1. How to form the event committee, who to have on it

The event committee should be formed 3 or 4 months in advance of the event. The members should be committed to the theme and purpose of Be About Peace Day and willing to do the work that is necessary for Be About Peace Day to happen, especially outreach, purchase of supplies and supervision of tables. A key ingredient is to recruit several people with artistic abilities who can help design the arts and crafts projects. Photos of the arts-and-crafts projects of South Mountain Peace Action's Be About Peace Days can be found on our website, Be About Peace in the "actions & events" section.

2. How and when to involve city council members

There's no general answer to this question, it depends on the relationship of the committee and/or its parent organization with the town council. South Mountain Peace Action has ongoing communication with its local officials. If a proclamation is sought, the council should be approached at least 2 months in advance.

3. Fundraising

Most of the pre-event expenses are copying costs for flyers and purchases of supplies for the activities. The cost of activities of South Mountain Peace Action's March 2007 event varied from beading, which was less than $20 to the mural material and printing which was $250. We were fortunate that the mural outline was donated. Pre-event fund-raising can be accomplished through sidewalk tabling with a donation can on the table.

Mountain Peace Action has created a line of Be About Peace products based on the design of Jackson Roberts, created in 2003 when he was 10-years-old. We sold T-shirts, buttons and lawn signs during the event.

We also held a Silent Auction to the side of the arts and crafts activities. We received contributions from more than 30 local businesses. This is a great way to involve members of the business community in the event, as well as a way to raise funds.

4. Equipment

The Maplewood Library has a large room in the basement and more than a dozen tables available. The room is rented to community organizations. Each arts-and-crafts activity had a single table and in one case, two tables. Additional folding tables were provided by community members. A local band came and performed off to the side. The materials used at each table were obtained by the volunteers in charge of the table's activity. In the evening, one of the musical performers let us use her sound system for the rest of the program.

5. Evening program of music and discussion

South Mountain Peace Action structures its Be About Peace Day event in two parts: arts and crafts for peace in the afternoon and a program of music, discussion and refection in the evening. The March 2007 evening program featured presentations by local officials on "How a Peace Economy Could Benefit Maplewood and South Orange." One of SMPA's members is a university economics professor who prepared an information survey for the speakers (it can be found in the "documents" section at Be About Peace in the "actions & events" section.)

The presentations were especially informative as they were given by officials speaking from personal experience of making spending decisions in a time of rising war costs and cuts in Federal social programs. One fact that really struck a chord was that the cost to Maplewood of a police officer for one year of $53,000 was the same as the cost to Maplewood for the war in Iraq for one day. The discussion was preceded by musical performances by very talented two high school girls.

6. How to get a proclamation

South Mountain Peace Action is well-known in the community and we had already held two Be About Peace Days before we sought a proclamation. In our case, both city councils understood that the event was educational, not political, and they knew that our organization follows an inclusive, non-confrontational approach (see the introduction above for more specifics). When seeking a proclamation it's best to work with a council member who will introduce and motivate the proclamation. And it's also a good idea to have several members of the community appear before the council to present the idea and answer questions.

7. Outreach, inclusivity / diversity

We achieved a diverse turnout mostly because Maplewood and South Orange are diverse communities, but also because we consciously sought diversity in participation in both our afternoon and evening programs. Another ingredient that contributes to a larger turnout, indicated in the introduction above, is the avoidance of positions and tactics that would create divisiveness in the community and cause mainstream residents to shun the event, thinking it was organized by "radicals" or "militants."

8. Publicity, media

We got excellent coverage in the local paper, the News-Record of Maplewood and South Orange, as well as a nice article in the Star-Ledger. SOMAcom, our local cable-access station is broadcasting a program about the event. We put up more than 100 posters on bulletin boards, kiosks, stores and libraries. We passed out flyers from sidewalk tables. And because of the two proclamations, we were able to distribute 6,000 flyers through the school system's "backpack" distribution system. It should be noted that this generated some controversy on the local online community discussion board, which fortunately was amicably resolved.

9. Brainstorming on next steps such as working toward a Peace Commission

This topic is really outside the scope of Be About Peace Day, unless it is chosen as the topic to be discussed in the evening progam. Apart from Be About Peace Day, I think it's an interesting idea, but before it is adopted as a goal, each group has to assess whether it has the resources to pursue this issue in addition to its existing workload and also whether the elected officials -- and the public -- are willing to make Peace an official part of city government.