Introduction
Tips and an example checklist for community organisers about planning and promoting an event such as a town hall. This resource comes from a conference session called Town Halls and Turning People Out in 2024.
The conference—FWD+Organise 2024—was held by Australian Progress in Naarm | Melbourne. The session was run by Carly Robertson from the Australian Conservation Foundation and Caitlin Gordon-King from Huddle.
In the session, Carly Robertson, a community organiser with the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), shared lessons about ACF’s ‘organising playbook.’
ACF Community Groups
ACF uses a decentralised organising framework and has 43 groups (as of Dec 2024) around Australia. The community groups are a network of independently organised, volunteer-run groups in the ACF community and are supported by paid community organisers. The community organisers provide support by:
- building skills such as running community webinars, e.g., having an effective persuasive conversation.
- sharing useful guides, tools, and templates, e.g., MP Meeting Debrief Template
- supporting groups to organise in the community, such as running stalls and door knocking.
- providing ACF resources such as stickers, pamphlets, and scorecards.
The groups meet with politicians, host local forums and events, take part in ACF campaigns, and organise their communities to take action; for example, one group invited their Members of Parliament (MPs) to a town hall and made it fun by having a climate choir. This was so successful they ran more events with the climate choir.
The wonderful thing about ACF community groups is that they are built in the group’s image, in the interests of your community. So, while ACF will provide the resources to undertake campaigns, host events, meet with politicians, and the like, how the group functions and how the group decides to work on campaign priorities is completely up to the group. Source
Below are shared tips and the ACF event promotion checklist, which shows how they plan and promote events with their community groups.
Event Promotion Tips
Here are some useful tips from the session.
Before the Event
- Start planning 2 months before your event.
- Have weekly meetings/check-ins to stay on track.
- Diversify your promotion plan.
- Collaborate with other groups to run events, especially if you want a big turn out. e.g., The group – ACF Community Melbourne North by Northwest – ran a large town hall that partnered with multiple groups – Environment Centre NT, Climate Action Merribek, Climate Action Maribyrnong and Darebin Climate Action Now.
- Think about the demographics you would like at the event. e.g., if you would like more younger people to come collaborate with climate youth groups.
- Choose appropriate venues – not too big and not too small. Will it be indoors or outdoors? Is it accessible? Is is safe. Make sure you inspect the venue in person. e.g., one event went well because it had a playground across the road and a cafe next door.
- Invite speakers with enough lead time.
- Pick an appropriate day to hold the event. e.g., Will more people come on a weekend versus a weekday?
- Invite people to the event personally—give them a call or a text; don’t just rely on mass emails.
- Do reminder calls, texts, and/or emails for the event in the lead-up and on the day if possible.
- Have peer-to-peer texting parties.
- Assign specific roles and have a run sheet.
- Do online advertising, e.g., social media ads, and share on different groups you are part of, e.g., community gardening groups.
- Think of places you can approach to put up event posters, such as cafes, supermarkets, local businesses, and libraries.
- Deliver leaflets in your local area and around the venue.
- Ask allies to advertise your event.
- Organise media for the event.
- Is someone taking photos? Have you got consent forms?
After the Event
- Follow up with people after the event to build groups and involvement.
- Start with one-on-ones; don’t just jump straight into a campaign with newcomers.
- Do activities as a group to help relationship building, e.g., walks in nature together.
- Think of the group health and what they can achieve.
- Create ways the group can communicate, e.g., Slack, WhatsApp groups – great for interactivity.
Event Promotion Checklist
The checklist is designed to help ACF Community Groups plan and promote events that are well-organised, strategic, and impactful!
Whilst this checklist is specific to ACF, it can be useful for other groups to think about how to approach an event.
ACF Community: Event Promotion Checklist (3 pg PDF)
The checklist covers:
- Promotion Methods
- Who are you targeting?
- Timeframes required / additional considerations
Watch Video
For more, watch the ACF Community Webinar – Running Successful Activities and Events: Case Studies from ACF Community.
Explore Further
- How to organise a local group in your community: ACF Community Toolkit
- Learn more about Australian Conservation Foundation Community Groups
- The Shape of Organising Models
- Home Grown: Mapping Australian Organising Models
- Approaches to Organising: The Ganz Model
- Organising Model Structures: Influences, Challenges and Opportunities
- How to Organize a Town Hall Meeting A Planning Guide by Guide, Inc.
- Learn more about how Town Halls work from Participedia
- ACF Collection in the Commons Library
- Commons Librarians’ Recommended Resources for FWD+Organise 2024
- Other resources from FWD+Organise 2024