◆ SpookStack

() Here are some general cautions for pub- licity campaigns, leaflets, and other affairs of a public relations nature: 1. Keep leaflets readable. Don't clutter them up with too much reading material. Start out with something that will hold the reader's attention. 'Police Brutality in this Neighborhood, "* not "Citizens for Equal Rights. " 2. Keep your public relations down to earth. Make your charges so they are believable. Ask people to do something that they can really do right now, given their present state of mind. "Come to Freedom School, * not "go immediately to register." Don't insult their basic prejudices or beliefs, You want to communicate, not drive them away (e.g. don't say “your preachers are nothing but Uncle Toms." It's libelous, anyway, to charge a person publicly with being a Communist, or an Uncle Tom!) 3. Don't promise what you can't deliver, People who disagree with your ideas may gradually come to believe in you as a person.if you really show you can deliver, Try small things first. Don't try too much because failure tends to undermine morale. 4. Watch your language. Use the English that makes sense to the community in which you are working. Watch your appearance. Appearance is a communicating device. You cannot expect people to raise their own standards of cleanliness, ‘ or bok up toyou as a leader, when you act like a slob. The civil rights worker gives up a cer- 32 tain amount of his private rights when he joins the movement. . 5. Keep social affairs social. Don't push too hard on newcomers. Be friendly and make them feel at home. Don't huddle in a corner with the in-group clique. Don't acquire the reputation of having absolutely fixed views, of being dogmatic and inflexible. When in doubt, shake hands, Conducting a Meeting It is pointless to try to write a guide to parliamentary procedure in a manual such at this one. Every organization, over a period of time, develops its own procedures, some- what based on the parliamentary rules laid down in Roberts Rules of Order, but modified to meet specific local conditions. The most important thing to remember about procedure is that its chief purpose is to get business effi- ciently conducted while protecting the will of the majority, and the rights of the minority, Proce- dures should be amended, changed, thrown out, and invented as long as that chief purpose can get accomplished better. A typical business agenda might read as follows: 1, Call the meeting to order: "The . meeting will please come to order. ° 2. Have the secretary read the minutes of the previous meeting, with emphasis on the 33