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Standard Recipe

Step one: Select a movie

Visit the 'Films' page and make a selection from our list of ... (some such sentence here)

Sample Recipe for Sustainability Video Parties (serves 3-20 guests.)

Ingredients:

• DVD
• Printouts of the host guide and participant guide for the movie
• TV or other screen to show your film
• Name tags
• Sign-in sheet to capture names and email addresses
• Index cards (one for each guest) for guests to jot down notes
• Pens/pencils (one for each guest)
• Flip chart to record the group's ideas

Welcome – 15 minutes

• Welcome guests and share a few personal thoughts
• Ask each person to introduce themselves by sharing:

  Name

  Where they live

  Why they came

• Briefly share the agenda for the evening.
• Pass out participant guides and review these recommended agreements for the discussion developed by the Conversation Cafe:

o Open-mindedness – listen to and respect all points of view

o Acceptance – suspend judgment as best you can

o Curiosity – seek to understand rather than to persuade

o Discovery – question old assumptions, look for new insights

o Sincerity – speak for yourself and from your own experience

o Brevity – go for honesty and depth but don’t go on and on

Watch the Video – 45 -60 minutes

Hand out index cards and pencil/pen to each person so they can take notes if they want.

Invite each person to jot down their ideas, reactions, reflections while watching the documentary.

At the very end of the documentary, ask each person to take a few minutes to reflect on the documentary and write down the 3 issues mentioned in the documentary that are the most important to them.

Potluck – 45 Minutes

Ask people to sit together in groups of no more than 4-5 people

Select a note taker for the group

One at a time, have each person take about three minutes to share the issues that most moved them in the video

Free wheeling discussion until the host signals time for a large group discussion

Comparing Notes – 10 minutes

Reconvene as a large group

Invite the note takers in each group to share their group’s areas of agreement and divergence

The Invitation – 15 minutes

Invite people to make a public commitment to a small action that brings them closer to a sustainable lifestyle.

Sample commitments are on the participants’ guide. The most important commitment of all is the commitment to learn more.

Closing – 10 minutes

Invite participants to share their thoughts/reflections about the gathering

Take group picture

Thank everyone for coming.

Invite everyone to continue the conversation with neighbors.

The potluck and invitation sections are the most important parts of the evening. The primary purpose of the evening is NOT to transfer information from the documentary into people’s heads. The most important goal for the evening is that everyone has great time. If everyone isn’t having fun and being inspired, they won’t feel impelled to come back. Building relationships is a core task in sustainability work. The potluck is a key ingredient to the InterMission experience because there is a primal bonding mechanism that kicks in when we share food on a regular basis.

The second goal is to change our understanding of who we are. Social science research has clearly demonstrated that a small change in identity makes it much easier for us to change our behavior later. We don’t trust someone who says one thing and does another. Thus, taking one small step that demonstrates your commitment to sustainability will pave the way for much larger changes later. Making a public commitment to an action greatly increases the likelihood that you will carry it out. As you act differently, you will see yourself differently and become open to actions of greater commitment. We have designed a detailed hosting kit to help you with all the details of planning a party.

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