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Local Chapter Guide

Our ideas for community building

Hey!

Welcome to High Impact Medicine! We’re so excited you’re working to set up or run a chapter. If ever you have any questions or ideas please feel free to get in touch with our head of community
@Abe Tolley
⁠
or with your respective country coordinator.
Our chapters are essential to High Impact Medicine: a core part of our philosophy is to bring together medics interested in having a widespread positive impact and form communities - both international and local. Our chapters do just that, hosting socials, speaker events and discussions and foster communities of medical students and junior doctors. All chapters are eligible to receive some funding from the central team to support their activities.

Country coordinators

UK: Abbos Jon
Germany: Erik Jentzen, Moritz Thiele
USA: Sarah Gebauer
Australia: Elina Christian
India: to be announced (probably Miti)
Iran: Fatemeh (but more EA group, less Hi-Med)
Current chapters and presidents/ ambassadors
Not synced yet
Country
Name
Chapter Lead
UK
3
Cambridge
Rahul Shah
Oxford
Jake Mendel
Bristol
​
Germany
4
Berlin
Tim Farkas
Hannover
Markus Schirmer
Münster
Carolin Müller
Greifswald
Sebastian Paschen
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How to get started

Congratulations on being accepted as an Ambassdor or chapter president - first thing is to meet your country coordinator who will talk you through these next step!
Read through the below manual
Draft a plan for your Hi-med Chapter for the next 1 year and review it with your country coordinator
Decide on your committee format: Ambassadors or Committee
If relevant interview other Ambassadors or committee members and appoint them to your team with the country coordinator
Establish publicity
See publicity for options & advice
Use the MailerLite templates for sending out nicely formatted emails.
Host an intro event. See events.
Just use the Intro presentation at
Presentations
⁠
or invite someone from Hi-Med to speak
Get some merch (Rollups, t shirts, flyer)
1 rollup
200 flyers
t-shirts (depending on regional availability)

Please note: we’re really excited to work with you as a representative of the Hi-Med Community. We ask that when representing Hi-Med, either personally or as part of your chapter, you reflect our
philosophy and approach
⁠
. Please check in with the community lead or the Executive Director if you have any questions or concerns! Importantly, we reserve the right to ask any representative of the Hi-Med community to step down from their role if your actions are at odds with our inclusive, collaborative and honest approach - wherever possible we will discuss this with you in an open dialogue first and come to a mutually agreeable solution.

Ambassadors

Ambassadors are students or doctors who are excited about spreading Hi-Meds philosophy that medics can have a wide reaching positive impact. Most chapters start off with 1-3 Ambassadors who start the Hi-Med community where they’re based. In future, chapters may establish a local committee (see below).
The Responsibilities of an ambassador are detailed below - the logistical details of publicity, events and finance are the same for Ambassadors and committee-based chapters - and you can find all that information in this manual too.
Responsibilities (time commitment)
Attend induction and triannual ambassador meetings: 1 hour each. Your country lead / the community lead will reach out to you to arrange this.
Attend biannual check-in with community lead: 30 minutes. Your community lead will reach out to you to coordinate this.
Publicise Hi-Med Fellowship biannually - this involves sharing posts on your institution’s Facebook/ Instagram channels, university / hospital mailing lists, talking to friends - to encourage medics to apply for the 8 week Hi-Med fellowship: 4 hours twice per year → see Publicity and Events
Arrange at least 1 social +/- talk per term: this involves booking a venue, publicising the event, inviting speakers (can be someone from Hi-Med central team): 4 hours per term / quarterly → see Publicity and Events
Publicise annual Ambassador recruitment at your university/ organisation (if you want to move on from being your organisation’s ambassador): as for fellowship, 4 hours once per year → see Publicity and Events
Optional (but encouraged)
Take part in Hi-Med Intro Fellowship / facilitate a local fellowship group if you have already taken part in the fellowship
Arrange more socials / talks
Get involved with Hi-Med research projects, content generation, mentorship
If you find other individuals interested in becoming part of the Hi-Med organising team where you’re based, refer to your country coordinator to discuss getting them involved! If you want you can establish a local committee (as below).

Establishing a local committee

A local chapter differs from being an Ambassador in that there is formal committee of students working on Hi-Med where you’re based.
There are several options on how to structure a local committee. Please choose the option that best works for you.

Option #1: task-oriented responsibilities

Works in Oxford, Cambridge
President
The president will be primarily responsible for Hi-Med chapter logistics such as running fellowship cohorts, registering as a university society, organizing finances and budgeting and generally keeping on top of everything that’s going on. You may help manage the email addresses, maintain a membership database and, with the Treasurer, organising finances and ticketing for any events (social or academic). Organization skills are essential, and some experience navigating University structures surrounding society registration would be very helpful but is not required.
Treasurer
The Treasurer will be tasked with managing the chapter’s annual budget, setting up and maintaining a bank account for the chapter, preparing the relevant financial documents and basic accounts when required. The Treasurer will also act as a General Committee Member, helping out the rest of the Committee with their roles.
Speakers Officers 1-2
We are intending to put on some talks next term; our Speakers Officers would be responsible (along with the President) for finding and reaching out to potential speakers, maintaining communication with them, logistically arranging the talk itself (including booking venues and/or managing Zoom), and greeting and introducing the speakers. This role will also involve arranging socials for the wider chapter community. This role would suit somebody with good professional communication skills, particularly interested in further exploring Hi-Med’s focus areas, and networking with medical professionals.
Events Officer
The Events Officer will be responsible for putting on socials and coming up with ideas for and executing other exciting and creative events. These can range in scale and scope, and could include panel discussions, presentation days, workshops, university visits, conferences and retreats. Some experience organizing events would be useful but not essential, but confidence with logistics is recommended.
Year Group / Junior Doctor Representatives
Representatives will help us to publicise Hi-Med events and initiatives to reach as wide an audience as possible. This will be through sharing on year group group-chats, Facebook groups, medical societies, personal social media followings (if possible) and with friends. Reps should be comfortable using social media for promotions. There will be opportunities to be involved with wider committee activities too if you’d like.

Option #2: goal-oriented responsibilities

Works in Berlin
In Berlin, we decided to redefine roles based on the
funnel model for community building
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grafik.png
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We have defined a committee member to each section of the funnel,
Growth Officer
The Growth Officer is responsible for top-funnel outreach. This includes managing social media channels, hosting intro events and exciting people for creating an impact in Medicine.
Effective Development Officer
The effective development officer is handling mid-funnel activities, fellowships, workshops, and speaker events
Opportunities Officer
Will handle deep-funnel opportunities for internships, in-depth fellowship, focused workshops, etc.
Events Officer
Works longitudinally with all other officers. Organizes social events. Provides expertise in event management for other officers

Committee Logistics

Whatever the model, we’d encourage you to arrange an application process for your local committee:
Create an application form insert example
Make this generic:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdwnmuSJiY06ABz5g4ml6fTyVRUuct4EmmboFfJM5c-NupBgQ/viewform?usp=sharing
⁠
⁠
Publicise chapter committee recruitment
Arrange interviews with applicants with the Country Coordinator joining to assist where you discuss applicants’ experience and interest in different roles
Appoint individuals into roles with the help of the Country Coordinator
This recruitment for a new committee should occur annually at a time appropriate for your university/ hospital. Please discuss when you will do this with your country coordinator.

Committee Responsibilities

President
Attend induction and triannual ambassador meetings: 1 hour each. Your country lead / the community lead will reach out to you to arrange this.
Attend biannual check-in with community lead: 30 minutes. Your community lead will reach out to you to coordinate this.
Arrange regular committee meetings: this is important to engage your team and ensure everyone can input into regular decisions
Committee wide
Publicise Hi-Med Fellowship biannually - this involves sharing posts on your institution’s Facebook/ Instagram channels, university / hospital mailing lists, talking to friends - to encourage medics to apply for the 8 week Hi-Med fellowship: 4 hours twice per year → see Publicity and Events
Run the Hi-Med Fellowship locally: this involves coordinating an in person cohort of the fellowship where you’re based. The country coordinator will organise the facilitator and groups following recruitment, but you may need to help the facilitator organise an in person venue for sessions as well as socials during the fellowship: 6 hours twice per year → see Fellowship
Arrange at least 1 social & 1 talk per term: this involves booking a venue, publicising the event, inviting speakers (can be someone from Hi-Med central team): 8 hours per term / quarterly → see Publicity and Events
Publicise annual Ambassador / committee recruitment at your university/ organisation (if you want to move on from being your organisation’s ambassador): as for fellowship, 4 hours once per year → see Publicity and Events
Optional (but encouraged)
Arrange further events such as
A retreat
Workshops such as a career planning or cause exploration workshop
A conference with a variety of speakers, workshops and socials
More frequent talks/ socials
Take part in Hi-Med Intro Fellowship / facilitate a local fellowship group if you have already taken part in the fellowship
Get involved with Hi-Med research projects, content generation, mentorship


Things you should consult your country coordinator before doing
Changing the model of a chapter: from ambassadors to committee or vice versa
Appointing new people onto the committee: new members should be interviewed in a fair and open process. Allowing them to get to know the country coordinator will help them stay engaged in Hi-Med more widely as well
Spending >$100: see finance guidance below - your country coordinator should approve all significant purchases or any purchases not in line with the finance guidance
Confirming an external speaker: it is important that speakers are in line with Hi-Med’s philosophy so please check with your country coordinator before confirming an external speaker (it is very likely the coordinator will say Yes Of Course!)
Changing the chapter president or lead ambassador
Changing the style guide


Publicity

Social Media

Get an Instagram / Facebook account! This is a great way to communicate with your members.
You can find the logo for a profile picture here: link in graphics repository
You should use Linktree to have a link in your bio with all current forms and opportunities to be involved.
Reposting material from the main Instagram is often a good way to maintain engagement.
How to name your Instagram account:
himed_city
LinkedIn
We have a central LinkedIn for all of Hi-Med - please don’t create your own.

Email

Chapter Mailing List
When you are collecting contact information from members or interested students, please use our get involved form. This way, they will automatically receive the Hi-Med global newsletter. Of course, you have access to this information via the local chapter management page and you can send out chapter-specific emails yourself.
It is important everyone you email has signed up via this link so they consent to receiving future emails and are able to opt out in future.
Wider Mailing lists
Most universities and hospitals have an email list or bulletin that you can send relevant information to. As Hi-Med we present ourselves professionally, so avoid plain-text emails and use a neat HTML-layout if possible. We are happy to assist with any requests. Contact XYZ

Slack

All chapters have a slack channel where all community members based in that location join. This is a nice way of advertising events and facilitating a community infrastructure where it is easy to reach out to other members of the community. Not everyone uses Slack so often chapters combine Slack with other publicity methods.

Ask your country coordinator to setup a slack channel for your chapter if it doesn’t already exist.

WhatsApp

Some chapters have Whatsapp Groups for their community - where only certain members (e.g. Ambassadors, committee members) can post. These can be useful ways to advertise events in a quick and accessible fashion.

Website

Contact your country coordinator to get your local chapter added to our website.

Event

Workshops

Lightning talk session
Programming Coworking
Cowork on research projects

Intro Events

Abe to add

Speaker Events

Invite speakers who are pursuing high impact work to speak; these can be great ways to encourage people to join the Hi-Med community and consider how to have a widespread positive impact
An invite template can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GH2_kX-Dil0hvGVk6QxddZ0VFGGhAwgc8evoFtI9WB0/edit?usp=sharing
⁠
Check with your country coordinator no one has invited that speaker recently from another chapter - there is often a country-specific speaker spreadsheet to coordinate this between chapters
clean up/ move onto coda:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VCoVoU5wWicl7cXCgAhYhRKoFTpo2zfF/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109977571994308382548&rtpof=true&sd=true
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Book a venue: past options depending on the speaker are university lecture theatres, student union rooms, private rooms in pubs
The trickiest part is coordinating a date and time between a venue & the speaker, both of whom may have limited availability
Sorting your speakers well in advance will be key to this process
Sort the venue and time well in advance so you can publicise the event to ensure you get a good attendance
See publicity channels for details
The whole committee should encourage friends to attend
To encourage attendance you can offer a social with free food/ drinks after the talk
Asks from potential speakers
A live talk for up to an hour on a topic mutually agreeable with the speaker and Hi-Med: this may be about their work, their career journey
If delivering a live talk in lecture format (either online or in-person based on your preferences and ability to get to the location) is something they are unable to commit to at the moment, they could consider alternatives such as:
A short podcast interview online (~20 minutes) to discuss your work
An "In Conversation With..." format that would be more like a staged interview
Pre-recording your talk and sending us the video recording that we could put up on our website
Providing written answers to some questions about your work that we could also use as resources for students and junior doctors on our website.
You may combine speakers to form a panel discussion where relevant.
List of potential speakers

Social Events

Go to a bar (just reserve a table, very low effort)
Book a university room and buy some refreshments
Often people combine social events with a speaker event - this speaker simply may be a local Hi-Med member / the chapter president etc - but it is nice to introduce new members to what Hi-Med is and does formally during the social

Finance

General rules

High Impact Medicine believes that a local and engaged community can lead have a significant positive impact on peoples’ future career and donations. We therefore offer financial support for community building and running events.
Most universities provide funding for student groups and clubs. Be sure to check out these sources of funding as well!
Generally, expenses will be reimbursed after an event. If waiting for a reimbursement will cause financial difficulties, please contact us and we are happy to find an alternate solution.

Maximum reimbursement

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https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/group-support-funding#about-group-support-funding
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Speaker events

50 USD per speaker, max. 2 speakers. Please be aware that most speakers will not charge for holding a talk or joining a discussion. These 100 USD are for high-profile speakers who will provide a substantial benefit to the event and will not come without compensation. The money can also be used to buy gifts or similar signs of appreciation. You may also use this compensation if a speaker requires reimbursement of travel expenses or to book a venue (though usually you can get this for free)
You may also provide refreshments up to 2 USD per participant. All food should be vegetarian and vegan where possible.

Social events

6 USD per participant, max. 1 time per month, max. 100 USD total
Do not advertise free food!
Be mindful with what you spend money on
No alcohol?

Maximum reimbursement

How to be reimbursed
Approve expenditures with your country coordinators and based on the above guidance
Proof of event insurance and budget plan must be submitted to your country coordinator in advance of the event (at least 1W) and they will then submit it to PPF
Example budget plans can be found here:
Fill out this form to claim financial reimbursement after the event uploading regular invoices:
reimbursement form
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Resources and templates

Check out our
Graphics repository
⁠
and our
Presentations
⁠
!

Merchandise

Rollup Banner
You can get a rollup banner for about $100 USD - Hi-Med will pay for this.
You can find designs here: add links to graphics repository
In the UK we’ve used VistaPrint in the past.

Flyers
If you need flyers you can order for about $50 USD per term. Be mindful about the benefits of printed flyers vs a simple QR code which is more environmentally friendly and cheaper.

T-shirts
Branded T-shirts are a nice way to engage your committee and create an established presence where you’re based. We’d encourage committee members to pay for their own t-shirt (~10USD each) but Hi-Med will pay for a few t-shirts to be the property of a particular chapter for general usage.

You can find designs here insert designs.

Resources for community building

EA Groups Resource Centre
What you should know before starting a university group, how to start one, and how to find co-organisers. Advice, funding, or more resources to help you run your group. Resources on how to create a strategy, promote your group, and manage your group well. Deciding what event to run, how to run an in-person or virtual event, and tips on facilitating discussions.
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https://resources.eagroups.org/
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Centre for EA Approaches to High Quality Community Building:
Fidelity Model - How to make sure that your target audience understands your key messages but is not scared away by excessive depth.
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The fidelity model of spreading ideas | Centre For Effective Altruism
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Funnel Model - How to think about your approach in appealing to both people completely new and already used to EA / HI-Med ideas.
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The Funnel Model | Centre For Effective Altruism
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Check out the EA forum for ideas and first-hand reports from other EA groups.
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Building effective altruism - EA Forum
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Hey!
Country coordinators
Current chapters and presidents/ ambassadors
How to get started
Ambassadors
Establishing a local committee
Option #1: task-oriented responsibilities
Option #2: goal-oriented responsibilities
Committee Logistics
Committee Responsibilities
Publicity
Social Media
Email
Slack
WhatsApp
Website
Event
Workshops
Intro Events
Speaker Events
Social Events
Finance
General rules
Maximum reimbursement
Speaker events
Social events
Maximum reimbursement
Resources and templates
Merchandise
Resources for community building
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