Guidelines for setting up a local group

Warning about "do" not "chat"

Atheists are great thinkers and talkers - we have a tendency to put "talk" ahead of "do."

These groups are set up to campaign - not to chat about god and the evils committed in the name of religions.

Those organising groups, and coordinating groups, do not have time to get into "what do you think about the argument that ...," stuff. We have livings to make, jobs to do, kids to bring up, hobbies to pursue and lives to lead.

We give our time voluntarily to this activity because it is just that - activity.

So, please - no correspondence on the rights or wrongs of a particular philosophical idea, or the latest book by Dawkins, or why Tom Paine was a great chap or the latest Papal statement or the latest threat from Muslim extremists.

If you want to talk about it then this is not be the place to be - if you want to do something about it then this is the place to be.

Setting up a local group

A local group can be set up by one enthusiast person in a very short time.

As we said before, there is nothing to stop you doing things in your own way but it would be a huge help to the secular cause throughout the country if all groups worked in a similar manner and coordinated the work they do.

These guidelines cover the major topics:

• Defining your aims
• Setting up a web site and defining your identity
• Setting up an email address for contacts
• Creating a mailing list
• Finding a meeting place
• Organising the first meeting
• Regular contact with the local media: newspapers, radio, TV - "rent-a-mouth"
• Organising a campaign

There are two possible ways you can go - or even a mixture between the two:

• A hot air group.

  This becomes a meeting place where atheists and potential atheists can air their frustration at a world dominated by religion. It usually consists of the converted preaching to the converted.

  There is no harm in such a group - all of us sometimes need our views confirmed in the company of others.

  Such a group does allow everyone to clarify exactly what they think - none of us has a monopoly on the truth - whatever that is!

  A hot air group needs as many members as it can get - or things get a bit stale with the same people turning up to go over the same ground over and over again. There is ever-present danger that such a group will turn inwards, rather than outwards, setting up a Constitution, electing Officers and worrying more about its survival than getting things done.

  A hot air group will stabilise with a small number doing the work and a larger number turning up now and again for meetings.

• A campaigning group.

  This group will be small - between two and ten people. Even ten may be a little large - it is amazing how much can be achieved locally by a very small group of people who have a clear idea of where they are going - and keep at it!

  A ideal group would contain an ideal mix of members: someone who can write clearly and succinctly, someone who can speak on a variety of topics, someone who is a natural networker, someone who can organise and chase to make sure things get done.

  This group meets to discuss and agree ideas and to determine what the current campaign should be. A single campaign is a rifle-shot at the heart of religion focussing resources on a single major task - multiple simultaneous campaigns are a shotgun at religion - and it is too far away to be hit by a shotgun - with resources being spread too thinly to have any impact!

  Members of the group have individual responsibilities to get things done: someone needs to be available to talk to the media at any time, someone needs to monitor the media to see if anything happens that requires action, someone needs to maintain the database of contacts (councillors, schools, religious groups etc.), someone needs to produce leaflets, letters etc., someone needs to organise public meetings to support the campaign.

  This group will also organise regular meetings, perhaps with a speaker, so that potential recruits can come along. Most of those who turn up will be interested and a very small number may be willing to put their actions where their beliefs are.

A web site in the name of your group

Your web site has already been set up!

The SecularUK web site has been designed to enable any local group to have a web presence within minutes. As soon as you let us know the name of your group (preferably "XYX Secularists" to fit in with other groups) we will "badge" the main pages with your name. We will also badge the email address on the contacts page and redirect any incoming email directly to your personal email address.

To do this we simply change the link on SecularUK.org home page so that it calls up other pages with your name.

Of course, you can create your own web site of you wish - as long as you have someone who knows how to do it and who is willing to maintain it.

One word of advice: keep it simple. We are not Mega-Corp trying to sell millions of widgets, we are not trying to prove how clever we are at web design - we are trying to get a message across in as simple a manner as possible. So the advice is to avoid the "clever" stuff - particularly Flash and all that other nonsense.

Please click here for advice if you want to go to the bother of creating, maintaining and updating your own site.

Creating your own local page(s) on the generic web site

The top left of each page will show your group name but the contents will be generic - shared by all groups.

You need to create at least one page that relates to your group - details of meetings etc.

For security reasons you cannot upload pages yourself - you create them, send them to the National Coordinator and he will tailor them for the web site and upload them.

The contents of the page need to be simple ASCII text (not Word documents!) - so you can use any text editor - even Notepad or WordPad.

Using the common format is easy:

• The page title line (first line) should be in the form

  <H1>This is the title line</H1>

• Sub-titles should be in the form

  <H2>This is a sub-heading</H2>

• Sub-sub-titles should be in the form

  <H3>This is a sub-sub-heading</H3>

• All other paragraphs should be in the form

  <P>This is the start of a paragraph

That's it. Just look at this page to see title, sub-titles, sub-sub-titles and paragraphs.

Don't worry if you get it wrong - the National Coordinator will check it before uploading.

If the worst comes to the worst, and you don't want to use the <....> stuff, just send it as plain text.

If you want to use bullet-pointed lists they must be of the form:

<UL>
<LI>Line of text
<LI>Next line of text
<LI>Next line of text
</UL>

Defining your identity

We may not be Mega-Corp but we do have to do a little "branding" and "marketing". (Those of us with a particular dislike of marketing-speak can always wash our mouths out afterwards!)

A common identity, a common image and common campaigns will help to spread our name nation-wide. It will also get us known locally, regionally and nationally by the media - because we are all singing from the same hymn sheet (sorry!) and presenting the same image. In other words, it allows us to punch well above our numerical weight - just as the NSS does nationally.

We have a very simply logo which can be branded with your group's name. The logo is abstract but could be interpreted as the sun of reason rising over the landscape - though that might be pushing it a little!

With the logo you can create business cards - you need something to hand out to people so they can contact you in the future - and it gives a professional image to your group. You can also use it on letter heads when writing to the media or when sending out mailings - to councillors, schools, religious groups etc.

In these days of PC printers there is no need to get anything commercially printed - though high-volume flyers and leaflets done commercially will save wear-and-tear on your printer.

For business cards just Google for "DecaDry" - this contains PC software and peel-off business cards that you can print how you wish, in the quantities you need when you need them. Much better than having 1,000 pre-printed cards cluttering up the place.

Setting up an email address for contacts

That's already done for you in our web site service - see above

Creating a mailing list

Your mailing list will be the way to keep everyone in the group informed about what is going on. A superb example of a mailing list is the one used by the NSS to send out Newsline every week.

There are two ways to create mailing lists:

• In your email program.

  Simply create a group in your address book containing the email addresses of everyone who should get a copy of emails you want to broadcast.

  You can call up this list in the To:, Cc: or Bcc: fields of any email you wish to send. The Bcc: field is useful if you wish to send material to the group without everyone else knowing who is in the group. The decision is yours.

  The downside of this arrangement is that you will be the only one who can use this list - unless you supply it to other members so they can use it in their email programs.

• A formal mailing list.

  This is maintained on a mail server somewhere.

  We are investigating if we really need such formal lists or not.

Given that you group will be small (why should it be large?) the first method should be sufficient to keep everyone informed.

Finding a meeting place

You need a place where you can meet regularly - somewhere where people know they can go to meet you on a specific evening in the week/month.

The place can be anywhere that will give you a room at a reasonable price. Places to look include Community Centres, Church Halls (yes - you read that correctly - "Church Halls" - the dear old C of E can be very friendly and helpful if you ask nicely - they like to show their "tolerance"), local Colleges or Universities.

Some Colleges and Universities have "Multi-Faith Centres" which provide "quiet spaces for reflection, meditation and prayer". They are usually open to all, believers and non-believers, and they are usually very happy to welcome secular groups. They are also great for setting up meetings, discussions and debates between people of different beliefs - they have local networks in place!

Once you have a venue, book it on a regular evening - the third Wednesday of each month or something similar. Also make sure that you book it well in advance - go for a year's bookings even if you have to negotiate that you will pay for bookings one at a time.

Even better, twist the arm of your better-off members and get them to pay for a year's bookings in advance - don't hesitate to take their money - it is in the best of causes. That way, everyone knows where you are if they need you and you become a regular local fixture.

Get an address

It always looks best if you have an address on your business cards, letter heads and letters/emails to the media. Newspapers will not print letters without a local address.

You can use the address of one of your members, the address where you have meetings (with the consent of the building owner) or the business address of one of your members.

Organising the first meeting

If you don't work hard you will be disappointed with the turn out for your first meeting. You may expect dozens or even hundreds and you will be bitterly disappointed when only three people turn up

Obviously, if you do nothing except put at date/place/topic on the web site, you will attract no-one!

The number who turn up will be a direct function of the amount of effort you put into organising and marketing the meeting.

Pick a controversial subject - the activities of religious people mean that there is always a topical and controversial subject - and get a speaker. Contact us if you do not want to speak yourself - we will do our best to find a speaker for you.

Allow at least three/four weeks before the meeting to do the marketing and publicity. People book their time well in advance so you need to get in early.

Start with a letter to the local paper (see below) announcing that a new secular group has been established and inviting interested people to visit the web site.

Contact the local radio station and offer to come in for their Sunday programme (if they have one) to do a question & answer on why a local secular group has been set up. If you don't know who to approach, either ring up and speak to the receptionist or, even better, go in and speak to the receptionist - getting them to know your face is part of getting known!

If you have the time and money, create a leaflet to be sent out to the heads of sixth form and heads of RE in local secondary schools.

Contact the local Students' Union and find out when they do their next "poster drop". These happen every couple of weeks and they ensure that posters are placed in all colleges, halls of residence etc. Obviously you will have to get a short run of posters (A3 or larger) printed - but it is a good investment.

Follow up your original letter to the paper with details of the meeting - topic and speaker. Make it sound controversial but make it clear that everyone is welcome to come and express their views. Do the same for the radio.

In the week before the meeting try to get on the morning or afternoon drive-time programmes on local radio - letting people know where/when the meeting is and what it is about. At the very least, get the details on the local radio Diary list which gets read out during the day.

On the night of the meeting make sure:

• You meet the speaker if he/she is coming by train. Find out how the speaker would like to be introduced. Some speakers prefer to introduce themselves!
• You arrive early and get the room set up.

  It is always best to have too few chairs. Never put out too many chairs. That way, if only a few people turn up you won't be visibly embarrassed. If a lot turn up then great - it always looks good when organisers are scurrying around to find more chairs because the meeting is a sell out!

• Get someone to stand at the door as "greeter" to welcome people and give them a business card. Make sure the greeter has a clip board so that attendees can note down their email addresses to get further information about the group.

  You need those email addresses - so make sure you collect them!

• Start within 5 minutes of the advertised time - you can stretch to 5 minutes, "to allow a few late comers to arrive," but no more!
• Introduce yourself and welcome everyone. Tell them that the secular group has been recently established, that it will be meeting every month and that you look forward to seeing everyone at future meetings.
• Explain that the primary purpose of the group is to campaign for specific issues - and outline the current issue.
• Invite anyone interested in helping with the campaign to see you after the meeting for a brief chat.
• Introduce the topic and the speaker - tell the audience how long he/she will be speaking for and mention that there will be time for questions/discussion afterwards.
• Warn the speaker 5 minutes then 2 minutes before his/her time is up.
• Stop the speaker on time - it is bad manners to rabbit on - and all speakers know this.
• Keep a firm hand on questions/discussion but do so fairly - let people have their say but don't let any individual or small group dominate the discussion. The best way to shut someone up is to stand up, walk to centre front and say that you intend to move on but this issue can be discussed after the meeting has finished.
• Wind up on time, Thank everyone for coming, tell them the date of the next meeting and remind those that want to help with the current campaign to see you afterwards.

This is critical.

The local media are your pathways to the widest possible audience. Without them you are left walking the streets with a sandwich board - or fly-posting with a bucket of wallpaper paste!

The web site explains who you are, what you are, when you meet and what your current campaign is. The local media are the tools to get people to visit your web site.

You may have mixed feelings about the media - especially things like the Daily Mail! However, local media consists of people who, for the most part, live locally and are genuinely concerned with local issues. It may come as a surprise but the vast majority of local journalists are really nice people, they are friendly, they have a job to do and they welcome anyone who can help them with that job - especially if there is a story in it or there is sufficient time to fill a slot on the radio.

Over time, you will build up relationships with local journalists and they will come to you when an issue arises that requires comment from a secular point of view - you will become the local secular "rent-a-quote" or "rent-a-mouth"!

The easiest way to start is with a letter to the local paper (you can often do this by email or from their web site) and an email to the news and religious editors of the local radio station.

Please click here for some guidelines on writing letters and leaflets.

Golden rule: keep it short.

A letter to a newspaper should be about one topic and should hit the key points in about 100 words - and never more than 200 words. When you go over 100 words you run the risk of being edited - and sod's law will ensure that they edit out the key words!

Once you have started you must never let up - every week there should be at least one letter in the paper from a member of your group.

Local radio/TV

Some people are naturals in front of a microphone. Some people who are happy speaking to hundreds of people in a meeting suddenly clam up when they have an audience of one - a microphone. Others go dry-mouthed and the words simply won't come out.

The more you do, the better you get - it is as simple as that.

You need to be well prepared and confident of your material. You can make notes and take them with you but the chances are that the interviewer will take things in an order you had not anticipated or will ask some stupid question that throws you off track. You cannot control the agenda - no matter how you try - so you need to be ready whatever happens.

Don't worry if things don't work out as you wished - you can always try again another time. At worst you clam up and say nothing, next you may feel that the interviewer was "unfair" and you never said what you wanted to. At best, you get that rosy glow when you know that you got your point across and it was fun!

Organising a campaign

Campaigns can be short or long term - but don't expect easy victories - they just don't happen!

A campaign to keep a local hospital open tends to be short term - and it either stays open or it closes.

Campaigns relating to religion tend to be long term - after all, religion has had thousands of years to become entrenched and it has become embedded within the fabric of the British establishment.

The three Ps

Goals for campaigns should obey the three Ps: personal proximate and practical.

1. Things will fade away if you do not feel personally involved and committed.
2. It will dishearten everyone if the goal cannot be achieved within a reasonable period of time.
3. What bother to start at all if there is no practical way to achieve the goal?

So a goal such as "let's put an end to religion" is just plain daft!

Campaign statement and target for success

This is a clear and short statement which defines what the aim of the campaign is.

"Our aim is to enable parents and pupils to make a positive decision to opt in to or out of acts of worship and Religious Education."

Never embark on anything unless you have a yardstick to judge success or failure. Governments consistently fail to do this - they are all aims and goals and legislation - but not a single yardstick for success or failure.

"Our target is, by the end of summer term 2007, to have a statement and application form relating to opting into or out of worship/RE in the Parents' Prospectus and web site of at least 10 local schools."

Don't forget, not achieving a target is not a reason for terminating a campaign - it may be the trigger to think anew and try different tactics.

Support material

• Speakers' notes
• Leaflets. Don't print too many (100?) - you can always print more but 5,000 wasted leaflets take up a lot of space!
• Stickers. The same rule applies as for leaflets.
• Posters - but only if you have somewhere to put them! Get them into the University poster run or get the wallpaper paste out and do some fly-posting!
• Demo placards - you can use posters for this if you get the design right - but make the key message BIG for photographers/TV.
• T shirts - if you have people to wear them or most will end up in drawers and never worn!
• Draft letters to newspapers, radio, TV, MPs, councillors, schools etc.

Direct contact

You need to build up a network of local contacts from journalists to councillors to other groups who may be willing to take part in the same campaign - a local humanist group for example.

You need to tailor your contact material: letters, emails, etc for each different type of contact. Councillors can do different things to MPs for example.

Always end each communication with a request for action - "we would be grateful if you would ..."

Some people are better at networking than others. People who prefer email to the phone tend not to be good networkers. Spread the work and get the person who enjoys chatting with people to make your initial contacts.

Publicity

This needs to be continuous. You need a letter in the local paper every week - preferably not signed by the same person all the time.

You need to submit articles to local papers and magazines. Every county has at least one county magazine (usually just an advertising carrier with a few local articles) - if you manage to get them to print an article relating to religion you will have done fantastically well!

You need to push the local radio station to have debates and discussions about your campaign

You must keep up the publicity so the more angles you can think of relating to your campaign the better - trying to keep it fresh and interesting is always the hard part.

Get a celebrity

We may hate the culture of celebrity - but it opens doors and it generates publicity.

The NSS may know someone who lives in your area. You may know a recognisable face who lives locally. Some people are more willing to speak about their principles - others feel that talking about religion may not help them in their professional career!

However, you will not get anyone to stand up and speak on your behalf unless you ask - so ask everyone! Each time you think "Ah, yes, so-and-so lives close by" - get a letter written and sent off. Tell them what you would like them to do - perhaps speak on a radio program or at a local meeting - tell them about your web site, give them contact details and suggest an initial informal meeting to chat about it. Get your networking person to follow up with a phone call.

Don't push people to do things they don't want to do - we need commitment, not pressed men!

Remember the golden rule - if you do nothing, nothing will happen!

Public meetings

These can be great fun - but you need to work hard to get people to turn up - and even harder to get it reported in the local media.

It takes at least three weeks to get a meeting together - after getting a topic, speaker(s) and venue:

• Week 1: get some "ticklers" out to get interest. Get invitations out to schools., MPs, councillors, religious leaders, press etc.
• Week 2: get your main story about the meeting out to the local media - and chase it so that it gets reported.
• Week 3: get on the local radio Diary slot. Get into paper again. Chase up people you have invited.

See above for details on the meeting itself.

Things don't happen of their own accord - you have to organise, push, chase, push, chase continuously - or you will be bitterly disappointed.

Events and direct action

These are the two best ways to get publicity but they very much depend on what you and other group members feel happy with.

Demonstrations outside the local catholic school or outside county hall are great - but make sure you check with the police first and make sure you tell all the media well before you set out.

This is the area where you can really use your imagination - as long as you don't go over the top and simply alienate people.

It is vitally important that you aims appear totally reasonable at all times. You can express frustration at the intransigence of the religious establishment, and those local authorities who continue to spend rate-payers' money on it, but keep it civilised - we are the voice of reason after all!

© 2007 UK Secularists