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So your town or campus is sorely lacking in Amnesty International groups. This is a calamity for prisoners of conscience everywhere, who won't reap the benefit of your organised letter-writing. There's only one thing to do: start a group on your own!

This is a daunting task. But it's easily surmountable. The first thing to do is try to find individual members in your town. A google search can be quite useful. Write, call or e-mail these people - they already have an interest and are quite likely to come to meetings. Find a time that's convenient for all of you, and a venue - a large cafe is a good idea, because you won't have to book it and can just show up. It also promotes an informal atmosphere.

The next step is to advertise. Put posters all everywhere that will take one. Call your local paper and get your meetings listed in the events calendar. Carry business cards and flyers with you everywhere, and give them to everyone you know.

Then comes the first meeting. It's important to have something to do or discuss. Sign up for urgent action cases at amnestyusa.org - they will e-mail you several cases a month with ideas on who to write to about what. Look at the website for ongoing campaigns and contentious issues to talk about.

Eventually, your meetings will hopefully start to snowball and you'll have a regular contingent of half a dozen people, and possibly many more fringe members who occasionally show up. At this point, you can start thinking about what speakers you might want to invite... but by then, you're way past having started the group. Congratulations!

Learn more about this author, Colin Beveridge.
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