on Facebook and Nextdoor. Encourage your speaker to promote the meeting. Distribute and tack up flyers. If this meeting has public service interest, send out a press release.  Repeat!

Good advertising takes copywriting and design skills. Who can do this for your group? Maybe you can get the help of a kind professional?

Step 4: The show is on! What “extras” will help it be a success?

Here are a few things we’ve used over and over again because they work, over and over again!  Use whatever works for YOUR group.

• Refreshments.
• A meeting agenda with specific end time.
• Sign in and Name tags.
• Door prizes. (Our favorite “emergency preparedness supplies” door prize has been — wait for it – a can of sardines with mustard packet!  It turns out a lot of people really hate sardines, with or without mustard. So, we get a lot of laughs!)

Want more details?

If you’d like to download a full-sized pdf of the Meeting Planner (full size and readable, without the big red labels!), of course at no cost, grab it here . . .

And if you’re really serious about planning meetings, make a $10 investment in yourself and get our BEST SELLER!

Let me know if you have questions or suggestions for the NEXT volume of ideas. We’ll always need more!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. Having a team sharing the responsibility for meetings can make the job a lot easier. Consider getting a couple of copies of Emergency Preparedness Meeting Ideas so volunteers can be working on more than one upcoming meeting at the same time. (Having a meeting “on the shelf” is a great idea, too.)

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UPDATED SEPTEMBER 9, 2018.

Yes, it’s fun to pull together survival kits for yourself and family members. For some of us, getting more and better survival gear turns out to be a sort of addiction! (A healthy addiction, we believe.) And creating family plans is satisfying, even though they require constant updating.

But once your immediate household is organized, what then?

When the emergency hits, are your neighbors going to be knocking on your door, looking for help?

They may. And you may not want or be able to help them.

The only way to solve this problem is to encourage neighbors and co-workers to be as prepared as you are!

We have devoted a lot of our time over the past 15 years to helping our neighbors get prepared, trained and organized.  If you’ve been reading our Advisories, you know about some of what we’ve done.

Now we’re adding one more piece to the puzzle.

Building a Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness Team — getting more attention.

About 3 years ago, we started a whole new section on building a neighborhood group. Here’s how we started that section:

1. Step One was to pull together all our original material on team-building that we’ve created for Emergency Plan Guide readers. That list starts at the bottom of this post.
2. Step Two was to reach out to other organizations around the U.S. for their best ideas. In fact, many of our blog posts already link to others’ stories and skills, and we’ve added more and more.
3. Step Three was to solicit specific input for Emergency Plan Guide readers. We continue to do this, and you can help by referring us to people or sources you know, or by suggesting a topic you’d like to know more about. We’ll track down and share the best info we can find!

Let’s start with resources for those people who have already made the commitment to starting or building a neighborhood group.

We assume that as the leader, you will have found a way to get formal CERT training for yourself.  Not all members of your team may get training, but you need the framework and vocabulary of CERT so that your group can work effectively together and with local first responder teams.

So to start with Step One for building a neighborhood emergency preparedness team . . .

. . .here is a list of some original material from the Emergency Plan Guide collection. Most of this is ready for download as is, with the first couple of handbooks available for purchase.  We hope you’ll find what you need for YOUR group!

Comprehensive training manuals

• The Neighborhood Disaster Survival Series — our 4 books aimed at building groups in different kinds of neighborhoods. Each book is over 100 pages filled with specific steps and suggestions based on 15 years of growing our own group.  The books are at Amazon, in ebook (downloadable) or paperback.
• Meeting Ideas — A collection of meeting ideas, with a list of what you’ll need, how best to schedule the activities, what to watch out for, etc. $10 at Amazon. Get more details by clicking the link.

Stand-alone subjects for training or discussion

• UPDATED! How to Recruit Volunteers — We just updated this list. Download your copy now!
• How to Hold a Great Meeting — Event-planning basics that you’re probably familiar with, but that can help others on your team get up to speed. Since we started our own group, we’ve been able to provide a great overhead projection and sound system for our guest speakers.  That helps, as long as you have some skilled audio-visual people on hand!
• Finding Leaders — Every member of your team needs to be able to step up to lead. After all, when the emergency hits, you can’t be sure who will be on hand.
• Active Shooter Event — Worth a discussion, particularly given recent developments here and abroad.
• For more, just click on NEIGHBORHOOD in the category listing in the sidebar to the right.

Possible group investments

• Walkie-Talkies for Group Communications — We use our hand-held radios (walkie-talkies) every month and for many non-emergency events.
• Community Cache of Supplies — Read about our group’s decision in this regard.
• Financing Serious Emergency Equipment — These are items that take some real cash and consideration.

More to come! (Be sure to sign up to get our Advisories so you don’t miss anything!)

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

P.S. Step Two for Building a Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness Team is to reach out to other organizations. Just last week you saw the results of some of our outreach when we wrote about the Lamorinda California CERT team’s upcoming meeting. Please share what YOUR group is doing!