Brief:
How can we attract more younger members?
Tom Wright and Carla Doran
Are young people really not interested in campaigning? Or do young people prefer something that at the minute we are not offering? While some groups are able to provide a home for activists of all ages, some groups find it very hard to attract younger people and keep them interested in the group.
Come and explore the issue of why we find this difficult as a network, share experiences and develop ideas on how to attract a younger dynamic to your group and find a new generation of activists. Whether you’re young, old or somewhere in the middle be prepared to critical examine your own group and ask tough questions about your own approaches to campaigning and young people.
Workshop and Discussion (Everyone )
How can we attract more younger members?
Aims
- Explore the issue of why local groups can find it difficult to attract and retain younger members.
- Share experiences with other group members from around the network to find out what works and what doesn’t.
- Critically examine the workings of your own and its current approaches to campaigning and young people.
- Develop an action plan to take back to your group focussing on it can best attract a younger dynamic.
Session / Timings / Length
Intro / 17.00-17.05 / 5
Roleplay / 17.05-17.15 / 10
Agenda/Aims/Groundrules / 17.15-17.20 / 5
Discussion / 17.20-17.30 / 10
Interviews / 17.30-17.40 / 10
Discussion / 17.40-18.10 / 30
Action plans / 18.10-18.25 / 15
Evaluation / 18.25-18.30 / 5
Timing / Content / Equipment/materials
17.00-17.05 / Short intro to hand out role play details and prepare / Role descriptions with timings
Name tags
17.05-17.15 / Role play: group meeting of Anytown Friends of the Earth.
The workshop begins with a role-play focussing on the positives and negatives of a young person arriving at a Friends of the Earth group meeting.
Each participant will be assigned a role when they walk in the door.
See separate outline.
17.15-17.20 / Introductions:
Go round - who we are and what we’re hoping to get from this workshop
Planned workshop outcomes and agenda
Groundrules: stick to time in exercises, phones off, build on each others ideas, all voices heard / Flip chart with agenda, objectives and groundrules
17.20-17.30 / Discussion
Reflections on role play.
Prompt questions if needed
- What issues did it highlight?
- Did you see anything of your own group in it?
- How could the group have welcomed new members better?
17.30-17.40 / Interviews: Brief clips (audio or video) giving individuals thoughts on what it means to be a young campaigner. / AV equipment
17.40-18.10 / Discussion:
Full group
Develop ideas on how to attract a younger dynamic to your group and find a new generation of activists
- Who to contact
- Where to find them
- How to approach them
- What to do with them
Flipcharts
18.10-18.25 / Action planning:
Small group work/pairs using worksheet.
Using the findings from the previous discussion session to develop an action plan to take back to your group from this workshop.
Tools:
Action:
Plans:
Timeline:
How to engage rest of group
Sources of support / Worksheet (side 2)
18.25-18.30 / Evaluation:
Ask participants to add thoughts to post-it notes and stick them on a prepared flip chart.
Possibly ask for contributions from the floor.
Use a few spectrum lines to make it lively and fun / Post its on flipchrt
How can we attract more younger members?
Roleplay session
This is ten minute role play session designed to look at how groups can improve the way they attract and engage younger activists. The session needs to be led by at least two facilitators who will take on specific roles.
Each participant needs a name tag for their role showing their age.
Anytown Friends of the Earth Group meeting
Agenda
Review of minutes from last meeting
Campaign update from coordinator
Treasurer’s update
Stall update from stall team
Plans for food chain day of action – how can we attract more people to take part?
AOB
Ends
Roles
Coordinator (59): has been coordinating the group for 20 years and like to control pretty much every aspect of campaigning. See’s themselves as the front man/woman for the organisation. Doesn’t like young people coming into the group as he/she thinks they don’t know anything about campaigning. Thinks that the group have done everything they can to attract young people and thinks the issue is outside of the group.
catch phrase – “the thing is, the youth of today just aren’t interested in serious campaigning”
Treasurer(42): Has been with the group for 5 years, has a teenage son who is keen on environmental issues. He/she is keen to help promote the group in son’s school and is considering joining the Youth and Education network.
Catch phrase “it’s all about getting younger people along to meetings”
Media officer (29): has been with the group for a year and is keen to promote the group more using social media and the internet. Has suggested that the group get a Facebook account and update the group website but ideas have not been welcomed by others in the group.
Catch phrase “we really need to access the “facebook generation”
Group member (55): Has been with the group five years and generally backs the coordinator in group discussions. Has no children and views teenagers with a certain degree of distrust.
Has recently participated with a stall in the local shopping centre.
Catch phrase “hmmm…. I’m not so sure that will work”
Group member (40):Has been with the group five years and despite thinking the group could do better at attracting younger people, generally backs the coordinator in group discussions. Has recently been shown how Twitter works by her children and is curious about social media.
Group member: enjoys coming along to friends of the earth as they meet like minded people at them meetings. Never attends other events, stalls or actions. Would like to give stalls a try, but doesn’t feel part of that part of the group and feels in inadequately experienced in “serious campaigning”
Group member: enjoys coming to the meetings, but wishes there was more time to discuss general environmental concerns. Has just brought a new eco-kettle and really wants to tell everyone to get one. Will do so at any opportunity.
Catch phrase “did I tell you about my new eco-kettle it’s the best thing since sliced bread”
Newish group member (35): Has been attending local group meetings for about 6 months. At crucial make or break point, is really interested in getting involved and feels very passionate about taking environmental action, but feels like they are not “doing” anything. might leave if things don’t improve soon. Feels that some members of the group don’t think they are capable of engaging with campaigns. Really keen allotment gardener has great links to allotment association and would love to get the group doing something more hands on to support their campaigning. Nobody has asked whether they are involved in anything other than friends of the earth, so nobody knows.
Catch phrase “I’ll give it ago, unless you need a more experienced member…?”
New member 22: (3rd meeting) just finished uni and has joined Friends of the Earth after being involved with People Planet at uni. Has loads of creative ideas about actions, socials and meetings. Persevering with the group, but doesn’t feel like they are having much ‘fun’ wants to plan a event, or social evening, but doesn’t know how to go about it.
Catch phrase “at people and planet….”
New group member (18): 1st meeting found out about the group through his/her school friend who’s parent is the treasurer. Is passionate about the environment and has run a successful campaign at school to install recycling bins in classrooms. Really wants to learn more about FoE and gain experience for CV.
New group member (24): Found out about the group after enquiring at head office. Recently moved to the area. Used to be media officer in another group and is keen to get involved more. people know that you were involved before, but nobody has asked about your experience.
Catch phrase: “In my old group”
Group members: various ages. The rest of the group can be of varying ages. Generally they tend not to object to the coordinator but do want to see the group become better at working with younger activists.
Discussion
Thanks guys, you can assume your normal character again now. I hope that wasn’t too painful. The idea of that session was to give the chance to think objectively about how it might feel for new local group members coming to a meeting. especially for the younger ones. I wonder if it highlighted anything to you.
-Go round and read out your role
okay if we go round and read out who we were supposed to be and think about how the group situation made us feel? You can make observations about own “character” or another character in the group.
I hope you didn’t see too many similarities in that meeting, but I am sure you did see just how difficult it is to get everything into a short meeting and it demonstrated how issues with attracting new members are often the same issues that everyone in the group feels.
prompts
-What could have been done to make things work better?
-Were there any links in the group that could have been made use of?
-Were there any members with similar interests?
Evaluation – spectrum line
-Did you think the role play was useful?
-Did you think the interviews were useful?
-How likely are you to go away and use your action plan
-Do you feel like you’ve learnt lots a little, or nothing from this session
Flips
What could FoE provide that would make it easier to attract younger members?
How can we attract more younger members?
The Who, Where, How and What part of the workshop: ideas from participants
Who to contact
Sixth form students
College/university leavers
People who were involved in people and planet at university
Teachers
Unemployed young people
Other organisations for young people – Scouts, Girl Guides, Woodcraft Folk
The unusual suspects – look at communities that aren’t the usual Friends of the Earth supporter. (Ask your Network Developer for the workshop on this that can help give ideas)
Graduates looking to develop skills
Young working professionals
Other green groups
Where to find them
Universities
Colleges
Sixth forms – scope to take a lead in promoting sustainability in schools
People and planet
Youth clubs
Sports clubs
Local radio stations
Community schemes (e.g. young offenders, YTS, vocational colleges)
Scouts/Girl guides/Woodcraft Folk
Schools – join the Youth and Education network
Your existing contacts – friends and family
Festivals
Organise social events e.g. at pub
Use other sources e.g. music, fashion, media and get them involved in a project
Young mums
Parent and baby groups
How to approach them
Advertise online – NDs can help, use your website,
Use social networking: Facebook/Bebo/Twitter/myspace
Try chat forums
Use your group’s website – make it engaging for everyone – add content
Email lists
During street stalls – make posters and flyers, engaging sign up sheets
Give examples of things younger members have worked on
Don’t bombard them with information – they may not be interested in a planning app.
Point to the future – their generation will feel the effects of climate change more than we will
Try and recruit more than one person at once so they don’t feel alone
Focus on activities and issues that young people find attractive
Don’t scaremonger or lecture - show them why getting involved can be FUN!
Youth and education network – engage them through schools work
Through trade unions
What to do with them
Respond to emails quickly
Call people back if they give you a number
Welcome them to group meetings – make space each month for new people at the beginning of the meeting.
Get creative if they turn up mid meeting – stop what you’re doing and talk to them
Give them a role in the group – e.g. media officer, membership secretary, stalls coordinator
Get them to take on a coordinating role to
- attract more young members
- make links with other groups/associations
Deal with a packed agenda that makes welcoming new people hard:
- Impose time limits for agenda items and stick to them
- outsource some of the content to other meetings e.g. campaign committee
Creative tasks – banners, flags, scrapbook of group history
Fun activities
Flash mobs
Fancy dress
Street theatre
Demos/Protests/Marches – e.g. climate camp - get their input to help coordinate attendance
Letter writing
Film nights/Social events
Offer a variety of social activities e.g. group outing, cycle tour, visit a windfarm
Use a questionnaire to find out what interests and skills they have (talk to your Network Developer if you’d like to see some existing examples)
Develop their skills – planning applications
Get them to do something that they can add to their CV to show experience
Updating your website – plenty of scope for projects involving
- photo/video/blogging/journalism-media
- involve a school to take on a project e.g. website design
Ask them what they’d like to do and try and prioritise their ideas
Ask them what skills they’d like to learn and see if you can help.
Give them time on the agenda to update the group as often as possible
Follow up after the meeting – find out what went well, what you could have done better. Maybe you can be better next time…
Make it fun!
WEAKNESSESSTRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
Your plan from here:
Who to contact
Where to find them
How to approach them
What to do with them
How are you going to get the rest of the group interested?
Where could you turn to for support?