[statecom-discuss] Part-time work to build GRP local chapters using WSGRP model

[Ron Francis]

Great Questions Grace...

I was not at statecom but I read the minutes and I don't think that this proposal or anything resembling it was made.

The answers to your most of your questions follow from the model (see below) but I'm happy to answer the questions and it might also help other people too (to hear the answers), so thanks for responding....

The main sponsor in the WSGRP model is the local anchor, (who is given a loan initially and then subsequently raises the money from the locally organized people and repays the loan).  In West Somerville I gave myself the loan and the WSGRP repaid me willlingly.    I'll do the same (give a loan to any willing anchor), in other areas, who is willing to go through the sixth month process, and said anchor will repay the lender.

So an anchor must be located,.... but the only requirement is that the person be willing to shephard 3 or 4 meetings (preferably first one at their own house) starting at about three months from now.  (Part of the work by the part-time staff could be help locate an anchor although I was mainly planning on doing that myself or having someone else who is familiar with the model be involved in locating anchor)

All of these things are in the notes for the model although the amount paid I think could be between $150 and $200.

I already have two people interested in doing the work but I will announce that there are 5 days left to apply and make decisions early next week. So if you know people who are interested then please have them apply in the next 4 or 5 days.

The anchor can work from anywhere.  (Michelle operated from Shrewsbury and did the West Somerville work)

(Initially the part-time staff person would have to work with me for an hour or so over the phone or in person, in order that they understand the model.  (I will also volunteer time, as I did in West Somerville, to help guide the anchor's work although Michelle did the work in West Somerville with only a little bit of guidance....)

Hope that helps...

Also note that the person would probably work in a given State Rep district as this idea can parallel (in terms of geographic structuring) the Local Ballot 2008 proposal I have recently posted.  In fact it might be worth a trial run to try to execute the model with a particular issue chosen to organize around (rather than the survey used in West Somerville)

Ron
617 230-2835

Gracegrnrnbw at aol.com wrote: 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:
> Â  Â 
> Â  This work was done by a student for a Service Learning
> Â  Project at Shrewsbury High School to rejuvenate the Somerville GRP 
> chapter.
> 
> The student wrote this report in concluding the work.
> 
> Â  Â 
> Â  A) Time spent:Â 
>   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. 
> Â  Â 
>    B) Money Spent 
> Â  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.  
> Â  Â 
>   C) The mailing.  
> Â  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)Â Â 
> Â  Â 
>   D) The phone calling  
> Â  Of the 130 with numbers, I tried 115 of them, while Ron Francis tried 15. 
> Our results were:Â Â  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. 
> Â  Â 
> Â Â  E) What could be done better:Â Â 
> Â  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.)Â Â  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. 
> Â  Â 
> Â Â  F) Overall results of the outreach part of experiment:Â Â 
> Â  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)Â Â  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. 
> Â  Â 
> Â Â  G) Results of the Meeting:
> Â Â  Eleven people were there, 5 women and 6 men. (plus jamie's little son)Â  
> 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 /Â  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.
> Â  Â 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Â 
> 
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