So you're hosting an event for Nassau DSA, great! Here's a check list of things you need to do. First, a few rules of thumb. Don't expect people to show up without doing any of the below outreach steps! People need to be told when and where to show up. Secondly, we discourage having events that overlap with other Nassau DSA events, and events overlapping events held by other ally organizations like Long Island Activists and Suffolk DSA. Lastly, please make sure whenever possible to choose assessable spaces for events that are inclusive not only to the differently abled community and also folks who rely on public transport. See the event venue page (HYPERLINK) for a list of venues we have used in the past. Read the New Orleans DSA Accessibility Guide to make sure you're planning the event in an inclusive way.

How to Plan A Successful Event or Meeting:

Step 1: Read through this guide including the Accessibility Guide

Step 2: Submit this form to notify the Steering Committee of your intention to hold a chapter event.

The form will ask you to submit up to date information for the following:

• Event Name: if this is a Working Group or Committee meeting it can simply be named "X Working Group/Committee Meeting"

• Event Start Date & Time /End Date & Time

• Event Description: a short description of the topic or agenda of the meeting.

• Meeting Type: 

  • in person (for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, in person meetings will be permitted on a case by case basis. Any in person meeting must meeting standards of public health and safety of Nassau County, be socially distanced, and masks be mandatory.)

  • virtually

• Meeting location: please check if Zoom or the chapter calendar is already booked for the time you want you event. We have limited options for virtual meeting spaces.

Step 3: Your event has been approved. Start advertising it! 

• Create an Action Network event containing the event description and meeting location information. You can follow the step by step guide for how to do that here.

• Reach out to the #cm_communications Slack channel to ask for a FB event (& Instagram post?) to be created.

• To invite every member to the event, consider doing one or more of the following outreach methods, they are ordered from most impactful to least impactful in terms of turning folks out:

  • Member Phone Bank using VAN. We have the ability to set up a virtual phone bank with a custom script on VAN. This is the most successful way to get people to come to events or sign up for actions. It also takes the most lead time by requiring coordination with National if the campaign is new.

  • Spoke SMS campaign. Follow steps for that here.

  • Mass Chapter Email using Action Network. Follow steps for that here. 

General Accessibility Guidelines

Read the New Orleans DSA Accessibility Guide to make sure you're planning the event in an inclusive way.

• Mobility:  Can a person navigating with a wheelchair, walker, cane, or other mobility aid attend this event? This goes beyond considering whether a building is ADA-compliant.

• Sensory overload:  Is any aspect of this event overstimulating? Ambient noise, conversational chatter, crowded or cluttered spaces, bright and/or strobing lights, overlapping activities, strong aromas, and other stimuli can result in sensory overload. Is there a rest area comrades can use to take a break? Is that publicized?

• Fatigue: How much exertion or energy will be required at this event? Do we have places for people to sit, waters, and snacks if necessary?  

• Sensitivity: Will there be common allergens present? Can we ask participants to avoid wearing fragrance and/or smoking near entrances/exits?

• Sight and hearing: Are we unconsciously relying on ableism? Can a person with a visual impairment or d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing people participate?

Planning for Physical Accessibility (in physical spaces)

• Meetings and events are to be held in ADA-compliant, wheelchair-accessible venues. Every effort will be made to assess this prior to securing a space. Any accessibility notes or directions should be prominently featured in meeting description, along with contact info in case of further questions.

• Regardless of physical accessibility, meeting organizers should ensure a call-in option for meetings.

• All promotional materials for the meeting should include information about how to call-in to the meeting, with a request for potential meeting attendees to inform organizers if they intend to call-in. Meeting organizers should be prepared to facilitate a call-in option for the meeting, either by speaker phone or via a laptop, via the committee or chapter’s conference call account if they receive such a request. Meeting organizers should be prepared to accomodate a request to record the call and disseminate that recording within 24-hours of the meeting, and all recordings should be stored in a centralized space for access afterwards. If you wish to directly participate via conference call or web meeting, please let meeting organizers know at least 24 hours in advance to aid technological/logistic preparation.

• A chapter or committee public-facing event should, barring emergency circumstances, never be planned at an inaccessible venue.

• Membership should avoid the use of perfumes or other airborne allergens at DSA events (to include smoking near entrances/exits).

• We should provide content warnings on publicity materials for any gatherings that might involve sensitive or triggering material, as accessibility is fundamentally about inclusion.

• Membership should be aware that individuals may have varying sensory needs, and we will be welcoming and affirming with regard to those needs (e.g., stimming, wearing noise cancelling headphones).

• MATERIALS should be prepared in easily read large print (at least 14 point font, double spaced) of any important information at meetings (e.g., agenda, anything being voted on, anything publishing a future event’s date and time). Avoid color-coding as a primary means of differentiation.

• There may be types of accommodation a particular event inherently cannot offer (e.g., a canvass more or less requires a certain level of stamina, someone with chronic fatigue might not be able to comfortably participate). That is generally OK, but it’s important that we actively consider these things beforehand and put as much information as possible in publication materials.

Planning for Digital Accessibility (on the internet)

• On all social media platforms, the chapter accounts will always complete image descriptions on any picture posted to allow people using screen readers to fully engage with our content. (Note: Some sites like Twitter have an actual mechanism for this; other sites will require us to caption our image in the post’s body.)

• For longer posts, writers will break up the text with line breaks as much as possible to make it more accessible for individuals with reading comprehension disorders.

• Any video media created by the chapter will be captioned and/or have a transcript available.