Benefits of Starting a Fellowship

Building Credibility
Being part of an established organization like Middle East Fellowship will help lend you the credibility you need to work towards effect change within your own community.

Tax Exemption
Middle East Fellowship is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Becoming a local chapter in our network means that donations given to your group will also be tax deductible. This makes it much easier to fundraise for any of your projects or programs.

Collaborative Efforts
Middle East Fellowship believes strongly in the value of cooperative work. There are many organizations working toward peace and justice in the Middle East, and we think it's vitally important that we work side-by-side with these groups to achieve our shared visions and goals.

So we encourage our chapters to connect and network with other worthy organizations, such as: Sabeel, Churches for Middle East Peace, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Every Church a Peace Church, Tikkun or other responsible, faithful and socially conscience groups.

Access to Speakers
Middle East Fellowship regularly helps set up tours across North America for prominent speakers to discuss key issues, such as the Iraq war, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S. foreign policy, spirituality and politics, nonviolence and peacemaking.

Access to Resources
In addition to helping provide you with educational materials and providing your group with free copies of Middle East Witness, our quarterly magazine, we can help set you up with a Middle East Fellowship e-mail account and an ?egroupware? account, which provides a system for storing information about your contacts, memos and upcoming events securely online.

We can also help you set up a website for your local chapter and an e-mail list that will allow you to send announcements and reminders to your chapter?s members. We can even help you set up a password-protected online forum where your members can communicate with each other throughout the week. This is a great way to keep members involved in the spaces between meetings. They might have suggestions for the next meeting's agenda, have articles they want to share or have events they would like other members to attend.

Ideas for Action

Once you've started a Fellowship, there is no end to the ways in which you and your fellow members can begin to play a productive role. Here are a few suggestions for activities, suitable for almost any group on any occasion:

Community Dialogue:

Fish Bowl Conversations

A Fish Bowl conversation is a way to have an effective, intimate and personal conversation with a large group of people and gives an opportunity for every participant to share his or her perspective. Begin by dragging five or six chairs into a circle in the middle of the room. Six people from your meeting can take places inside the circle and begin the conversation. No one outside the circle should speak. When they feel moved to, participants in the circle can vacate their chair leaving room for someone else from the meeting to take a place in the circle and join the discussion. This is a good exercise particularly for larger groups.

Pass the Hat

Sometimes, particularly when speaking about very sensitive issues, people are afraid to ask questions. Often they?re afraid of sounding uninformed or insensitive. One way to overcome this is by asking questions anonymously. Everyone writes one or two questions down on a slip of paper, folds it and places it in a hat or basket. The meeting facilitator draws a question and allows someone from the group to answer it.

This exercise can be particularly useful for interfaith or multicultural discussions in which two or more different groups are attempting to learn more about each other (for example, a Christian can ask a Muslim a question about Islam and a Muslim can ask a question about Christianity).

Sharing a tradition

For interfaith discussions, particularly between the Abrahamic faiths, it can be a useful exercise to experience one of the traditions of the other community (as long as both parties feel comfortable). Joining a group of Jewish friends for a Passover Seder, for example, or joining a group of Muslim friends for the traditional breaking of the fast during Ramadan. Participating in a tradition is also a great way to begin a deeper discussion on any topics of faith, history, politics and values.

Meeting Your Local Representatives:

Another great way to make your voice heard is to call your local Representative or Senator to schedule a meeting. Your group can brainstorm strategies to approach your senators to ensure they are representing your interests in their approach to our foreign policy to the Middle East.

Fundraising:

House Parties

House parties can be a great way to raise funds for an important issue or cause. For example, if you'd like to raise money for an Israeli human rights group, like B'tselem or Rabbis for Human Rights, you can invite members of your group over, along with any of their friends and family they can convince to bring along, serve a quick meal and show them a video about human rights abuses in the Occupied Territories, followed by a discussion.

If the event is a fundraiser, don't be afraid to say so directly! On the invitation, you should encourage them to bring a checkbook. For example, on the invitation you can tell them to: "Be sure to bring: an open mind, a side dish and your checkbook!" Stress the critical importance of the cause or issue you are focusing on. This doesn't mean you have to turn away anyone who doesn't want to donate, just be clear that it's a fundraiser.

Sell Olive Crafts at a festival or market

Selling Olive Crafts, or other items made in Palestine, at a booth, market or fair is a great way to support the fundraising needs of your group while supporting struggling Palestinian artisans who, because of the current lack of tourism or trade and the crumbling economy, have been struggling to keep their businesses alive.

Appeal Letters

Often the best way to raise money is to simply ask for it. Many of the people in your group or who appreciate your goals are more than willing to donate money to your cause, but they won't give unless you ask!

Appeal letters should be short, eye-catching, personalized letters that outline your fundraising needs. Let people know how their money will make a difference-will it allow you to bring in a particular guest speaker, help send a fact-finding delegation to the Middle East, sponsor a conference or a workshop? The letters can be printed or Xeroxed, but we would recommend that you include a signature at the bottom (which can be imported as an image on your computer or simply written on and then Xeroxed) to add a "personal touch."

Membership Fees

An easy way to raise money for your expenses and additional projects and programs is by charging a small membership fee. Be sure to explain to your members the beneficial projects and programs that their donated money will help provide.

Creative Dissent:

Rice for Peace

www.riceforpeace.org
Send rice for peace: a small package of rice sent to the White House to remind the American president of the real needs of the Iraqi people. In the 1950's, tens of thousands of people sent rice to President Eisenhower to encourage him to send food to then-enemy China during a famine. The campaign helped dissuade Eisenhower from attacking China during two international confrontations. As the Bible has it, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him."

Media Monitoring Teams

The media does not always do a good job covering the Middle East. Sometimes the biggest issue doesn't have to do with the information they provide, it has to do with the information they DON'T provide, the stories they leave out. Many of the abuses afflicted upon Palestinians, Iraqis and others in the Middle East never make it to print, much less to the front page.

How good is your local newspaper's coverage of the Middle East? What about your local TV stations or radio? If the coverage is poor, you could consider setting up a media monitoring team. The team could write letters to the editor, correct factual errors and respond to biased stories or encourage media outlets to print important stories that they might have missed. Each team member can keep track of reports from a different source and respond when appropriate.

As in all other things, it's important to approach this task in a respectful and reasonable way. It's not fair, for example, to ask newspapers simply to represent your political perspective. That's not their job. What is their job is to publish the "full story" in a fair and accurate way. For a variety of reasons they are sometimes unable or unwilling to do this. You can help them by ensuring they have all the facts.

Start a Fellowship in 4 Steps

Step #1: Contact Us!

The first step to create a local chapter is to contact us and let us know that you're interested. Together, we can brainstorm possibilities and develop realistic strategies and goals. The phone number at our office is (714) 529-1926. You can also e-mail us at info@mef-la.org.

Step #2: Organize an exploratory meeting

You may already know a couple of people at your church, school or local community center who are interested in the Middle East and social justice issues. We can also put you in touch with our contacts in your area who might be interested in attending one of your meetings. It's always a good idea to process strategies as a group, so bring everyone you know together for an informal chat. It doesn?t have to be a huge group, just enough people to have a productive conversation. From this meeting you will have developed a planning committee, who can then help you organize your first public meeting.

Step #3: Set a time and a date for your first official meeting.

Find a place to meet: a member's home, a church, a room on campus or a public meeting space. Make sure you have enough chairs for people to sit in and, if possible, some snacks or coffee to make people feel more at home. And be sure to publicize! Send out e-mails to everyone you know in the area, inviting them. Create a small flyer for the meeting and see if you can post it in some public areas like a coffee shop or a bulletin board at your church or school. Let us know when you've scheduled your first meeting so that we can help you brainstorm about how best to publicize this event. You may be surprised by how many people are interested!

Be sure you debrief your first meeting with your planning committee.

Step #4: Become a force for change!

Now you have the ball rolling. You've had your first official meeting and you have a core group of committed individuals. As your group evolves and grows, your interests, talents and resources will change and the possibilities of what your group can accomplish will also increase dramatically.

Be sure that you're meeting regularly and encouraging your group members to become deeply involved in your efforts. People involved in your group probably have a wide range of talents, so be sure to utilize their skills! Move on to the "Ideas for Action" section for suggestions about activities your chapter can implement.