The minimum requirement to start running Catalyst is 2 Key Volunteers (KVs). Don’t try to run one yourself, without this minimum. The KVs do the work of running and organising the meeting. We wanted the group to “catalyse” students into action on their campus – connecting, building, and sending, both by the focus of the content of the meetings and in the running of the meeting itself.
Most meetings start with an icebreaker/game, with 1 or 2 people running it. These are get-to-know-you interactional activities are especially important at the start of the semester to welcome new people. The icebreaker will lead to the actual study or presentation. We suggest you use the online Core Group studies when starting off. After small group discussion and presentation of key points or summaries, the MC’s will finish with announcements of upcoming advents and activities.
As a Movement get larger, the group studies could take the form of a speaker, or video, or something else. If the group is large, break it into smaller groups of 3 to 5 for discussion and return to share summaries with the main group. But you can still have the intimate dynamics of a small group by breaking into small groups for discussion. It’s the best of both worlds and works fantastically if you can find one time that most people can attend, such as a common lunchtime, or perhaps a slot late in the afternoon or evening. Often you will only have one hour for the meeting, but if you can find 1½ hours, so much the better. As you can see, there is a great opportunity for Catalyst to be a “Team Sport” that really develops your movement – rather than just something that spectators turn up to.