Offering An Effective Programme

 

Some organizations present attractive recruitment brochures highlighting excellent aims and purposes, but when new members arrive they find a programme that consists only of monthly meetings, a few lectures and occasional social events. Disappointed, they leave.

An effective programme is one that both advances the goals and purposes of an organization and meets the needs of its members. The following questions can help you identify aspects of your programme that may need to be improved.

• Are most of your activities directly related to your purpose and goals?

• Does your programme have a primary focus that enables your members to state clearly what you do?

• Do you include activities addressing the issues covered by the IFUW Study and Action Programme theme?

• Do your activities meet community needs?

• Do you have one or more activities that will have will have tangible results within a reasonable amount of time, such as a community project, a conference or a research study?

• Do you offer a variety of activities? If you regularly conduct only one type of activity, such as study groups, have you thought about planning something different, a mentoring project or public policy awareness campaign?

• If your members have a wide range of interests, have you thought about creating special interest groups or circles?

• Do your programme activities provide opportunities for a wide range of members to acquire leadership experience?

• Do they provide opportunities for many members to become involved?

• Are activities organized at different times to accommodate members with different time constraints? If most of your activities take place at night during the week, are some events scheduled at lunch or on the weekend?

• Have you established procedures for evaluating your programme?

• Do you poll members regularly on branch activities and ideas for new projects?

Providing a strong, focussed programme with meaningful projects and diverse activities will help the organization meet the needs of a wider range of members.