Example: A coalition identifies new members
A community coalition has formed a new task force on transportation to respond to the needs of a rural community to get clients to appointments, parents to schools, employees to their jobs and to generally help isolated individuals and families get around more.
At the first meeting of the task force, the coalition coordinator, the head of the council on aging, two interested parents and someone from the literacy center show up. For a while they ponder how they are going to get more people to the task force and then they brainstorm a list. They think of all the individuals who are concerned about the problem and in so doing add the VNA, the school counselors, free meals programs, and others. They begin to think about who could help solve the problem and they think about all the people in the community who actually have vehicles. This includes the mental health center, the council on aging, the programs for the developmentally disabledand the schools in the public sector and the private sector, the local taxi and bus companies.
All the names are placed up on the list. Then they turn to the coalition coordinator and say, "Why don't you give them a call?" She in turn says, "No, let's go though the list and see which one of us knows any of these people or who else knows them and let's invite them to the next meeting."
Following that strategy, they double their membership by the next meeting.