Nashville Black Lives Matter march, led by four teen girls

September 30, 2024September 30, 2024

So. Many. Details.

I forgot how complicated this is!

The first time I managed a field campaign was 1990, on a hopeless congressional race in Richmond, Virginia.

The tools have changed. The tech has changed. The messaging has changed. The science of campaigns has changed.

What hasn’t changed? The details.

To make sure volunteers have a good experience and we talk to lots of voters, here are a few of the steps that need to happen to ensure a good day of canvassing.

Identify the right neighborhood to canvas that day.
Find a meeting location in that area.
Create the assignments in the mobile canvassing app.
Text or call volunteers one-by-one to sign them up for shifts.
Draft an email to invite supporters.
Circulate the email for review.
Send the email.
Write a train-the-trainer for lead volunteers.
Create QR codes so volunteers can install the mobile canvassing app.
Print scripts, QR codes and a sign in sheet.
Ask businesses for donations of food for volunteers.
Ask the donors to complete the in-kind contribution form.
Send the form and receipts to the treasurer.
Confirm volunteers.
Assign turf to each canvasser or pair (Or help to create the pairs.)
Break campaign literature into stacks of 50 or 100
Set up sign-in, food, turf assignments, training and campaign literature.
Train new volunteers.
Debrief returning volunteers.
Clean up the meeting site.

Then there’s all the support and follow-up required to make sure everyone understands the system and can do their part. A.k.a. herding the cats.

Is this post already too long for you?

You’re getting the picture.

This is just the implementation. Never mind creating the strategy in the first place.

So, what’s the Call to Action here?

The hardest part of the whole operation is recruiting and scheduling volunteers. It’s also the most critical.

So, when that volunteer coordinator texts you about a shift, don’t leave them hanging! Reply and sign up for a canvassing, texting, phonebanking or yard sign delivery shift.

August 31, 2024August 31, 2024

Agitation in Action

A still from the movie "Stir of Echoes." A man is digging in his basement. There is a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. One visible wall is stonework, another is brick. There is a ladder against the brick wall, a hot water heater, several planks of wood and the corner of a fireplace.

A while back, I was the organizing director for an organizing campaign with state employees in Colorado. It was a huge campaign, with about 30 organizers and 40,000 workers.

Part of leading the campaign was going with organizers during their house visits – knocking on doors of workers and asking to come in and talk about their work for a while. It’s the best way to have one-on-one conversations away from the prying ears and eyes of bosses.

House Visits

One day, I went with an organizer to the home of a maintenance crew chief in the Department of Corrections.

He came to the door in clothes covered with dirt, dirt on his face, wiping his hands on a rag. He explained that he and his wife were in the middle of digging up their basement to do their own repairs on the sewage or plumbing system.

The organizer starts the conversation by asking about the crew chief’s job. He talks about the crew he coordinates, emphasizing that as a manager, he’s paid a little more. He understood that the members of his team might be struggling more than he was. A union might be good for them.

The two continue to talk about the work, the institutions, his co-workers and more. The organizer did a great job of getting to know this man and his work. The organizer also described the organizing that other state employees were doing to come together to form a union.

Asking the Question

At the right moment, the organizer asks “will you sign a union authorization card and join your co-workers in forming a union?”

“Oh, no. I think the rest of the guys on my team probably need that more than I do,” he said.

The organizer points out that he seems to care a lot about the rest of the team. “What other solutions have you tried to support them?” Of course, nothing.

This conversation continues for a while. They talk about values, teamwork, having the right tools to do the job. Then the organizer asks again about signing a card to form a union.

“Oh no. I’m not that kind of person. I’ll just let the others do it,” he says.

Agitation

At that point, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Really??? You don’t seem like the kind of person who lets others do the work for you. You’re digging up your own basement!!!” I said.

He looked at me for a few seconds, then said “You’re right. Give me the card.”

Sometimes it takes a little agitation for someone to take action.

July 1, 2024July 1, 2024

Safe Canvassing or Someone Always Calls the Cops Part II

volunteers preparing to canvass. About 100 people standing on grass in front of trees cheering with their fists raised in the air. There are a house and a canopy in the background and a canopy on the side. The sky is blue and clear.

As canvassing season heats up again, I’ve been thinking about how to keep canvassers safe.

From traffic.

From the heat.

From dogs.

Also from residents and police officers who haven’t read the memo that canvassing is first Amendment protected free speech. Especially if those canvassers are people of color.

Safety for canvassers means more than working in pairs and using crosswalks.

It also means protecting canvassers of color from harassment by residents and the cops.

If you are also thinking about ways to protect canvassers from this particular appearance of white supremacy culture, here are a few tips. They can help prepare your team for safe canvassing and deal with incidents if they happen anyway.

1. Talk to the cops before the first knock.

Shout-out here to Izzy Goodman who writes more about this step in this LinkedIn post.

2. Struggle with assignments.

On one hand, sending canvassers of color to all-white neighborhoods could be problematic for the canvassers. On the other hand, denying canvassers of color the opportunity to build their skills with these difficult voter conversations is pretty paternalistic.

Also, team leads and full-time organizers have to come from somewhere. Great leads and organizers grow their skills with difficult canvassing conversations.

If you’re the person who makes the turf assignments, it’s your job to struggle with the balance between protecting these canvassers’ safety and providing opportunities for growth.

3. When someone calls the cops anyway, listen to the canvasser.

Remember, it’s about the canvasser not you. Performative anger at the resident who dialed 911 or the cop who answered won’t make the canvasser feel any better.

4. Talk to the cops. Again.

Call the local precinct to report the incident. Spoiler alert: they will get defensive. However, it’s important to talk to them about it anyway. The cops have to know you’re watching. (Bonus tip: don’t identify the canvasser to the cops. Don’t make it worse.)

5. Report Back to Canvassers.

Relate the conversation with the cops and go back to step # 2.

With these steps – and probably others – you can keep your campaign on track and support the canvassers

July 1, 2024July 1, 2024

“They Said It Out Loud!”

A few weeks ago, my co-conspirators and I facilitated our quarterly workshop called “Disrupting White Supremacy Culture in Nonprofits.” It’s based on the Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture in Organizations, developed by Tema Okun.

Some of the comments we hear in the workshop and outside of it are:

Hard Questions

“Do you have to say white supremacy? Doesn’t that turn off some people?”

“How do we talk to people who aren’t comfortable with the words ‘white supremacy’?”

“You’re not concerned that people will walk out?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to say DEI or anti-racism?”

I love those questions because it gives me an opportunity to talk about the culture part of white supremacy culture.

When someone is uneasy with the terms, I start out by saying “No one thinks you have a confederate flag in the closet!”

The issue is the culture we’ve all internalized because it’s all around us.

The fault is not in being born in a place and time. The fault is in not questioning our socialization because it’s uncomfortable or might seem threatening.

Disrupting White Supremacy Culture in Campaigns

The workshop came to life when I started to wonder what I’d done in my campaigns that perpetuated, rather than disrupted white supremacy culture. I thought if I was asking these questions, other people might be thinking the same thing.

So I called a friend – a teacher and expert in anti-bias and anti-racism education who has designed ethnic studies curriculum – and said “Hey, do you want to do a conference workshop with me? Less about theory and intellectualism and more about everyday life.”

A New Workshop is Born

The initial Disrupting workshop was born.

Our third co-conspirator saw the recording of the workshop and said “Wow! They said it out loud.”

The three of us have been working together ever since.

We work with nonprofit organizations to create programs that disrupt white supremacy culture.

But TBH, we’re not for everyone. So, we created a workbook to help organizations (1) determine where they are in their own journeys to live up to their values statements and (2) find the best partner to do it.

The “How to DEI” workbook is free. Download it here.

If you lead an organization that is exploring how to live up to your values statement, check it out! I’d love to know what you think.

May 1, 2024May 1, 2024

Organizing Strategy

The organizing cycle portrayed by four yellow circles arranged in a diamond shape with dotted lines connecting them into a circle. There is a line drawing of a handshake above the first circle. That yellow circle reads Outreach and Listening Build relationships, leaders and power through one-on-ones, canvassing, and house meetings. Moving clockwise around the circle, the line drawing above the next yellow circle is a fistbump. The words in that circle are Research Move from problems to issues. Issues are specific, measurable and can be linked to a person or people responsible. The next line drawing is five fists raised in the air. That yellow circle reads Action Come face to face with the person and/or people who have power to address the issue. The final line drawing is a set of fists in a circle. That yellow circle reads Evaluation What did we win? What did we do that worked? What could we do differently? What's next? — credit: NEKO

Recently a very good friend and political campaign ally said that sometimes she doesn’t know what I’m talking about:

“I have to admit, sometimes, even I don’t see it. I mean, how does bringing people together build power the way you talk about it?”

That’s the thing – organizing isn’t visible.

The rallies, voter turnout, lobby days at the Capitol, marches, civil disobedience – that’s all mobilizing.

When I meet with leaders of social justice organizations, unions and other nonprofits to talk about working together, I usually hear about one or more of these situations:

A pivot from advocating, lobbying or canvassing to a long-term organizing plan.
Frustration that their work to engage members and community leaders has not been successful.
A vision of member leadership structures like an organizing committee or regional action teams.
Organizers and organizing directors who need support building skills, confidence and strategic vision.

The Organizing Cycle

To address these situations, I develop a strategic organizing plan based on the organizing cycle. (The image above comes from a traditional cycle that many organizers use to plan their campaigns; credit for this version goes to NEKO.)

The rest of the cycle is where the organizing happens –

Building relationships
Surfacing the most important issues
Finding the strategic leverage to win
Taking public action together
Reflection and evaluation

Building Power

How do we know when we’ve built power? It’s a hot topic for social scientists, campaign analysts and pundits these days. Here are a few signs that your organization is building power:

Decision-makers come to you to discuss big ideas.
Decision-makers meet with member leaders and activists.
Your opponents get less oxygen for their terrible, no-good, very bad ideas.
Your members get shout-outs at public event
Your members get a nickname (for better or worse).*
Candidates come to you for endorsement and volunteers.

Will all of this transformation happen in one campaign? No. A member leader of an education justice organization recently said it took a year and a half to get to their first victory.

If we’re going to transform our communities, we have to invest in them. In addition to money, that means time, brainspace and maybe even internal political capital.

When my friend asked that question, I wasn’t surprised. It helped me think of better ways to talk about organizing strategy.

March 1, 2024March 5, 2024

Turning Mobilizing into Organizing

A selfie of two women at an abortion rights march. The woman on the left wears a gray hat, glasses and a blue surgical mask. The woman on the right wears a blue mask with a butterfly.

If you’ve ever organized or participated in a rapid response action, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

TL;DR

Skip to the bottom for five tips on turning mobilizing into organizing.

Responding to a Crisis

We’ve all thrown bodies at a problem because it was a crisis.

The legislature was about to kill our most important bill.
Our favorite candidate was about to lose.
That giant corporation was about to get its climate-killing wish.
Anti-abortion zealots threatened the only abortion care provider in town.
The police killed another unarmed person.
A resident shot another teenager for breathing while Black.
An employer fired yet another worker for organizing a union

Not to mention daily gun violence.

A crisis means we drop everything to mobilize.

We can’t ignore a crisis, even if we don’t have our organizing house in perfect order.

But we can do more than mobilize. Who said never let a good crisis go to waste?

Organizing is bringing people together to build power.

That power grows from relationships. So, use the opportunity of that rapid response to build and strengthen relationships.

Here are five suggestions for turning a mobilization moment into an organizing moment.

One-on-ones. Ask each organizer to identify five people who came out to the protest, picket or canvas to invite to a one-on-one meeting.
After-action debrief. Plan an evaluation meeting for immediately afterwards. Activists and leaders should know the debrief date at the same time they know the action date.
Keep track of who brings someone else to the action. They might be your newest leader.
Review social media posts, reactions and comments for potential one-on-one prospects. Same with sign-in sheets.

Here’s where it gets tricky. . .

Number 5 will be controversial –

Prioritize. Ask yourself if this action is strategic for the organization at this time. We’re so accustomed to jumping into action that sometimes it becomes automatic. If the action doesn’t help grow the organization’s power, you might not want to do it.

How do you turn mobilizing into organizing? Reply here or in the Comments on my LinkedIn post on this topic.

February 5, 2024February 5, 2024

We Say It Every Year: THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION EVER!

In the 2024 election cycle, every race will have larger implications. Those candidates for tiny school board districts in your community? Their potential votes on policy will reverberate nationally. Think book bans, restrictions on access and misrepresentations of US history.

And don’t get me started on what’s at stake in state capitols and Washington DC.

Powerful Elections

Instead of telling voters, volunteers and activists – again – that THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION, let’s make it the most powerful election.

Let’s make it the year we organize in addition to mobilize.

Let’s build power in addition to winning.

Let’s plan the campaigns with the goal of bringing people together to build power, using the opportunity of the election to do it. Not the other way around.

What’s that I hear?

“We have a million doors to knock!”

“I don’t get what you mean by ‘build relationships.’ How does that get us to power?”

“Winning is the best demonstration of power.”

“We don’t have time to hold everyone’s hand. We have a campaign to win.”

All true. It’s hard to think long-term with an election-day deadline looming.

But would we be in this movement if we couldn’t do hard things?

Mobilizing ===> Organizing

Here are some ideas for introducing organizing tactics into a mobilization (election) campaign:

A script that includes some deep canvassing elements. Sure a canvasser might spend more than 3 minutes at a door. The voter is more likely to remember the conversation and more importantly, the volunteer will feel less like a turnout machine and more like a community organizer.
Plan some one-on-ones between organizers or campaign leaders and top volunteers. These convos can be recognition for super volunteers. More importantly, they can also help organizers identify new leaders. When a super volunteer starts bringing other people to shifts, you’ve found a new leader.
A campaign debrief that brings everyone together to process the results of the election, their role and the implications. Win or lose, the more people can share their experiences, the closer they become. More importantly, they are more likely to remain involved if they develop relationships with other activists, organizers or leaders.

We want to transform our communities and win after election day too.

January 2, 2024January 2, 2024

2023 at Organizing to Win: Bringing People Together to Build Power

In 2023, I continue to recognize all the blessings and just plain good luck in my lives.

❤️ An endlessly supportive family.

💙Good friends I can always count on.

✊🏻Organizing co-conspirators with vision, talent and unwavering commitments to justice.

Here are a few highlights from 2023 at Organizing to Win:

Stephanie Wade’s ground-breaking campaign for city council. As a trans woman, Stephanie built relationships and showed Seal Beach a campaign like they’d never seen before. The city will better for it.

a grid of 9 photos of organizers from Virginia Interfaith Power and Light. The Organizing to Win and VAIPL logos appear below the photos.

Organizing education with the team at Virginia Interfaith Power and Light. This team is ready to build power for climate justice in Virginia! After our final workshop, one of the organizers wrote “Mira was enlightening and encouraging. I understand better what is expected of me as an organizer. The strategies Mira showed us how to develop for organizing will help us build our power structures and bases!”

Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez, a young Latinx-Afro-Indigenous woman, smiling, wearing a white shirt and black and white checked jacket. She stands in front of an outdoor mural with red lettering that reads Growing our roots reclaiming our Fruitvale. Additional colors in the mural are yellow, brown, green, red and grey.

Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez’s campaign to improve parent engagement at OUSD. And oh yeah, for the school board. Sasha became a US citizen in November and filed to run for the school board in January.

abstract image of a scared-looking white woman on the phone and text that reads Someone Always Calls the Cops: When Karen or Chad Dials 911 on Your Canvassers" Netroots Nation July 13, 2023 Chicago.

Facilitating a workshop called “Someone Always Calls the Cops: When Karen or Chad Dials 911 on Your Canvassers” at Netroots in Chicago.

color map of the state of Utah. A silhouette of a fist holding a pencil is superimposed over the map.

Facilitating organizing education workshops at Raise Up Utah as part of the Innovate Public Schools team. The parents, teachers, students and community members who participated in the weekend-long organizing intensive are on their way to impactful campaigns for education justice in Utah.

an active volcano seen from the top of an adjacent hill. Red hot lava flows in rivers, surrounded by hills, with steam rising from the edges.

That awesome Hawaii trip with my best friend. (Where sadly, I still had a signal at the bottom of a cliff at the beach. ) The fiery red light in this photo is flowing lava!

What will the new year bring?

Well, for starters. . .

👍🏻A refreshed Disrupting White Supremacy Culture program

👍🏻A series of union jargon explainers

👍🏻Building power in Kern County with members and staff of SEIU 521.

👍🏻A brand new election season

And much more.

I hope 2024 brings you peace, health and justice.

November 2, 2023November 2, 2023

Organizing in the Red Counties

a diverse group of 14 union activists poses in front of a screen that reads SEIU 521: Bringing People Together to Build Power.

In Kern County (CA), we’re trying something new.

If we believe Kern County’s current elected officials and corporate power, it’s one of the most conservative places in California. (Yes, there are some.)

It’s the heart of California’s petroleum industry.

Big Ag reigns supreme.

And it’s the home of Kevin McCarthy. Yes. *that* Kevin McCarthy.

Like many communities, the people who currently hold power are not always aligned with the people.

Kern is full of working people, immigrants, and others who struggle under systemic burdens of corporate domination, racism, classism, and other impositions of dominant power.

That’s why I am so excited to work with leaders, members and staff of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521 to lay the foundation for relational power in Kern County.

In an earlier exploratory meeting, members identified three problems we need to solve in order for their families to thrive: healthcare, education and training for good jobs.

Over the next year, we’ll bring people together, build relationships, identify new leaders and learn about power in the region.

We’ll refine the problems into the issues that are most widely and deeply felt and create a strategy to win for working people, their families and their communities.

But we’ll do more than win.

We’ll build power.

Last week, we kicked off the campaign with a strategy meeting of long-time member leaders, new leaders and staff.

We know that a transformation won’t happen overnight. We know that it doesn’t happen in one year. But we’re laying the foundation.

For updates, follow @OrganizingtoWin on social media.

If you want to learn more about this campaign – and how it might apply to your organization’s impact next year – use the contact form to get in touch!

September 15, 2023September 28, 2023

Dear Hollywood.

A cartoon drawing of a blond woman bound with ropes with a red circle and slash.

Dear Hollywood,

I’m bored. That’s not why.

I love murder tv. Law and Order (all of them). CSI. Body of Proof.

While there are thousands of binge-watching possibilities, most of them fall into the same tired, old formulas that reinforce white male supremacy culture.

How a Show Makes the List

So, to keep things interesting, I’ve developed three criteria for putting a show on my watch list:

1️⃣The main characters can’t be white men.
It’s boring. Nearly every show that stars a white man has the same plot:

Eek! A young, thin, white woman is murdered, raped or attacked.
Gasp! A big strong man rescues her and/or solves the crime.
My hero! The pretty, thin, white woman or her family are eternally grateful to big strong man. 💤💤💤

2️⃣It can’t take place in LA or New York.
News flash: Interesting things happen in places that aren’t New York or LA. Or any big city.

It’s no wonder conservatives think Hollywood is against them. Big-city characters are so predictable: they make fun of gun owners, mock anyone with a southern or mid-western accent and roll their eyes at religion.

Shows that take place in the middle have more possibilities for laugh lines, culture references and local color.

3️⃣No Damsels in Distress (DID).
Women don’t need to be rescued every five minutes. If you’ve seen one rescue-the-screaming-woman-scene, you’ve seen them all.

More importantly, every time a woman stands around screaming while a man fights off attackers, it sends a message: women depend on men to save them.

As every single mom (and my married mom) will probably tell you: don’t depend on a man to save you.

So much of Hollywood perpetuates white male supremacy culture.

It’s so tired.

My Watch List?

What shows meet my criteria? It’s a short list, but here are a few.

🌟Somebody, Somewhere
1️⃣ a straight, overweight, white woman and a gay, white man, both almost 50.
2️⃣Manhattan, KS
3️⃣No DID. The two main characters rescue each other from loneliness, boredom and depression.

🌟Shots Fired
1️⃣A Black male assistant US attorney and a Black woman investigator
2️⃣a fictional town in North Carolina
3️⃣No DID (unless you count the two mothers who lost their sons to police corruption.)

🌟Claws
1️⃣a Black woman nail salon owner
2️⃣Miami, FL
3️⃣The nail salon owner is the main rescuer.

The white, male supremacy culture in our media limits creativity to a formula.

Disrupting white supremacy culture isn’t just about passing better laws & electing different people. It’s about changing our culture.

We know the culture-makers can do better, because 👆🏻. When will the rest of #Hollywood learn?
——————-
If you’re interested in disrupting white supremacy culture in your organization, join Catherine Shieh, Janedra Sykes & me for “Disrupting White Supremacy Culture in Nonprofits,” 10/26/23, 9am PDT.