Unlock Democracy is encouraging people to organise a ‘Democracy Drinks’ in their area.

A Democracy Drinks is an informal social evening in a local pub or coffee house for people concerned about democracy, rights and freedoms to discuss how they might work together to campaign locally on these issues. It is a fun, sociable and simple way to get something started in your area.

It will cost you nothing to host a Democracy Drinks (apart from, possibly, a round of drinks) and you have nothing to lose. As you will be meeting in a public place, it is safe too.

Getting Started

Setting up a Democracy Drinks is easy, there are tools on the internet that can help you and we can help you to promote it.

Suggested steps:

STEP ONE: Find a friend and ask them to co-host the Drinks with you. That way, even if no-one else turns up, you can still have a good evening.

STEP TWO: Register on the Modern Liberty Social Network and explore it to see if there are any other people on the website who live locally to you. Contact them and see if they might be interested in coming to a Drinks. If you can’t find anyone else living in your constituency, then consider broadening your search to anyone living in your town, city, district or county.

STEP THREE: Decide on a date (give yourself at least a fortnight to promote it) and a good local venue for your Drinks. Your venue should have good transport links and not play music so loud that you won’t be able to talk.

STEP FOUR: Put the details of your Drinks on the Upcoming website – and make sure you ‘tag’ it as a Democracy Drinks. That way, anyone interested in attending a Democracy Drinks will know where to look. Put an announcement up on the Modern Liberty Social Network.

STEP FIVE: Contact everyone you know who might be interested in coming, especially people who you don’t usually discuss politics with. You may be surprised how many other people you know who might be interested.

STEP SIX: Write a short announcement and ask your local newspaper to print it. Similarly, promote it via any local internet forums you are aware of.

STEP SEVEN: Email james.graham [at] unlockdemocracy.org.uk the details so we can put the details on our website (if we know far enough in advance we will also list your Drinks in our next relevant email newsletter).

On the Night

On the evening of the Drinks, do the following:

• Make sure you get there at least 10 minutes early.
• Let the staff know you are there in case anyone asks for you.
• Print out our tabletop sign (below) to make it easy for people to find you.
• Make sure you give people you don’t know a warm welcome and that everyone is introduced to each other.
• Let the conversation flow naturally, but try to focus people’s minds on discussing what you might be able to do locally.
• Make a list of people’s email addresses and phone numbers so you can keep in touch (obviously they shouldn’t feel they have to give their contact details if they don’t want to). We recommend you set up an email group using a service such as Yahoo! or Google (these are also free). Send everyone a thank you email with a round up of what was decided at the drinks a few days after the event itself.

Table Sign and instructions

… the rest is up to you! You might want to make it a monthly event, or take things more slowly.

Where Next?

In terms of what you might discuss setting up locally, here are some examples:

• Initiating a debate in the letters column of a local newspaper
• A group visit to your MP’s surgery to make it clear that they have active constituents who care about these issues
• A discussion evening with a guest speaker; perhaps a local academic, historian or campaigner.
• Holding a public meeting with your constituency’s MP and parliamentary candidates to debate – we are particularly keen to have as many of these held in the run up to the next general election as possible (which is likely to be held in May 2010).
• Set up a blog to record your activities (there are lots of free services on-line you can use that can have you up and running in minutes – for example Blogger and Wordpress)
• Setting up a more formal local group (although we don’t recommend you do this until you have a number of activities under your belt first)

Further Information

For more information about Democracy Drinks and ideas of what you can do next, email james.graham [at] unlockdemocracy.org.uk and ask for a copy of our activity pack. Feel free to phone James on 020 7278 4443 for a chat.

Good luck – and enjoy yourself!