Congratulations!, you're almost there. Decide on a specific date for the first meeting and create a prospective agenda. Having an agenda is fundamental for making sure that everyone knows in advance what will happen during the meeting, how long it will be, who will participate, and especially - to make sure that time is not wasted.
The first meeting can be in either of the two basic formats:
Agora Ambassador Michal Papis, from Gorzów Speakers Poland, leading an introductory meeting explaining the purpose of Agora Speakers International.
- A Regular "reduced" meeting, which is a scaled-down version of a regular meeting, demonstrating all the main elements. If you can get the help of people who are already members of other Agora Speakers clubs or know how we work, this is preferred.
- An "introductory"/"presentation" type meeting, in which you can explain the club's purpose, the benefits for joining, how the club works, the different roles, etc., and then you hold a Q&A section. You should do this only if:
- Your club hasn't attended any training sessions.
- The majority of the attendees have not been in contact with any Agora materials, groups, documentation, or learning videos (i.e., they are completely new to the organization).
First meeting agenda
Unless you have extensive experience with the way Agora clubs work, it's recommended that you follow the Basic Agenda outlined here for the first meetings.
You will need to upload the agenda of the first meeting during the club registration process. This upload doesn't need to be in a very complicated format, in fact, it may simply be a plain text file. The reason why we do this is that we've experienced many occasions in which people were so enthusiastic about joining Agora and starting a club that they didn't take the time to actually learn and understand what we do and how we do it. They just want to start meeting, but without having a clear idea of what to do at the meetings.
Requiring you to send an agenda when registering the club guarantees that everyone's clear about what should happen during the meeting.
Advertising the Event
It is usually useful to create both Facebook and Google Calendar events so that people can sign up and synchronize the meeting with their own agendas. Try not to plan too much in the future, as people usually sign up then forget about meetings more than two weeks in advance. Confirm with all participants the week before.
When you create the event, create it as a public event so that people can find it and invite others or post it on their blogs or walls.
Be sure to announce your event either in the Agora Speakers Facebook group of your country or the International one ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/agoraspeakers/ ).
Even if the meeting venue is very famous, even if you think everyone knows it very well, to avoid frustration, it's always a good idea to take a few pictures of the location and explain how to get to the meeting room. Some guests to your meeting might not know the place or might even be from a different country.
Also, it's convenient to post pictures of the access to the room itself.
If the venue allows it, print a couple of signs with arrows guiding the visitors to the meeting room.
Use the Brand Portal or the Asset Creator to create banners, agenda templates, etc., for your club.
Please note that all digital assets must be used under the Branding Guidelines, which you can find here: http://www.agoraspeakers.org/pages/Branding+Guidelines .
If you use the Asset creator, it will automatically take care of brand compliance.