# House Meeting — 90-Minute Agenda

**What this is:** The agenda the organizer brings into the host's living room (or coffee shop, or church basement). It's the spine of the meeting; the spirit is the people in it.

**Audience:** 6–12 people. Mostly people who don't yet know the org well. The host knows them. You don't (yet).

**Total time:** 90 minutes. Start within 10 minutes of the named start. End on time.

**Pair with:** `house-meeting-host-invite.md` (before), `house-meeting-followup.md` (after).

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## Setup (organizer arrives 30 min early)

- [ ] Help the host with chairs — circle, not rows. No table between people.
- [ ] Sign-in sheet on a clipboard by the door: name, phone, email, zip code. *(Tag these into Action Network the next morning. Free tier handles this.)*
- [ ] Food on a side table. Drinks accessible.
- [ ] Childcare set up in a separate room or corner; have an adult assigned.
- [ ] Print the story prompt (small slip of paper, one per guest).
- [ ] Print 12–15 copies of a one-page "next steps" handout with three asks.
- [ ] If anyone needs ASL, translation, or large-print — set up before doors open.

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## The agenda

### 0:00 — 0:15 — Arrive, eat, mingle (15 min)

- People trickle in. Don't start at minute zero. Honor the late arrivals.
- Host welcomes each person at the door, by name.
- Organizer hangs back. Eats. Talks to people one-to-one. Listens.

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### 0:15 — 0:25 — Welcome & frame (10 min)

**The host opens** (3 minutes — coach them in advance):
> "Thank you for being here. This is my home, and you're my people. I wanted us all in one room because [the specific reason — the school board vote, the eviction wave, the bill in the legislature]. I asked [organizer first name] to come help us think about what to do. I'll let them say more."

**The organizer takes 5 minutes** to frame:
- Who [org name] is, in 3 sentences. Not the boilerplate — the heart.
- What this meeting is *not*: it's not a fundraiser, it's not a sales pitch, no one is going to be asked to do anything they don't want to.
- What this meeting *is*: a chance to hear each other, to understand what we're facing, and to decide if there's something we want to do together.
- Acknowledge whose land you're on, briefly, if you do that. Acknowledge the lineage if it's relevant — "Meetings like this are how the freedom movement was built in this state."

**Ground rules** (2 min, organizer):
- One mic — one person speaks at a time.
- Speak from your own experience. "I think," not "people think."
- What's said here is not for the timeline or the group chat without consent.
- We will end at [end time]. If we run over, it's because we chose to.

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### 0:25 — 0:45 — Story round (20 min)

**The point:** Every person in the room speaks. Every person is heard. This is the heart of the meeting.

**The prompt** (read once, slowly):
> "Tell us your name, where you live, and one moment — recent or from years ago — when [the issue] hit close to home for you. About two minutes each. We won't interrupt; we won't fix; we'll just listen."

- **Host goes first.** Coach them in advance to be honest, not polished. 2 minutes max.
- Then go around the circle. Resist the urge to respond, comment, or "yes-and." Just listen.
- If someone says "pass," respect it. Come back at the end and offer them a second chance.
- Organizer goes last, briefly. 90 seconds. Honor what you heard. Name one or two threads.

*This 20 minutes is sacred. Do not cut it short to make room for the ask. The story round IS the ask.*

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### 0:45 — 1:00 — Political education (15 min)

**Keep it short — this is grounding for the ask, not a lecture.**

- **5 min — What's happening:** The campaign, the bill, the moment. Plain language. No acronyms.
- **5 min — Why it matters and what's possible:** Who has power; how decisions get made; what a win would look like for the people in this room.
- **5 min — Q&A:** Take 2–3 questions, no more. If a question deserves more, name it and offer to follow up 1:1.

*Lineage cue, when it fits:*
> "What we're doing tonight isn't new. People have organized like this — in living rooms, at kitchen tables — for as long as there's been a Black freedom movement in this country. Ella Baker said 'strong people don't need strong leaders.' We're trying to do that here."

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### 1:00 — 1:20 — The ask (20 min)

**Three asks. In order. Ranked.**

#### Ask 1 — Host the next house meeting (the high-bar ask)

> "The most important thing anyone here can do is host the next house meeting. Eight people, 90 minutes, your living room or wherever works. I'll bring the agenda; you bring the people. Who's open to doing this in the next six weeks?"

- Pass around a sign-up sheet OR ask people to raise hands.
- Get specific commitments. Names + tentative date. Two would be a great night.

#### Ask 2 — Come to the base meeting / next action (the middle ask)

> "Whether or not you host, we'd love to see you at our next base meeting on [date]. Same kind of room — bigger, but the same spirit. Childcare and dinner. Who can be there?"

- Hand out the one-pager with the date, address, RSVP link.
- Get verbal commitments.

#### Ask 3 — Do one specific thing this week (the low-bar ask)

> "And if hosting feels like a lot, here's something anyone can do this week — [one specific thing: call your state rep, sign and share the petition, come to the rally Saturday]. It takes 10 minutes."

- Specific call script or link. Make it doable from a phone, tonight.

#### Names

> "Last thing — who else in your life should be in a room like this? Not to recruit them tonight, just — who comes to mind?"

- Capture names on the sign-in sheet or in a notebook. Follow up with the people who gave you names within a week.

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### 1:20 — 1:30 — Close (10 min)

- **Host closes** (2 min): "Thank you for being in my home. Thank you for what you shared."
- **Organizer thanks the host publicly**, by name.
- One-line round: "Before we go, one word — how you're leaving this room." Word, not sentence. Around the circle.
- Stack chairs together. Help the host clean up. Don't leave them with the dishes.

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## Roles in the room

| Role | Who | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Host | Member who owns the space | Welcomes people, opens, closes, follows up |
| Lead organizer | Org staff or core leader | Frames, runs the agenda, holds time, makes the asks |
| Note-taker | Second organizer or volunteer | Captures names, asks, commitments, story themes (NOT story details — those stay in the room) |
| Childcare | Pre-arranged adult | Watches kids in a separate space |
| Door / sign-in | Volunteer | Greets, gets sign-ins, hands out the one-pager |

If you only have one organizer, the host can do door and sign-in.

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## What success looks like

- Every person spoke at least once.
- At least one person committed to host the next house meeting.
- At least three people committed to the next base meeting.
- The note-taker leaves with 1–3 new names to follow up on within a week.
- The host feels seen, not used.

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## What to do within 48 hours

1. **Personal text to every person who came** from the host (and the organizer, if they met you tonight). See `house-meeting-followup.md`.
2. **Tag everyone in Action Network** — constituency, geography, host-yes/maybe/no.
3. **Schedule a 1:1 within 14 days** with anyone who said "yes" or "maybe" to hosting. See `1-1-invite-text.md`.
4. **Debrief with the host** — over coffee, within a week. What did they learn? Who surprised them? What do they want to do next? Don't burn the host. Honor them.

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## Why this is structured this way

- **20 minutes of story before any ask.** Marshall Ganz teaches that people commit to action through stories, not arguments. The story round is the ask before the ask.
- **The host opens and closes**, the organizer holds the agenda. Snowflake leadership: many voices, no single hero. Ella Baker designed SNCC this way on purpose.
- **Three asks, ranked from highest to lowest.** Hahrie Han's research is clear: asking for the big thing first lets the smaller asks feel like a real choice, not a consolation prize.
- **The asks are specific, time-bound, and reply-able.** "Get involved" is not an ask. "Host eight people in your living room on the 14th" is an ask.
- **The names question** at the end is how the base actually grows. Every house meeting plants the next two.
- **Coffee shop, church basement, living room — they all count.** The point is meeting people on their turf, not asking them onto yours. SNCC field secretaries walked into people's houses; they didn't summon them to an office.
- **End on time.** Trust is built in the small commitments. Promise 90 minutes, deliver 90 minutes.

— Module 3, *Base Building From Scratch*