Different types of meetings serve different purposes. We will cover:
Holding group meetings
Group meetings can help you bring your community together. You can use them to identify shared housing issues and plan campaign tactics.
You can also hold meetings with decision makers to help your campaign and ultimately achieve your goals.
General meeting tips
Location
Hold your meeting somewhere that:
is near your community
is accessible
is near public transport
has toilets and baby changing facilities
Give plenty of notice
Plan your meetings well in advance. This will give you time to prepare for and promote your meeting.
Promote your meeting
Promote your meeting in a few different ways. For example:
create a Facebook event
drop off leaflets at local community spaces
ask friends and family to spread the word
Have a purpose
Know what you want people coming to the meeting to know, think, feel and do.
Share the house rules
Start the meeting by setting your house rules. House rules are how people expect to be treated and treat others. Ask everyone to contribute to your house rules, and keep them written somewhere visible.
Conversation cafes
Conversation Cafes are about bringing people together around a shared housing issue. It’s a chance for you to ask important questions in an informal setting. You want to create a space where people feel able to speak about their housing issues and excited about getting involved.
Top tip! Have one person leading the session and someone else acting as a facilitator to help encourage discussion.
Make it informal
Find an inviting space in the local community.
Set up the room before people arrive. Arrange the tables and chairs so people will feel connected. You can also decorate the space with any resources you have, like pictures or drawings.
Offer refreshments – tea, coffee and biscuits can help people feel comfortable.
Have questions prepared
Write a list of questions you want to ask that will help you better understand the shared housing issues. Have 2 or 3 questions you will ask and then a few other questions you’d like to ask if you have time.
Display your main questions somewhere people can see.
Example conversation cafe questions
What are the main housing issues that are affecting you and your neighbours locally?
What do you think needs to change for these issues to be addressed?
Which of those changes do you think is the top priority?
Plan an agenda
Conversation cafes will typically last 90 minutes to 2 hours. Consider how you want to use that time.
Example conversation cafe agenda
Welcome, introductions and 'house rules' (20 minutes)
Introduce the group and explain why you have decided to organise this conversation cafe.
Ask people to take a minute to introduce themselves to their neighbour.
Ask people to shout out what they want the 'house rules' to be, and how participants can respectfully challenge a house rule being broken.
Question 1 (30 minutes)
Ask for smaller groups (no more than 6 people in each group) to discuss their answers. Participants can be creative with how they record their answers - they can draw on paper, write them down, nominate a speaker and more!
Question 2 (30 minutes)
Use the same process as above.
Feedback and discussion (30 minutes)
Ask each group to share their answers to the room and give open space for comments, thoughts and reflections.
End the meeting (10 minutes)
Give some clear next steps, including the date and time of the next meeting, and how to get involved.
Campaign group meetings
Regular meetings help to keep your group and tactics going.
Assign roles and responsibilities
This can help make sure everyone can contribute to the group.
Example roles and responsibilities
Social media lead
Someone who can help promote your campaign actions and group meetings through social media.
Facilitators
One or two people who can help make sure the meetings go ahead as planned by guiding the conversation.
Notetaker
Someone who is confident at typing or writing fast and can keep track of what is discussed.
Campaign leads
People who are responsible for helping get campaign ideas into actions.
House rules adviser
Someone who can gently challenge group members who are breaking the house rules.
Creative leads
People to help come up with creative ways to campaign.
Create a shared purpose
A shared purpose helps everyone understand why they are there, what you want to achieve, and how you plan to achieve it. This helps make sure group meetings stay on track.
Top tip! Start each meeting by going over your shared purpose and your house rules. You should also state what the purpose of the meeting is.
End with actions
Finish your meeting with clear actions assigned to specific people. This will help your campaign progress.
Handouts
Have a supply of leaflets with details of your upcoming group meetings that you can give out. This helps remind members to come to your next meeting and can be used as a tool to help promote your group.
Your local community organiser is on hand to support you. We can help you design and print leaflets, facilitate meetings and more.
Email housingrightsdefenders@shelter.org.uk to be connected with your local organiser.