: A community meeting or event is a way to bring people together around a particular topic, interest or goal. Typically, community events are more celebratory in nature and aren’t as formal.
: Strive to be inclusive and reach out to community leaders, groups and organizations when organizing a meeting or event.
- Putting together a community meeting and event is a community-building exercise in itself. Make the organizing process fun, inclusive and work to accommodate the needs of everyone.
: Suggestions for holding a community meeting or event.
Why it's useful to hold a community event or meeting
- Prepare early for your meeting or event. Start planning at least one month or earlier for a meeting. If you are planning an event, depending on the size of the event, planning should start a couple of months beforehand.
- Create a planning committee if possible. This is a group of people that will take responsibility for different components of the meeting and/or event.
- First, set a date, time and place for the meeting or event. You may need a permit to book a space or you may need to talk to community agencies to see if you can book a room or space. Make back-up plans in case of bad weather. Set a date and time that will work best for who you are trying to target.
- Develop and set a goal: Why are you doing the meeting or event? Establish a clear goal or objective.
- Develop a plan for the meeting or event. For a meeting, make an agenda. For an event, make a list of what will be happening at the event. Think about your audience when inviting guest speakers and developing the program. What is likely to interest and involve everyone? The group should know what to expect before attending a meeting. You should be clear about what is being planned, how the meeting is going to be run, and who is going to play what role. Make sure not to overload the agenda. Once the agenda is set make sure that the meeting starts and ends on time.
- Develop a budget for the meeting or event: This step needs to go hand-in-hand with the step above. You need to know what budget you have to work with when planning your event. You may already have funds or you may need to apply for grants or seek out sponsors and/or community partners.
- Develop outreach materials and outreach plans. Decide who your target is and develop outreach materials and plans that best fit that group (see Key Steps for Doing Community Outreach). You’ll want to consider multiple outreach tactics ranging from flyers to use of social media. You’ll also have to consider translation.
- Implement meeting or event. Follow your plan. For events, take photos so you can share what you have done in the future. Be sure to indicate at the event that you are taking photos.
- Online meetings. During the pandemic, most meetings are happening online using Zoom and other tools.
- Debrief after the meeting or event. Talk about successes and lessons learned. Celebrate your work!
- Tips: Dos & Don’ts
- DO plan early and make a checklist of everything that needs to get done.
- DO make the meeting or event inclusive and welcoming for all community members.
- DO enable community members to interact and be part of the event in an active way (sharing ideas, chatting with other people, etc).
- - DON’T stick to your plan too rigidly. For example, if community members get excited about a topic on the agenda, adjust your plans and allot more time for that agenda item.
- Community meetings or events can help rally people around a particular vision, topic or action.
- Community meetings or events create a space that helps to build community. People meet their neighbours, learn about community programs, find out about other people who care about issues and more.