Appealing to College Students

[Sarah Carey]

Hey! I'm the president @ my college's Students for Life chapter. We have several members on our Facebook group, but I would like students to actually get involved! Any suggestions for appealing activites?

[Kristan Hawkins]

Hey Sarah!

What school do you attend??

So I take it you have some members who attend meetings and others who just are on your facebook group? This is a common problem for most SFL groups. The good thing is that you know you have the support of those students even if they don't show up to meetings.

Tell me. What types of events do you usually hold? Maybe having a social or outing for club members where you invite all the facebook supporters to will be a good way to build relationships with those folks and encourage them out for your next event. Have you tried anything like this?

[Sarah Carey]

Hey!
I am located at Georgetown College in KY. Our club is brand new, it was just formed this past Thursday. We already have most of the officer positsions filled, but we need ideas. We would like to chalk hearts, a truth booth, and maybe a social. We would like to see nonofficers get involved with the mission, but I'm just not sure how to do it or how to motivate other officers.





Kristan Hawkins said:

Hey Sarah!

What school do you attend??

So I take it you have some members who attend meetings and others who just are on your facebook group? This is a common problem for most SFL groups. The good thing is that you know you have the support of those students even if they don't show up to meetings.

Tell me. What types of events do you usually hold? Maybe having a social or outing for club members where you invite all the facebook supporters to will be a good way to build relationships with those folks and encourage them out for your next event. Have you tried anything like this?

[Kristan Hawkins]

Awesome News Sarah!

Sometimes if you hold an event that requires help and gets students interested, you can turn out the members.For example, do something that requires multiple people or that will be pretty controversial/news making. Like showing pictures of aborted and born babies using a Genocide Awareness Project display or setting up crosses to remember women who have died from legal abortions since 1973. Chalking hearts may get people to turn out. Just advertise it on the facebook group page and by emailing all the members. Tell them what you are doing, why you need their help, when/where you will start, and tempt them with pizza or something.

Let me know your thoughts on this.

[Sarah Carey]

Sounds great, I'll try this out!

Kristan Hawkins said:

Awesome News Sarah!

Sometimes if you hold an event that requires help and gets students interested, you can turn out the members.For example, do something that requires multiple people or that will be pretty controversial/news making. Like showing pictures of aborted and born babies using a Genocide Awareness Project display or setting up crosses to remember women who have died from legal abortions since 1973. Chalking hearts may get people to turn out. Just advertise it on the facebook group page and by emailing all the members. Tell them what you are doing, why you need their help, when/where you will start, and tempt them with pizza or something.

Let me know your thoughts on this.

[Kelsey Hazzard]

I recommend doing the pro-life day of silence as your first event. We were doing it at UM long before the club officially formed. It's highly visible, easy to put together, and free!
http://www.silentday.org/

[Jennifer M. Kacerosky]

Food, socials, and stress how important they are and how much they are needed! Many will not help, but finding a way to split up the work and showing others that you really need them to stick around and feel involved helps a lot to find those who will be dedicated. Try your best to meet everyone and make them feel included/special - this goes for all officers. Since you guys are just starting out, I would do a social after almost every meeting - whether it be quick like ice cream and chatting, a movie at someone's place, board games, whatever. When it comes to movies - you can try and tie in the pro-life sentiment with movies like Bella, Juno, Knocked Up, Waitress, Nine Months, Fools Rush In. You can even get together on the weekend for breakfast and then flyer on campus. Anything where people will have to devote time, feel needed, and have fun at the same time is good. Try not to take up too much time though. While at the meetings, you need to really explain why they need to devote time to educating the campus about abortion and how horrible and devastating abortion is - shock them, almost make them feel guilty for not doing something already. Make them understand how important the work you will be doing on campus is - it isn't like the frisbee club - it's life and death, countless lives and deaths. Oh, and also as far as the social/bonding aspect - you already have a great bond with all interested members - you're all pro-life. While you can talk about other things than being pro-life, don't be afraid to continue talking about abortion and how much you dislike it. Many students join organizations because they feel left out or want to find somewhere they really fit in - pro-lifers have a strong bond and you just need to make your members realize that without even knowing each other really, you're already best friends because of this great pro-life connection. If you have any other questions, you call call me or email or message me here.
[e-mail]
954-695-1811

[Sarah Carey]

thanks a million guys!!!
sarah

[Gina Fazenbaker]

Getting people to stay involved is an ongoing process. Try to do things that will make your members friends with eachother--do some social events like a movie night, etc. Also, delegate things to everyone you can including the task of having members who went to an event tell about it at your next meeting (stressing how great it was so as to make the others feel that they missed out). Send out email reminders about meetings and events, too. You have to walk that fine line between keeping the group fresh on everyone's minds without getting marked as spam.

[Sarah Bunch]

These social type activities will help you get to know your members and their interests. Once you have learned about someone's interest and talents you will know how to get them involved. For example, if you have a political science major, they may not be interested in coming to a scientific lecture but they may be interested in helping you schedule a pro-life state representative to talk about the legislative side of the movement.

If you learn that someone is artistic you will want to personally email them and ask them to help create your posters, or if you learn that someone is shy do not ask them to go clipboarding with you but ask them to help plan an event behind the scences.

Sending out mass emails to your facebook group is fine but to get people involved you will need to send them personal emails asking them to do specific things. This will make them feel needed; that they have a vital role to play in the group. If you can get them to say yes with helping you on a small part of the project you have gotten them to invest themselves. They then will be more likely to see the event to the end.

[Morgan]

i could use some help too...our group is new. there are only about three of us so far...how did you get started?

[Rebecca Leonard]

Morgan, we can help you get your group started. Feel free to email me ([e-mail]) or call me (703-244-0949) at any time and I can help you figure out the best way to get the group started on your campus. You can also check out our website at www.studentsforlife.org for more resources and guides on how to get a group going.

We're here to help, so please call or email me at any time!

Morgan said:

i could use some help too...our group is new. there are only about three of us so far...how did you get started?

[1BearkatTexan]

I have met with some unexpected success with procuring membership.

I decided that everyone can get pretty bogged down with frequent meetings and I decided that I would form a sturdy membership of at least two officers. Myself and another guy. I then decided that we would begin reaching out to the Campus ministries and various organizations. I began with the groups that are stereotypically pro-life and not scared of admitting it. I'm still working down my list of ministries to meet with and already we have 145 people on our Pro-Life facebook page. I plan to reach out to the Athiest Alliance and the Democrats because I want to show everyone this issue effects everyone. Already the Philosophy Club wants to formally debate us and I will accept because I know that sometimes even when we lose we actually win. I do think the challenge is not getting the members but getting the members all involved. One girl suggested a candlelight vigil. I think I will start with that so please say some prayers for us.