Managing a Group

Here’s the crucial aspect of managing any group and more so with the Students for CRY America. Each member to this group is an ambassador for child rights, spreading awareness and message of hope on the situation of underprivileged children. It’s important at this stage to be well organized, planned and coordinated as it leads to organizational efficacy. Any activity undertaken should be inline with CRY America’s core values of - Respect for human dignity, Transparency, Accountability, Non-violence, Secularism and Innovation.

As mentioned at various points, its essential that all chapters connect with the National Leader, Students for CRY America or the local Action Center (if there is one within your location) for guidance and updates.

How to Manage a Group Effectively?

• Plan for Effective Meetings


• Recruit and Retain Volunteers


• Plan and Set Goals/Objectives


• Join Hands with Other Organizations


• Plan Events and Activities

Plan for Effective Meetings
A rule of thumb of facilitation is that successful meetings are 80 percent preparation and 20 percent execution. Meetings provide all those who attend an opportunity to discuss objectives, keep abreast on the chapters current events, inter-group communication, ensuring a healthy and cohesive chapter. Most of all, meetings allow your group to pull resources together for decision-making.

Before the Meeting: Plan what, when, where, why, who and how many will participate in the meeting; prepare and send out an agenda in advance; arrive early at you meeting venue to set up the room.

At the Beginning of the Meeting: Always begin as per schedule; do an introduction of all the attendees; get the group to voice their expectations; re-iterate the agenda and review action items from the previous meeting.

During the Meeting: To ensure the group is actively participating and attentive you must ask questions as there are always silent participants who have a doubt but not voice it; clarify issues; provide for options to situations; and listen. Effective meetings must adhere to the agenda and time schedule.

At the End of the Meeting: Summarize the discussions, delegate clear responsibilities, identify additional data needed to make decisions, set the date and place of the next meeting with a preliminary agenda and close the meeting.

After the Meeting: Ensure to follow-up on action items and begin putting together the agenda for the next meeting.

Recruit and Retain Volunteers
Basic Principles

• Trust volunteers. Let them do the assigned task without too much of intervention. Make sure to appreciate what they do and inform them that their actions are not going to benefit you or CRY America or themselves but children.


• Value your volunteers time. Give clear information on roles, responsibilities and commitment.


• Involve volunteers and encourage them to contribute to decisions


• Use the strength of the team to get the work done.

Tips for Recruiting Student Volunteers

• Be positive and enthusiastic its an excellent motivator.


• Show your potential volunteers the benefits of their actions.
  
• Elucidate roles and responsibilities and time commitment required.
  
• Frequently value and appreciate their actions and work.
  
• Involve students from diverse organizations or groups. It leads to a healthy exchange of ideas and experiences.
  
• Do not question any members motives of involvement. At CRY America we believe each one can make a difference.
  
• Address all feedback, suggestions, queries received.

Tips for Retaining Student Volunteers

• Recognize, value and appreciate your teams efforts.


• Set an agenda for meetings and adhere to it.


• Attach more experienced volunteers to new entrants on activities. They can guide them on the tasks, the dos and donts involved it also creates a healthy team environment.


• Encourage committed on-going volunteers to take on leadership roles.


• Welcome volunteers at all time be it individuals who can support you only for a specific task or time period or even those who return after long breaks. They are all champions for children.


• As a leader of your group, be part of the team, get hands-on involved in tasks and activities. You also require to positive even when things are not going as planned. Your optimism will motivate your teams 100%.


• Let your volunteers be part of the board meetings. Ensure you address their queries, and implement their suggestions.

Plan and Set Goals/Objectives
This area will help you in putting down key focus points for your group. Goals are statements describing what a chapter wishes to accomplish. Objectives are descriptions of exactly what is to be done in order to meet your goals.

Clear directions not only gets you committed volunteers but also motivates the entire team. Here are some tips on setting goals:

• Ideate goals with volunteers on what you would like your chapter to achieve and prioritize them.


• Determine objectives for each goal with clear measurable action points.


• Implement finalized objectives within the specified timeframes. Ensure contingency plans incase objectives not going as per schedule.


• Regularly evaluate your progress. Be open to change objectives. Modify them according to the changes in circumstances and environment. It will help you in achieving your goal.

Join Hands with Other Organizations
Collaboration on ideas, resources, information with other groups and organizations will not only increase your chapters awareness but also help you reach out to many more individuals. You could benefit from their activities, planning processes, strategies, events organized and much more. CRY America is a peoples movement on child rights and our mission is about collective action for children. As a leader, you need to ensure that the organization is in sync with CRY Americas mission and core values.

Note: Please get in touch with your school or campus authorities to know more about rules & regulation for collaborating with other organizations.

Plan Events and Activities
Events and activities can be powerful tools to raise awareness about children and their rights in your community. It also enables you reach out to people, acquire new members, and strengthen the group.

To help you in organizing this, the following are some tips:

• State the objective of organizing an event or activity e.g.: is it to raise funds or create awareness. Accordingly, indicate a target figure you wish to accomplish.


• Assess the resources available to you be it budgets you have for the event or manpower [faculty and staff members, students, and community groups are all resources.]


• Brainstorm on ideas for the event. List all suggestions. Shortlist and assess feasibility for each.


• Put a brief on the concept of the event, your target audience, date, and venue and details of what you are organizing.


• Make small task forces based on the jobs to be completed. Work backwards from the date of the event to the present. Make a schedule that covers each task and who in your chapter is responsible to complete it.


• Reserve resources you need from your campus in advance. There are many groups working on your campus competing for the school resources. Ensure you complete the necessary paperwork required well in advance.


• Draw up a budget for your event - lists all associated costs and allocate the available funds. You may have to contact various departments for cost estimates associated with their services. Make sure that the cost to revenue ratio for the event is low. Ask your national leader for guidance and support.


• Get requisite permissions and fill all forms required to get your event rolling. Sometimes you may require presence of police and emergency medical services.


• Ensure your collateral material like banners, posters are ready and displayed.


• Meet with your task forces regularly. It will help you in assessing the progress or indicate hurdles faced by the team, enabling you to make the necessary changes. The closer you get to the event, the more frequent you should meet with them.


• Document the event and the processes including financials. It will help you for future activities and can work as a manual to the teams.


• Post the event, you need to evaluate its success and report the same to all concerned groups. Write a brief synopsis of the event, including participant and planner comments, attendance, suggestions for future events, and final costs. Remember to send in your event report to the national group. And most importantly, clear your accounts with CRY America accountants within 2 weeks of the event.