Turning Out Guests

If you throw a “Friends & Family” Peace Party, you will invite people who you know personally and a group you feel comfortable pulling together for an engaging conversation. Guests may include:

* Friends

* Family

* Co-workers

* Neighbors

* Members of your church, synagogue, mosque, temple, or other religious organization

* Members of your labor union, PTA, political club, or book group

* People you play sports with

You can also open up the Peace Party to others in your community who you might not know personally. This is a great way to expand the size of the Peace Party, meet new people, and expand the range perspectives in the room. Some options for making the Peace Party available to a wider audience include:

* Opening the Peace Party to other Peace Action members in your geographic area

* Posting an invitation to local, public listervs

* Asking invitees to share the invitation with their communities

* Submitting an announcement to community papers for their “Events Calendar” listings

* Announcing the Peace Party in your church/synagogue bulletin

* Delivering invitations to your neighbors

* Inviting local elected officials and candidates

Turning Out Guests

Your Peace Party can be whatever size you’d like. It's often good to invite more people than you expect to attend--everyone's busy these days, and some of your invitees are bound to already have plans for the time of your screening. One rule of thumb is to invite four times as many people as you’d like to attend.

Peace Party Formats

In the sidebar are a couple of Peace Party variations you can consider before you make up your guest list and send invitations. Remember, you can have more than one Peace Party if you want.

Invite People

We provide you with a template invitation (link to template invitation). Please personalize it and distribute it far and wide. Here are some tools you can use to invite guests:

  * E-vite - www.evite.com

  * Facebook “Events” feature - www.facebook.com

  * Traditionally mail invitations

Follow-Up Personally

No matter how you send your invitation, be sure to follow-up by phone or in person. People appreciate the personal touch and it will dramatically increase your chances of getting people there. If you have a co-host, divide up the calls or visits so it’s manageable.

Send Reminders

Don’t forget to send an email reminder a day or two days before your Peace Party.

The work of Peace Action and the Peace Action Education Fund is made possible thanks to the generous support of our members and the following foundations:

The Paul & Edith Babson Foundation * The Bydale Foundation * Colombe Foundation * Janelia Foundation * The HKH Foundation * The New World Foundation * Peace Development Fund * Ploughshares Fund * Iraq Peace Fund, Underdog Fund, Tides Foundation * The Scherman Foundation, Inc. * Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis * Unitarian Universalist Funding Program * Courtney Knight Gaines Foundation * Sisters of Loretto * Dominican Sisters of Springfield Illinois * Working Assets Long Distance