[statecom-discuss] Part-time work to build GRP local chapters
using WSGRP model
Gracegrnrnbw at aol.com
Gracegrnrnbw at aol.com
Tue Feb 6 17:32:02 EST 2007
Ron - is this based on one of the proposals we missed at Statecom?
Who is sponsoring this? Do you know where this person would be working? I
assume you raised the $ for this?
A few of these details, I'll see if any of the younger folks from my campaign
are interested - thanks, grace
In a message dated 2/6/07 12:07:19 PM, ronwf777 at yahoo.com writes:
> Dear GRP folks,
>
> If anyone knows someone who would be interested in part-time work over the
> next half a year ($12) to kickstart, or start anew, Green-Rainbow chapters by
> doing phonecalling work, mailings, some door to door work and other types of
> outreach work (see below), then please let me know.
>
> The work would be for 12 +/- 2 hours and would take place over the next
> month and a half.
>
> The person should have good positive energy about organizing, be organized,
> be committed to GRP values, and be comfortable on the phone and in reporting
> progress on a regular basis.
>
> The person would look to replicate the steps indicated below (See WSGRP
> outreach model including student intern comments on improving the model), or a
> very similar set of steps. Included in this email are two of the flyers used
> to do some of the WSGRP mailing effort from Dec 2005 WEst Somerville outreach
> effort culminating in a kick-off meeting of 13 people and two subsequent
> meetings of 10 people each.
>
> The outreach work would culminate in three to four meetings beginning three
> to four months from now in a given community for which an "anchor" can be
> established. If the work goes well then further part-time work is possible.
>
> Persons of color and people from other oppressed backgrounds are encouraged
> to apply.
>
> If you know someone who is interested, then please forward them this email
> and ask them to send a brief cover letter explaining (1 paragraph each please)
>
> 1) why she/he would be good for this position
> 2) what her or his commitment is for GRP values.
> 3) experience doing local municipal level organizing
>
> for more info call
> Ron Francis
> 617 230-2835
>
> background:
>
> 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 me
> mbership 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.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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