Lots of people feel intimidated at the thought of trying to organise a group of people to campaign on Basic Income, they start thinking of protests, poster-spreading and other time-consuming tasks, but it really doesn’t have to be so daunting, in fact it’s usually lots of fun. You don’t have to worry about organising or campaigning immediately, to start with you can just organise some social gatherings around the theme of Basic Income, you’ll probably be surprised how many people in your area are interested in the idea.

Here’s a few simple steps to help you get started.

1. Start a meetup.com page. Meetup.com has a very simple step-by-step guide to starting a group. If there’s an inactive group in your area (check here), then you’re a step ahead, you already have some interested people, just join that group and start organising events, you can ask the current organisers first to avoid any conflicts.

2. Find a place to meet. Libraries, cafés and bars are great places to meet up for free, just make sure newcomers are able to recognise you, for example by wearing a brightly coloured top.

2. Arrange a few simple, fun events. Good starter events to help people get to know each other are film screenings or discussion nights followed by a get-together at a bar or café. You could screen the excellent ‘Humans Need Not Apply‘ and discuss the implications for Basic Income, or watch one of the many Basic Income talks on YouTube and discuss it.

3. Get some friends along. If they’re willing, ask some friends to come along to the first few meetings to make the atmosphere more social and inviting.

4. Keep meeting. The best way to solidify the group is to meet regularly and let the members get to know each other. With time, the group will start to grow and you can take on more complicated actions like leafleting, organising lectures or lobbying politicians.

Organising a meet up group is a fun way to meet new people with similar interests, especially when it’s part of a growing movement like Basic Income. If there’s no group in your area yet, it’s easy to set one up yourself!

Here’s a page of current Basic Income meetup pages.

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