New Academic Year
Students for Life of Illinois
Dear Pro-Life Students,
The fall semester is quickly approaching. It is crucial to start the year off strong. As you know, our efforts on campus are different from many student groups because what we do will save lives.
Starting strong will:
Build loyalty and excitement in your group
Draw in freshmen before they are over-committed to other groups.
Make deadlines for school funding
Help planning for other fundraising activities
Most importantly, help you save lives!
Start by asking yourself, "Why am I doing this?" Spend time considering it and always remember your answer. Make sure it is the reason you do anything involving your pro-life organization. Encourage the members of your group to do the same.
A good year starts with a good first event. I cannot emphasize enough how critical this is to building momentum with your group.
First -Meet
with your officers a few weeks before school starts (or conference
call). During
your meeting, plan a calendar, budget and especially your first event.
Find out how to be sure your group has a table at the Activity Fair
where all the other campus organizations are.
Second-Plan your first event. Your
plan should include a kick-off event that is the night of or the day
after the Activities Fair. Hand out fliers at the fair that advertise for it. This event should be fun,
engaging and interesting. Be sure you are outgoing with new people
and do more than just pass around sign-up sheets. However, be sure to get
contact info for everyone: Name, email, phone, address.
In your event, you want to include these three elements:
A.
Fun/Community - Do an ice-breaker, go out for ice cream, eat cake or something
else that is fun! A lot of freshmen just want to have friends who think
like them, if you don't offer them friendship along with the pro-life
activities, they may lose interest.
B. Vision - At
your first event, you want to show that you are organized and ready
to take on the abortion industry.
Convey to everyone the excitement of being part of an organization that
will create real campus change and save real lives! If your group is
going to be that organization, you need to act like it. Talk about the
big goals you have, talk about the SFLI conference and invite everyone
to come to learn, talk about how many lives you will save, talk about the March for Life trip...etc.
C. Action - Give people something to do that
is oriented toward creating a culture of life. This could be anything,
but I am going to recommend that this time around, you write letters to your senators.
Print a form letter or give the option of having students write their
own by hand. Have addressed (Illinois Senators)
envelopes ready to go. This is quick and easy and will help in a lot
of ways. It will engage students and it will put pressure on our
pro-abortion senators. (Keep track of how many letters are sent, it will help you raise money.)
In addition to giving people something action-oriented to do during the meeting you want to give them something action-oriented when they leave. Be sure to have your next event planned so that everyone leaves the first meeting with another event to look forward to enjoying. Give each person a specific task or action item of something they can do to make the group successful or to plan for a future event. This way people are invested right from the beginning.
If
you incorporate these elements into your first meeting and subsequent
meetings you will find a great deal of success and you will see your
numbers grow instead of dropping off!
Third-Follow up get everyone's contact info, but also be
sure to friend everyone on facebook after the meeting and invite them to join your groups facebook group.
If you need ideas for other events throughout the year, here is a list to get you thinking:
Come to SFLI events like:
Multi-campus Pro-life Education Campaign
March for Life
40 Days for Life: Chicago and Champaign
Student Lobby Day
Other possible events:
Voter Registration Drive
Host a speaker
Host a Silent-no-More panel
Host a Pregnancy Resource Forum
Sidewalk Counseling at Abortion Clinics
Rally with students
Host a debate
Volunteer for Pregnancy Centers
Throw a Baby Shower
Bring SFLI or SFLA in for a Free training session
Clipboard to recruit
- See the SFLI website and the SFLA website for more ideas.
If you need anything at all please contact me or another SFLI representative. We are looking forward to serving you this academic year. You have the potential to truly save lives and change hearts on your campus. I hope that together we can realize that potential!
Life is Good,
John-Paul C. Deddens
Executive Director
Students for Life of Illinois
P.O. Box 2001
Champaign, IL 61825-2001
www.SFLillinois.org
PS. Remember to find out the deadline for applying for school funding and put the application in early!
PPS. Update me with all of your activities. We can help you advertise and give you resources.