UNIVERSITY COALITIONS for GLOBAL HEALTH

The Effective UCGH Organizer | Recruit the Right People | Get you Meeting in Gear

The Effective UCGH Organizer

The more organized your coalition is the stronger the global health movement becomes. So the first step in creating a successful UCGH coalition is to have an effective UCGH organizer.

Tips for effective organizing

• Be personal – Relationships are at the root of organizing and essential for creating a sense of trust in the coalition members.
• Be active – There must always be at least one project or campaign for people to work on. This helps to keep members engaged.
• Delegate – This is essential for creating a sustainable organization. Through you can gradually train and accomplish more.
• Be thankful – Always commend members for their work. Remember without them you would be nowhere.
• Be sustainable – The BIGGEST challenge of UCGH coalitions is that the UCGH campus organizer graduates and there is no succession planning to hold the coalition together. Gradually training young leaders should be a priority of the campus organizer. Keeping records and journals is a good way to create lasting institutional memory.
• Rotate leadership roles – Change steering committee positions to allow for fresh ideas and all organizations to be committed to the group.

Recruit the Right People

A key aspect to a successful UCGH coalition is strategic campus recruitment. You want to include all organizations and students who will contribute to the coalition with either resources or ideas. You can learn more about strategic recruitment in the “UCGH Action Guide” section of this website.

Tips for strategic recruitment on campus

• Personal contacts and friendship networks
• One on ones
• Dorm storming – Going door to door to inform people about a big upcoming event, collect petitions or letters
• Tabling: An excellent way to disseminate information about your coalition to students. Tabling is most effective when you are getting people to do something, like a call-in or petition signing.
• School activity fairs: This is a great way to make sure you are including all of the global health clubs on campus. Go around and learn about each organization, then determine who to recruit. There might be more global health related organizations than you realize. Don’t forget you can table for your coalition.
• Campus events: Lectures or concerts are great ways to get the word out and attract new members. Make a coalition brochure to pass out at events.
• Media outlets are the least personal way to get your message across, but it hits the largest number of people. This can range from mass emails to starting a Facebook group.
• Campus newspapers: You could take out an ad to publicize events or write an op-ed or letter to the editor about global health.
• Campus radio stations and TV shows sometimes run free public service announcements. Contact them to find out how you can get your coalition’s name out there.
• Postering: Keep posters short, simple and eye catching. Print your main message in BIG type– people should see it from at least 20 feet away and limit text. Make sure your contact information is on the poster.
• Chalking: Get a group of people together and write short phrases advertising an event or facts about global health to raise awareness on campus.

Get Your Meeting in Gear

After your recruitment is complete, it’s crucial that you learn how to organize effective meetings. In UCGH coalitions, there are two different types of meetings:

Key components of the first general meeting

• Introductions – Everyone should talk about their organization and interest in the coalition. A fun ice breaker idea: organizational speed dating game!
• Start defining your purpose: This might mean coming up with a statement, or it might involve a discussion, followed by a small group being asked to draft a definition for the next meeting.
• Discuss the structure of the coalition. What kind of group will it be? What kinds of things will it actually do? Who will be the leadership?
• Discuss a procedure for forming an action plan and next steps. This may result in an actual plan, or it may lead either to the appointment of a smaller group to draft a plan.
• Assign tasks for the next meeting. Responsibility gives people a sense of ownership.
• Schedule the next meeting. It may be possible to develop a regular meeting schedule at this first meeting

Tips for running general meetings

• Set meeting goals and agenda ahead of time
• Goals should be concrete, realistic and measurable
• Use planning meetings to do strategic planning, develop timelines for campaigns, recruitment and fundraising strategies and evaluate your progress
• Have “working groups” to coordinate specific parts of campaigns and projects and report back
• Avoid detailed decision making during the meeting
• Involve everyone: never let one person dominate a meeting; vote on decisions
• Disseminate meeting minutes and thank participants
• Call or e-mail those who missed the meeting
• Have a designated facilitator, usually the UCGH campus organizer, to present the agenda keep the group on task. It is important that this person remains impartial during the decision making process
• Ask people to sign in and include their e-mail address
• After the meeting add new members to group list
• Stick to the agenda
• Seek commitments from meeting attendees
• Start and end on time
• Set aside time for introductions or an ice breaker
• Advertise
• Be organized
• Have fun