The Guiding Group
The Guiding Group convenes, represents, and makes decisions about the rallies. Your Guiding Group needs to be more than one person. It could be a team from an existing organization, a small coalition, or even just a small group of committed citizens like ours. This is the entity that officially represents/speaks for the Rally.
Even if your Group is unaffiliated with any particular organization, it does need a basic structure, shared goals, and a method for planning, ongoing discernment, and decision-making. There are also logistic roles to share or delegate – courtesy pre-check with the police and the press, for example, also cookie baker, extra sign maker, information disseminator, group meeting convener. Members of the Guiding Group also serve as Rally Host(s), see below.
The Lexington Guiding Group is five women who already know each other in various ways. We happen to be educators, writers, designers, healers, administrators, and mothers, with roots in various spiritual traditions. A common denominator in addition to love for country is participation in a local Quaker meeting, with its guiding values and collective decision-making processes.
Rally Hosts
Rally Hosts select the date, time, and place for the rallies, and convene them. They show up first, set-up, welcome others. They manage the rally, ensuring that it starts and ends on time; that it stays in the physical location assigned to it; that participants don’t impede sidewalks or whatever is required to keep the event lawful and peaceful.
In Lexington, our public rally is along a one-way street, so hosts also organize the messaging for cars passing by with our “For LOVE of Country” thematic banner at the start of the start of the line-up and our two posters, “Sea to/ Shining Sea” at the end, with all rally activities taking place between these two bookends, which we anchor as hosts. (This positioning is helpful because it also enables us to see/greet most participants as they arrive or depart from the rally). Hosts expand or contract the line as needed.
Hosts can also pass the (labelled) cookies around from time to time, an easy way to connect with others. Each host wears a bright nametag or something that allows attenders to easily recognize their role as “Rally Host.” Each rally needs at minimum two hosts, but four or more are ideal. As needed, you can enlist others to assist with these tasks as Host Helpers – be sure they fully understand their role(s).
Hosts also set and maintain the tone for the rally, which is essential. We made sure at least one American Flag was present; that people were acknowledged and thanked for participating.
Ensuring the tone depends on what you do both prior to the event and during:
Prior:
- Ensure written public information about the event is very clear about the Rally purpose and vibe, even giving examples of appropriate signage. See our first letter – use as you like. You might also want to print a condensed version of your original messaging to hand out to folks at the rally who may arrive with incomplete knowledge about its goals, which happens. Managing the vibe is especially important at the first rally, which sets the tone for the subsequent ones.
- Create at least a dozen handmade extra signs that model the kind of messages appropriate to a Heart for Democracy event. In our case, some Hosts held a signmaking party, prior to the event. These large, highly readable signs have several purposes:
you can display them even if your rally is small, thus amplifying your message;
they immediately set/boost the positive tone as the rally commences;
they serve as a “sign library” for folks who come to the rally either without signs or whose original sign has unaligned messaging (re-collect the signs at the end and save for next time).
- Gather materials to set-up a sign-making station at the event for folks who come without a sign or feel the need to make a new, more Rally-appropriate message (see below).
- Arrive 30 minutes prior to the rally for an all-Hosts gathering. Review shared understandings, but also take time to settle into peaceful presence together, for the benefit of all.
A few words about signs and banners:
The more beautiful the better and handmade is the way to go. Making a handmade sign requires individual reflection – many participants have told us that process was very important to them, as they sifted through various despairs, sometimes over several days, to discover what they loved behind the distress. The sign thus is a true message from the heart – not a slogan or something imported without reflection.
In the same spirit the sign is best something held individually, lest it overpower everyone else’s testament. The Lexington rally features one printed banner – our Host banner – but that’s all. This banner (“For LOVE of Country”) helps passersby understand the theme of the rally. More banners would likely obscure that message.
What if the sentiments on some signs contradict one another? That’s fine. As long as they are offered in goodwill, this is what inclusion looks like. We are speaking for ourselves, witnessing a value we hold dear, but grounded, collectively, in what we love — a new way of being, together.
Hearts for Democracy rallies are assemblies of affirmation, and this is important. Messages can vary, but for everyone’s benefit including their own, participants are asked to frame their communications as something they love and care about. Signs of complaint and protest might be great and appropriate at other events, yet they run the risk of changing the focus and the experience of a Hearts for Democracy Rally. This provides an opportunity for listening and conversation, which we have tips for here.
During:
- Hosts are light-touch moderators during the rally. Our role is to ensure the assembly reflects the goals and aspirations of the Rally – super important! That means we need to make sure those who attend understand the Rally goals and affirming vibe (see prep work above).
- You may designate someone to talk with people 1:1 to share what brought them to the rally, what matters to them most. We have found this exercise to be very meaningful and inspiring for the participants we speak to and for us!
- During the rally, as Host, you might need to respectfully and individually connect with participants whose signs or behavior suggest they have may have missed the memo, i.e. signs suggest protest and/or snark, angry chanting, etc. [Note, our rallies deliberately do not feature any speeches or chants, etc. although we do sometimes break into song – we just assemble, hold up our signs and commence; it’s low key and friendly]. The responsibility of the host is to connect with the individual and invite another way forward through conversation and listening.
After:
- At the end of your designated rally time, starting to put materials away is a clear sign that the rally is coming to an end. Thank people for coming and encourage them to keep in mind what they love about the country and take action to express it. If there are plans for another rally, or other events, encourage them to participate.
- We recommend taking a “leave no trace” approach to cleaning up after the rally.
About Rallies in general:
Public assemblies in public places, including sidewalks, are lawful.
As a courtesy, we checked with local authorities and mutually determined per local regulations that our rally did not need an event permit since it had no amplified sound, wasn’t selling anything, did not require street closures, was not going to block the sidewalk, etc. Amplified sound, chanting, drums, cowbells, were not allowed so if necessary we simply asked people to help us keep the rally legal. Singing was not a problem (we asked!), so we provided song sheets with songs about the USA, peace & freedom.