Tips from September 2011 skillshare in Nottingham

A skillshare session was held with WDM groups members in Nottingham in September 2011. Here are write-ups of some of the discussion sessions.

Discussion 1: organising events

Different events that groups have done included:

Simple Stall: Put up a table with leaflets outside different banks, 2 or 3 times a month.

Stunt: Put up a big banner on a landmark, e.g multi-storey Car Park, during e.g. Political Party Conferences.

Public Meeting: Held on topics of particular interest of group members, once every 2 years or so.  Audience ranged from 25 to 100.  Publicity was helped by a web-site that posted the events on other local 'what's on' sites and local newspapers.

Festival Stall: It can take a few tries to find the right local festivals, but other stall holders can tell you about other festivals that they go to. Having activities for children and/or adults helps attract people to the stall. Activities have included free cups of Fairtrade tea, Who should we cheer for quiz & name the World Cup country from the flag, match the food item to the country, both shown on a map of the world and draw your favourite food.

Event funding:  1) Done informally with members covering cost of stall  2) Covered by an annual group subs  3) Let over from an event that asked for donations.

Discussion 2: gaining new members

From the discussion, it became clear that most of the groups struggle to get new members. One exception appears to be Sheffield where they have an active group meeting twice a month. It was apparent that the Sheffield group was thriving because of a few energetic people. It was reassuring to find that if you put in the work, you get the results!

The following ideas/thoughts emerged from the discussion about gaining new members:

  • Have a social (eg BBQ) and invite all the active and inactive members of WDM. Use the address stickers of donating members from HQ to contact inactive members (NB these can only be used once)
  • Have two sets of meetings, one totally business to decide events etc and one in a pub to thrash out the details of an event and be more of a social event
  • Have a local newsletter
  • Contact not very active members by phone to get them to help at events when numbers are important. It was felt that contacting by phone is a much more effective way of building a relationship with inactive members than e mail
  • Link up with other groups such as FOE, Unions, Justice and Peace, Oxfam, Christian Aid, Fairtrade, People & Planet at local university. Support each other’s events 
  • Link up with other WDM groups in the vicinity - if there are any! Perhaps have joint public meetings
  • he importance of making meetings fun and bonding with other members particularly new members
  • If have a stall and someone shows real interest, ask for a phone number or e-mail address so that can contact person direct.
  • Have two emailing lists that you use appropriately ie have a restricted list of people who are active and a larger list for occasional use
  • Have a good website that is easy to access and well laid out
  • Talk to young people and ask them how the WDM group can be improved

Discussion 3: lobbying your MEP about food speculation

  • Local groups need to know more details about MiFID as soon as the report comes out. 
  • Nottingham group needs to contact Bill Newton Dunn soon – before his diary is all booked up, to get a date to talk with him when the report is out. 
  • There is a World Bank report on food speculation that was released prior to WDM’s report. 
  • Those local group members that are meeting with their MEP’s could meet as a group before the appointment, to make sure everyone is confident on the issue.
  • What are the European party positions on food speculation? Can we influence other countries?
  • The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee are looking at the issue, but shouldn’t the Development Committee be looking at it? There are human, not just economic effects.