Rhiannon Horsley, member of Reading Uni People & Planet group, writes:
Rhiannon Horsley
Freshers’ fairs are an important time for groups. Fresh faced first years provide the vital continuation that People and Planet groups need, and also inject some new enthusiasm into a group. But what is the best way to attract and keep them? Obviously for most the best way to ‘reach out’ to freshers is at the legendary freshers fair. But how to make yourself noticed in the sea of free chocolate? More puzzling still, how do you avoid losing all the interested students in the first meeting?
Getting them in freshers’ week
Should stalls be covered in rainbows and peace signs, or a bit more sophisticated, perhaps with some colour co-ordination? Should you ram as much information onto your tiny little table as possible, or just have small business cards with your meeting times on? Should you have hundreds of members crowded round, or just a couple of people to meet and greet? Should you avoid hippyishness or embrace it in all its tie-dye glory?
At the very least you’ll need an eye-grabbing and instantly recognisable stall, one that draws the ethically minded like flies. But this just presents more problems: ‘People and Planet’ is quite an ambiguous name, not many people will have heard of it. Everyone knows what Amnesty International is, the football club is quite self explanatory, but People and Planet - what is that? So maybe draw attention to the main campaigns: Fairtrade, Aids, and Go Green/Stop Climate Chaos. But how do you do that? Hire a giant wind turbine for the day? Well maybe, thinking big is definitely the way to go. Make a big banner to go over your stall emblazoned with ‘People and Planet’, and then around the P&P symbol paint in a few giant aids ribbons, the Fairtrade symbol, maybe a wind turbine. Write what the symbols stand for underneath, after all people might not recognise them.
So the overhead decoration is sorted, but what about the actual table? Some people have said they were overwhelmed with info at their freshers stall, so maybe keep it simple. Why not put together a little leaflet on what your group gets up to, what it has achieved, what it is trying to achieve. Too many postcards and leaflets confuse the brain and often bear little relation to what you’ve been up to these past few years.
How many people are you going to have at your stall? Have too many people and you risk looking over-eager, or you could all end up chatting to each other and missing all the freshers. Then again you don’t want one poor person trying to talk to twelve people at once! Personally i think about three to five people would be a great number. It’s tempting to get really caught up catching up with your mates, but people might feel rude walking up and interrupting you if you’re talking. Equally you don’t want to stand there in silence looking depressed as though nobody in your group gets on. A reasonable number of people on the stall can ensure you’re having fun but you also always have someone appearing approachable.
Most importantly make sure there is information about your meetings, what time they are, where they are (put a map on there too, uni’s are huge places when you first get there). If they’re late let people know about getting home, any night bus services they could use, if people will be willing to walk them back to halls if they’re nervous going by themselves. Think of reasons like this why people might not come, and resolve them.
Now, where does hippyness fit into all of this? Personally I think it should be avoided, you want to attract as many people as possible and a stall festooned with flowers and peace loving vibes, will probably scare people away. Similarly having a Greenday album or a collection of 80s peace camp songs blasting out might not attract as many people as you’d think!
So to sumarise I’d go for a stall that clearly shows what People and Planet do, had some leaflets, but doesn’t look like you’ve emptied your leaflet box onto the table. Have really clear information about your meetings. Staff with enthusiastic, friendly people to talk to our eager freshers, entice them in, make them feel like they want to come to the meeting. And maybe offer a few free chocs, after all everyone else will.
But why should you only focus on the freshers fair? In many universities freshers are hanging around for a week before lectures start, why not had out leaflets around campus with meeting times and information about your groups? Not everyone will come to freshers fair. And don’t forget second, third years (and forth years for you in Scotland) and post graduates. Target re-registration queues, perhaps target departments where the students might be more attracted to our causes.
The first meeting
OK, so you’ve enticed your freshers and your first meeting is packed; due to the vast numbers that have your thinking of changing your meeting place to the local stadium, but what do you do now? How do you keep them? How do you persuade them that they yours is the best society and that they should stick around?
The standard P&P advice is always good: put a couple of people on the door to meet and greet, say ‘hi’ to people as they come in and make them feel welcome. Maybe crack out the Fairtrade tea bags and make some vegan cookies. This might be a great time to get out all those leaflets that you have been hoarding, give people something to do in that slightly awkward gap between people arriving and getting things going, although if you can try and talk to people too. Find out their interests and suggest overlaps with your group.
Now everyone is sipping their Fairtrade tea and they’re eager to hear what you get up to. Do you launch into a slick presentation explaining the complexities of TRIPS? Or do you all go round and say where you went for your summer holidays (tutting appropriately at the long haul flyers). An ice breaker is good, and I would personally go for something that might get people laughing, moving around or feeling more relaxed. Getting everyone to introduce themselves might be good too, but be weary of making it too long - names aren’t that interesting, and people will mostly forget anyway.
Everyone is a bit more comfortable, what do you do now? Time for the presentation? I would keep things simple, maybe chat through what you’re trying to achieve at the moment, what you’ve done in the past, what you hope to do in the future. Try and get more than one person to talk, break it up a bit, talk about the social aspect too (if you have one). Be aware that while you might all be very comfortable around each other the newbies wont be, so maybe save the story about the food poisoning on the aids trip to Kenya with no toilets for miles until a few weeks in.
Try and involve the freshers, make it clear that you need their input too though don’t be too demanding. When I first arrived I can remember thinking that everyone knows so much, and I know nothing; how can I help? Think of ways of involving people, making them feel more comfortable.
Once the first meeting is over, and I’d try and keep it snappy. Why not go out for a drink? Give people the opportunity to get to know each other in a more friendly environment.
But of course everyone is different, and hopefully my little ramble will be useful to someone. I remember entering our People & Planet group to find it in need of direction and hope that we have stepped up to that, and that we can capture the mind and imagination of the hordes of freshers arriving in September.
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