This page is still very much in development, despite already having proved useful to several new groups. If you've got any ideas or corrections please do contact us.

A group can be attractive and mutually supportive to many people who would not think to contact a lone network contact, until they have a group name. A local group can also turn out to be a source of life-long friends.

Getting people to join

A small number of active and interesting people can be a lot of fun, so don't be despondant if you start out small. Concentrate on what you can do together, whilst working on boosting numbers if that is what you want.

The key to starting a group is getting a small critical mass of people interested. It is worth trying a range of ways to do this, and continuing to work on them to keep the group regenerating and growing, such as:

• Give the group a name and contact details and hey presto it exists, members or no members. It's worth thinking about what you want it to be, though that can emerge through the personalities who join it.
• Having a website with local veggie details on it is not as hard as you might think (see Making use of the Internet). The more information on your site, particularly on local places to eat and shop, the more people will find it and then get a chance to find out about your activities. This is often the most successful way of getting new members.
• Leaflets left everywhere veggie-friendly, in libraries and at local events and any stalls you hold really help.
• Making the group inclusive in name of vegetarians as well as vegans will normally get you a lot more vegans (many vegans think they might be the only normal one!) as well as a lot more people who are vegan-interested. You can still have exclusively vegan food at your eating events.
• Have a strong social element to your group. Social groups get more people than campaigning groups, and often you can get people to help you with more pro-active work out of a social group.
• Getting the frequency and timing of your meetings/events so that they are often enough to give people a few opportunities to join in but rare enough to make people put them in their diary. Once a month is plenty for a new group.
• Making links with other local groups, such as environmental, animal and human rights groups, will often be a good source of local veggie-interested people. Have joint events, swap leaflets, and join in with their group spreading the word about yours within it. Swap website links with them.
• Getting listed with the Vegan Society, Vegetarian Society and other organisations too helps.

Low membership

You are the person making it happen. Maybe there was nothing before you. It is tough and sometimes lonely to get something going (having a local buddy helps a lot), but it will always be positive for your area, and you will make friends. Thank you for being there. Concentrate on what you can do with what you have and how you can build on it - try new ideas and break down the hurdles for people finding out about you or joining your group. If you are a bit shy, encourage a bubbly member of your group to be the outgoing face gathering people in.

Meeting place

A cafe or restaurant which you know to be vegan-friendly is the best place to meet, as it is no cost to you, and more relaxed for meeting new people. Some small groups meet at people's houses, but this is not recommended for a first meeting of strangers.

Rooms in community centres, church halls, schools and in Quaker Friends' Meeting Houses are all popular locations for booked rooms at relatively low cost. These are particularly useful of you are arranging for speakers or bringing and sharing food. You don't normally have to belong to these organisations to book their rooms.

Your age and skills

Your age need not be a barrier to other age groups, and most groups, except some student ones, have a wide range. Being a friendly person is what helps the most.

If you need help with communicating with and running the group, you could find an accomplice. You might soon find one amongst early members. Maybe neighbouring network contacts could buddy up with you for this too. Email is the simplest way to communicate between meet-ups.

Membership

For most groups membership is entirely informal and free, and results from giving your contact details to the co-ordinator.

Some groups do have an annual membership fee of say £5, to cover costs such as meeting room hire, newsletters, postal notifications. However, you can minimise costs by communicating by email, asking people to phone you, meeting in public places, such as restaurants, cafes, bars and picnic spots, and not having a printed newsletter.

Some groups cover their incidental costs by ad hoc charges when a talk is held in a hired meeting room, etc. Also simple fundraising can cover such costs with excess being donatable to charity. Read our article on fundraising for inspiration.

Solving people issues

People issues are bound to come up from time to time in running a group, and being prepared with a way of dealing with them initially is the best way to stop them developing into a problem. Groups are a great way to make friends and be an active veggie, so are well worth the odd bit of aggro. Below are some ideas for dealing with a few of the most likely issues.

Groups of any kind sometimes get someone turning up regularly whom others find very off-putting, such as through anti-social or inappropriate behaviour. In serious cases this can cause others to not turn up anymore. We would recommend working out how to deal with this right away with the other active members of your group, taking care to balance the needs of the individual with the upset caused and potential damage to the group. Being both tactful and assertive is a good idea, though hard.

Getting let down is a problem that can come up occassionally. It can be upsetting and embarrassing for the event organiser who has to explain to the restauranteur why 6 vegans have proved so unreliable and only 7 have turned up. It doesn't reflect well on us veggies for a start! Some people don't tend to follow guidelines however often you state them. It's still worth being clear at the outset what the rules are, such as booking in advance for meals out, and calling you if they are not able to make it at the last minute to a booked event. Remind the forgetful ones more frequently, and explain to them why it is so important, which often solves the problem. Even then, it can be worth allowing for a 10% flexibility in booked numbers.

Sometime some members of the group want to do different things to those decided by the originator of the group or its main active members. Be open from the start about what the group does and does not do. This is particularly crucial when the group's public image is at stake, and making sure it keeps vegetarian and vegan issues and people in a positive light. It can even be worth being rather autocratic when first setting up a group, and then delegating responsibility to trusted people or a committee. If people want to do other things, either come to an agreement together or ask them to set up their own group. If people who do nothing tell you what to do, encourage them to do it, and don't bust a gut about it unless you want to do it yourself anyway!

What should my group do?

Your group's activity and reason for being is totally up to you. What your mission is decides which organisations will list you and the kind of people you will attract. Being broad and positive works well if you want high numbers.

It's all up to you what activities you actually do and when. Active veganism is anarchic in the best sense - you share ideas and enthusiasms and get on with what you think is most exciting and suits your skills to organise, and see what happens. It has a lot to be said for it compared to being part of the beaurocracy of an organisation. Though you might feel a general mission and a few guidelines help...

Take a look at this website to find out what other groups do and what ideas we have shared already. There ar many useful "how to" guides to get you started. Also, use the forum if you have any questions for other active vegans.

How Sarah-Marguerite Butel of Jersey Bean Vegans went about it

Setting up a local group is really a lot less daunting than it sounds. You will probably need a bit of perseverance as you may not get the response you wish for at first. The good news is that you will meet like-minded people in your area and you can give each other support in fighting the vegan cause.

After deciding to set up a local group, I got in touch with the Local and Group Contacts Coordinator, who advised me on how best to go about making contact with local vegans.

I wrote an introductory letter explaining who I was and that I wished to set up a local group to meet other Jersey vegans. I also included a short questionnaire, asking recipients the extent and reasons for their being vegan, how they thought veganism could be improved in Jersey and what focuses they thought such a group should have.

The Local Contact Coordinator then forwarded my letter and questionnaire to Channel Island residents whose names were on the Vegan Society database, six of whom replied positively. I then contacted these people using the contact details they gave me, and arranged an initial meeting, with the purpose of discussing the focus of our group.

Three members including myself attended our first meeting at my house, where we discussed our ideas about veganism in Jersey and how to move forward progressively. Considering the responses from the questionnaires we decided that our group should be mainly a social group. Overall the meeting was very successful and although there were only three of us it was wonderful to meet other vegans who shared the same outlook on life as I did.

After the first meeting I put posters up the local health food shops and farm shops, advertising the group, and we gained three more members through these.

I then arranged a ‘Bring & Taste’ evening at my house, which four members attended. Everyone brought a couple of their favourite vegan dishes and drinks to try and it was a great way to break the ice.

The group celebrated World Vegan Day on 1st November with a meal at the local Pizza Express which five members attended. Again this was a social evening and was very successful.

Living on such a small island our response has been slow, which was to be expected, but even so the whole experience has been very positive and it is great to know I am not the only eco-warrior out there!

My main advice would be to just be positive and enjoy meeting new people. Don’t worry if some of the vegans you make contact with aren’t interested in the group, but leave the option for them to get back in touch with you if they change their minds in the future.