Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
| ||||||||||||
6 Easy Steps to Organize a Vigil 6 Easy Steps to Organize a Vigil
1. Invite interested people to a Vigil Planning MeetingVigils can come in all shapes and sizes. It can be 20 people or 200 or a thousand. All you need is a few people who care about our world and the UN. Call community and church groups! Friends! Relatives! Get a committee together.
2. Decide what kind of Vigil you want and split up tasks
Once you have a core group of people, you should discuss what your goals are, taking into account your time and other resources. People can participate at a variety of levels: primary organizer, committee member or just participant. If a person promises to bring four others and some candles, they can be a building block for a successful vigil. Divide up the responsibilities among committee members: outreach, press, posters, leaflet, program coordinator (to invite speakers, etc.), candles and ribbons person, etc. A small vigil can be organized by one or two people, but if your plans are more ambitious you will need five, six or more others to help.
Last year, people held "Vigils" that were adapted to their communities. Some groups came together in front of a government building or in a public park. Many held candles or small lights, wore "UN-blue" ribbons (similar to the AIDS red ribbon). Many had musicians or speakers at the event, some with sound systems. Some marched to deliver a joint letter to a government building or sent letters to the president of the country.
Some held quite different events and handed out leaflets in the middle of the day or held indoor meetings. But all events were peaceful and orderly. Your group should decide what's most effective for you. But remember to check ahead on locations because an official legal permit is often required to have a gathering in a public place, and it can take 3 weeks to a month to get one. (Sometimes a different permit is also required to have sound equipment.)
Don't forget the press Think about what kind of publicity or press you want. It's often surprisingly easy to get coverage by the local press and radio or television stations (national press coverage is much harder). Make sure you have your own photographer to take pictures of the event. These can be used for publicity later on.
3. Meet regularly (once a week?)
You'll have to meet several times to coordinate your plans and keep committee members motivated. Once a week is recommended. Check to see that people are taking care of their tasks (ask for reports).
4. Keep the international Vigil organizers posted
Let the national and international organizers know about your plans. Local committees everywhere will be more motivated to hear what their counterparts are planning to do. We will put your event into all of our communications, press releases, and on the Vigil Web Site. We want to make sure we have up-to-the minute info. And we can send you continual information, and put people in touch with you. We would like to help you as much as possible and for your to help us.
5. ON VIGIL DAY
It's time to get together and have a great time!
6. Follow-up immediately after the Vigil
Please let us know right away how it went. We will be compiling information for a press release to go out the following day, UN Day. We would particularly be interested in any photos you have, which we can distribute for publications as well as load onto our Web site.
For more information, contact: Jim Paul-GPF, 1-212-557-3161
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C ß 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
