Local profile check-list

This is something I remember writing when I joined Friends of the Earth which I came across the other day. It's a self-assessment tool for local groups to work out what they can do to increase their profile and to ask for staff support.

As diagnostics go, it's a useful set of questions, I think, but I've updated it to include references more references to electronic communication tools, distinguishing between old media and new media.

Anything else here you think should be added?

Does your group have an online/offline newsletter or equivalent? 

If so, how do you distribute it, to whom and how many?

Does your group regularly display publicity material (e.g. flyers, posters) with contact and meeting information at places where potential recruits might be?

How often does your group hold stalls or any other activities which allow you to promote the group to the public? 

When your group holds stalls or do other public activities, does it have publicity material which provides contact and meeting information? 

Have your group checked that the information – particularly the contact and meeting information – on the FOE website (and on your group website if applicable) is up to date and accurate?

Does your group have a Facebook page or group and post regular updates?

Does your group have a Twitter account and use it regularly?

Does your group use the internet in other ways to promote itself (e.g. blogs, listings websites)?

How often does your group use the media (press releases, letters, events listings) to promote its meetings and activities?

Does your group periodically invite national supporters in its area to an event?

Has answering these questions inspired you to suggest that your group does something new to increase its profile? If time and capacity are issues, what in particular would be the priority tasks? 

How can staff help your group raise its profile?

a.Helping to develop a plan to raise your group’s profile
b.Helping your local group redesign its publicity material
c.Help with maintaining your local group website or a social media presence
d.Arranging training for your local group on any of the above
e.Helping to develop a public event to which national supporters living locally can be invited

f.Something else

Time of the season: a quick way of classifying the health of your local campaign group

The best analysis can keep its complexity tightly wound within a well-chosen metaphor. So I've been drawn to using the seasons – what better environmental reference – to think about the health and longevity of local campaign groups.

Think about it – could you describe your Friends of the Earth group with a season? 

• Is it still in first bloom, full of the new life of Spring? 
• In the prime of Summer, its deeds coming to fruition? 
• Experienced and still vigorous, yet living somewhat autumnally off its previous glories?
• Declining and either hoping for renewal or stuck in midwinter?

Chances are, you probably can, at least as a top-line. And while the reality as lived by any one group is a lot more complicated, you can infer a lot from this simple typology. My group only got started last week, for example, so it's a pretty safe bet it's a Spring group. 

At this point, I do have to doff my wizard's hat to the source of this metaphor. Ars Magica, a role-playing game of medieval magic and considerably storytelling nouse, uses the seasons to classify fictional wizard communities according to age, literal and spiritual health.

Seasons and relaunches

The idea of a group rebooting the seasonal cycle and moving back round into Spring with new blood and new energy is appealing. I will say this: the time to think about a relaunch for most groups is the onset of Autumn – when the group has yet enough vibrancy to do so with some staff support.

Some groups can stay in autumnal mode for over a decade, still doing great things with essentially the same people. But recognising the signs of decline - ageing, diminishing interest, involvement or relevancy, the departure of key personnel - is key when deciding to invest time and effort in a relaunch while you can.

The best groups follow a kind of permanent agricultural revolution, with new talent, new coordinators, inspiring new campaigns every few years. The Birmingham group's paid internship for its Campaign Support Worker effectively institutionalises this system. Not quite eternal midsummer, but a good way of making sure they are always jumping forward into Springtime.

Even a wintry group can still be stirred to do mighty works – in Ars Magica the wizards of winter covenants were much feared and respected on those rare occasions when they stirred. But their ability to make themselves anew, to relaunch, is much less consistent than in Autumn, because their numbers, their culture or the time they have no longer support it 

It's not impossible, but it does need more thought, more resource and potentially more staff help.

So, what season is your local group? Comments below please!

Postscript: I do not have a wizard's hat. 

Yet.

Relaunch case study 4 - Empower, empower, empower

A Friends of the Earth local group had been on hold for around a year when several interested people got in touch with the local contact through the website, who referred them onto me. Previous attempts at a relaunch had foundered on the fact that members of the group had primary commitments elsewhere or had demanding personal lives.

This – on the other hand – was an opportunity. :-)

• I became de facto coordinator for several months in the absence of a local person who could step in.
• We brought the new volunteers together with those from the old group able and willing to help and collaborated on an initial trial action – a colourful Valentine's-themed stall which went down very well.
• We then discussed a campaign for the coming year and decided on The Bee Cause, which the new volunteers in particular were very keen on.
• I suggested that the group host and help me with a training day on The Bee Cause for locals and nearby local groups.
• They agreed, and the new volunteers worked with me in a number of ways (venue, facilitation, publicity) to organise a fabulous event.
• Planning and delivering the Bee Cause day also became a springboard to empower them. It gave them skills, confidence, allies and a vision of what the group was for.
• It also found them new volunteers and creating a basis for future action on the campaign over the course of the year.
• In parallel with this we supported the handover of the coordinator role to one of the new volunteers with the strong support of the others. 

Relaunch case study 3 - The Power of the BHAG

This one isn't a Friends of the Earth group, but it's a very good example of how a vision can remind a group of their purpose in being.

• The chair of a local environment group had stepped down over a year ago, after several years of successful campaigning.
• While the group were still active – organising events and running campaigns – the leadership decided that a renewal of the group was required to ensure its long-term viability.
• They decided to head-hunt themselves a new chair.
• The chair worked with the committee to develop an ambitious vision for reducing the energy footprint of the local area, engaging communities and businesses, growing the group and raising money.
• He presented the vision to interested members at the AGM as an idea of what the group could do if it looked beyond the immediate future and sought to change the town.
• The vision also suggested a number of immediate steps which could be taken – it was both optimistic and realistic.
• The group are now in the process of taking ownership of the vision both as a programme of work for the future but also as way of sharing the group and its mission to others.
• They are also making a number of practical changes to their ways of working including:

• Increasing the number of people active in the inner circle by expanding the committee.
• Changing the meeting venue from someone's house to a public venue
• Looking at ways of improving their electronic communications.

Tim comments: if this was a Friends of the Earth group, a staff member could have also supported that visioning process, helped with the search for a new coordinator through volunteer advertising and invited national supporters to the AGM or an event

It's also important to note that they took this decision while they were still in a position to do so - too far down the cycle of activity into 'winter' and the best vision in the world might have fallen upon deaf ears.

Relaunch case study 2 - a real Dr Who style regeneration

A group with an ageing volunteer profile decided that they could not carry on with the current active membership, despite past successes. They put a call out for help to staff in Spring and planned for a make-or-break AGM in Autumn.

• The first thing they did right was to plan in a long-lead in time for a final decision.
• This allowed us to do two things book in a mailing to national supporters in the area inviting them to the meeting. This supplemented local publicity to the membership.
• We worked with the group to make the letter sound like an opportunity rather than a crisis.
• Effectively it looked like an introduction to/get involved in Friends of the Earth event.
• My team-mate also used the time to talk the group and get to know them a bit. This allowed him to steer his efforts strongly towards either nurturing any newcomers or recommending the group fold.
• This was because it was clear from speaking to the experienced members that while they had done exemplary service to the movement in the past they were no longer in a position to offer substantive support to a relaunched group or maintain a group on hold for a few years.
• When my team-mate went to the AGM they were able to meet prospective new members, one of whom subsequently became new coordinator.
• The group therefore decided to continue, handing over key responsibilities.
• My team-mate coached the coordinator through telephone and e-mail contact, and guided them towards public-facing actions requiring teamwork such as film screenings and stalls, to build up the active membership and contact list for the group
• They also supported the coordinator to attend training opportunities such as the next Regional Gathering.

Relaunch case study 1: Breakfast of Champions

When the coordinator of this group had to resign unexpectedly due to family health reasons, and could not arrange meetings, it was not clear whether the group would continue. No candidate for coordinator in the group's inner circle presented itself, and while the team spirit was good, energy levels were low.

Response:

• The outgoing coordinator took over the role of treasurer, which much better suited his time and commitments.
• I supported the group to have an open discussion of whether and how to continue.
• They decided to continue in the short term to see if continuing without the leadership of their outgoing coordinator was viable.
• The group agreed to work together on The Bee Cause (the campaign which most appealed to the inner circle) and specifically a summer event designed to attract new members.
• They went with a Bee Breakfast because the plans were already provided in the Action Guide and it appealed to the interests and resources of the members.
• They deferred the question of who would coordinate the group until after the event had been completed. People pulled together to organise the meetings in the interim.
• I helped publicise the meetings to the local members and beyond, and explained what they were working on. This drew old members and several newcomers back to the meetings.
• Working on the Breakfast brought this group together and raised morale – everybody picked up tasks which suited their time and inclinations.
• I supported the Breakfast through an invite to national supporters and developing publicity resources.
• Breakfast event successful – drawing in 30+ participants and greatly enjoyed by the team.
• After the breakfast event, we discussed new projects and I inducted and supported the new coordinator.
• The group continued its focus on The Bee Cause, shifting its attention to planting projects, film screenings and another breakfast over the coming year. An end-of-year social found them energised, happy and working well together.

Local campaign groups are like Timelords, so let there be relaunches!

'Relaunch' is Tim-speak for a local campaign group - lower on any of numbers, morale and energy than it would like - making a concerted effort over a few months to find people, esprit de corps and inspiration.

This usually has as its focus a shared campaign, project, action or event – something to work on together, providing a sense of common purpose and a point of attraction for newcomers.

It can also entail:

• Help from staff, as a catalyst for change and a coach, sometimes as collaborators
• Supportive, mentoring relationships between experienced and new members
• A reimagining of group culture combining the best of the old with new perspectives, although if experienced members are around less this can be a wholesale regeneration, Dr Who style.
• A passing on of the torch, with new members taking key roles in the key group
• A intergenerational renewal of the group

Image by Steve Collis via Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

A few words on when to relaunch: clearly, the best relaunch is the relaunch you don't need to do because your volunteer group is constantly renewing itself, you have kick ass induction processes, all your campaigns are accessible and involving etc etc. You're always centripetal rather than centrifugal.

However, back in the real world, my feeling is that every 2-3 years feels on average about right for a cycle of renewal, with healthy groups able to extend that cycle perhaps to closer to 5 years.

Staff often get asked to be involved in relaunches when the experienced members are close to giving up, or the group itself has become a 'zombie', existing in name but scarcely meeting, a shell of what it was. Needless to say, these aren't optimal times to affect change, but sometimes we can help turn things around.

I'd be keen to support groups to get on a cycle of renewal as a matter of course rather than rushing in at the eleventh hour, so part of my motivation for writing this post is to try and shift that paradigm.

The more immediate motivation is that I've been asked by the Watford group to provide some examples of successful relaunches for their upcoming AGM. So stand by for some case studies on the blog over the course of this week. All of them have involved some staff input, but the fundamental point is that they aren't doing anything you couldn't either do for yourselves or ask them for anyway.

Hopefully, this will give us all an idea of what happens when relaunches work, as well as of the different tools at your disposal.

Cake IS quality of experience, unless the cake is a lie

Today's slightly pseudy concept: quality of experience. Especially as it relates to events, meetings, actions etc.
— Tim Atkinson (@Magpiemoth) December 12, 2013

E.g. "Quality of participant experience is the second most important element of local campaign group meetings" Discuss.
— Tim Atkinson (@Magpiemoth) December 12, 2013

(the first being collective agreement to do stuff, obvs)
— Tim Atkinson (@Magpiemoth) December 12, 2013

interested to know if @jenny_thatch @TimCampaigns @howardwhitehead @Greenfox10 @hovis21 @neilkingsnorth think I'm on to sth re last tweets?
— Tim Atkinson (@Magpiemoth) December 12, 2013

@Magpiemoth @jenny_thatch @TimCampaigns @howardwhitehead @Greenfox10 @neilkingsnorth absolutely not. It's whether or not there is cake.
— Tom Wright (@hovis21) December 12, 2013

@hovis21 but cake IS quality of experience. Unless the cake is a lie. :)
— Tim Atkinson (@Magpiemoth) December 12, 2013

What if you looked at your local campaign group as if it were a rock band?

You'd be surprised how many parallels I see between local campaign groups and rock bands.

Wait, come back...

They are both collaborative, social units with shared aims and values. They both engage, in different ways, in performance and interaction with a public. They're both in the business of changing people's minds. And at their best - they both entail a collective surrender of ego to the shared goal. 

I'd be interested in the reflections this metaphor might suggest to you. 

And what rock band does your local group remind you of? Hopefully not Spinal Tap...

But here's one long-form thought to get you started.

Lovely photo of  the fabulous Arboretum via Greg Nate at Wikimedia Commons

Visible and invisible contributions

The relationship between the campaigners/musicians/performers in a group is vitally important. The value of each member should be measured by both their visible and invisible contributions. 

Think about your favourite bands. Think about the one who might not write the songs, but is absolutely crucial to the creative dynamic, or to the social glue of the band, or to the relationship with the fans.

Or, think about your local campaign group. Who's the member who might not be your coordinator or your issue expert in residence, but is the one who invites you all over to dinner in December? Who takes your 'crazy idea' for dressing as giant traffic cones and helps you turn it into something which works? Who makes the newcomers feel welcome?

Given the number of big personalities among musicians and campaigners, who's the one who stops you all killing each other and keeps you working together? 

Cos yep, that's your invisible contribution right there.

And that's why understanding and nurturing the ecology of your local group is so important.