PERIOD CHAPTERS

In terms of the time commitment, it definitely varies a lot from person to person, and chapter to chapter! We don't have any strict requirements when it comes to what route you decide to take with your chapter, the reach, meetings, recruiting, etc. Since we understand that everyone has different time availabilities, we leave it up to you! All you have to do is report back to PERIOD National by filling out the quarterly surveys letting us know how you're doing, as well as keeping us up to date with contact information changes, responding to all communications from National, etc. You'll be able to read more about this once you've become a chapter! Basically, if you're able to put in 10 hours a week that's amazing. 20? Stellar! 5? Great too! Also, if you're not able to work on your chapter for a couple of months because you're on vacation or just busy, no worries! You'd still have to let us know and fill out the surveys.

We typically recommend that people start a PERIOD chapter and operate it as a “branch” of the pre-existing club or group. Once you apply to become a PERIOD Chapter, your official chapter name will be: PERIOD @ [School name, State], but you can continue to work out of your club! In other words, you can continue to have your typical meetings, but do PERIOD activities through this structure.

There are some school chapters who have trouble getting approved by their administration, so they start a community chapter, and then down the line, when they have a solid structure, and more of a presence in their community they are able to start it in their school. If you are in a school, we do encourage you to make your chapter official in your school, since that way you’ll be able to be involved with your school administration in getting products in your schools, and have more leverage with your school district!

Our three main pillars are service, education and advocacy. Some of our chapters focus on all of these pillars, but usually they have more modest goals and choose to focus on only one. This is totally up to you! Once you are a chapter you will be able to get access to all of the amazing tools that we have in our Activist Launch Pad! This includes educational workshops, policy materials about how to get products in your schools and meet with your state representatives, all the information you need to be able to do service in your community, and more! With that you will be then able to build a strategy for your chapter, and support menstrual equity in your community.

We have lots of international chapters! You will get access to the same tools and resources as any other approved chapter! This includes educational workshops, policy materials about how to get products in schools and meet with US state representatives, information you need to be able to do service in your community, and more! For international chapters, the work you'll do might look a little bit different. Given that PERIOD National is not able to ship menstrual products outside of the continental United States, and also given that the policy materials are currently US-focused, our international chapters a lot of the time need to fully rely on product drives as well as starting partnerships with menstrual product companies that are local to where they are located. Also, in terms of tackling policy in your school/city/state or province/country, we are not going to be able to give you as much support, but you are always welcome to use our materials as a guide on how to get started!