Chapter Strategy: YR Survey

[KPalicz]

I posted this elsewhere, but it quickly became buried so I'm reposting the idea here in its own thread. I think its a good idea that could really be effective if done right. I can't wait for a chapter to give this a shot, I want to see how it works.

With any chapter it is most important is to start recruiting people. The more people you have the more effective you will be. Then find what issues they care about most. What pisses them off the most that they'd be willing to do something about it.

Try to create interest at your school by taking a poll of everyone. Ask them to fill out something really quick that lists a variety of youth rights issues in your area you could work on, and ask them to rank their importance. Also be sure they write down their name on the poll too, and e-mail/phone if possible. Lets say you give it out to a quarter of the school. It would create definite buzz among the entire school, and people wouldn't be initially asked to go do anything, just to think about hte issues, which is a great jumping off point.

Then you tabulate the results, pick an issue that has the strongest support and decide to work on that. By this time not only has the school already been thinking about the issues, but you have in your hand a list of people who support X issue. Contact all those people specifically to start up your chapter.

If the school gives you crap about the survey, try to incorporate it into a school project. Perhaps write a paper about some youth rights issue and then make the survey part of the research you are doing for the paper.

[SciVille]

Hope to get some high schoolers in the DC chapter who can do this. My sister is still in high school but it doesn't seem like something she'd feel like doing. I could still ask her, though. It's a great idea, Alex.:b:

[Patrick]

Alex,

Great idea! Since my school is small and I've already polled everyone (informally), I'm going to try and do this at the other schools in Santa Fe. I'm working with a civics class in middle school at the moment that recently wrote a letter to the editor arguing to lower the voting age, and I'm hoping they'll join the chapter and work at their school to do things exactly like this.

To those who write any, please post your surveys so the rest of us can get an idea. I will, too, when I get one done.

[HardyMacia]

Great idea. I'll toss it around in Vermont.

[HardyMacia]

If your school has a newspaper you could turn your survey results into a short article. Out of 100 students surveyed last week, 40% thought the drinking age should be abolished, 30% thought it should be lowered to 18, 20% thought it should be left alone, and 10% thought make it illegal again.

[KPalicz]

Good idea Hardy.

[SciVille]

Wha-, you-, what the-, huh-,....Alex! That was a pointless necro!:P

[Tempus Fugit]

I think he is just upset it never got trafficked.

[KPalicz]

Keith has written a sample survey, I'm gonna post it here with my comments. Please everyone else, make suggestions. I'll see if I can write somethign of my own too.

Keith's Survey:



This Survey is for forming NYRA Chapters. It serves two essential purposes:

First, it allows forming chapters to gauge the interest of students at their school, helping create a chapter that will get a lot of support and members.

Second, by passing out the surveys, the chapter founder is giving FREE publicity to the forming chapter, leading to greater interest and members.

Eveyone, please help with this so we can get it finished AND on the Chapter page in the next few days. That way, someone forming a chapter can print out 50 or 100 copies and take it to their school (or pass it out in their neighborhood).

Keith

We are starting a new chapter of the National Youth Rights Organization (NYRA) [at [ADD SCHOOL NAME]] [or] [in [ADD CITY OR COUNTY NAME]]. NYRA is a youth-led, national organization which works to end discrimination against youth and give youth power at school, and in city, state and national government. Please complete the survey below so that we can see how to best design and implement our new chapter.

1. What is your biggest problems with [ADD SCHOOL NAME]?

* A. Unfair discipline (punishment for minor offenses)
* B. Unfair grades (teachers are too tough or discriminate against particular students)
* C. Lack of say in what you learn (you can't design their own curriculum or even pick your own classes)
* D. No student voting representation on the school's PTA
* E. Other Problem (Please explain):_________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ____

2. What city/state/national youth issues are most important to you?

* A. Lowering the voting age
* B. Ending curfews
* C. Lowering the drinking age
* D. Youth voting representation on city and state school boards

3. Which would you be most interested in joining?

* A. A youth rights organization focusing on school issues (like those in question 1)
* B. A youth rights organization focusing on city/state/national issues (like those in question 2)
* C. A youth rights organization focusing on BOTH school issues and city/state/national issues
* D. None of the above (not interested in youth rights)

4. If you are interested in joining our youth rights chapter, what can you do to help us grow?

* A. Organize protests
* B. Write press releases and contact newspapers, radio and tv stations
* C. Help students who have been discriminated against to obtain justice
* D. Talk to polictical leaders about changes needed to make life better for youth
* E. Design a web site and provide tech help for the chapter
* F. Design flyers/brochures and provide artistic help for the chapter
* G. All of the above.

5. If interested in joining our chapter, please provide:

Name______________________________________________ _______________________________
Email_____________________________________________ ___________ IM Screen name_____________________________________
Address________________________




Personally I think a shorter, simplier survey would work better. And perhaps one that doesn't even mention NYRA. I'm thinking if we just make it a general survey about the issues and make it unrelated to an organization it will be more likely to get participation (folks will see through it too easily otherwise and be too skeptical filling it out), and more likely to avoid a clampdown by school authorities.

A NYRA quiz asking people to join when there isn't yet a chapter approved yet would, I think, result in teachers confiscating the survey saying that unapproved clubs can't recruit. If, instead, you just say you are writing a paper on the subject, or doing it for the school paper or something, then you will probably be more likely to get away with it.

Also I'm thinking of a survey where people indicate whether they strongly agree or disagree with statements. Like:

Lowering the voting age to 16
Strongly Disagree - Disagree - Neutral - Agree - Strongly Agree

That way you get more information than just whether someone supports it or not. If an issue has 60% of the people say they agree, and 5% say they strongly agree, it might not be as good of an issue to work on as an issue where 30% say they agree and 30% say they strongly agree. Or even an issue with 10% agree and 30% strongly agree.

Lukewarm support doesn't translate into activists. People really need to be fired up about an issue. Better to have a minority of people really fired up, than a majority of people who are apathetic.

And keep it short, like 5 or 6 issues.

Maybe...

Lowering the voting age to 16
Repealing the curfew law
Lowering the drinking age to 18
Opposing ID badges in school
Fighting Drug testing in school
Teen driving restrictions

Then, keeping with the academic nature of the survey, say on the quiz or just in person "I may have follow up questions about the survey results, please list your name and e-mail" And have space to do so.

People may feel less threatened by that than asking them to join outright.

[Crazed123]

Yeah, and we should make our organization's positions far less obvious on the survey. It should be possible to answer as a youth bigot without recognizing a clear bias towards youth rights.