Guidelines for Regional Groups

These guidelines are intended to help a new group/project get off the ground or support a group/project that is having difficulty finding a successful format. Groups/projects have the freedom to choose whether or not to follow these guidelines.

1. Guidelines for new regional groups and those groups looking for a successful format

1.1 – The format of a meeting

ETJ regional groups generally have workshops once every two or three months on Sundays, and the workshops normally last about 2 1/2 hours. There is likely to be one or more short presentations followed by plenty of opportunities for members to exchange ideas.

1.2 – A grass-roots style

A typical ETJ regional group meeting encourages the sharing of ideas among teachers. The emphasis is on grass-roots participation – short presentations and input by as wide a range of members as possible are encouraged.

1.3 – Building a committee

In order to make it easier to find presenters, increase attendance at meetings, and make it more likely that the group continues even when coordinators change, it is best to focus on building up a committee that contains teachers from a variety of teaching situations. There is likely to be a direct correlation between how broadly-based the committee is and whether it is possible to hold successful grass-roots style meetings over a period of time.

1.4 – General advice (longer version)

Find one or more presenters for a meeting or, occasionally, just have a workshop based around a theme. Even when there are presenters, it is best to encourage an interactive workshop style rather than a lecture, and when there is more than one presenter, it is usually helpful if the presentations relate to a common theme.

1.5 It is generally a good idea to encourage short presentations and avoid long ones. This is partly because when you are trying to find presenters for future meetings it will be easier to find teachers who are prepared to speak for a short time, but who may be intimidated if they feel they will be expected to give a long presentation. Another advantage of having shorter presentations is that it allows more time for all members to exchange ideas.

The presentations could be followed by an open discussion if the group is small, or by teachers working on ideas in pairs or groups and then reporting their main suggestions to the other pairs/groups. 

2. Social media

2.1 – All regional ETJ groups are encouraged to have a Facebook group (this is different from a Facebook page) that is kept active by the committee so as to build a local community and help promote meetings. Regional groups are also encouraged to build the local community by posting to their group in the Language Teaching Network.

3. Promoting workshops

3.1 – Regional groups are encouraged to promote meetings  in as many of the following ways as possible.

• Setting up a registration form, such as a Google form, and sending a welcoming email before a meeting to those who register to attend.
• Sending details of the meeting by email to LTP a few weeks before a meeting.
• Posting to eltcalendar.com so that the post appears on the ETJ website and other websites. 
• Posting to the Language Teaching Network regional group. 
• Creating a public Facebook events page (not connected to a Facebook group) for the meeting and encouraging committee members and others to invite their facebook friends through the events page.
• Posting to the regional group’s Facebook group and other relevant places on social media.