Guide to Your First Meeting

Your first meeting will set the stage for the functions and structure of your club. Have a well-planned, interactive agenda and attendees will be more likely to come back next time!

Choose a convenient time and location for your meeting. Promote the meeting through posting flyers, chalking on sidewalks, word-of-mouth, e-mail announcements, or even by placing an ad in your campus newspaper. Bring your friends and neighbors! Invite members of other politically oriented groups, especially ones with principles similar to the ACLU to attend. However, do not necessarily count out anyone or any club based on political ties or values-you may be surprised who is interested in the ACLU. Ask professors from political science, law, women's studies, American Studies, history and other related departments to announce the meeting to students-and of course invite them too.

When promoting the club, make sure to focus on the issues as much as the name as a draw for members. Some people may be deterred from the ACLU for political or other reasons, even though that the many of the issues that it deals with would be personally beneficial to them. Especially focus on issues relating to immediate campus life that may not seem like obvious civil liberties issues for these students, after all, sooner or later, everyone needs the ACLU!

It always helps to have things to show or to give away, so consult the National ACLU website (www.aclu.org) and the NYCLU website (www.nyclu.org) for publications and other materials. Feel free to contact the Campus Organizer for further materials.

Make sure you have a sign-in sheet! Ask attendees for name, contact information (including e-mail address), academic major (if this is a college chapter), and the names of any other organizations they may belong to.

Create a friendly, energized mood. Begin with introductions and encourage attendees to talk a bit about themselves and their interests. Ask attendees to offer ideas and ask questions throughout the meeting. Consider having snacks or pizza at your meeting-a sneaky (but quite effective) way to boost attendance!

7  Important items for your first meeting agenda:

1. Explain what the ACLU is all about:

• The mission of the American Civil Liberties Union is to defend individual freedoms guaranteed to every person in this country by the Bill of Rights.
• We operate in three ways: By arguing precedent-setting court cases that involve Constitutional violations (litigation); by monitoring legislation and lobbying lawmakers (legislation); and by creating civil liberties public outreach programs and campaigns (education).
• We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. Our work is funded through memberships, government grants, and donations. Our members and allies include conservatives and liberals; Republicans, Democrats, Greens, and Independents.
• There are national offices in New York City and Washington D.C. and state affiliates in nearly every state. Chapters, Working Groups, and Campus Chapters contribute to the work of affiliates.

2. Put the ACLU in historical perspective

• Founded in 1920 by Roger Baldwin, Crystal Eastman, and others in response to a political climate after World War I that systematically denied people basic Constitutional rights.
• Has been at the forefront of historical court cases, including the 1925 Scopes trial, when a biology teacher was convicted and fined for teaching evolution; Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which declared racial segregation in public schools a violation of the 14th Amendment; Roe v. Wade which established abortion as a Constitutional right; and ACLU v. Reno in 1997 that struck down censorship of Internet materials mandated by the 1996 Communications Decency Act.
• The NYCLU, the New York State affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, is a statewide organization dedicated to the protection and enhancement of New Yorkers' civil liberties as enumerated in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of the State of New York.

3. Explain the basic core agenda for NYCLU Campus Chapters

• To educate the campus community about civil liberties issues through events and campaigns. Projects may include, but certainly are not limited to public forums or debates, film showings, letter writing campaigns, rallies, teach-ins or literature distribution.
• To monitor civil liberties violations on campus and advocate for civil liberties-friendly campus policies. Chapters might concentrate on discrimination against foreign students, drug testing policies for athletes, student speech codes, sexual harassment policies, or other campus-related issues.
• To mobilize involvement in national and state ACLU and NYCLU campaigns.

4. Explore the framework of your own Campus Chapter

• Discuss the format of the group. What will leadership look like? Any committees? Voting processes? Alliances with other campus organizations or academic departments? If you have already come up with a structure or written a Constitution, invite attendees to offer their own suggestions and ideas-planning how your group will function should be a collaborative process. Make potential members feel that their input is valued.
• There is a good chance that potential members’ interests may be split between organizing and activism concerning on-campus issues and education and advocacy relating to national issues, so that is an easy way to form committees at first if there are people.
• Go over important guidelines for Campus Chapters established by the NYCLU. The guidelines you should specifically mention:
  • Members should take care to accurately represent ACLU and NYCLU positions when speaking to others as a Campus Club member.
  • Campus Clubs are not authorized to speak on the behalf of the ACLU or NYCLU in any media outlet other than as a campus group to campus media.
  • The Club is nonpartisan and may not endorse or oppose specific political candidates or parties.

5. Brainstorm project ideas

• Get an idea of the general interests of the group as well as those of individuals-one advantage of a campus club is you can tailor your actions to your interests as well as the needs of your community.
• One way to secure lasting members is engage them in the process. You may want to begin planning for a first event right away. Get a conversation going about the different possibilities. Your first project might be as small as setting up an information table in the Student Center or as big as organizing a demonstration or rally. But try and plan something!
• If you do arrive at a plan, set a timeline and action strategy. You'll need people and time to prepare for, promote, and execute the program.
• Remember, though a leadership structure is important to organization, the criteria in judging the value of club members’ opinions and ideas is their own merit. If there is a dispute try to come to a consensual agreement rather than siding one way or the other.

6. Secure membership and plan for the future

• Discuss how often, when, and where you will have meetings. Make sure you adapt the schedule to as many members as possible-the more members the stronger the club!
• Ask each person to try to bring a friend with them for the meeting. If they can’t make sure they at least spread word of the club to students and professors they think might be interested in helping out but maybe have not yet heard about the club.
• Assign people to take on specific jobs. Find people to compile the sign-in sheet into a contact list, create an e-mail listserv, take notes at the next meeting, and any other necessary tasks. You might wish to ask someone else to help facilitate the next meeting. Attendees are more likely to come back if they know others are relying on them.
• Encourage members to join the NYCLU. Don’t forget to tell them that it only costs $5 if you are a student.

7. Set up your second meeting!

• Set a plan NOW for your second meeting and make sure everyone writes it down.