The Why, How, and Hope of Organizing

1. The Why, How, and Hope of Organizing Sarah Chase San Diego 350 sarahchase025@gmail.com

2. What is Organizing? Organizing is: • Identifying, recruiting, & developing leadership • Building relationships, community, & commitment • Building power out of that community Organizing brings people together, challenges them to act on behalf of shared values and interests, and uses the power from the community’s combined resources to strategically achieve clear goals and outcomes

3. Good Organizing

4. Why do we organize? • Need people to do work • Develop skills in organization • Develop relationships in community • Build political power • Win campaigns

5. We Can’t do this alone!! Global Power Shift Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmlL-fS0jhU

6. How does organizing work? • Relationship building • Storytelling / Message • Strategizing • Action • Structure

7. Relationships • Different kinds (person to person, person to community, between communities/orgs) • A method of creating “social capitol” • Trust, cooperation, and co-reliance towards common goals • Examples: • Obama campaign organizing in SC • August – an outsider, an insurgent • By October – organizers held ~400 house meetings, attended by ~4k people • Mobilization that would deploy 15k election-day volunteers

8. Why do people get involve? • What motivates people to act? • What made you come today

9. Why do people join the movement? • Create a better reality • Where we are vs. where we want to be • Sense of purpose • To win • Fight against injustice & inequality • Fear • “Paying the rent” or feelings of obligation • Gain skill set • Social networking or outlet

10. Getting to Anger – Having Hope “People organize in response to injustice, not inconvenience” “People are not born political, rather they go through a politicizing process” Important to focus on real, tangible outlets for hope What is the solution? How can we get there?

11. Storytelling • Different kinds of stories (personal, campaign, etc) • Taps into the emotional, or moral resources through stories • We identify with protagonists to: • Learn lessons for our “heads” on how we could act • More important: moving our hearts to act • Courage, hope, inspiration, solidarity

12. Shared Values and Goals • Focusing on shared values, visions, and goals • Diversity becomes an asset rather than an obstacle • We experience values emotionally – and can tap into those moral resources Why people should act to change their world • Turning values and goals into strategies and actions How people can act to change their world

13. Trust & Accountability • Organizing creates a community co-reliant on each other for success • Group projects… School or work • When did they work well? • When did they not? • Accountability in a volunteer context

14. Obstacles to Engagement Sooooo… if there are all these serious problems we are facing, why aren’t more people involved? is

15. Obstacles to Engagement Sooooo… if there are all these serious problems we are facing, why aren’t more people involved? • Time • Money • Fear • Apathy • Lack of Awareness or Knowledge • Must be aware of limitations/concerns • Take into account when engaging others • Help to minimize or mitigate concerns

16. Volunteer Recruitment Where are the people??

17. Engaging communication • How to make your issue engaging: • Make it personal to them • Make it personal to you • Hold individuals accountable • Deliver it to an authority figure • Frame it positively • Use your body (body language 55%, how we say words 38%, the words themselves 7% • Tell a story • Speak in “their language”

18. Attitude, Attitude, Attitude • What makes people (including yourself) want to get/stay involved • Positive & Upbeat • Solutions oriented • You make a difference

19. Principles for Volunteer Retention & Development

20. Tracking People • What to track • Name • Phone • Email • Address • Where you met • Issues • Other critical information • How? Excel, Access, a standardized organized system • When? ASAP!! (so it happens, accuracy, follow up) • Why?

21. Follow upStrike while the iron is hot • Follow up with new people right away!! • There is no such thing as following up too quickly • They still remember you, are still motivated, & most likely to get involved • Why follow up? • Building the movement, new people • They aren't likely to reach out to you, you need to help invite them • How? • Helpful reminder where they know you from (e.g., booth at green fair) • Talk about issue, values, and goals • Ask them to take a specific action • Attend a meeting or rally • Get coffee with you • Come to a movie screening • Write a letter

22. Staying in Touch • Keeps people motivated and engaged • Allows them to get involved, even if they weren’t able to at the first ask • Keeps the issue and movement in their mind

23. One-to-One Meetings • Gain valuable information • Learn their issues, motivations, obstacles, skills • Get them involved • Plug them into projects that make sense • Can give compelling reasons why they should • Motivate them • Share your story (motives and values) • Makes them feel included and important

24. Developing Leaders • Key Principles: • Encourage people to take ownership of projects • Focus on task at hand, but also next steps • Encourage new leaders to join decision making • Training, confidence building, & leadership development

25. Leadership Ladder Organize and plan the campaign Create the flyers Organize flyer distribution Teach others to distribute flyers Distribute flyers by themselves Helps hand out flyers

26. Support Yourself and Others • Organizing is a long-game • Guard against burnout • Remind others of their contributions and value • Take time for self, spouse, family, etc.

27. Campaign Strategizing Strategy, Planning, Implementation, & Evaluation

28. Campaigns • Strategy • Planning • Implementation • Evaluation

29. Why Plan? • Gives focus and direction • Uses resources (money, people, time, etc) efficiently • Established benchmarks • Creates accountability • Know if you are winning

30. Strategic Planning • Step 1: Establish clear goals • Tangible, can tell if you achieved it • Step 2: Power Analysis • Identify key players • Assess strength: yours and your opposition • Develop a strategy to move targets • Step 3: Put together a plan • Message, tactics, resources, timeline, etc

31. Overall Strategic Goal • This is your “victory line” • Be concrete about the issue or problem to be solved • Be concrete and specific in order to identify a solution

32. Strategy • General plan for building power to achieve your goal • Who do we need to win? • What do we need to do to win? Turing what you have into what you need to get what you want

33. Tactics • Activist tactics might include: • Boycotts • Lobbying • Civil disobedience • Protests and Rallies • Petitions • Media campaigns • Letter writing

34. Goal Strategy Tactics

35. Goal Strategy Tactics

36. Example – Campaign to protect the Current River Goal: Get the Nat. Park Service to select the strongest of the 4 alternative management plans, which includes: • Closing all illegal and unauthorized vehicle trails • Rehabilitation of damaged land • Concentration of development into a few already-developed sites, rather than establishment of new ones • At least one stretch of each river zone that is motorboat free Strategy: Convince NPS Director Jarvis that unless this plan includes strong reforms, it will go down as a blight on his otherwise strong record of general management planning and park stewardship. Tactics: • Lobbing the Nat. Park Service • Shining media spotlight on the park’s poor condition (LTEs, Op-eds, Press events) • Grassroots (petitioning, calling, emailing, etc) • Coalition building

37. Campaigns • Strategy ✔ • Planning • Timeline • Who will do what, by when? • What resources are needed? • Implementation • Evaluation

38. Campaigns • Strategy ✔ • Planning ✔ • Implementation • Stick to timeline and plan, but can be fluid • Track your work • Involve people!!! • Evaluation

39. Campaigns • Strategy ✔ • Planning ✔ • Implementation ✔ • Evaluation • Did you achieve your goal? Why, why not? • What was a success? • What needs to be improved upon?

40. Organizing Structure

41. Organizing Structure

42. Organizing Structure

43. Organizing Structure

44. Organizing Structure

45. Organizing Structure

46. Organizing Structure