Another very public way to get your message out to your campus is to invite a FIRE staffer to come speak at your campus. FIRE employees have spoken at a number of college campuses across the country. Sometimes they have come to discuss an ongoing case at a particular college, but more often than not, their speeches are at colleges where there is no pending case. On those occasions, the lectures serve as more of an educational primer to students and faculty about what rights they have on campuses and some examples of particularly egregious cases to showcase the dangers of not being attuned to level of liberty afforded to community members by a given institution.

Preparation

Before you return a signed contract back to FIRE, check to make sure that you have confirmed all of the important details including date, time and location of the event and that the rooms are properly reserved with time before and after the event. In addition, if there is going to be a reception, make sure that that room is reserved as well.

Once you have confirmed the lecture, you should begin preparing for the event. To make sure that the lecture is set up correctly, confirm that you have secured the necessary a/v equipment and a podium if one is not typically available in the room. Regarding the a/v equipment, make sure to get a podium microphone and microphones for the Q&A session. 

Determine who in your group will be introducing the speaker and have them write out a short introduction using the enclosed biography. Assign other students in your group to takes pictures of the event and to write press releases to the local media. An important and often overlooked part of the planning process is determining how to run the Q&A period after the event. It is always a good idea to have one student explain the rules of the Q&A either before the event (in the introduction) or immediately following the speaker’s remarks. Try not to allow the Q&A to go beyond 30 minutes or your audience may begin to lose interest or leave. If there are still people with questions when you want to end the event, have the person in charge announce that there is time for one more question and then intervene after it is answered by thanking everyone for attending and mentioning that if they have any more questions they are free to ask the speaker after the event has concluded.

Advertising

A well-planned out advertising campaign is crucial to the success of your event. Consider the following suggestions as you prepare for your event. Be sure to follow all college policies with regards to advertising. If you have a concern that a college policy may be unduly restrictive or unconstitutional, submit a case or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

One of the first things you should do to advertise your event is to get it listed on the campus calendar. Often community members and faculty follow the campus schedule, even if students don’t. You should contact whoever is in charge of the calendar and ask for your event to be listed. If possible, try getting the college to plug the event on the college website. You can also forward them your press release if you have not already done so. If you would like a high quality photo of the speaker, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will send you one.

Creating a Facebook event for the lecture is a great way to spread the word on campus. If you have a Facebook group or page for your club, you can create a related event; otherwise, create an event that stands alone. Make sure to fill out the event information completely including the time, date and location for the lecture. Be sure to invite all of your friends at school and any in the area who might be interested in attending the event. Make sure you enable the option of allowing guests to invite other guests, so that they can invite their friends as well. As the date of the event approaches, message all of those people that have agreed to come and remind them about the event and the date/time. Then message everyone who has said that they will “maybe” come. Explain to them why you think it’s important that they come and hear the lecture. Oftentimes, this little extra effort on your part will make the difference between someone attending or not attending.

Around the same time that you are creating your Facebook event you should begin e-mailing your friends and professors asking them to mention the event in class if possible. Also, try e-mailing relevant campus listservs and the presidents of organizations which might be interested in FIRE’s topics. Additionally, if your school allows the sending of all-campus e-mails, send out a few to announce your upcoming lecture.

The CFN will also send you a few flyers that you can print out and hang up around campus. The flyers are only provided to help—you can certainly make your own flyers as well.
Execution

The reality of event planning is that no matter how much effort you put into planning your event, there are bound to be things that go wrong. By thinking ahead and following the tips above, you can avoid many common pitfalls of event planning. However, there will still be some things that you cannot foresee. For that reason, it is important to have specific tasks designated and have one person (like an Events Coordinator) in charge of dealing with any problems that may arise.

The days before the event should be spent making sure that everyone has completed their assigned tasks and that the event has been properly advertised. On the day of the event, make sure that someone is prepared to give the introduction and handle the Q&A session and that someone is taking pictures.

Follow-up

After the event, be sure to mail FIRE any articles or news clippings that you find related to the event. If you have taken pictures of the event, please e-mail them to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and if there was a video recorded, mention that in your e-mail. Be sure to process the honorarium and make any checks payable to “The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education”.