First Information Meeting
Wednesday February 8, 2012
Our first Information Meeting was a great success, our careful preparation and planning paid off when we found ourselves at the front of the room facing the 32 people who had attended. We had twenty-eight eligible high school students, three parents, and one participant's 8th grade sibling who was interested in learning more about the program. We were pleased to meet Emily Lord, an SCA Manchester Leader from 2011. It was great to see that our program is gaining interest, momentum, and visibility in the community.
The meeting began, as scheduled, at 7 PM in our usual meeting room at Salvation Army. We began by introducing ourselves and moved from there to a name game which took much longer than we had anticipated. This actually worked to our benefit as it kept the students engaged, moving and laughing at each other's dance moves. We had planned to do two activities but decided against the second after we realized we were pressed for time, this had the added benefit of focusing the attention on the informational aspect of our meeting.
We moved into our presentation from here, overcame a frightening technical detail, which allowed for a little bit more comic relief and a chance for us to show off our ability to improvise and adapt to challenges. Our presentation went well, after having practiced it and critiqued it so many times. We ended our presentation with a question and answer session.
We had asked two prominent returning members, Zach and Destiny, to speak to their experiences in the program last year. They both gave examples of meaningful events and recounted stories from their participation last year that we, as new leaders, could never have described while we were presenting. They provided proof that our program is fun and enjoyable. This was a definite highlight of the night.
We left time at the end for milling around and mingling. The students moved around and talked to us about who they are and asked us questions about ourselves. Many of them said they would be attending our next meeting and joining us on our first Saturday event at Bear Brook.
After this meeting, we as leaders are newly energized, and excited to see so much momentum. We learned that our presentation needs more of a conclusion, a review of the important pieces of paperwork, clarifications of things that might have been confusing. Our conclusion was something of a culmination of convoluted sidenotes. In no way did this ruin our presentation, but we feel we might have actually confused more people with our emphasis on clarity.
From here we are working on scheduling more events, getting more flyers into the community, scheduling opportunities to present in schools (tabling at lunch, as well as in-class presentations)and afterschool programs (like the YMCA teen program).
We also are working on meeting with Jessica Fleming of Manchester Parks and Recreation to establish a lasting, substantial partnership of some type(probably adopting a park, or trails), as Parks and Recreation is a partner we would love to have. It would provide a more visible, substantial, and logical place for SCA Manchester, a place that is a little more tangible and "show-off-able" to the participants friends and family. It would be a partnership that would tremendously benefit both organizations.
Here we go.
Aria Bilal
Chelsea Kibbe
Chris Olsen
Kevin Webster
SCA Manchester Conservation Leadership Corps Leaders
SCA NH corps
159A Deerfield Road
Allenstown, NH 03275
(603) 485-2191 ext.5
manchesterclc@thesca.org [1]
www.thesca.org/manchester
www.facebook.com/sca.manchester
