Tools for Organizers, Activists, Educators, and Other Hell-Raisers
"Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does."
--Margaret Mead
There are a lot of good progressive web sites out there,
packed with solid, issue-oriented material, meant to raise consciousness
and give people the ideas and facts they need to be effective
activists and educators. But often there's an assumption that
the reader is prepared to put these ideas right to use--that
they'll just know how to translate them into organizing
efforts and outreach projects and public presentations. It isn't
always that easy. Especially if you're new at working with a
group, or trying to start one up, before you're all ready to
charge out and change the world, you need to do some groundwork.
You need to build a strong, cohesive organization with a clear
sense of its mission and an ability to focus its energies efficiently
and creatively.
Over the years I've worked with a lot of organizations--professional
associations, student governments, social clubs, community service
agencies, activist groups, and others. I've learned a lot about
what seems to help them run more smoothly, be more productive,
and make the people involved feel good about what they're doing.
I've worked with some very wise and capable people, and borrowed
some good materials from them on the nuts and bolts of getting
organized and getting things done. I've created this page to
share them.
Some of these materials were written by other folks for a
variety of organizations--labor unions, environmental groups,
student organizations, businesses--but they contain good advice
that can help just about any group. Others
I've developed myself, based on my
experience and on other people's materials I've collected while
working as a student activities advisor.
Some of the linked sites here give permission to copy their
materials freely for non-commercial use. Others sell printed
copies, often as a fundraiser to support their other work. Please
respect the copyright holders' rights and wishes, and if you
use someone else's materials, please make sure to give them proper
credit.
You can copy and distribute the materials I've developed for
non-commercial purposes, as long as you give credit to me and
to the other sources I mention. I'd also like to hear from you
about how you're using the materials, and/or any suggestions
you have and additional resources you'd like to share. You can
email me at
webmaster@casagordita.com.
Organizing 101: Getting Your Group Up and Running
"Don't agonize. Organize."
--Florynce Kennedy
These Guidelines for Developing A Mission
Statement and Bylaws can help you focus your thinking and
create a statement of what you're there to do, and how you intend
to accomplish it.
The California State University, Chico Student Activities
Office has creates a Model
Constitution or Bylaws to help organizations get
the basics down on paper.
The ACTION Center's Activism
Training Materials & Resources page is a terrific set
of links to help with developing a mission, goals and plans for
your group, motivating people to get involved, running effective
meetings, publicity and marketing strategies, your legal rights
to circulate petitions and pass out leaflets in public places,
and much, much more. This site is a gold mine for experienced
leaders and novice activists alike!
Protest.net's Activists
Handbook is another comprehensive set of resources, covering
everything from "Why should I do something?" to coalition-building
and working with the media.
The Vegetarian Union of North America's Guide
for Local Vegetarian Groups covers the basic steps to start,
maintain, and expand a local vegetarian group--but their tips
and guidelines could assist any new organization.
The Center for Campus Organizing's Organizing
Guide for Peace and Justice Groups has some excellent, practical
advice on group process, decision-making options, building membership
and keeping people involved, planning events, and more.
The Citizens'
Handbook is a comprehensive guide to community organizing,
from the basics of getting started to community-building activities
to sustain and expand the impact of your organization.
CampusActivism.org
is designed to facilitate networking between progressive student
and youth activists in the US and Canada through the sharing
of contacts, ideas and resources.
NetChange
is a project designed to increase the presence of progressive
students activists in cyberspace. Their Activism NOW! bulletins
will alert young activists to ways they can take action and effect
change directly from their computer terminal. The Online Activist
Database will connect activists with similar interests and provide
organizers with a source for online contacts. Finally, the NetChange
Journal is a medium for activists to express their views in writing,
photo essays, cartoons and any other way you can imagine.
If you're ambitious enough to be thinking of starting a more
structured, formal organization, Idealist.org's Nonprofit FAQ has some good information for you. Topics here
include legally incorporating as a nonprofit, boards of directors,
strategic planning, marketing, fundraising, and more.
Management 201: Making Things Work
"A leader is best when people
barely know that he exists, not so good when people obey and
acclaim him, worst when they despise him. Fail to honor people,
they fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who talks
little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, the people
will say, 'We did it ourselves.'"
--Lao Tse
People and Planet Online's Groups
Guide has specific advice on many of the problems and concerns
that come up in the life of many groups.
Nuts &
Bolts Publishing has some free articles and resources on
a variety of nonprofit leadership and management topics.
Capaciteria is "a comprehensive, searchable database directory of administrative resources that help nonprofits leverage their own capacity" (I wasn't sure exactly what that means, either). They have materials on legal issues, financial management, membership development, fundraising, and much more (now those, I understand!)
Your meetings can make or break your group. If they're run
well, you'll be productive and members are likely to feel that
their time was well-spent. If not, you'll find yourselves spinning
your wheels, and people will eventually give up on your group
in frustration. This handout on Facilitating
Meetings Effectively has some good suggestions on running
efficient, productive meetings.
Resources
for Meetings and Group Process has links to some excellent
materials on meeting management, conflict resolution, communication
skills, and more.
How To Make Meetings Work in a Culturally
Diverse Group is a set of guidelines to help people understand
differences within a group and find common ground.
The Disability
Etiquette Handbook has tips on welcoming and accommodating
people with disabilities in your organization.
Tips for Equal Access Presentations
can help you make your meetings, lectures and other events accessible
to people with disabilities.
The Seattle Peace and Justice Events Calendar offers some considerations for making your event accessible to people with disabilities.
Every group has them, and these Hints
for Facilitators: Handling Difficult Behaviors in Meetings
can help you handle them.
Meeting Minutes is a set of guidelines
on taking and writing up the minutes of a meeting.
The National Association of Parliamentarians' How
to Use Parliamentary Procedure is a comprehensive guide to
operating under Robert's Rules of Order.
Jim Slaughter's site on Parliamentary Procedure includes charts and articles on meeting procedures, "cheat sheets" to Robert's Rules of Order, and much more.
Parliamentary
Procedure: Toward the Good Order of the University advice
from Dr. John A. Cagle, Parliamentarian of the Academic Senate
and Professor of Communication at California State University,
Fresno
Robert's
Rules of Order Revised The original source--complete
and comprehensive, but probably not for the casual user.
This handout on Consensus Decision-Making
offers a basic introduction to the concepts and process, and
helps you decide if the method is right for your group.
On Conflict And Consensus:
A Handbook On Formal Consensus Decisionmaking is an excellent
and extensive guide to facilitation skills and consensus development.
Food Not Bombs Publishing sells printed copies, but they also
offer the entire book here and let you download and print it
free of charge.
Ron Kelly's conflict
resolution tools page has many useful links that may help
individuals and groups.
Training For Change has a great and ever-growing set of experiential exercises and activities for helping people learn to work more effectively in groups.
Event Planning Made Easy is a set
of questions to consider and tasks you need to take care of in
planning any event.
Learning to delegate work is one of the most essential--and
one of the hardest--skills a leader or manager needs to know.
These Tips on Successful Delegation
may help.
If you're planning to pursue funding through grants from foundations
and public agencies, this Guide
for Writing a Funding Proposal may help.
Hell-Raising 301: Changing the World in Your Spare Time
"Power never concedes anything
without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just
what people will quietly submit to and you have found out the
exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon
them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either
words or blows, or both."
--Frederick Douglass
The Jewish Democratic Council's How
to Win: A Practical Guide for Defeating the Radical Right in
Your Community has a lot of useful information and tips that
would help in all kinds of activism and public outreach. Their
guidelines on public speaking and working with the media are
especially good.
Lesbian Avengers' Civil Rights Organizing Project has created
Out
Against the Right: An Organizing Handbook detailing strategies
they used and lessons they learned in working against anti-queer
ballot initiatives in several states. They have good advice on
doing direct actions, building coalitions with other groups,
conflict resolution within your group, and more.
The 20/20 Vision
site has some very good tools for grassroots activists, including
tips for dealing with the press and for writing effective letters
to policymakers.
Tips on Making Letters and Phone Calls
Effective is a set of guidelines for making your voices heard.
Whether you're contacting an elected official, taking on an offensive
ad campaign for a product, or calling for change in an organization's
policies, these suggestions can help.
The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance has a good
set of suggestions for Writing
Successful Complaint Letters.
Working Assets' Act
for Change includes tips on understanding the legislative
process, visiting your elected officials, and working with their
staffs on issues that concern you.
Center for Lobbying in the Public
Interest helps nonprofits learn to lobby lawmakers
and get their help in achieving their missions.
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting offers a Media
Activist Kit with "how-to" guides for identifying,
documenting and challenging inaccurate or unfair news coverage,
along with information about how to promote independent media.
Cause Communications
has some good, free resources and tips to help activists and
nonprofits publicize important issues.
The Seattle Times and the Asian American Journalists Association have created a downloadable Media Access Guide that offers strategies for approaching the media. They cover the news release, the news conference, building good media relations and more.
An
Activist Guide to Exploiting the Media covers publicity planning,
press releases, being interviewed, and dealing with unfair or
inaccurate media coverage.
The Ruckus
Society Media Manual has some great information on how the
media works, and how to work with them to get your story covered.
It's tough to do effective education or activism when no one
is listening. So how do you get the word out? Dr. Randall Hansen's
Guide
to Writing Successful Press Releases is a great set of links
to sites that show you the basics of writing effective press
releases, special considerations for sending press releases electronically,
and more.
InfoScavenger's Writing
and Sending Press Releases is another set of tips and pointers
show you how to write and distribute releases that get noticed.
Say
It On the Radio covers talk radio--how to get on the air
to talk about your issue, and what to expect once you get there.
Marilyn Wann, media diva extraordinaire, has learned some
valuable lessons about doing radio interviews.
She shares some of them here.
Another great article on media interviews comes from
John Ullman. In Make Sure It’s Not Poly In, Garbage Out he talks about how polyamorous people (or anyone with a story that the media might distort or sensationalize) can prepare and manage interviews to best get their message across. The article first appeared in Loving More magazine
Paper Tiger Television's ROAR
Guide to Media Activism helps activists
use television to get their message out.
If you have a story to tell on film, MediaRights.org
helps media makers, educators, nonprofits, and activists use
documentaries to encourage action and inspire dialogue on contemporary
social issues.
E The People gives
you access to over 170,000 government officials in 9,800 towns
and cities across the US and helps you send them emails and petitions
on your causes and concerns.
The
Virtual Activist is an online training course intended to
teach you how to use email and the Web as effective, inexpensive,
and efficient tools for organizing, outreach, and advocacy.
Psybernet's Resources for Hosts of Internet Mailing Lists and Conferences has links to some good sites and articles on creating and maintaining online communities.
On Designing
an Activist's Web Page has tips for the non-professional
web designer on creating a page that will interest people, give
them a reason for hearing you out, and make it easy for them
to follow you.
E-mail can be a hugely powerful tool for activists, and even
Internet rookies can use it effectively on a global scale. But
Is
It Outreach--Or Is It Spam? This article from the Mother
Jones site can help you tell the difference.
The Vegetarian Union of North America has a good set of Guidelines
for Tabling that you can translate and apply to distributing
information to the public on almost any issue.
Anarchism in Action's Postering,
Tabling, and Propaganda Distribution has
some good suggestions for getting the word out.
These Public
Speaking Tips, some created by the author and some adapted
from Toastmasters International manuals, will help you with presentations
and speeches before all kinds of groups, large and small.
Anarchism in Action's Tips
on Giving Speeches and Presentations has
some good basic suggestions.
a goodman is a communications consulting firm that helps public interest groups, foundations, and progressive businesses reach more people more effectively. They have some interesting publications, including one called "Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes" that they offer free to people who work full-time at nonprofits, foundations, government agencies or educational institutions.
The Vernal Education Project's site has a collection of interesting
papers, including the excellent "How
to Talk to 'Middle America' about Progressive Ideas"
How To Win A High
School Election is the site for a book of the same name.
Young activists who want to work within the system will find
some great, proven advice here.
Activism takes many forms. Singing
Bears: A Home for Activist Art is "a community site
for promoting and connecting all those using creative art to
transform our world."
Michael Albert's Why
Protest the Conventions? starts out talking about the reasons
for protesting at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions,
but it quickly moves to discuss the coercive power of protest
against entrenched authorities, the importance of linking different
social justice movements, and also the nature of leadership,
money, and retention of people in our efforts.
This Action
Outline, taken from the Lesbian Avengers Handbook, covers
the steps involved in planning a public action to bring attention
to an issue or cause.
Training for Change's 7
Ways to Make Our Protests More Powerful helps
activists focus their energies and get their message across effectively
Papers
on Nonviolent Action and Cooperative Decision-Making are
.pdf files containing agendas, notes and handouts from a series
of workshops by Randy Schutt to prepare people for nonviolent
direct action.
The Peace and Justice Support Network of the Mennonite Church USA offers these Peacemaker Guidelines to help prepare volunteers whose aim is to keep demonstrations nonviolent.
The Demonstrators'
Manual was created by the New York City Chapter National
Lawyers Guild. It covers planning an action, your legal rights
and the applicable laws and court cases, and what to expect in
dealing with police and the courts.
ACT UP's Civil
Disobedience Index is another good resource for lawbreakers
with principles and a purpose.
Anarchism
in Action: Methods, Tactics, Skills, and Ideas has
some good suggestions on communications, organizing, public actions,
security and self-defense, and more
Black Cross Health Collective's First
Aid for Radicals and Activists picks up where the Red Cross
leaves off, giving you tips and techniques for safety and first
aid preparations for a demonstration, dealing with pepper spray
and tear gas, aftercare, and other essential considerations.
Not that I'm recommending vandalism or assault...but the Billboard Liberation
Front has some creative ideas
for getting your message across. The San
Francisco Weekly also has some tips on How
to Pie.
The Ruckus Society Training Manuals
cover some adventurous methods of bringing attention to your
causes and concerns. They cover topics like scouting a target,
communications, climbing techniques and safety issues, and more.
Consciousness-Raising 499: Special Topics
"No one is free when others
are oppressed."
--Mahatma Gandhi
These are some subject areas that I've done presentations
or research on. I've borrowed or created some good resource materials
for workshops, information tables, and other kinds of educational
outreach on these topics.
Bisexuality
Fat Acceptance and Body Image
And to find resources on just about every progressive issue
and cause under the sun, try these sites:
WebActive
Jay's
Leftist and Progressive Internet Resource Directory
Adam
Rifkin's Activism Links Page
Cafe Progressive
Activist
San Diego's Online Resources
Empowerment
The Zone
Tolerance.org (a project of the Southern
Poverty Law Center)
WWWomen
Recommended Reading (And Other Stuff You Might Want to Buy)
"Ideas are the factors that
lift civilization. They create revolutions. There is more dynamite
in an idea than in many bombs."
--Bishop Vincent
A classic book about community organizing and grassroots democracy
is Saul Alinsky's Rules
for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals.
The Positive Revolution
Page is a resource center inspired by Edward de Bono's book
The Handbook for the Positive Revolution. It explains
the principles and methods behind this elegant, powerful, and
constructive model for social change.
Empowerment
Resources Online Bookstore has an interesting selection of
books for personal growth, social change, and ecology. Don't
miss the Political Empowerment section.
East Wind Community's Community
Bookshelf has books on community and alternative culture--everything
from consensus-building to cooperative games and activities.
Northern Sun Merchandising
carries a large variety of message-oriented apparel, stickers,
pins, posters, magnets, and other stuff promoting a long list
of progressive causes. They offer discounts if you want to buy
in quantity and sell the materials as a fundraiser.
Donnelly/Colt
is another mailorder company that carries progressive buttons,
stickers, t-shirts, posters, postcards, books, videotapes, calendars
and other products. They also offer quantity discounts for fundraising.
Northland
Poster Collective "The Mall of the Other
America" features union made products (art posters, buttons,
t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, baby bibs, and more), focusing
on labor, peace and social justice issues, as well as organizing
in general. They said to tell you "Be sure to ask them about
extended sizes of t-shirts!!!" (which don't show up on the
website).
Irregular Goods has some great , original bumper stickers and other merchandise, featuring progressive causes and candidates.
Contempl8 sells "t-shirts designed to disturb the status quo," plus stickers and post cards, too!
  
 
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