[Membership] Supporting Local Organizing Initiative

Thu Mar 8 21:21:50 EST 2007

Dear Membership folks,

Over the lat two weeks the Local Organizing Initiative has contacted 8 people who are interested in organizing using the WSGRP Nuts and Bolts chapter revitalization / initiation model.  Each of the eight people from different communities is interested in becoming the anchor in the model.

Each anchor has committed to 3 meetings around the May-June date (the model requires a long lead-up time for the first meeting)

4 persons are interested in doing the part-time staffing work required in the model.  

Details of the enhanced 16 step model are at the end of this email.

I suggest that the Membership Committee brainstorm different ways of helping the LOI initiatives perform maximally.

Ron 617 230-2835

Background on the LOI:
    Various Chapter-building modalities have been tried by the GRP including the West Somerville Model summarized below: 
    This work was done by a student for a Service Learning
Project at Shrewsbury  High School to rejuvenate the Somerville GRP chapter.

  The student wrote this report in concluding the work.

  A) Time spent: 
  The total time for outreach was 9 hours.   To put stamps on 230 envelopes: < 1 hr. Return labels on 460 envelopes (230 being the recipient envelopes) & stuffing the 230 into the bigger envelopes: 2 hrs. Put name labels on 230 envelopes: < 1 hr. Stuffing envelopes three times (three separate pieces of paper): 1 hr.15. 130 initial phone calls: < 2 hrs. Second, third round of phone calls: 30 minutes. Additional time spent counting/recounting, reworking Excel database, adding additional columns to database, and driving.   The process in its entirety of reaching 230 people by mail and 37 people by phone took about 8 hours for me, plus about an hour or so from Ron Francis helping with flyers and a few calls and emails. Total 9 hours.  

   B) Money Spent  
  Total money spent was $172 dollars. I spent $12.58 on a box of 500 no. 6 envelopes, even though I only used 230, and I am returning the remainder. I spent $85.47 on 230 stamps. I spent $73.66 at Staples for the three pieces of paper included in the envelopes to be copied and folded.   The grand total is $171.71. (Note: In order to raise money, perhaps at the meetings for each chapter, they could pass a hat around to collect donations. Or maybe the membership committee would cover some of these one-time costs, if this method proves workable for jump-starting other chapters)  This cost of 172 was offset by $90 raised by the group at the meeting in small donations.   

  C) The mailing.   
  There were 543 names of Green-Rainbow Party Somerville residents. 130 had phone numbers, while 413 did not. Of the 413, I sent out 100 of the flyers to random residents in the 02144 area code (close to meeting location). In total 230 pieces of mail were sent out. (It will be interesting to see if there is any difference in the turnout between those who received phone calls and those who did not. At the meeting we will ask how people heard about the meeting)   

  D) The phone calling   
  Of the 130 with numbers, I tried 115 of them, while Ron Francis tried 15. Our results were:   93 whose phone numbers were disconnected, not in service, had moved, were a wrong number, etc.,   8 who clearly stated they were not interested,   15 who clearly stated they were interested, 5 of whom said they were planning on attending the meeting,   And 14 who did not return the phone messages.   A day before the meeting I reminded all 15 interested, and all 14 in their messages, to come to teh meeting. and return the survey. The number of these returned surveys is yet to be determined.   Numerous phone calls revealed that some people had misplaced or not seriously looked at the flyer they received, and a few said they had not received it at all. The 93 whose numbers were not good will serve the same purpose as the additional 100 in the random sample to see who shows up at the meeting without having been reached via the phone.   Of the 8 who said they were no longer
 interested, the responses were: two because of a change of party, one woman changing to democrat, two because their English was not very good, one because she was finishing grad school, one because she had just had a baby, one because he was too busy, and one because she thought the use of the mailing list would go better to saving a tree instead of being sent to her.   Of those who were interested but could not come, most reasons were because of a conflict in date or because they were generally interested but didn’t feel like putting in the specific effort for this event.   The general response I received was uncertainty in the strength of the party. One particular initial response I got was “I got no money.” People seem to feel as if the party is always asking for money, and in that sense, most people don’t seem very optimistic about giving. Another man said how he preferred to give money to the local chapter instead of Green Party USA . One person asked why the
 Green-Rainbow Party didn’t join the Progressive Democrats to double the strength into one party. Another man said how he found that many advocates for the environment were then guilty of not recycling, etc. themselves. He thought that the party should concentrate on the environment more.   One woman mentioned how she used to receive the Green-Rainbow Party e-mails until she blocked them.  She found them very irritating because they often only stated a reminder that she was a member, and she recalls that they never really included very important information. One man found the survey to be very rigid and formulated, so he didn’t fill it out. He is however coming to the meeting, so we will definitely be able to hear his two cents.   One man is disabled, and rarely leaves the house. He was not sure if he would come or not, especially due to his low energy and low capability to take in a lot of information. He said he thought he could be helpful with phone calls, if we needed.
 He has a big problem with the government, social security, the court system, and the way it is run, and said if anyone had a problem with the court system, he would be on the front line to help them. He also had strong interests in animal rights, including cats, dogs, and other animals, such as raccoons, the environment, and the education system. He works in an after school program a few days a week. One man was concerned about the dinner being a vegetarian meal, which of course, it was.   Two people we called said that they would not respond to telephone calls, and one at the meeting said the same, and that he’d prefer to be contacted via mail or email.   My feeling is this: Of all these various and specific concerns comes a party with a lot of potential, if only it could encourage its members via some tangible evidence. I told all of those willing to listen about the win in the Cambridge school committee, and the ballot question win in Waltham about land development.
 Many people were excited and interested, but those were the people who were already interested.   However, beginning with GRP members gaining recognition in other committees and winning election questions / candidacies, perhaps real change can begin to occur, eventually having with low-income families beginning to speak out in favor of the GRP.  

   E) What could be done better:   
  Phone numbers: We will need to try the phone book more often in order to get more phone numbers. (It will be interesting to see if using peoplepages.com will yield more correct phone numbers than the ones provided by Dan through that phone service.)   I think that sending members a copy of the GRP newspaper would encourage them more, sending those on the borderline of interest over to the side of interest. (Ron was supposed to do this but he got busy and didn't)   Other than that, I don’t know how much you can improve communications with each member without having their telephone number. The success of solely sending mail will be proved at the meeting.   Perhaps door-to-door contact would be the next step.  Also, at the door, there should be a sign-in sheet, along with a list of members who do not have phone numbers, so those who attend the meeting can look over the list for people they know whose numbers they could give us.   The only other way to get the numbers of
 those who do not attend the meeting would be to specifically send them letters asking for their numbers, and wait for responses.  

   F) Overall results of the outreach part of experiment:   
  Out of 37 people contacted by phone numbers, 5 people said that they would show up at the meeting, although typically only 50% will actually come so that may be 2 people but perhaps those 2 will bring others. Still these 5 could be counted as being interested and may come to future meetings.   Of the 10 who said that they were interested but could not come, perhaps some will show up in the future. It may also be that some folks bring other folks (some said that they know people who may be interested)   It is encouraging that 15 out of 37 people that I talked to were interested. If we can figure out a way to turn that interest into participation then that would be very good. There are already some active GRP people in Somerville who may bring some people to the meeting. Ron said that his friend Bob Cable from Somerville Divestment Project is coming (didn’t come but called and was very interested and even upset that he couldn’t make it) and Jamie did some outreach as well. 
  Other cities may not have as many active GRP’s, proportionately to their size, although they might, so this should be factored in determining the net effect of this experiment. It was cold and snowy on Sunday so that might have affected the meeting results. The meeting is being held at a place that has public transportation so that is another variable.   Personally I would like to stay involved with the party, and maybe other students could be encouraged to take on such a project in another city.  

   G) Results of the Meeting:
   Eleven people were there, 5 women and 6 men. (plus jamie's little son)  Of seven people (including Ron and me) who said they would come, five showed up, so the additional six who came had not been contacted via the telephone. They told us they had heard about the meeting via e-mail, or had gotten the mailing (I think 3 and 3). The total cost for the meeting was $170, but we raised $90 by passing a cup around.  Surprisingly every member at the meeting said they would show up for the next meeting January 15th.  Everyone agreed to take a look at the phone list and identify people that they knew and could contact by phone (since many numbers were missing).  One man agreed to get information about energy usage issues in Somerville . Another man agreed to get information about military recruiting. Two people volunteered to organize an activity for youth interested in GRP to make events more family friendly.  Others seemed generally willing to participate. Lot of discussion
 about climate / traffic and how that is interconnected to need for oil based foreign policy.  For about 90 minutes the group discussed issues important to members and how to go about them.   There is a copy of the minutes from the meeting listed below, which gives some detail about every issue discussed.

  Various Chapter-building modalities have been tried by the GRP including the West Somerville Model summarized below:

  This work was done by a student for a Service Learning
  Project at Shrewsbury  High School to rejuvenate the Somerville GRP chapter.

  The student wrote this report in concluding the work.

  A) Time spent:
  The total time for outreach was 9 hours.   To put stamps on 230 envelopes: < 1 hr. Return labels on 460 envelopes (230 being the recipient envelopes) & stuffing the 230 into the bigger envelopes: 2 hrs. Put name labels on 230 envelopes: < 1 hr. Stuffing envelopes three times (three separate pieces of paper): 1 hr.15. 130 initial phone calls: < 2 hrs. Second, third round of phone calls: 30 minutes. Additional time spent counting/recounting, reworking Excel database, adding additional columns to database, and driving.   The process in its entirety of reaching 230 people by mail and 37 people by phone took about 8 hours for me, plus about an hour or so from Ron Francis helping with flyers and a few calls and emails. Total 9 hours. 

   B) Money Spent 
  Total money spent was $172 dollars. I spent $12.58 on a box of 500 no. 6 envelopes, even though I only used 230, and I am returning the remainder. I spent $85.47 on 230 stamps. I spent $73.66 at Staples for the three pieces of paper included in the envelopes to be copied and folded.   The grand total is $171.71. (Note: In order to raise money, perhaps at the meetings for each chapter, they could pass a hat around to collect donations. Or maybe the membership committee would cover some of these one-time costs, if this method proves workable for jump-starting other chapters)  This cost of 172 was offset by $90 raised by the group at the meeting in small donations.  

  C) The mailing.  
  There were 543 names of Green-Rainbow Party Somerville residents. 130 had phone numbers, while 413 did not. Of the 413, I sent out 100 of the flyers to random residents in the 02144 area code (close to meeting location). In total 230 pieces of mail were sent out. (It will be interesting to see if there is any difference in the turnout between those who received phone calls and those who did not. At the meeting we will ask how people heard about the meeting)  

  D) The phone calling  
  Of the 130 with numbers, I tried 115 of them, while Ron Francis tried 15. Our results were:   93 whose phone numbers were disconnected, not in service, had moved, were a wrong number, etc.,   8 who clearly stated they were not interested,   15 who clearly stated they were interested, 5 of whom said they were planning on attending the meeting,   And 14 who did not return the phone messages.   A day before the meeting I reminded all 15 interested, and all 14 in their messages, to come to teh meeting. and return the survey. The number of these returned surveys is yet to be determined.   Numerous phone calls revealed that some people had misplaced or not seriously looked at the flyer they received, and a few said they had not received it at all. The 93 whose numbers were not good will serve the same purpose as the additional 100 in the random sample to see who shows up at the meeting without having been reached via the phone.   Of the 8 who said they were no longer
 interested, the responses were: two because of a change of party, one woman changing to democrat, two because their English was not very good, one because she was finishing grad school, one because she had just had a baby, one because he was too busy, and one because she thought the use of the mailing list would go better to saving a tree instead of being sent to her.   Of those who were interested but could not come, most reasons were because of a conflict in date or because they were generally interested but didn’t feel like putting in the specific effort for this event.   The general response I received was uncertainty in the strength of the party. One particular initial response I got was “I got no money.” People seem to feel as if the party is always asking for money, and in that sense, most people don’t seem very optimistic about giving. Another man said how he preferred to give money to the local chapter instead of Green Party USA . One person asked why the
 Green-Rainbow Party didn’t join the Progressive Democrats to double the strength into one party. Another man said how he found that many advocates for the environment were then guilty of not recycling, etc. themselves. He thought that the party should concentrate on the environment more.   One woman mentioned how she used to receive the Green-Rainbow Party e-mails until she blocked them.  She found them very irritating because they often only stated a reminder that she was a member, and she recalls that they never really included very important information. One man found the survey to be very rigid and formulated, so he didn’t fill it out. He is however coming to the meeting, so we will definitely be able to hear his two cents.   One man is disabled, and rarely leaves the house. He was not sure if he would come or not, especially due to his low energy and low capability to take in a lot of information. He said he thought he could be helpful with phone calls, if we needed.
 He has a big problem with the government, social security, the court system, and the way it is run, and said if anyone had a problem with the court system, he would be on the front line to help them. He also had strong interests in animal rights, including cats, dogs, and other animals, such as raccoons, the environment, and the education system. He works in an after school program a few days a week. One man was concerned about the dinner being a vegetarian meal, which of course, it was.   Two people we called said that they would not respond to telephone calls, and one at the meeting said the same, and that he’d prefer to be contacted via mail or email.   My feeling is this: Of all these various and specific concerns comes a party with a lot of potential, if only it could encourage its members via some tangible evidence. I told all of those willing to listen about the win in the Cambridge school committee, and the ballot question win in Waltham about land development.
 Many people were excited and interested, but those were the people who were already interested.   However, beginning with GRP members gaining recognition in other committees and winning election questions / candidacies, perhaps real change can begin to occur, eventually having with low-income families beginning to speak out in favor of the GRP. 

   E) What could be done better:  
  Phone numbers: We will need to try the phone book more often in order to get more phone numbers. (It will be interesting to see if using peoplepages.com will yield more correct phone numbers than the ones provided by Dan through that phone service.)   I think that sending members a copy of the GRP newspaper would encourage them more, sending those on the borderline of interest over to the side of interest. (Ron was supposed to do this but he got busy and didn't)   Other than that, I don’t know how much you can improve communications with each member without having their telephone number. The success of solely sending mail will be proved at the meeting.   Perhaps door-to-door contact would be the next step.  Also, at the door, there should be a sign-in sheet, along with a list of members who do not have phone numbers, so those who attend the meeting can look over the list for people they know whose numbers they could give us.   The only other way to get the numbers of
 those who do not attend the meeting would be to specifically send them letters asking for their numbers, and wait for responses. 

   F) Overall results of the outreach part of experiment:  
  Out of 37 people contacted by phone numbers, 5 people said that they would show up at the meeting, although typically only 50% will actually come so that may be 2 people but perhaps those 2 will bring others. Still these 5 could be counted as being interested and may come to future meetings.   Of the 10 who said that they were interested but could not come, perhaps some will show up in the future. It may also be that some folks bring other folks (some said that they know people who may be interested)   It is encouraging that 15 out of 37 people that I talked to were interested. If we can figure out a way to turn that interest into participation then that would be very good. There are already some active GRP people in Somerville who may bring some people to the meeting. Ron said that his friend Bob Cable from Somerville Divestment Project is coming (didn’t come but called and was very interested and even upset that he couldn’t make it) and Jamie did some outreach as well. 
  Other cities may not have as many active GRP’s, proportionately to their size, although they might, so this should be factored in determining the net effect of this experiment. It was cold and snowy on Sunday so that might have affected the meeting results. The meeting is being held at a place that has public transportation so that is another variable.   Personally I would like to stay involved with the party, and maybe other students could be encouraged to take on such a project in another city. 

   G) Results of the Meeting:
   Eleven people were there, 5 women and 6 men. (plus jamie's little son)  Of seven people (including Ron and me) who said they would come, five showed up, so the additional six who came had not been contacted via the telephone. They told us they had heard about the meeting via e-mail, or had gotten the mailing (I think 3 and 3). The total cost for the meeting was $170, but we raised $90 by passing a cup around.  Surprisingly every member at the meeting said they would show up for the next meeting January 15th.  Everyone agreed to take a look at the phone list and identify people that they knew and could contact by phone (since many numbers were missing).  One man agreed to get information about energy usage issues in Somerville . Another man agreed to get information about military recruiting. Two people volunteered to organize an activity for youth interested in GRP to make events more family friendly.  Others seemed generally willing to participate. Lot of discussion
 about climate / traffic and how that is interconnected to need for oil based foreign policy.  For about 90 minutes the group discussed issues important to members and how to go about them.   There is a copy of the minutes from the meeting listed below, which gives some detail about every issue discussed.

  My Notes:

  The ideal anchor:

  1) Lives in a local community in MA and plans on staying there for three years or more.

  2) Lives in a local community that has no local (municipal level) GRP entity or has a local municipal Green-Rainbow entity that needs re-energizing.

  3) Is committed to GRP values, believes in local organizing, and is willing to participate in a long-term process to develop a GRP entity in the local area in which they live.

  4) Is willing to participate in 3 or 4 meetings starting about 3 months from now with the first one preferably in their own home

  5) Is willing to have some contact with the part-time staff person who will be working with the Anchor to coordinate the first 3 or 4 meetings. 

  6) Is willing to contact local friends who are social justice minded and invite them to participate in the 3 or 4 meetings to begin about 3 months from now.

  7) Is willing to take responsibility to raise $150 dollars from the local group (at the 3 or 4 meetings) to help cover the costs of the Part-time organizer, thereby repaying the lender.

  16 Step Model:
  The staff person would execute a 16-Step organizing program over two months:
  1) with help of Membership Committee, identify an anchor for the local area in question. That anchor must commit to 6 meetings – one per month.
  2) with help of anchor identify an accessible location for a meeting to be held two months from the time of the initial contact.
  3) obtain the addresses and phone numbers of GRP members for a given community from GRP database with phone numbers as well as anyone else who has lists (candidates, committees of GRP, etc etc
)
  4) ask the anchor to identify people that either she/he or the staff person will add to the names of the 200 GRP's in the database.
  5) coordinate or do a time-phased mailing over one week that mainly speaks about local GRP organizing efforts (separate flyer), recent GRP newsletter clippings, and a survey asking people what issues they are interested in working on with neighbors. Mailing should be energetic and colorful (See West Somerville flyer for model)
  6) follow the mailing with an timely round of phonecalls leaving NO messages at the prime time for contacting people (6:45 to about 8:45pm). Phone calling effort is to inform person about GRP 10 key values, the fact that a mailing has gone out to 200 other GRs in their neighborhood, ask them to return the survey, and come to a meeting (or outside activity followed by a meeting) one month in advance.
  7) Do a 2nd round of phonecalling leaving NO messages a few days later.
  8) Do a 3rd round of phonecalling leaving messages
  9) Tabulate all results including the level of interest of each person talked to as well as brief notes about the nature of the conversation. Communicate all information to anchor.
  10) send the full local mailing list - without phone numbers - to the anticipated 5 people (out of 40 phonecalls) who indicate interest over the phone. Ask those 5 people to contact people that they know on the list and send to them 3 blank mailings to send to a friend and ask them to invite their friends to the meeting.
  11) follow up with the 5 people to gently encourage them to do the outreach that they agreed to do.
  12) Do a reminder postcard / or mailing to all people that have shown interest 5 days before the meeting (estimated that 20 people will have expressed some interest ...). In mailing discuss results of outreach briefly (not the survey, only the outreach)
  13) do a reminder phonecall to all 20 people 2 or 3 days before meeting.
  14) conduct the meeting using good facilitation techniques and providing food or make a potluck. Make sure that each person leaves with a task to do.
  15) help coordinate the next meeting including mailing to 20 people that showed the most interest whether of not they came to the meeting.
  16) Do another round of phonecalling to these 20 people. (Do not discuss 1st meeting significantly
 it’s still a new thing at this point and don’t want to give impression that any decisions have been made or any politics adopted)

Mike Heichman <mikeheichman at verizon.net> wrote: Hi Membership Committee:

An idea for the Membership Committee:

The Boston Chapter is in the process of receiving contact information 
from the statewide candidates for potential new members from our chapter.

I suggest that the Membership Comm. come up with a list of requests from 
the statewide candidates--for existing chapters and potentially new 
chapters. Examples:

1. Who would be potential members?

2. Who would be potential $ supporters?

3. Where did you do organizing do you think would be the best places to 
try to rebuild old chapters or begin new ones? Who would be the key 
contacts?

4. Etc.

Mike Heichman

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