Group Leader Guide

This page offers suggestions for group leaders to help you organize, configure and conduct your meetings for maximum focus and impact. The subjects on this page are:
     1. Start a group    2. Define group/meeting objectives    3. Plan meeting activities
     4. Conduct your first meeting    5. Conduct regular meetings    6. Take action


1.  START A GROUP 
  • Find/connect with potential members. Contact people you know who are/might be interested.  Post announcements of your meetings on like-minded groups' email lists and social media. Set up an account at Meetup.com. (This is a site where people everywhere can search for events in their area that might interest them. Currently, it costs about $80 for 6 months to host a Meetup. You can plan a meeting and post the details up front,  or you can set up a placeholder and wait to see who expresses interest, then plan your first meeting to suit those who respond.) There are also other tools, such as Google Groups, that can help you find and stay connected with members of your group.
  • Find a venue. There are a number of places where you can hold meetings. Some restaurants don't charge a fee for the use of their back rooms if a number of people purchase meals and drinks and tip well. Public libraries, fraternal organizations, apartment complexes and neighborhoods, hotels, or churches may have meeting rooms available for a fee. Members who own/lease commercial properties may have rooms that will accommodate a meeting. For the first meeting, the leader may have to pay for the venue up front, but you must decide whether to ask the team to share in that expense going forward. If the meeting will be at a mealtime, be sure to either meet at a restaurant or let invitees know it is a "brown bag" meeting where each person brings his/her own food/drink.
  • Schedule your first meeting. For the first meeting, pick a place and time that's convenient for the leader(s) and those who are most likely to attend. Once you establish a group, they can decide when and where to have the regular meetings.
  • Announce and promote the meeting. Tell any friends, family, or associates who might be interested. Post the meeting online. Create and hand out flyers. Make announcements at other group gatherings you might attend. Ask your invitees to invite others.
  • Send out reminders as the date nears. Make sure folks remember the upcoming meeting. Remind them a week or so before, as well as the day before the meeting. Don't overdo the reminders.


2.  DEFINE GROUP & MEETING OBJECTIVES 
It is important to know/define the purpose of your meetings and your group--to know where you're going. If you have goals, you need to know "what it looks like when it's done right." We recommend you start with some high-level objectives like those shown below. Then work with the group to develop strategic and tactical goals that help you reach the high-level objectives through concrete and measurable action. Ultimately it is your and your group's meeting and you should tailor it to meet the needs of your attendees. 

Suggested high-level objectives:
  • Awaken as many people as possible, as fast as possible, to the notion that the official story of 9/11 is a lie. Remember that these meetings are not for the purpose of "preaching to the choir" or showing off how much you know about a million conspiracies. They are for organizing "the choir" to awaken others and to get those and many more others to take action. If you are not actively and aggressively taking action to awaken more people, you are not making progress.
  • Effectively debunk the official story.  This is a skill that must be honed through education and practice. Your group can contribute to the movement by providing regular training sessions.
  • Show people how the 9/11 attacks are still being used to rob us of our rights and freedoms. Even some seasoned activists may say the 9/11 ship has sailed, that if people haven't "gotten it" by now, they never will. Some may also say 9/11 is over, let's put it behind us. But there are millions who have not yet been introduced to the alternative story in a manner that works for them. And the issue remains relevant today, as our sustained national fear continues to allow citizens to accept otherwise unthinkable compromises of our Constitutional rights and freedoms. 
  • Open people's eyes to the other crimes being committed upon American citizens by their "leadership" and those who either support or control them. 9/11 is only one of many doorways that can open a person's mind to the tyranny of our leaders. But since American hearts are still breaking over this tragedy, we believe this can be the best doorway to guide people through.
  • Help people navigate the grief process inherent in awakening to such a harsh reality. Even people who finally "get it" can regret knowing and may wish to fall back into their earlier innocence. They may cycle through the 5 stages of grief -- anger, bargaining, denial, depression, and acceptance -- over and over. Be patient and understanding with them.
  • Help people manage relationships after their awakening. Awareness of this reality changes people. And this change can create disruptions in personal, professional, and even spiritual relationships.
  • Mobilize the masses of awake citizens toward actions that can help to: (1) expose previous crimes, (2) ensure those who committed those crimes are tried and punished for their crimes, (3) prevent the commission of new crimes by shining light on all the wrongdoers' actions, and mobilizing citizen masses to oppose those actions, and (4) re-establish the ideal America where "We, the People" are once again free to flourish.
  • Be aware of and resist the forces that prevent us from reaching and using our full power as a "critical mass." The Powers That Be (TPTB) actively use various tactics to keep us from joining forces in coherent action. And they rejoice when natural human tendencies do some of that work for them. Key factors that keep us from making progress are listed on the Group Challenges page.


3.  PLAN MEETING ACTIVITIES (Ideas & Suggestions)
There are a number of useful things your group can do at a given meeting. The following are just a few ideas to get you started. NOTE: Your first meeting may be different from ongoing meetings. See section 3: Conduct First meeting.
  • Get to know your team.  For your first meeting and any time you have new attendees, make an effort to find out a few things about them with questions such as: What woke you up to 9/11? What actions have you already taken and how effective were they? What parts of the puzzle do you want/need to know more about? What do you hope to achieve by being part of this group? What are your strengths and weaknesses in terms of taking action or contributing to the awakening? And if your team is burned out after a flurry of activity, consider having a roundtable where the attendees all answer a certain question about themselves and their perspectives. If they all know each other well, look for questions that might reveal their issues with the situation or the group as it has evolved. Or ask questions that might reveal aspects of them and their search for Truth that the group doesn't know. If you have a lot of newcomers, give them the lion's share of the allotted time to share their stories, and remind the seasoned Truthers to just give a quick snapshot about themselves.    
  • Report on activities/events/research and calibrate. As your group takes action, the members will learn what seems to work and what doesn't. Take time to ask those involved in an action to report their successes, their challenges and learning experiences, and any new opportunities they may have discovered. Also take time for reports on any original research, meta-analyses of existing research, or simplified summaries of key points conducted by team members or others.
  • Plan. If a meaningful date is approaching... or if you notice the group's energy, focus, and/or attendance dropping off... or if you see a string of activities coming to an end sometime soon, use your meeting or part of it to set some new goals. If everybody is worn out, then at least plan to plan. if you have events scheduled, plan your promotional efforts for those events. 
  • Brainstorm. Brainstorming can be conducted effectively in a couple of ways. Free brainstorming. The first way is to ask the group to offer any all ideas that come to mind, without judgment (by themselves or by others). This method is designed to get the creative juices flowing. One bad/silly idea may lead to a very good idea. Criterion-reference brainstorming. The second method is to first define the criteria that any viable idea must meet. Then have the group propose any ideas that meet those criteria. Even in the free method, you will ultimately have to tame the list of ideas to those that meet viability criteria, but sometimes going "outside the box" can yield great surprises.
  • Show videos. Show videos that help educate members or introduce them to tools they can use to educate others.
  • Label/stamp and sleeve DVDs, stuff envelopes, build light signs, etc. Team members can multitask at meetings where they don't have to have their eyes on a projector screen or presenter continuously. Use these times to prepare the tools you will all use to get the word out to others.  
  • Host talks/presentations.  Plan periodic meetings to educate/enlighten the attendees. Depending on the needs of the members, plan meetings that offer opportunities for them all to learn something new. Some presentations may be "kindergarten" tailored for the newcomers, while other presentations may be fairly technical or can drill down deep into specific aspects of the events, or make a case for the more radical concepts. For newcomer-focused meetings, certain seasoned Truthers may be qualified to educate attendees on specific pieces of the puzzle, covering a narrow topic from several perspectives: the official story, the alternative story, the debunkers' attacks on the alternative story, and debunking the debunkers. Have guest presenters attend in person, if possible, or bring them in via Skype.
  • Host panel discussions. Invite 2-3 experts in a specific relevant field, ideally having one who is for the official story, one who questions the official story, and one who is undecided. Either ask predefined questions the panelists can prepare for in advance, or let the attendees ask their own questions.
  • Host debates. Schedule debates on specific narrow topics. These debates may be among members of the group, or may be with experts in a given subject. 
  • Research and report. Ask for volunteers to research, in depth, certain relevant unanswered questions or subjects of interest to the group, and report back at a later meeting. These reports may be handy summaries of key elements in a given issue that members can use to help others understand the alternative explanations. On the other hand, they may be meta-analyses of other research, or may be highly detailed and/or technical original research or analyses of raw data that fall within the professional expertise of the group member. 
  • Arrange for demonstrations or field trips. Look for opportunities to learn first-hand about various principles that underlie the case for an alternative explanation of various aspects of the attacks. Contact experts in relevant fields to request demonstrations and other educational field trips. (For example, to see thermite being used to cut steel, to see/practice on a flight simulator, or to watch a professor's or an architectural engineering firm's demonstrations of the forces at work on high rise buildings.)

4.   CONDUCT YOUR FIRST MEETING
  • Ask your state or regional leader to help you kick off your first meeting. You can turn over the entire meeting to that person, or the two of you can co-chair. Just coordinate in advance so you both know who is going to do what. 
  • Announce the agenda for this meeting. It doesn't have to be detailed or fancy, but it is important to let the group know what tasks you expect the group to accomplish in the allotted meeting time.  If you have a white board or flip chart available, write the agenda items on it, along with the time allotted for the meeting.
  • Remind them of any time constraints. If you have paid for a certain period of time or if the venue closes at a certain time, make sure the group is aware of how much time you have to get through the agenda. If discussions get long-winded or off topic, remind the group of the remaining time and what you have yet to cover.
  • Let them know how to handle non-agenda issues. If your agenda items will be addressed quickly, you can ask the team to hold their non-agenda comments and questions till later in the meeting. However, if the agenda items will fill the entire time, suggest that anyone interested can continue conversations here or at another venue after the meeting.   
  • Present your proposed objectives for this group. Let them know they will be able to modify that list to meet the needs of the members. Remind them that the group is there to support the efforts of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth (A&E) first, and to be sure they are respectful of A&E's reputation and objectives. And above all, it is about 9/11 truth.
  • Define the level of structure you want for this meeting. Will this be a roundtable discussion of specific topics or will you have a presentation? Will you be brainstorming ideas, or planning an event?
  • Learn about your attendees. Who they are. How they woke up to 9/11. Their level of awareness. (How far down the rabbit hole are they?) What they hope to achieve with this group. And so forth. If you have a lot of attendees, limit the number of questions you want them to answer. For a smaller group, ask one question of all then go back around the room for the next question.
  • Collect contact info. If you don't already have it, pass around a paper to get attendees to provide their contact info and contact preferences. You can download/print the pdf form on the right -->> .
  • Decide on your regular meeting place and date/time. Once you have a group assembled, try to set a regular date/time and place for future meetings. Set your meetings for once a week, every other week, or at minimum once a month, at the same time and place. Make sure that someone shows up (at least one or more of the leaders) for every single meeting 
  • Ask members to pitch in for expenses. Any donations/dues will be earmarked for such things as: room rental fees, Meetup administrator fees, a DVD burner/duplicator, DVDs and supplies, printing, etc. 


5.  CONDUCT REGULAR MEETINGS
Once you start a meeting, you can run it any way you and the attendees want. However, we have found that each group needs some kind of structure or discipline to avoid devolving into chaos. There is nothing wrong with having an open-format meeting from time to time, especially when team members are worn out from activities. However, whenever you have new attendees, it is important to impose some structure to show them the group is geared for action. 
  • Designate one or more co-leaders who can facilitate the meeting when you cannot or do not want to. When you are the meeting's leader, ask your co-leaders to help you keep the meeting focused and on topic. Ask them to watch for interruptions, distractions, and deviations from topic and to steer the participants back on track. They can also perform other support tasks like quietly getting more chairs for new arrivals, or asking the venue's management to adjust the temperature or turn off the music in your room.
  • Ask a co-leader to record key decisions, suggestions, and topics/actions for later discussion (whether for another meeting or for a group outside the meeting's context entirely, or for one-on-one conversations). 
  • Identify up-front the topics on the meeting's agenda and the time allocated. If there is a marker board, write these items down. Then, if the group drifts, you can silently point to the current topic or to the time as a gentle hint. (See the list of suggested meeting activities under #3 above.)
  • Identify the audience this meeting is focused on. Is it for those seasoned Truthers who are already "down the rabbit hole"; i.e., those whose efforts you are harnessing to get the word out to others? Or is it focused on introducing the newcomer to elements of the puzzle and guiding them toward an open consideration of the alternative scenario? It is important that you and the seasoned Truthers recognize and accommodate meetings for the newcomers so you remember to slow down and patiently stick to the basics...no matter how many times you have to repeat them. If newcomers have questions that require lengthy answers, and if the current meeting is already committed to other issues, offer to talk with them later and point them to helpful resources on those issues. Before moving on, ask if others have the same questions(s). If several do, then plan a future meeting to cover the topic.
  • Cover the agenda items efficiently. Keep focused on that to-do list. Avoid drift. Try to make measurable progress and achieve the desired goals. If you have a presentation, get to it quickly. Have any audio/visual equipment set up before the meeting, if possible, to eliminate delays in presentations. 
  • Open the floor for other topics after agenda is covered. Specify how much time you have left (if any) and ask if there are any other topics attendees would like to discuss.
  • Define or suggest next-meeting activities. (See #3 above for suggested meeting activities.) You can come up with proposed future meeting activities yourself and ask the group to choose from among them, or you can ask the group to suggest topics and activities themselves. 
  • Recommend pre-work. For newcomers or even those who are still struggling to grasp all the elements of the attacks of 9/11, suggest a video for them to watch or an article to read before the next meeting. If this will be their first meeting, give them a good overview video (DVD or a link) to watch. If the upcoming meeting is an advanced Truther-focused meeting, recommend a video or article to the newcomers that will help them get up to speed on the topics/activities planned.
  • Offer to continue discussions or go to other topics after the meeting. Suggest that anyone who wants to continue talking can do so after the meeting. Make sure the group knows when the meeting is officially over and it's okay to leave, but if they wish, they can continue the conversations, either in that same venue or at another.


6. TAKE ACTION (Ideas for Events and Actions)
So now that you have a group assembled, what can they do to make a difference, outside of the meetings? Here are some ideas to get you started:
  • Encourage people to join the AE911truth.org mailing list and sign petitions.
  • Encourage people to volunteer for A&E opportunities.
  • Encourage people to be aware of and use A&E resources/tools.
  • Give out DVDs and literature everywhere you go.
  • Share video links with others and then follow-up with discussion.
  • Watch videos with others one-on-one and discuss. 
  • Host video screenings at larger venues/theaters for the public. 
  • Ask team members to commit to bringing 2 or more newcomers to every event. 
  • Host guest presentations/talks either in person or via Skype.
  • Host panel discussions or debates with experts in relevant fields.
  • Organize conferences or fairs, either locally or with other 9/11 groups in the area. 
  • Host demonstrations of technology and other areas of expertise.
  • Mobilize people to support/oppose relevant legislation.
  • Catch people doing the right thing and celebrate them publicly (Shine the Light campaign). 
  • Organize streetcorner/public actions and protests.
  • Develop billboard campaigns.
  • Create and air public service announcements on TV.
  • Create and sell / give away / display items that promote attention to key issues or websites. 
  • Get a booth at various events, talk to people and give away DVDs, literature etc.  
  • Attend public events and look for opportunities to strike up a conversation everywhere.

~ Presenter Suggestions ~

If you are stuck for ideas as to whom to invite to speak at a given meeting or event,
consider this list of starter ideas:


9/11 experts and witnesses

Architects and architectural/structural engineers

Commercial or military pilots, and other aviation experts

Demolitions experts

Metallurgists

Members and former members of government

Attorneys 

Psychologists and sociologists
(to explain why people resist Truth and how to break through that resistance)

Firefighters, fire investigators

Seismologists/geophysicists

Physicists

Financial/banking/Federal Reserve experts

Experts in persuasion / propaganda / lie detection 
(Hypnosis, NLP, subliminal, disinformation, etc.)

Former lobbyists, whistleblowers, cloaked insiders

Statisticians/bookmakers
(analyzing the likelihood of all the "coincidences" in the official story)


Members/leaders of other successful action groups
(who can share their tips and ideas)

~
...And who else might be able to shine light on relevant issues?
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