Green Thoughts: Importance of Green Organizing

Originally posted at SumofChange.com

In past posts, we looked at the different ways to gain support from individuals and businesses large and small and how to involve them in the creation of green jobs. The following videos will discuss why support for green energy is critical not only for the environment and our communities but also for businesses, their employees and ultimately the nation's economy. All of the videos included were recorded at a panel held at the 2010 Pennsylvania Progressive Summit, called "Effective Advocacy for Clean Energy Jobs Legislation". The panel is more or less hosted by Repower America as all the panelists were Repower America employees.

In the first video, Benjamin Freed of Repower America explains why his organization specifically focuses on business for support and the benefits that can be gained from them. And then in the two following videos, Alicia Gurdus of Repower America explains Repower America's Field Program's objectives as well as the difficulties are brought up when issue campaigning and how Repower America's objectives









For more info on the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit, please go to www.paprogressivesummit.com

For more Green Thoughts on Thursday clean energy posts, please go to www.SumofChange.com/greenthoughts

Repower America's Progressive Steps to a Green Economy

Cross posted from SumofChange.com

Following up on last Tuesday's post on Field Organizing in the community, this week were going to go into organizing for clean energy in your local business community.

Green is the word on every businesses' mind. From large international corporations, to small family owned businesses, it is blatantly apparent that the economic world is changing fast and everyone involved needs to be prepared to change with it. Unfortunately, in most cases corporations and businesses are not well informed on how to make the necessary changes; Repower America is working to do just that.

Through efficient campaigning and "field programs" Repower America is informing the public on how to make the right moves. At the 2010 PA Progressive Summit and in the videos below, Repower America not only discussed the daily concerns of many businesses in regards to the evolving economy, but reviewed the proactive steps to gain support from them and why it is essential for the nation’s companies as well as its workers to turn regular jobs into green jobs.



In the following videos, Laura Vendetta discusses the best way to get businesses involved in the Repower America Campaign or your own green energy effort.
In the third video, Ms. Vendetta discusses the various ways to appeal to businesses and how to connect with them whether its through the lowest rung on the ladder, or the owner of the company. And in the final video, Ms. Vendetta covers some of the basic steps in attracting support from businesses.







Check our next Green Thoughts post this Thursday for more clean energy organizing videos.

For more info on the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit, please go to www.paprogressivesummit.com

For more Training Tuesday grassroots training videos, please go to www.SumofChange.com/trainingtuesday

Green Thoughts: Field Organizing in the Community (Part 2)

cross-posted from Sum of Change

To follow up on our post in this week's Training Tuesday, I'd like to present you with a few more videos with tips on organizing for green energy in your community.  The tactics and principles hold true to any type of campaign, whether issues or candidate based, but since the panel is on organizing for clean energy, we're going to focus on that issue.  This panel was more or less hosted by Repower America,  (the moderator and every panelist works for them) and the speaker in all of these clips, Alicia Gurdus, is a field organizer for them.  This is part two (of two) of our selections from her remarks.  Check our post from this past Training Tuesday for part 2.

The videos in this post go into the different kinds of discussions you will have with people who you are trying to get to help your campaign, not (financially) support it.  These people can be broken down into two different types.  First, the community leaders and elected officials that can bring community or legislative assistance.  Both leaders and officials are critically important to the influence and success of your campaign and you want to make sure treat them that way.

The other kinds of helpers who you will speak to are those volunteers and team leaders who are helping you in the office and in the field.  They are not only the life blood of your campaign but they are speaking int the public in your support.  These are the people that will do your job for your or make your job impossible, so making sure that your workers and are interested and invested in your issue will greatly help your efforts.  However, not every volunteer you find will work out, and so in the final video Alicia goes into ways to deal with problem volunteers who are more interested in saying they are helping then in actually doing so.

--Speaking With Commuinity Leaders and Elected Officials

--Working With Potential Volunteers and Team Leaders

--Dealing With Problem Volunteers

Click Here to see Part 1 on 'Field Organizing in the Community'. Next week, Training Tuesday and Green Thoughts on Thursday will move on to look at field organizing with in your local business community.

For more info on the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit, please go to www.paprogressivesummit.com

For more Green Thoughts on Thursday clean energy posts, please go to www.SumofChange.com/greenthoughts

Training Tuesday: Field Organizing in the Community (Part 1)

cross-posted from Sum of Change

For this week's Training Tuesday, we're going to move to a new venue, the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit, from where we have already posted several videos from keynote addresses (which you can see here).  However we also went to a bunch of interesting and informative panels on a diverse variety of topics and, beginning with the following videos on organizing for green legislation, we will be posting a bunch of clips from many of these panels.

--The Ease of Organizing

Though the focus on this panel was organizing for 'clean energy jobs legislation', the theories and tips on best practices hold true for any kind of organizing.  This panel was more or less hosted by Repower America,  (the moderator and every panelist works for them) and the speaker in all of these clips, Alicia Gurdus, is a field organizer for them.  This is part one of our selections from her remarks.  Check our Green Thoughts post this Thursday for part 2.

In the first video above, Alicia talks about how easy it is to organize in today's world.  The technology you need is accessible and (relatively) cheap, so you if you have the desire to organize for an issue you care about, it is easier than ever to do so.  In the next video (below) she talks discuss the importance on field organizing how it can magnify the power of the individual interaction to build a unified voice for your cause.

In the last two videos, Alicia goes into more specific pieces of advice for how to organize in your community, like on a college campus for example.  First, she'll explain how to approach and engage one or a group of strangers, which is often the hardest part of you job.  Then, she has some strategies for the next step after you've gotten someone to talk with you, getting them to support you and say yes.

--Why Field Programs Exist



--How To Approach and Engage Strangers



--Getting People to Say Yes, Best Practices for Field Programs



Check our next Green Thoughts post this Thursday for Part 2 on 'Field Organizing in the Community'. Next week, Training Tuesday will move on to look at field organizing with in your local business community.

For more info on the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit, please go to www.paprogressivesummit.com

For more Training Tuesday grassroots training videos, please go to www.SumofChange.com/trainingtuesday

Training Tuesday: The 4 Key Principles of Effective Planning

cross-posted from Sum of Change

It seems self evident, but creating and following an actual tangible, usable plan is an important step any campaign that often goes overlooked. Many people think they can rely on their innate abilities and wing it, but it is clear (and seems somewhat obvious) that planning and scheduling your campaign is an incredibly important step to reaching your stated goals. Here with 4 helpful and useful tips on this necessary step in the process is Matt Blikek of Democracy For America's Campaign Academy (democracyforamerica.com/training). Matt shared this knowledge on one of the Campaign Academy's stops in Gettysburg, PA last year. To learn more about the Campaign Academy and to see their upcoming 2010 schedule please go to their website.

In the first video above, Matt will explained a bit more on why a plan is so important.  In the following 4 videos, Matt will go over his 4 Keys Principles for Effective Planning one at a time. First, Write It Down. If your plan is not on paper it does not exist. It may be a great idea, but until you can write it down and share it with other people, there is no way to effectively implement it. Secondly, Set Specific Measurable Goals. Raising 'a lot' of money (for example) is a very vague and nondescript, but raising $10,000 (again, for example) is a tangible goal that your staff and volunteers can work towards. Next, Work Backwards. This is the most counterintuitive principle, but it actually is very logical. How can you plan your initial steps until you know what your final goals are? Therefore, you should first figure out how you want everything to turn out in the end and work backwards to discover what it is going to take to achieve those goals. Finally, It's Never Done. Your plan 6 months before your election shouldn't be the exact same as your plan 6 weeks before the election. Over that span of time, you situation will change so you should be constantly adding to and updating your plan to address the changing challenges you will be facing.

These same principles apply to events (for your campaign and elsewhere) and not just to the campaign on a whole and it is equally important to schedule out these events in detail. Whether your event is a house meeting, a debate, or any other campaign stop, setting a scheduled plan and sticking to Matt's 4 key principles while doing so. will help to maximize that event's success and effectiveness.

Write It Down

Set Specific Measurable Goals

Work Backwards

It's Never Done

For more Training Tuesday posts from Sum of Change, please visit www.SumofChange.com/trainingtuesday

For More Info on DFA's Campaign Academy, please visit democracyforamerica.com/training

Training Tuesday: Free/Cheep Stuff Part 2!

Okay folks, last week we posted part 1 from the Organizing 2.0 session on Free and Low Cost Online Tools. This week we have part 2 of that sessions with some great short clips. These are all great things for small organizations, campaigns, and individuals.

Easy Email Blasts and The Google Wave


Get Free (or Cheap) Software for Your Organization or 501(c)3


Cheap and Easy Donation Collecting Services


Check back next week for another round of Training Tuesday!

Training Tuesday: Free and Low Cost Online Tools

Oh yeah, we are talking grassroots communications. There has been an explosion recently in the availability of free and low cost tools to do almost anything online.



Our panelists today are Jason Lefkowitz, Shireen Mitchell, and Ben Kallos. They will cover everything from simple blog platforms to domain and hosting services. If your group/campaign/company has not explored the free tools available to them, do it now. Some will work for you, and some will not. But the internet is one of the only places where you do not get what you pay for. You can spend tons of money online for the most useless technology in the world while spending nothing for some of the most innovative and creative technology.

Training Tuesday: Prioritizing Your Campaign and The Importance of Time

For this Training Tuesday, which was filmed at a Democracy for America Campaign Academy training session, we'd like to help you focus your campaign on what is most important. As our trainer, Kendra-Sue Derby, mentions, when you have limited resources you have to know how and where to focus them. Now to many, resources equals money, but in actuality, money is never your scarcest resource- it might not be easy, but there is always more money to be raised. In reality, the most important resource to focus up on is that of time. Time machines don't exist- the most time you will ever have on your campaign is on Day 1- so it is important to plan accordingly.

In these videos, Kendra-Sue first discusses the Three Campaigns Assets- Money People and Time and how you should juggle them. Next she goes into more detail about why your campaign should be Prioritized Based on Time. Finally, she encourages you to Use a Voter File, the item that will most help you organize your campaign to fight against the clock.

--Three Campaign Assets: Money, People, and Time



--Prioritize Based on Time



--Use a Voter File




For more Training Tuesday posts from Sum of Change, please visit www.SumofChange.com/trainingtuesday

Training Tuesday: Part 2 of Organizational Change and the Adoption of Online Tools

Last week, we introduced Kenyon Farrow of Queers for Economic Justice, Calvin Williams of the Generational Alliance, and Althea Erickson of the Freelancers Union. They shared with us a brief summary of how their organizations had adopted some online tools.

This week, they delve into some of the challenges they faced along the way, and some insight into how they overcame them:





That's all for this week. Check back next Training Tuesday when we will return to the DFA Campaign Academy.

Training Tuesday: The Numbers You Need To Win Your Election - Part 2

This week, we are going to follow up on last week's post on the numbers you need to win your election. This week, we're looking at special circumstances and unique elections and how that may or may not effect how you set your numbers. First, what happens if you are running in a multi-candidate race? A win number in a two candidate election is 50% +1, but when there are multiple candidates that number is going to change. That said, it's never a case of simple math - your win number in a three person election won't necessarily be 33.3% +1 - and you have to be wise in setting your goals. The second video is about how your numbers may change due to major national issues. The obvious issue of our day is healthcare, but from the war on terror to the economy, there are often major issues outside of your control as a a candidate which will alter the turnout for your election. The final video are some stories from our trainer, Kendra-Sue Derby, on how you should constantly be challenging your own numbers. A campaign should never be satisfied or static in their evaluation of the electorate, so it is important to keep changing and updating that number to maximize a campaigns effectiveness (hint: expected turnout almost never goes down).

--Turnout In A Multi Candidate Race



--How Do Your Turnout Estimate Based on Major National Issues



--Stories of Challenging Turnout Expectations



This slew of videos are from Democracy For America's Campaign Academy. This particular session was filmed at Gettysburg college in Gettysburg, PA. To find out more about Democracy For America's Campaign Academy, go to http://www.democracyforamerica.com/training.

To see more training videos, go to www.SumofChange.com/trainingtuesday

Training Tuesday: The Numbers You Need To Win Your Election - Part 1

This week's Training Tuesday post revolves around a repeated mantra from Kendra-Sue Derby, this week's trainer- It's All About The Numbers. Before you start worrying about anything else in your campaign, you have to know how many votes you need to win. This seems relatively self-evident, but it is a number that often goes overlooked. You first must set YOUR WIN NUMBER, the number of voters you will need to win. But how do you set this number and which past elections do you use as research? To be able to make sure this number as accurate as possible, you must be able to GET THE CURRENT NUMBER OF REGISTERED VOTERS. The number of registered voters will change drastically from the beginning of your campaign to the end and you have to be on top of that number or risk losing all of those new voters. Your win number isn't only number you need and it is important to know that YOUR VOTE GOAL IS NOT YOUR WIN NUMBER. You win number is the minimum number of votes you need, but you have to determine how many votes you need to solidify a victory. Finally, you much POST YOUR NUMBERS so that those working in your support know the goal. If the candidate and the campaign manager are the only ones who know those numbers, then your campaign will probably struggle.

-- YOUR WIN NUMBER


-- GET THE CURRENT NUMBER OF REGISTERED VOTERS


-- YOUR VOTE GOAL IS NOT YOUR WIN NUMBER


-- POST YOUR NUMBERS


This slew of videos are from Democracy For America's Campaign Academy. These particular session was filmed in at Gettysburg college in Gettysburg, PA. To find out more about Democracy For America's Campaign Academy, go to http://www.democracyforamerica.com/training.

To see more training videos, go to www.SumofChange.com/trainingtuesday

Training Tuesday: Learning from Obama for Local Campaigns

Today's Training Tuesday comes to us from the Organizing 2.0 Conference in New York back in December. During lunch, we were joined by Colin Delaney, of e.politics.com. He and Charles Lenchner, of the Working Families Party, held a conversation about how to translate lessons about new media from the Obama campaign to local campaigns.

Not every campaign will be able to have MyBO and an online outreach team led by some of the best minds in the business. There are many new and exciting things that the Obama campaign did in 2008 that will simply be unrealistic for a local candidate to try. However, there are also many things the campaign did that any campaign, no matter how small, can replicate. In the video below, Colin Delaney and Charles Lenchner lead us in a discussion about just that:

Training Tuesday: GOTV

This week's Training Tuesday takes us back to Democracy for America's Campaign Academy in Gettysburg, PA 2009. For the last couple trainings we brought you lessons from the Organizing 2.0 conference, and we still have plenty more to come.

Anyways, first things first, a little history on the DFA campaign academy:


Now on to our lesson for the day. This weeks training is GOTV, or get out the vote. If you missed the training on vote goals and targeting, I suggest watching that lesson real quick.

Without further ado, we present a few quick lessons on GOTV:

Training Tuesday: Translating Community Organizing to Online Space

Today's session of Training Tuesday is from the panel, 'Organizing Theory and Practice: Translating Community Organizing to Online Space'. Our panelists are Charles Lenchner, the Online Organizing Director of the Working Families Party, Joan Minieri the Cofounder of Community Voices Heard and the author of "Tools for Radical Democracy", Kristi Barnes, the Communications Director of New York Jobs with Justice, and Talia Schank, the Grassroots Fundraising and Communications Director of Community Voices Heard.

We were not only blessed with expert panelists, our audience was made up of experts too. This shows how far from "established" online organizing is, the experts are absolutely still students.

What occurred, was a somewhat unique discussion about the successes, struggles, and future potential of using new media in coordination with well-established, person-to-person organizing. In the progressive blogosphere, we have a tendency to revel in the successes. What our panelists focused on in this session was the disconnect between many of the entrenched community organizers, the ones knocking on doors and building relationships one home at a time, with the rather new community of online organizers.

First things first, if you are completely oblivious to the ancient art of community organizing, and it is very ancient, Joan Minieri began the panel with a fantastic five minute synopsis:



One of the major factors the keeps many progressive organizations from more fully incorporating online tools is that many of us are working with the poor, the disenfranchised, and the disconnected communities. Their constituents may not have the most consistent access to the series of tubes that is the internet. This last clip is an example of one theme that emerged throughout the conversation: the internet can be used to amplify the voice of your constituents, regardless of their connectedness.