[Membership] Supporting Local Organizing Initiative

[Melissa Harrell]

Hi Ron,

Just to clarify, what exactly would you like us do?  We'd be happy to help
in any way possible, but as was discussed at our first meeting, each person
who volunteers to act as an anchor has different skills and would need
different levels of support.  Are you asking for our support for just the
anchor, for the staff person, or for both?  The model listed below doesn't
include what part we're expected to play.  Do you know what expectations the
anchors have of us as a committe of the state party, if any.  Can you (or
one of your staffers find out what *they* think their needs are?  It would
be more helpful for us as a committee if we knew what these anchors feel
they need, it is a good starting point for brainstorming.

~Melissa

On 3/8/07, Ron Francis <ronwf777 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> 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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>
>
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>