How to improve our Meetings

We want to cater for different kinds of people: brand new people, people who have been coming for a while, but we don’t know where they are at, in betweeners, who are not full yogis yet, and we also want to attract as many old yogis as possible

  1. BUDDY OR HOUSEKEEPING SYSTEM:  We are introducing a new buddy or housekeeping system:

Every person who takes a meeting will ask another person to be their “housekeeping assistant”

(Sigrid is volunteering to be the housekeeping helper for the next few weeks.)

This person is there to support the smooth running of the program.

RESPONSIBILITIES FOR HOUSEKEEPING ASSISTANT

  • Make sure the (green) sign for latecomers is positioned at the top of the stairs
  • Deal with late coming new people, or disturbances, depending on the situation, (possibly just talking to them upstairs)

The housekeeping helper will give a very short intro at the beginning of the program and address general issues such as:

  • Welcome
  • Find out if there are brand new people
  • Introduce the person who is taking the programme
  • Introduce experienced yogis
  • Give overview of what is going to happen this evening (ie: talk, guided meditation, video, workshop)
  • Ask everybody to stay for the workshop
  • Protocol issues, such as: how to behave when coming late, mobile phone etc
  • Intro how we run programmes  as unpaid volunteers
  • How we finance programmes (donations)
  • Formal ending of the program is at 20:00
  • Explain briefly about how a workshop works, especially the use of fire, possibly Bhandan & Kundalini
  • Invitation for those would would like to stay or ask personal questions, to come upstairs, and chat for another 20, 30 minutes

2. NEW COURSE We will run a course for new people, ideally before the summer in May and June, advertising on facebook and meetup

We have a meeting discussing the course on Sat April 27th

3. IDEAS AND TIPPS FOR PREPARING A MEETING 

  • research your topic on amruta.com – you can read the transcripts, choose a video, scan the transcript before the program (I have noticed that the videos on Amruta feature better transcripts than some of the videos posted on youtube)
  • remember that most people are not native English speakers
  • frame your presentation by addressing the people in the middle range – those who have been coming for a little while – this way you can talk about any theme and go deeper, but don’t assume that the people know or have understood even basic subjects (that is, quickly explain central terms and concepts)
  • decide on a core message that you want people to take home that day
  • repeat messages (introduce your theme, give an overview, discuss theme, and at the end summarise core message)
  • make it interesting by talking about personal examples, telling a story, telling a personal anecdote or joke
  • using visual aids (you can use powerpoint) or Sigrid can prepare hidden pages on the website, so images and other visuals can be projected on the wall

Summary from 6.4. 2018

SUGGESTED DATES for NEW COURSE

2 9 16 23 30 May

6 13 20 27 June

End with Saturday Workshop 29 June