(General meeting agenda below)
As a For Our Kids team leader or organizer, you're doing the very important work of creating space for other parents, guardians and grandparents to share concerns and ideas for action. Prepare to facilitate a conversation. Whether it's you or somebody else chosen for the task, there should be a facilitator to guide the conversation, to make sure people are able to participate equally, and to keep things on time.
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EXAMPLE Agenda for First Team Meeting / Launch Party (1 hour):
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Welcome everyone and thank them for making time to join. Introduce yourself and share your story: How did you come to get involved with For Our Kids? Was there a specific moment?
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Review agenda. Give a brief overview of the agenda and how long the meeting is expected to be (we suggest no more than 1 hour).
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Introductions & Icebreaker (see ideas below). It's nice to go around the circle or virtual room with an ice breaker question or activity, and build in a moment for everyone to introduce themselves/their family, where they live and why they wanted to join a For Our Kids meeting.
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Establish “Norms” for team meetings. Here are some examples, and you might ask others for suggestions:
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Speak respectfully, and listen well (if virtual - mute yourself when not speaking)
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Be understanding when people arrive late, leave early, bring kids, etc. - we’re all juggling busy lives!
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Review For Our Kids vision and mission (alternatively you could play this 5-min Welcome Video or use this template slideshow)
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For Our Kids mission: To create a powerful and diverse movement of parents and grandparents coming together to push for climate justice in Canada.
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Vision: A world that we are proud to pass along to our kids and grandkids - more secure, more equitable, and more just than how we found it.
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There's a national support team which empowers parents to form their own community teams across the country (currently 25 teams!).
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Convey urgency. We don't need to be an experts in climate science to be involved. But we do need to get involved. We are not yet on track for a safe climate for our kids. 'Somebody else' does not have this covered.
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Convey agency. Social change has always happened with small groups of people just like us getting together and getting organized and inspiring others to do the same. Big and small actions by everyday people make up movements, which change culture, politics and the decisions of power holders. (Add in some examples!). Our voice as parents and grandparents is a powerful one.
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Discuss action ideas and/or skills: if you have an action/project proposal to share with the team, do this now for feedback and ideas. If not, you can do a "break out" discussion in pairs using Zoom breakout rooms or turning to your neighbour in real life. Do a round on ideas for action and/or skills people are bringing to the group (examples: artistic skills, writing skills, etc.) and how they could see themselves getting involved. Share this back in the group. **If you have a small group, you may just want to just go around the circle.
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Next steps and commitment. You don't need to decide everything at this session, but you do need to convey next steps, like when the next meeting is or any action points (i.e. researching info missing to make decisions and getting back to the group).
Tips:
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Try to have 1-2 action ideas ready to propose; you can consult For Our Kids current actions or our ideas for local team actions. Have 1-2 current actions from For Our Kids prepared to share, as examples of what the group could take on.
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If there’s more time, open a conversation about what actions people want to take.
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Have your next meeting date and time set so you can let them know when it is.
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Think about how this group would like to communicate. An email listserv? A private Facebook group? WhatsApp?
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Icebreaker ideas:
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A check-in. “How is everybody doing?” Many of us don’t get a lot of opportunities to take a minute to answer that question.
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Show and tell. Ask everyone to take *a minute* to grab a nearby object and tell you how it fits into their life.
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I spy. Take turns spotting something on someone’s screen (“I spy with my little eye… a picture of a bird”), and having others try to find it.
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Three deep breaths. Ask everyone to join you in relaxing shoulders and taking three deep breaths together. It’s another thing we probably don’t get enough of.
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Share a self-care tip. (Everyone shares one)
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Demonstrate a hidden talent (touching your nose with your tongue? Raising an eyebrow?)
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Name game. What is the meaning/origin of your first or last name?
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More ideas from Bustle.com here. Do you have other good ones you’d like to share with other team leaders in our Slack Workspace?
EXAMPLE General Meeting Agenda (for bi-weekly or monthly meetings):
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Welcome
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Welcome everyone, remind them why we’re all here, and give a brief overview of the agenda and timing. Let people know how long this meeting is expected to last (we suggest 1 hour)
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Icebreaker / Introductions - include names and locations, sometimes use a question that will help people get to know each other (i.e. rose & thorn, one amazing thing that's going well and one thing that's challenging)
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Establish or review “Norms” for team meetings. Here are some examples, and you might ask others for suggestions:
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Speak respectfully, and listen well (virtual - mute yourself when not speaking)
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Be understanding when people arrive late, leave early, bring kids, etc. - we’re all juggling busy lives!
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What the team is working on this month or a quick go-around to share what each person is most interested in working on? If you're stuck, you could pick one of the network's current actions or team action ideas.
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An update on what the For Our Kids network is working on nationally?
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Next steps and commitment.
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Have your next meeting date and time set so you can let them know when it is.
More meeting facilitation resources:
- Here is a short guide to facilitating meetings, generally, from Seeds for Change
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Here is an in-depth guide to meeting facilitation from Community At Work
- If you have any questions, or need more details on any of these steps, please reach out at [email protected]
- New Team Leader Training Homepage (under construction)
- Resources and FAQs (under construction)