Campaign Organisers weekend #3

Campaign Organisers - recruitment time again

And here's my soon to be published article in Change Your World, Friends of the Earth's in-house magazine for local groups, celebrating our first round of  Campaign Organisers and putting out a call for more to join the party.

They came to Basecamp [our annual conference] from all across the country. And from fracking to bee-friendly flowerbeds, from running on sun to stalls and socials in their area, they had stories to tell, plans to share. And whether on the high street or on Facebook, they were involving local people in their campaigns.

Yes – the Campaign Organisers were in town!

Since our accredited training programme began around 9 months ago, we’ve supported a first wave of Organisers in local groups to start new community campaigns. Basecamp was a chance for them to meet one another again, as well as to learn, celebrate and make new connections with other activists.

As we now look for a new band of Organisers this summer, it’s a good point to reflect on our aims and intentions. And it all boils down to empowerment.

Over one to two years, we empower participants to run a great local campaign. But the training, coaching and skill-sharing is also intended to help them to empower others - creating not just one but many great environmental champions around the country.

And with Campaign Organisers we’re not just providing training and support, we’re building a community.

For more information about how to apply this summer and to download the Programme Guide, see www.foe.co.uk/campaignorganisers. If you have any questions, contact us on campaignorganisers@foe.co.uk or 020 7490 0210.

Campaign Organisers: here's the letter we sent out to local groups

Here's the letter we sent out to local groups about the Campaign Organisers Programme earlier this month. 

I'm reproducing it here partly for my own sense of personal chronology, partly because I'm rather happy with some of the phrasing, especially the first few paragraphs. All that thinking about nutshell explanations clearly paid off.

And you never know, someone might see it here and decide to apply. :-)

Credit to Jenny and Neil as well, who both helped to write it too.

Dear co-ordinator,

Around the country, local groups have built a Friends of the Earth movement to be proud of. You and your members win campaigns, change minds, learn together. Your group makes a difference.

And that means we want to help your group grow stronger. Achieve more of what you want to do. Increase your active membership.

How? One way is by inviting you and your group to help find participants for our new Campaign Organiser Programme.

We’re looking for people with some campaigning experience - it doesn’t have to be too much. People who want to hone their own skills and help us to bring our local campaigners together to achieve more real world change. These people might be current local group members, they might be from outside the group. 

Our aims are to train more people up in the skills of organising around campaigns and to help generate more collaboration and campaigning between our local groups around the country.

Over two years, we’ll provide face-to-face and distance training, 1:1 support and insights into how campaigning really works. But this will be learning by doing - we’ll be asking these organisers to put what they’ve learned back into the local group network by:

- Reaching out and helping more people to get campaigning with a Friends of the Earth local group: a £100 grant is available for this.

- Helping your group to come together with neighbouring groups and other allies to campaign and share skills together.

- Being catalysts, helping others to become better campaigners.

Our first induction and training weekend will be at Hackney City Farm, London on 30 November/1 December, with participants in this first round sought by 8 October. We can offer a contribution towards your transport and accommodation costs.

There will also be a second weekend in the North of England in early 2014 (date and location to be confirmed), with participants sought by 8 December. 

Where do I come in?

We’ll be advertising this programme inside and outside the local groups network, but we know you can’t beat local knowledge and the personal touch when you’ve an offer to make. And that’s where we need your help.

If you have time to do a couple of simple things: With this letter comes an Organiser role description (attached) and a Programme flyer (will be included in letter). Please take these to your local group meeting and discuss whether anyone in your group would like to apply. 

Please also send a link to our home-page around your mailing list inviting applications: http://www.foe.co.uk/news/campaign_organisers_41012.html 

If you or someone else in your group has time for the personal touch: If you think someone (inside your core group or out) would be really right for this Programme, we’d love you to be our talent scout in your area. Please talk to them, share the information and encourage them to apply or contact us for a chat.

Further information and applications

Please visit http://www.foe.co.uk/news/campaign_organisers_41012.html  for: - 

Details of how to apply

- An electronic flyer to help you promote the Programme locally (to be added shortly)

- A Programme Guide (to be added shortly) 

You can also contact Programme co-ordinators Tim Gee and Tim Atkinson on campaignorganisers@foe.co.uk or via the Activism Hotline 020 7490 0210. They are happy to talk with potential Organisers or discuss our ideas with you in more detail. 

Finally, you can also join in discussions with local group members helping to shape the Programme on Campaign Hubs at http://bit.ly/organisers. To shape and champion the project, this is where to go. Thank you for your support. 

We look forward to welcoming participants from your area onto the Campaign Organiser Programme and helping you to keep making a difference.

Yours sincerely

Tim Atkinson and Tim Gee

Campaign Organiser Programme coordinators

Back to Campaign Organisers: promotional flyer unveilled

Now I've returned from holiday and dealt with the rush jobs, I've persuaded my addled brain to focus on our fantastic new Campaign Organisers project again. 

Big thanks to @Timcampaigns and Jonathan Madden, who pulled this flyer together to help promote the programme. You can download it in a much better resolution here: http://forum.foe.co.uk/campaignhubs/MGalleryItem.php?id=1263 

PS - We've already had a shade over 15 applications while I was away, which is an most encouraging start. :-)

Campaign groups: try being more Troi

Last time I blogged about the Friends of the Earth Campaign Organisers programme (which FYI is now live and seeking applicants) I was mulling over how to explain a potentially complex proposition simply.

All I needed to do, it seems, is remember that Star Trek The Next Generation is an excellent way of making sense of the world and group dynamics. 

Naturally, what follows below is my own decidely unofficial thinking, and if you want 'hat-on' explanation and discussion you should go to the link above or the Campaign Hub. But writing this here allows me to be a little more playful, more experimental and try this out with you.

So, let me know what you think. :-)

The Campaign Organisers Programme is a way of helping our local campaign groups be bigger, better and more successful by helping them be more like Deanna Troi.

Confused? Allow me to explain.

We have great Picards, ship's captains in a non-hierarchical sense, coordinators of local groups, leaders, people with their eye on the overall plan and direction.

We also have lots of brilliant first officers (Rikers bearded or otherwise) - campaigners, issues experts, field commanders. As a campaigning movement, how could we not have these people?

We could always, use more Picards, more Rikers. They're awesome,

But what we also really need - and what the Campaign Organisers Programme is designed to give us - is more Troi's.

People with both eyes on the involvement, nurturing and empowerment of others. People who bring other people into a group, who understand their wants and needs and help them get involved, creating spaces for support and shared learning. 

Campaigners, yes, but catalysts too.

Because the only way this movement of ours is going to grow long-term, the only way we're going to change things as much as we want, is if groups look after their people, old hands and new crew alike, and help them grow.

There are local groups out there already doing much of this, and I'm not saying a Picard or a Riker can't also be something of a Troi at the same time. Equally, I know from my own experience in groups how difficult it is to keep your eye on two bottom lines simultaneously, however compatible they might be.

So, the role matters and needs dedicated attention. We know what our own best practice is and we can run a kick-ass training programme to share it. We know we can learn from other movements like Transition too. 

Let's make it happen then. Consider signing up yourself, or recommending it to others inside or outside local groups.

Campaign Organisers: a new tradition of empathic campaigning. Build the movement. Nurture others. Win the game. Be more Troi.

Are you in?


Postscript: here's the Facebook debate my Trek metaphor originally provoked. Many thanks to Dave, Matt and Stu for their contributions.