Steps to set up your Team Burma event
<<BACK: Team Burma Event Guide 1
1. Decide on a location
You should hold the event in a place with lots of foot traffic at the time of your event, so that you can ask lots of people to join Team Burma and play a round of chinlone.
- The ideal location is a public place with lots of foot traffic and space for a small chinlone game. Check out the website for your local parks department to see if you need a permit for setting up a table at a park or other public location.
- Or, you could hold your event in a dense shopping area, near a tourist-friendly monument, or in front of a friendly grocery or natural foods store– just think of the best place in your community to attract lots of Team Burma recruits.
- Take a minute to think about what you’ll do in case of rain. Is your location close to an awning or overhang? Can you set up a tent over your table?
The best time to hold this event is afternoon rush hour, or when you think lots of people will be walking around outside.
2. Get ready for your Team Burma event
Invite friends. If you’re involved in any activist communities or organizations, send an email, and call other members who might attend. Use Facebook, Myspace, and other social networking websites to invite people to your event.
Contact your local media. Don’t forget to call media outlets a day or two before the event, and to call them back the morning of the event. Be sure to check out our enclosed sample media advisory and talking points for the event.
Prepare yourself and your team. You have a very important role at the event itself. It’s your job to assign tasks, manage all the volunteers who come, and respond to any problems that come up. So you should really think through the whole event from start to finish. Here are some key tips:
- Know who’s coming. A good rule of thumb is that half as many people as sign up will actually attend, but you can improve that by making reminder calls and knowing people personally.
- If anyone volunteered to photograph and/or video the event, follow up with them by phone and make sure they can upload those photos to the Internet and send them to info@8808forburma.org.
- If someone volunteered to come early and help set up, arrange a time and place to meet before the event.
- Send out a reminder email to all volunteers the day before and the day-of the event.
Prepare your materials. Materials included in the materials section are:
- A flyer to hand out to passersby at your event
- A Team Burma signup sheet
- Sample media advisory and script
- A Chinlone leader script
- A Tabler script
- A Rover script
- A poster/banner you can print at home or at a copy shop
And you’ll receive 1 stenciled Than Shwe chinlone ball in the mail - more available online for a donation to cover costs
Here are other important materials you’ll need:
- A booth or table that’s light and easy to set up, like a card table
- Strong tape for the banner, and a couple rocks to hold down paper if it’s windy
- Optional: Candy as prizes and thank yous for signing up for Team Burma
Have a plan for bad weather. If you see lightning, hail, or other extreme weather during your event, you should have a back-up plan. Think of any indoor or covered locations where you can go flyering. Is there an indoor mall that might let you flyer there? Is there a store awning that could protect your team while you flyer?
3. Suggested guidelines for the event itself
Show up 15-20 minutes early to set up. Hang banner in front of the table or behind it if there’s a wall.
Assign everyone a role. For this event, some of the roles that need to be filled include:
- Tablers – Pass out flyers, pins and obtain contact information. Use the Tabler script for suggestions.
- Media coordinator — Watches out for media, and helps the event host talk to them using the Media advisory and script.
- Chinlone leader – Begins and maintains an ongoing chinlone game directing people to the table. See the Chinlone leader script in the materials section.
- Rover - Walk around the area directing people toward the table and chinlone game. Use the Rover script to tell people what the event is about.
- Photographer – Take pictures of Team Burma event and chinlone players.
Review script with volunteers. Be sure to remind them that for this event to be successful, you all need to actively reach out to passersby.
Get someone to staff the booth or table. Again, remind him or her to be assertive, and call to people as they walk by! If you wait for people to come to you, you won’t talk to very many people.
Get someone to be a Rover with a clipboard and flyers. Apart from one or two people at the table, almost *everyone else* but the chinlone leader should fan out with clipboards or flyers getting people interested and over to the event.
Start a chinlone game! Encourage people at the table and other passersby to join the game.
Run the table for up to 2 hours.
Take pictures and get people to sign up for Team Burma.
At the end, gather all your volunteers and thank them for coming! Be sure to ask everyone to sign the contact sheet. Also, make sure that whoever took pictures can send them to info@8808forburma.org. Mail your contact list to 8-8-08 for Burma, PO Box 20025, New York, NY 10001.
