campaign locally

Set up a stall
If you're part of an established group, or able to get together a few like-minded individuals for a day, getting active on the high street is one of the most effective ways of building a pro-wind campaign. A good way to reach a large number of people is to set up a stall in a busy area of town. Here are some tips for you:

Location
Think carefully about where you want to be located. In some cases you may just want to reach the most number of people, in others you might want to address a particular audience such as tourists. Check if you need to obtain permission or a permit from the local authority (contact your local council). Ask how often you can use the location and if there are any restrictions on the type of equipment that can be set up. You will need to check whether there are any regulations on selling items such as badges and/or taking donations.

Stall construction
Even if we like wind and the clean energy it generates, wind is our biggest enemy at a stall if it is not constructed wind resistant (always take that in mind while considering the construction of your stall). Here are some basic materials you need to set up a stable stall:

• A folding table
• a party tent as sun or rain shelter
• a plastic cover sheet for the table in case it rains
• string or paperweights to stop leaflets from blowing away. [A tip for professionals: wrap some (nice coloured) elastics (like you use in waistbands) around your table and stick the material under it (see illustration)].
• and most important of all strong tape and scissors.

Attract attention
If you want to reach as many people as possible and make them become strong supporters of the wind farm development, you have to arouse people's interest for your stall. First rule: give your creativity full scope. Here are some ideas to inspire you:

• Have a short clear slogan. At best a funny and clever one.
• Create a logo which clearly symbolises what you want.
• Put your logo and your slogan on a banner. To paint a professional banner project your motive with an overhead projector or video beamer on the material you want to use for your banner (sticked to a wall). Sketch the outlines of your motive with a pen, take the banner down and paint it with a paint that is most suitable for your material. To avoid the sail-effect, if the wind blows to strong, you can cut little wholes in big banners, but be careful your banner might rip.)
• Think of a conspicuous gimmick for your stall (for example: perform a little street theatre which involves wind energy, create a wind turbine model for your stall, make a painting or photo exhibition [for example photos of wind farms on the one hand and the impacts of global warming on the other hand], play music on your stall, run a competition (for example a quiz about the wind farm with little prices).
• Have funny give-aways to attract people and symbolise support for the wind farm development. (Some ideas: kids will love little paper windmills, sweet windmills out of puff pastry, badges, stickers...)
• Paint kids faces with little windmills.

Provide information
Don't mess up your table with too much information, stick to the main points. Have some well-designed leaflets which people can take away. They should be easy to understand and have the contact details of your group on it for people who want to get involved. You also might ask the wind farm developer for free info material (as they should be really happy about your support).

Talk to people. Even if your stall is the most attractive in the world, a lot of people will just run past it for whatever reasons. Don't stand behind the table and wait for people to come to you. Appoint a few members of your group (who like talking a lot :) who speak to people around your stall about your concerns. Have an address detail list for those interested in getting involved.

Collect supporting voices
Besides providing information, collecting supporting voices is a powerful tool for local campaigns. We give people the chance to become a "one minute-activist" at our stall and show their support for the wind farm development. These "one minute activities" are good for several reasons. You can hand over the results to your local decision maker and media showing them that it is not only your small group supporting the wind farm but a big part of the public. You also get people more involved in your campaign by ensuring they know their contribution makes a difference..

Here are some ideas about what people could do on your stall if they want to support their local wind farm:

• Have sample letters, addressed to the relevant person and written in support of the wind farm. People can then just sign the letter and leave it with you to send. This is more effective then asking them to send it as you can guarantee that the letters are actually sent and you can take a copy of them so that you have your own record of how many people are in favour.
• Alternatively, you can ask people to sign a petition in favour of the wind farm and then hand it to the relevant official. If you hand the petition/letters over in person then you may be able to get local media interested in covering the event (see more information on using the media) (LINK: 1.7.5).
• Take photos of people with windmills holding a speech bubble that state their support for the wind farm development. Make a big collage of the pictures and hand it over to the relevant officials or publish them on your groups website. (Bear in mind that you have to get permission from people if you want to publish their photos.)
• Have a well-designed poster or banner (for example a painting which shows a future vision of your town and the wind farm) and get it signed by a lot of wind farm supporting people.
• Provide material for little paper windmills on your stall. So people can make and sign them. You can hand them over to the relevant officials.

Some extra tips

• You could have a donation box at your stall to fundraise a little bit of money for your group.
• Avoid mess around your stall. (Put bag packs, bikes and shopping bags where they are not visible.)
• Organise your group properly. Share out the tasks and responsibilities and make sure everyone knows exactly what his or her job is and when to turn up.
• Make sure your team has fun.
  

Do a street poll

Another way of registering local support for a wind farm is to do a street poll. This can be particularly effective if you are trying to find out the views of specific groups such as tourists or people that live near to a wind farm.

Polls can be a simple yes or no vote or a series of questions such as: would the wind farm mean that you were more/less/equally likely to visit the area? Should we be building more wind farms to stop climate change?

Remember that people will be more likely to take part if you don't take up too much of their time. This can be a real way of proving public support for a wind farm and of debunking claims that wind farms will damage tourism. Once you've collected poll results, signatures or letters you may want to turn the handing in of them into a photo opportunity for the media. Click here to read an example press release. (LINK: press release example in 1.7.5)

Other ideas
As well street campaigning there are loads of other events you could organise to inform people about the wind farm development, motivate them to become a wind farm supporter (and basically have a lot of fun.). Be creative.
You could organise for example:

• Gigs
• Fetes
• A renewable energy festival
• Picnics