How To Keep Members Involved All Year

1. Have a fantastic Fresher's Fair

This is the key day to get people enthused about your group early in the year.

• Promote your stall - put up posters all over the campus and make a banner
• Get a great spot for your stall - right in front of main door or near a club which is giving out free beer, lollies, pens, etc
• Include information about your own group's activities and information on Amnesty in general
• Be on your stall early and sort out a stall rota
• Be enthusiastic... and then be enthusiastic some more (all day!)

2. Plan your first meetings thoroughly

Hopefully lots of people will be coming along, so it's a good idea to have action-packed meetings planned.

• Don't assume everybody knows about Amnesty -  make sure you give a short introduction, just to make sure everyone is on the same wavelength
• Focus on the positives - what people can do to improve human rights, rather than on the nitty-gritty hard-hitting stuff
• Make sure your first meetings are fun and social - include quizzes, screenings of something like the Secret Policeman's Ball and a pub-stop afterwards
• Provide lots of information and be prepared to answer questions

3. Involve members in planning meetings and campaigns

• Themed meetings work really well - they enable members to get involved in a specific part of Amnesty's work
• Decide which campaigns to focus on as a group and get as many members as possible involved
• Give presentations on different campaigns followed up with letter writing and actions

4. Be organised

• Have a clear structure for your meetings - try starting with letter writing so people can join in easily if they are late
• Feed back any updates on actions and good news to your group
• Email your members each week including links to actions
• Promote your group's work - write articles on the student website, send out press releases, get on your student radio station. Find out more in our student media centre

5. Have fun and be creative

• Make banners - this is a great way of involving people
• Take part in creative campaign actions such as the Greeting Cards Campaign
• Organise actions that are fun for group members and other students to get involved in

6. General things to remember

• Make sure your group is visible around the campus with posters, stalls and events
• Email your group with actions and updates each week
• Keep a friendly atmosphere by holding regular socials throughout the year
• Check the events calendar regularly so you can keep your members up to date about conferences, actions, and events at the Human Rights Action Centre