By: Rebecca Sterling

Whether your goal is increasing and maintaining membership, coalition building, or educating your campus, you might find the beginning of the school year a bit tricky if you don’t feel like your group has enough momentum. Here are some tips to help gain momentum within your group and with other student organizations you wish to reach out to.

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Each campus has its own challenges and strengths when it comes to Israel advocacy. So how are pro-Israel advocates supposed to combat their challenges and hold on to their strengths? The big word is STRATEGY with goals and messaging being the key! Whether your goal is increasing and maintaining membership, coalition building, or educating your campus, you might find the beginning of the school year a bit tricky if you don’t feel like your group has enough momentum. Here are some tips to help gain momentum within your group and with other student organizations you wish to reach out to.

You’ve tried tabling and got a new list of potential members who said they’d like to attend your first meeting. Great! But now you should be thinking about what’s going to get the people at your first meeting to become active in your organization.

Give new members a chance to help by starting off with small tasks and by giving your members new incentives to be involved.

Ask them to:

• Join your Facebook group or “like” your group’s fan page,
• Help with tabling at least twice a month,
• Make materials for events including sign-up sheets and poster boards.

As an incentive, offer them special opportunities such as:

Earning money while learning about Israel and working towards participating in trips to Israel. At your next meeting, don’t forget to mention “Israel Inside/Out”, an online video course with a surprising twist. Upon completion of the course, participants receive a $100 stipend, or can receive college credit. This is a sure way to get your members excited to learn about Israeli history! The course is flexible for even the busiest college student because it can be completed at one’s own pace with a deadline of 6 weeks. By the end of the course, participants feel prepared to be Israel advocates because they will know the facts behind the issues.

In addition to building up your base, you want to reach out to campus leaders and other student organizations. The best way to make a lasting impression is to make a good first introduction.

If you want to build and strengthen coalitions, invite student leaders to an event and start them off with a taste of Israel. Always be sure that you present clear messaging in any event or campaign that you host. One idea you could use is to have Hasbara Fellowships present “Israel 360”, where the audience gets to see the many different sides of Israel including its culture and geography in a brief multimedia workshop. Introduce the audience to Israel as a thriving democracy and beacon of human rights and you will be sure to set your semester off on the right foot.

With the start of the school year and mid-September around the corner, pro-Israel advocates are approaching a very challenging scenario. Now more than ever strategy is essential. With organized goals and focused messaging, we must mobilize to win over the campuses for Israel!