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Ideas
and Suggestions for Organizing
From
Larry Dansinger of Resources
for Organizing and Social Change
Suggested
Guidelines for Group Meetings
Ways
to Democratize Your Organization
Tips
for Organizing and Maintaining Multi-Issue Groups
Suggested
Guidelines for Group Meetings
1. Personal invitations to meetings are the most
effective way to get people to turn out.
2. Set down an agenda and communicate it in advance of
the meeting. Avoid last minute surprises if at all
possible.
3. Use a blackboard or some other easily readable form
to post the agenda and record the decisions which have been
made.
4. A new group with little meeting experience may want
to appoint a facilitator. More experienced groups
should consider having many, if not all, of their members
practice facilitation skills and share facilitation tasks.
Decisions and discussions go more smoothly when all
members are attentive to the needs of the group and share
responsibility for the meeting process. Even if a
facilitator is appointed, it may be helpful for the role to
rotate, both from meeting to meeting and within the meeting
itself.
5. Start and end the meeting on time. Set time
limits for particular agenda items when possible. It
may oversimplify a complex topic, but can effectively focus
the discussion and deal with it without burning out the
participants.
6. Start the meeting with a few songs or a round-robin
of recent highlights or successes from each person. This
can start the meeting on an upbeat note and help people to
connect with one another.
7. Be especially aware of and sensitive to those who
donıt talk much. Try not to speak a second time until
everyone has at least had the opportunity to speak once.
This may involve several silent pauses while those who
are more quiet, or who need more time to consider the issue,
prepare to speak. Try to notice if you have spoken
more or less often than others.
8. Leave time for other people to speak by making your
comments brief and to the point. Donıt fight to speak
next by talking loudest or fastest. Try to listen
courteously and attentively, and remember that listening is
more than just waiting for a previous speaker to finish.
Several seconds should elapse before another speaker
begins. If you find yourself preparing your own speech
rather than listening to those speaking, you perhaps should
not be speaking at all.
9. Try to understand (and keep separate) your political
analysis vs. your personal feelings. Where personal feelings
and needs are to be shared, do not mask these as political
imperatives everyone must share. This tendency can
stem from insecurity - try to trust the people in the group
(including yourself!).
10. Donıt hesitate to tactfully steer the discussion
away from irrelevant tangents, rambling speeches, and
personal ego trips. This can prevent much confusion
and impatience for the entire group.
11. When considering issues, define the problem first,
then search for solutions. The more ideas and
alternatives brought up the better. Try to bring out
all positions before analyzing, criticizing or defending
some. Paraphrase peoplesı statements; ask for more
information or clarification. When all positions have
been presented, donıt speak to defend your original stand,
but rather to advance the group decision-making process.
12. Look for the most general, basic agreements first, and
build on them. Periodically summarize the collective
thoughts of the meeting. Sometimes seemingly
conflicting positions can be reconciled ingeniously, so donıt
be afraid to bring out disagreements. Have
persons with strong feelings meet in small groups when there
are basic disagreements on issues or proposals, or when
there is a need to work out specific wordings. Whenever
unnecessary persuasion begins, use small groups.
13. Avoid repetitious discussion. When arguments
are repeated, itıs probably time to make a decision. List
comments on a blackboard or poster paper to reduce
repetition.
14. Take breaks, play games, sing a song, etc. when
people get glassy-eyed and/or stuck on an issue.
15. When the group appears to be coming to a decision,
have the minute-taker repeat back the decision before it is
finalized.
16. Decide on some specific actions as a follow-up to
any meeting; just calling another meeting is not enough.
Insure a mechanism for carrying out what is decided
upon. Pin people down and make them declare
responsibilities for specific tasks.
17. Evaluate the meeting process by asking what went
well and what could be done differently in the future.
18. Be flexible in implementing these or other
suggestions. Enjoying the meeting is more important
than following guidelines to the letter.
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Ways
to Democratize Your Grassroots Organization
1. In listing staff and/or board members, use alphabetical
(or reverse alphabetical) order, rather than by position in
the organization.
2. At press conferences, events, or programs, have several
people as MC's, spokespersons, speakers, or who are
authorized to "speak for" the organization.
3. Use a consensus process for discussion and
decision-making (unanimous consent) which allows for each
person in the room or each member to have an equal voice in
determining policy. Encourage collective decision-making by
staff on staff issues based on personal and group needs (for
example, if the organization needs to cut staff hours, all
staff should participate in that decision).
4. Rotate board officers, spokespeople, and even staff
positions to maximize the number of people who have
knowledge about different parts of the organization and can
take responsibility for and leadership in its programs.
5. Keep track of feedback, comments, and other suggestions
or ideas from staff, board, and members, and include as much
as possible into statements, policies, long range plans, and
other information which represents the organization and
strategies for action. Make sure at least something is
included, if at all possible, from each person who
contributes.
6. Make sure information flows freely throughout the
organization. Have a regularized, frequent, and convenient
system of contact among staff and between staff, board, and
membership so everyone knows how and when to contribute to
the organization's progress.
7. Provide every member of the group with one or more ways
in which they can be active (for example, electing a new
board or joining a board or voting for new program goals) in
determining future directions for the organization.
8. Emphasize the democratic nature of your organization and
that every member has ownership of the group and an
important role in making the group successful. List some of
the ways your organization makes sure each member has a role
(some might be taken from this list.) In small groups, list
each member and the role she/he plays (or could play) in the
group.
9. Give lots of freedom to committees and subcommittees to
do the business of the group in their own way.
10. Have a member recruitment plan that encourages a broad
variety of people to join and a way for them to become
actively involved in some aspect of the group as soon as
possible. If the group is moving from NOT having a variety
of people involved to HAVING a broad diversity of people
involved, understand this may change the group as a whole.
11. Identify special interests or talents (for example, art
or graphic design) of each group member and try to use them
whenever possible (for example, in making flyers for events)
for the group.
12. Establish policies that are inclusive, such as using
wheelchair accessible meeting spaces, providing child care
at events, and offering language translation, that give
every member the feeling that they are welcomed and wanted.
Let everyone know that differences are valued, not
distrusted.
13. Use simple language and shorter syllable words in all
written and verbal business of the group. Don't use acronyms
or insider terms unless certain that all members of the
group know their meanings.
14. Have a way of welcoming new (board) members and/or staff
to a group so they can feel at home and part of a team as
soon as possible.
15. Pay every staff person the same salary or wages,
regardless of age, formal education, formal experience, or
length of time working for the group as a way to show that
each person's contribution is uniquely valuable and
necessary. Divide labor as equally as possible through a
collective staff structure so that all staff responsibility
for the groups successes and failures, all have some of the
leadership, and all do some of the "mindless"
work.
16. Create a "safe space" environment where people
are encouraged to bring up problems between people or with
the organization in order to solve them in the most direct
way possible. Also use that safe space to allow people to be
silly or to "be themselves" without fear of
putdowns or negative feedback.
17. Distribute power and influence as evenly as possible
throughout the group, so board and members know as much of
what is going on as any staff. Make sure people who are
respected are heard, but not heard much more or any more
than others who may be new to the group or not as quick to
speak out.
18. We all need more information and training to give our
best ideas and effort to the group. Make sure people know
that it's OK to ask for help and where help can be found.
19. Avoid tokenism. People need to know their involvement
and leadership are valued as an individual, not just as a
member of a specific race, age, sexual orientation, etc.
20. For events where a fee is charged, promote equal access
by offering sliding scale costs or "pay what you
can" so that no one is denied access because of cost.
Ditto for memberships or dues; list all donors without
categorizing them by amount contributed.
21. Support any reasonable process or activity that
"levels the playing field" and treats individuals
and groups equally (except where the group is carrying out
affirmative action policies).
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Tips
for Helping to Organize and Maintain Multi-Issue Groups
1. Get to know your ENTIRE community--organizations,
government, institutions (religious, educational, other),
businesses, labor unions, and other influencing factors--and
the individuals and groups from these many circles that can
support your efforts.
2. Find places for meeting or events ("community
spaces") that appeal to a broad cross section of the
community or at least don't turn some people off (for
example university campuses, some religious buildings,
police headquarters, etc.).
3. Sponsor a broad range of events where people come to you
(film showings, speakers, celebrations) with a broad range
of topics to help identify your friends and supporters. If
your events focus on one or two narrow issues, the group may
be stereotyped as working only toward those issues.
4. Sponsor events or projects that appeal to a broad range
of people and groups using themes or issues that cut across
lines of race, class, gender, age, etc. and across areas of
interest, such as Martin Luther King holiday events, making
the media more democratic, or federal, state, and/or local
spending priorities.
5. Co-sponsor as many events, programs, and projects as
possible with other community groups. That gives you a
personal connection with those groups and shows that your
group is a partner in the community, not outside of it.
6. Organize events where people see how issues are related
to each other . Encourage views of social change that are
interconnected.
7. Define a "critical mass" of active people that
are required to keep a multi-issue group going and maintain
an active core group of at least that many. That critical
mass should represent many parts of the community being
served.
8. Have a plan for involving people with diverse experiences
in the group and as part of its leadership.
9. Promote an analysis of problems and solutions that is
general to many issues, such as lack of economic and
political power, a focus on democratic structures, and
addressing root causes of problems and connecting solutions
IN ADDITION TO specific problem/solution proposals. Examples
of this might be an end to homelessness/build more
affordable housing or cut the military budget/use nonviolent
methods to end conflicts.
10. Take advantage of the power of numbers of people working
together to create a "culture of change" that is a
respected part of that community. Having connections in many
different parts of a community strengthen the power of
multi-issue groups to achieve their goals.
11. If multi-issue groups take on projects that no other
community group is addressing, try to "spin off"
that program to another organization or get it going on its
own as soon as possible so the multi-issue group is not seen
as especially advocating for one issue.
12. Build a library or "clearinghouse" of
information on a wide variety of issues and send that
information out as widely as possible to those in the group
and community.
13. Develop resources that many groups can use, such as a
library of magazines and books, meeting space, available
office and technology equipment, and access to the media.
14. Compile a large scale data base of people in the area
from as many group contact lists as possible and code them
by community or neighborhood, areas of interest, and other
factors. The group can also link between those looking for a
contact on a certain issue and possible contact people.
15. Help various statewide single-issue groups by using the
local multi-issue group as its contact or supporter for
special projects or events.
16. Like other grassroots groups, multi-issue groups can
benefit from a small amount of money. Good sources of funds
are individual donations from people in the community and
from grants or sources outside the area being served. Funds
from other groups in the area can be asked for, but should
not be depended on because it may be viewed as
"competition."
17. Sponsor cultural events such as music, art, and theater
to bring together people involved in various issues and make
connections among those issues.
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