During this first meeting, it’s important for everyone to give introductions. Go around the room and get people’s names and favorite word or some other icebreaker. Immediate, friendly introductions are very important. If people feel uncomfortable they won’t come back. It’s a good idea to start all meetings by having people go around the circle and introduce themselves or just “check-in” with how they are feeling. Pass around a sheet to collect everybody’s name, phone number and email.
One of the planners should give a brief introduction to the group. New groups need to emphasize that a group is what people make it. If the planners have some ideas, they should be presented, but as well-
developed suggestions, not declarations. This should take only about 5 minutes.
It is a good idea to explain what SEAC is about and present SEAC’s principles. New students are often not familiar with the many possibilities of issue campaigns that can be worked on. Explain the difference between service projects and issue campaigns (see Chapter 4) so that new students understand that your group is about making lasting change. If your group was active last semester, explain some of the history of what campaigns the group has been working on.
Depending on how many people you have at the meeting, you should get an idea of how many campaigns the group can tackle at once. List some potential issue campaigns along with a few ideas on what can be done to achieve the goals of the campaigns. If others have ideas for campaigns, you may want to entertain them at the first meeting (this can take a lot of time, though) or you can get them a copy of this guide and ask them to write up a mini-proposal for next week’s meeting. Their proposal should include some ideas on how the campaign can achieve institutional change and on what targets, strategies and tactics can be used. These ideas are all explained later in this guide.
If your meeting isn’t very interactive, you might want to go around the room to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak. Try to keep the discussion focused without stifling anyone’s creativity - group decisions tend to be the most productive, and ideas that seem strange at first can end up being visionary. It is vitally important that everyone feel that they are involved in the decision making process, that they have a personal stake in the group. Once people feel like they are taking orders or being ignored, they will tune out and never come back. Above all, make things fun and informal.