By Abram Shanedling

It’s that time of year again. School season is in the air. But amid all the chaos that comes with the start of this fall’s semester, it’s also important not to leave out your planning for your pro-Israel group and campus activism.

Here are a few ideas to consider that will hopefully help you better achieve your semester/year long aspirations.

1. Keeping Organized

Just like with your classes, keeping organized is vital for the success or failure of your goals. The same goes for how you set up and maintain the internal structure of your student group/organization. Some ideas to keep in mind when approaching this new semester:

• Registering or re-registering your student Israel action group (if you need to) with your student government or student governing body. This first off ensures that your group is “legal” on campus, but most importantly, this will sometimes allow you access to free campus advertising (such as student organization fairs), grants and funding, and great coalition building opportunities with other student groups.
• Titles for your executive board or group members. Even if they seem like a minute detail, granting titles help define who is responsible for what jobs who has the final word on certain decisions. Plus, for new members, having a title grants a certain air of formality to their position. Some possible titles include: (co)chair/president, campus outreach chair, media relations chair, education chair, political chair, social/cultural chair, treasurer/fundraiser, administrator, webmaster..etc.
• Setting up dates and times for regular meetings. As students are finalizing their class/work schedules, now is the best time to also fit in slots for your group to hold meetings. A free and easy way to do this is through Doodle.com
• Websites, email lists, Google Groups, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and groups…etc. These are all great tools for your organization to communicate both internally and publicly, but just be sure all of these are updated!

2. Setting Your Goals!

Setting concrete goals is probably the most important thing you can do with your Israel activism group. It’s easy to assume that both you and everyone in your group are on the same page for what you want to accomplish, but you’d be surprised how often this isn’t the case. Sometimes members of pro-Israel organizations differ in what they think is most important - some care most about culture, or education, promoting Aliyah, or simply politics. These are all clearly noteworthy, however your group leadership must define what specific topics to focus on in order to keep everyone on track.

Besides general “mission statement” concepts, try and break down your semester goals into three categories: Short term, mid-range and long-term. Setting tangible goals helps your group members really focus on what they’d like to accomplish during the semester/year and allow them the satisfaction of achieving even little successes.

• Short term goals: This includes hosting or sponsoring specific events, creating a new website, holding elections, creating new materials, publishing an op/ed…etc.
• Mid-range goals (week/month/semester-long plans): These include boosting membership, developing a new relationship/coalition with a different student group, creating and publicizing a petition, fundraising for a charity, creating an Israel Peace Week, tabling on a regular bases…etc.
• Long-term goals: These refer to more general group strategy such as improving Israel’s positive image on campus, boosting your group’s publicity with students, developing strategic partnerships with certain departments, government or other student groups.
• **Throughout all of this, be sure to include as a goal, training in new leadership and members for the future!

3. Messaging

Before planning any event, campaign or general initiative for the upcoming semester, you must also take some time to consider your key messages – what and how you’d like your group to present to campus. Your messaging should appear in pretty much everything you do – from writing an op/ed or press release to hosting a massive public event. Having a clear message with both group members and the campus public helps others understand what your whole purpose and goals are as well as helps you appeal to your target audience(s) and potential new members.

4. Plan Your Programming

Programming is the fun part of working with a student group, especially pro-Israel action group. Everyone and every school has a different way of planning programs. However, the key to any successful event is that to make sure it fits into your goals and messages – not the other way around. A program, no matter how creative, media savvy or attractive, will ultimately be a failure if it doesn’t further your Israel activism group’s ultimate goals and messages.

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As anyone knows, beginning a new term at school is no easy task. And the same is true for planning your upcoming term for your pro-Israel group on campus. However, being pro-active and taking the time to sit down and consider the basics: your group organization, goals, messaging and programming will go a long way in helping you make a major impact on campus (and save you a lot of stress later).