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Obama Study Group Ideas

By mary4change - Jul 2nd, 2008 at 7:16 pm EDT

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Now that I've hosted the study "party", here's a report on what happened and some ideas of what I would recommend for future study meetings.

At least 13 people signed up, but 7 actually showed up despite emails to those who had signed up asking them to tell me if they weren't coming. I had made a waiting list as I thought I'd have too many, so I'd say plan on half the number coming and set your maximum attendance on MyBo for more than you can actually handle when you plan an event. As for a study group, this was actually a good number, so I'd say shoot for 6 to 10 people as someone recommended earlier.

I had called it a Study "Party" -- not sure why -- but someone came with wine which didn't fit in too well with studying so I wouldn't call it a party in the future. It's good to be really clear in your description of what the event is.

About being clear on the description. Since it was the first time I did this and there weren't any precedents, I left things a bit open. As a result there was a bit of confusion at first as to how we would proceed and that left things open for people to make their opinions known as to how they would like it to go (and that wasn't always how I saw things going). So I'd say think of how you want to approach the study process and make that a part of your description of the group from the beginning. Then reiterate that when you start the meeting.

What we ended up doing, and what I think was a great format, is reading through the Blueprint for Change. In just one meeting we had time to read through each issue "at a glance", and then begin to go into depth in one area. This accomplished several things -- first everyone got familiarized with the Blueprint and how it's organized. Someone in the group was also able to point out that in the descriptions of issues online, how each of these areas will be funded can be found at the bottom of the page. If you have ongoing meetings, you could take one area at a time, but in any case I highly recommend working with that document. It's 64 pages. One person had printed it out and made copies which most people chipped in for. You could encourage people to bring their own, or just pass one around.

Some guidelines I set up --

Our purpose was to learn Obama's positions, not to discuss their merits or our opinions, and
discussion was to be for the purpose of clarifying the issues or positions. This was helpful. Some people in our group were quite knowledgeable in certain areas and it was very informative.

I also made it clear the meeting would end on time and ended the discussion 15 mins before ending time. That was what was comfortable for me. If it's in your home, you get to decide that kind of thing. If you don't mind lingering on and socializing afterwards, or want to do that, then you can set the tone for that to happen.

A few other "tips" --

If you use the MyBo Event planner, then sign up for the event yourself if someone is coming who doesn't signup through MyBo. I had several people coming who responded to an email and I added numbers in for them through my signup. Kind of complicated but the Event tool tops taking signups when the capacity is full.

Well, that's all I have energy to type today! If I think of more, I'll add it in another post.

I encourage anyone who wants to do this, whether you do it on your own with friends or set up an event online!

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By obamabug Jul 2nd 2008 at 9:46 pm EDT

Thanks 4Obama

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