IDEAS

It's never too early to start making plans again for our most important week of the year. We hope that all the Society's Local Contacts will try to do something for the Week and a lot of individual businesses, restaurants, cafes, health food shops etc will also be taking part.

This Guide contains lots of ideas, there's bound to be something you can do. It doesn't matter how large or small your activity - it could be as big as organising a veggie taste-in or a local Vegfest or as small as just adding a link on your personal web page - it all contributes to the success of the Week.

If you are planning an event, don't forget to tell us about it. You can use the online diary entry form.

THEME

National Vegetarian Week usually has a new theme every year, which can often lead to some ideas in itself. However, if you can't think of a way to promote the theme in your area, any activity that generally promotes vegetarianism will fit in.

National Vegetarian Week is primarily a celebration. We want everyone to know all about the positive aspects of vegetarianism, how tasty the food is, how healthy, how easy to prepare, how much fun to eat, how good it feels to choose a compassionate lifestyle.

WHAT WE ARE DOING

One of the most valuable things you can do for the Society is simply to tell people about National Vegetarian Week. It's our biggest project of the year and it is driven entirely by publicity. It doesn't matter whether you are an individual member of the Society, one person running an info centre in a small village or part of a big group - you can all help with this one. Just talking about the Week to your family, friends, work colleagues and so on is a good start. Please do make sure you let your local health food shop, grocers, supermarket or corner shop know. We do send press releases to all the appropriate trade journals, but often the information doesn't filter down to the small branches and small, independent retailers may not be plugged into the network at all. Other businesses and organisations that may wish to take part in the Week include:

Health promotion units, Fitness and sports centres, Slimming clubs, Schools, Colleges, Youth Clubs, Community centres, Hospitals, Pubs, Restaurants and cafes, Ferries and pleasure boats, Organic box schemes, Sandwich sellers, Any kind of social group that might be organising a picnic/party/barbecue during or near the Week, Youth Hostels, Day centres for retired or disabled people, Caterers, Garden centres, gardening clubs, Scouts, Guides, WI, Townswomen's Guild, Mother's Union etc, Libraries, Works canteens, Large businesses (even if the business is not veggie-related, large organisations will be running staff canteens and may often have a staff social club both of which may be interested)

Tell them about the Week, take along our Publicity Pack request forms and the NVW Diary forms so they will know how to get involved. By persuading them to use the request forms to order publicity packs, you'll be saving the Society's valuable funds and reducing the amount of leaflets you'll need to hand out yourselves. If you do nothing else at all, please pass a request form on to at least 3 organisations or businesses.

Write to your local papers and radio stations

We will be sending out hundreds and hundreds of press releases in the run up to National Vegetarian Week but a letter or a local press release from you can reinforce the message substantially. Local media like to have a local angle on any major topic so tell them about your plans for NVW. Don't forget about smaller local publications like parish magazines and club newsletters. You can find our press releases (which you can use for ideas and information) on www.vegsoc.org/press

Create a display

We've compiled a separate information sheet on Creating a Library Display as this is such an excellent way of getting our message over. Although we automatically think of "library" displays, actually there are many other places where a display might go down well: schools, colleges, health centres, hospitals, community halls, supermarkets, town halls, village halls, churches, book shops, tourist information offices, even some banks and building societies.

Take a stall

There are usually lots of fetes, festivals, garden parties, open days, fayres and so on happening around the same time of year as National Vegetarian Week. Why not take a stall and stock it with leaflets, merchandise, veggie food, plants, bric a brac - whatever catches the eye. Stalls at local events are usually inexpensive and may even be free or heavily discounted if you mention that the Society is a charity. Send for our info sheet on running a stall if you need more help.

PUT ON YOUR OWN EVENT

Just starting up?

This is an excellent time to organise a first meeting if you are trying to get a new group going in your area. Our media profile is very high during the run up to National Vegetarian Week so many people are trying to find out what vegetarianism is all about. Why not organise an informal get-together in a veggy-friendly restaurant or pub so you can talk about launching a local group?

SCHOOLS

Speaking out

One of our aims for the Week is to increase the number of talks and/or cookery demos about vegetarianism our speakers and demonstrators do. We don't expect all of them to take place during the Week itself - but you can use the Week to increase awareness of our speakers service. To this end, we have created a little flier that can be handed out to all sorts of local organisations like schools, WI, guides, SPICE, Rotary Clubs. You could even just leave them in places where local organisations tend to meet - like libraries and community centres. We hope everyone will help with this as it costs nothing and only takes a few minutes.

If you do want to organise a talk or cookery demo yourself and would like details of your nearest speakers and cookery demonstrators, just ask!

EASY THINGS TO DO IF YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN

Please complete the special diary form and return it in good time. Include all your NVW activities, even if they are not, strictly speaking, events. Any local businesses, schools, restaurants, caterers etc who are doing something special can also be included in the Week's Diary, pass on the forms to them or tell them to use the online form on our web page.

What we are aiming for with this Diary is to build up a comprehensive schedule of what's going on all over the country during NVW. We send it out with our later press releases so the media can see what's going on near them. We also use it to answer queries from the general public. It makes a great difference to our publicity effort if we can show there are NVW activities going on in all parts of the UK.

The NVW events will is published on our web page. Our web page gets over 300,000 "hits" a month and this will increase as we get closer to Veg Week so it should be a substantial source of publicity.

There's no deadline for this Diary, I'll accept entries right up to the start of NVW itself, but do remember that the earlier you get your form back to me, the more publicity you are likely to get for your activities.

If you are a registered local contact, you can order extra materials using the form on the passworded web page on: www.vegsoc.org/network

MATERIALS

We're still thinking about the 2007 materials - keep watching for details.

Enjoy the Week

Remember that above all else, National Vegetarian Week is supposed to be a celebration, so take some time to enjoy yourselves. Why not reward yourselves for all the hard work you've done during the year by planning a special meal out together for your group?

Bronwen Humphreys

Local Network Co-ordinator