KBF Sussex had its first meeting earlier this week in a pub in Brighton. Here are some tips for anyone setting up a local group.
You can start your own group using KBF local.
If there isn't a group at the moment you can start one and be the group administrator.
It may be easier to start with a discussion to find other interested people and this may help define the geographical area you start with.
Paul Kayser started our group at the end of July. Paul explained:
“I used the search function to look for others located in Sussex (by typing in areas like Brighton, Eastbourne, Worthing, Lewes etc) and engaged in conversation via the Members Chat feature. As I began to make more connections I created a group chat (in Members Chat) adding the names of the members. We discussed the idea of a meet up via a Zoom call, which concluded with an agreed time and place. I posted the general details of our event on KBF South (KBF Local), which asked for a direct message for the specifics (as the forum is public but dm is private), Simon Dolan retweeted the details and I also posted on Facebook. Our group from all these difference sources is now over 25 and growing.”
Five of us had a zoom conference call a few days later and we agreed to meet the following Tuesday at 7.00 pm.
We allocated some tasks...three of us respectively...looked for new members, booked a venue and produced an agenda.
We chose a pub in Brighton as:
- Brighton was reasonably central
- the pub was close to public transport and parking wasn't too bad
- we knew the owner had a clear and sensible position on health and safety guidance
- the room was free to use.
We ideally wanted between 8 and 20 people to attend; 12 attended.
This worked well in terms of numbers and participation.
We did not publicly advertise the event.
On the night we started with introductions, then discussed the various issues and some potential action points.
We agreed to meet again in 2 weeks time to keep the momentum going at a larger, quieter venue.
Our focus is to speed up a return to normal...where people and businesses are free to choose what they do.
We discussed four main groups of people who we can influence or approach and have decided to focus on three areas at our next meeting:
- Getting the most out of KBF/member recruitment
- Helping Other People
- Influencing Politcians, the Business, Medical & Scientific communities
We agreed it was important to use the KBF platform, both the 'public' KBF Sussex group and the private members chat function.
Most of us provided email addresses such that, in the eventuality of issues with the KBF page, we would still be able to meet.
We expect things to evolve as the weeks and months go by and anticipate that the group may need to keep going for many months.
One thing i noticed is that some areas are quite geographically large. Don't worry if you can't all meet physically...alternating between physical meetings and zooms can work well...and cross boundaries if appropriate. It's more important to start, than to have everything ready...if no-one does anything...nothing happens...
A few of us met up in North London last night and had an excellent evening. We are hoping to do another gathering in central London - see if we can grow the group a bit by making the location more central and accessible. These tips are really helpful, thank you!
Good on e Nigel