How to organise an action group to save birds.
We all know going it alone is hard work; so we have designed this action kit to guide you through setting up or joining a local group to raise awareness in your community. As a community member and consumer, you have the voice and power to make drive change.
This Action kit includes
How to start a community group
How to run your first meeting and make it great
Keeping your local group in the know
Build and grow your group
Get in touch with the campaigns team and make a plan.
1. How to start a community group
Start locally and find a band of heroes, tap into your networks and groups, and identify a few co-founders with networks that reflect the diversity of opposition. Establish relationships with community groups affected by these poisons staying on the shelf. See a few examples of groups you could connect with:
Gardening and walking groups,
Conservation groupsi.e. Landcare, ecologists, friends of reserves, creeks, parks,
Farmers and land managers, Food markets
Landcare
Invite people to be part of your group
Set up a FB group or add an invite to like-minded groups you are a member. Say that you are starting a group for people in your electorate who care about owls, wildlife and pets and ask people to email you to sign up.
Invite interested people to a meeting, either inline or in real life (IRL)
Use this meeting to agree on a name, principles on working together for the group, roles for leadership, ways of communicating and how often you will meet
Send any public events to BirdLife Campaigns team to promote on our website at actforbirds@birdlife.org.au
2. Run your first meeting and make it great!
Focus on a plan, people will have lots of great ideas, affirm their concerns and feelings, but stay on track and focus on a plan.
Agree on principles and what your group stands for, i.e., we want our community to be a safe haven for owls, wildlife and pets from rodenticide poisoning.
Agree on when to have regular meetings.
Work together to achieve this goal and model BirdLife community values
embrace diversity and work in partnership with mutual respect
bring people together around a love of nature
maintain integrity and be hones
always assume good intentions and give criticism with kindness
Volunteer Roles for the group – organise and divide toles and responsibilities for the group
Two people - leading and in charge of overall coordination
One - two people - coordinating events and actions
One - two people - keeping an eye and tracking your local reps office schedule and events
In addition to these roles, make sure to ask how they want to participate and contribute to advocacy efforts:
Make calls.
Engage on social media or a question at council and community meetings.
Write op-eds for local newspapers.
Meeting with decision-makers, i.e. Bunnings.
3. Keep your local group in the know!
Adopt means of communication
There are a few ways to stay in touch with everyone in your group about actions; this could be a Facebook group, Google group or a Slack team. Secure or encrypted platforms such as Signal or WhatsApp are also worth considering.
Set up regular meetings
To keep the momentum going in the group have regular meetings, consistent catchups is a great way to keep people engaged by celebrating, kicking goals and reporting back on actions. Be inclusive, diverse and flexible when finding a time; try to accommodate the majority but alternate between making sure everyone can join.
Build and grow the group.
For each new person that joins your group, ask them to invite one other.
Have conversations to encourage people to join.
Know their story and what they care about; how would they feel if the government and big business did the right thing for Owls, wildlife and pets in their community.
4. Get in touch with the campaigns team
Discuss a campaign plan for the bird/birds your group wants to campaign and organise for, we can help you with the resources and support to get started. actforbirds@birdlife.org.au