Tips for your early meetings

Most Local Conversations spend the first few months of their group's life focused on two things: relationships and education.

Relationships

Find out who is in the room. What is their background or Strong Towns origin story? What experience do they bring to the group? Which issues are they especially passionate about? 

Education

As a group, go deeper into Strong Towns ideas. Many Local Conversations go through a Strong Towns course together, especially the free Strong Towns 101 course. Others will watch and discuss a Local-Motive session relevant to a pressing issue in their community. Still others have gone through the Curbside Chat video series, one of our YouTube videos, or the Not Just Bikes+Strong Towns series discussion guides. You can also do a book club, or read and discuss an article or podcast. 

In addition, a number of our groups have also used their early meetings to invite other local leaders -- for example, a city staffer or elected official -- to come and talk about their work. This is a great way not only to learn more about how your city works, but also to develop collegial relationships that will be beneficial to your advocacy down the road.

Additional Tips

Here are a few additional tips for your early meetings:

Keep It Informal

Whether you’re meeting in person or gathering online, treat the early days of your group as a chance to get to know one another, talk about your city, learn a little about the Strong Towns approach, and start to get a sense of how you might work together to utilize it in your neighborhoods.

Keep It Open to All Experience Levels

Emphasize that while anyone is welcome to visit (or review), absolutely no experience, vocabulary, or urban planning knowledge is necessary to join the conversation; just open minds and a passion for making your community stronger.

Plan Ahead

Send out a Doodle poll with a few days and times for a first meetup to find a slot that works for a quorum of people, rather than picking a random date and time. Shoot for about 3–4 weeks out, unless you have a venue in mind that you know will require more lead time. You may also solicit suggestions for a venue from your group; we recommend someplace public, with enough space to fit your group and not so noisy that no one can hear. Pick a bar, restaurant, library meeting room, or other space that you think might be suitable, and when you call to make the reservation, be sure to ask about noise level and number of chairs.

Keep It Accessible

Especially for in-person meet ups, ask your list whether they require childcare, disability accommodations, interpreter services, or any other special needs that you can reasonably provide.