Hello! It’s Russell, and I hope you are excited for this Friday as I am! This upcoming club meeting is important for this upcoming year of Amnesty International, as we have to make sure that these new members want to come back for a reason. This can be achieved in a view ways, and we want to utilize as many of these ways as possible. So let’s begin.

Our meeting, as I am sure you know, is at lunch on Friday, as it always. Get there as early as you can, as we want to make a good impression on these new members. There is expected to be pizza there, which I am currently working on, so if you need to get a lunch from the CEA, come to Amnesty and get some pizza instead (it saves time). If this is impossible, try to come to the room as early as possible. As for the room, I am currently seeing if it is possible to reserve Lab 2020 for the meeting (right across the hall from room 185), as it is much bigger and would be able to fit more people. If we are unable to use 2020, I will update you on Thursday

One thing we are trying to do this meeting is establishing roles for officers and other returning members. These roles do not have to be permanent, but they are necessary for the first meeting. These roles range from taking attendance to welcoming new members at the door. Roles are down below. If you feel that this role is not suitable for you, please tell me, and I will give you another role for the meeting.

At the meeting, we want to make the new members feel as if they are doing something. The way to achieve this is to give them simple goals to complete by either the end of the meeting, or the next meeting. Tasks during the meeting will be especially simple, with new members sharing information about themselves and engaging with other members. Tasks to complete for next meeting will also be simple, like a member volunteering to bring food for a future meeting, researching an action that the club can take, or making a poster for the club.

What we plan on doing during the meeting is, as a whole, informing the new members about what our club does. We will teach about our club with this basic agenda:

 

11:15 - 11:25 Introductions

During this part, people will talk with their table groups about themselves, stating their names, grades, and perhaps a simple question about human rights to get them engaged. Then, one person will report to the entire room about their group members. There should be officers at most of the tables.

 

11:25 - 11:40 What is Amnesty International?

Here, we explain what Amnesty International as an organization accomplishes throughout the world, and how we help as a club. We will talk about projects we put on last year, such as the dinner in December and the Scavenger hunt in the Spring, and talk about our successes through signing petitions.

This first explanation should take about five minutes. After, we will show the video and answer questions that people have about our club

 

11:40 - 11:45 Plans for the semester

Here, we will either pass out sheets with our plans for the semester (e.g. Conference) and put a copy up on the board. At each group, previous members or officers should have a light control over the discussion. Members should discuss what they think they could do to help with our club. At the meantime, someone (I will if nobody else would like to) should go around and ask for the emails of people who did not supply such information at the sign up table.

 

11:45 - 11:50 Debrief

At this stage, we will achieve two main goals. First, we will answer any final questions posed by members about our plans for the semester. These answers will be short and sweet, as members will be getting ready to head to their next classes. We will also talk more about our upcoming conference, and provide a few more details besides those mentioned in the groups. We will also explain that we will provide even more information about the conference, including how to sign up. If there are any interested members, we will take names.

 

Roles for the Meeting

 

Greeter - Vanessa

As the new members come into room 185, the Greeter will say hello to them and tell them to sit at any of the tables present. We want them to feel welcome to our club the moment they walk through the door, so that they feel like they are part of a community. Also, in the event that we do get lab 2020, the Greeter will also tell stand at the door and tell new members that meeting is in 2020 instead. This should be convenient, as it is directly across the hall from room 185.

Attendance - Maja

We cannot spend meeting time taking attendance, because of the very little time we have. That leaves two options. The attendance taker will either stand at the door, and ask people’s names when they come in, checking them off a checklist, or the attendance taker will go around during the introductions and ask people their names and check them off then. We will provide a list with all of the names of all the new members.

Process Observer - Max

The Process Observer will watch the meeting and take notes on how it goes, and if there are any hiccups in either our working with the new members or our presenting skills. (Max will also be on the computer when it is necessary, like when the Amnesty International video needs to be pulled up).