2.! MEET REAL NEEDS.! Like food, housing, heating, healing, jobs.! Really meet the needs, rather than merely meeting about them.! When people are fed, housed, heated, healed or employed they will fight beside you and fund you.! Make a list of benefits to members and to the larger community. !!! 3.! GO BOLD.! What are your big headlines?! What images grab the eye and pull?! Put these together above the fine print.! There are so many public causes competing for attention that clear direct talk distinguishes your message.!! We'll look closer at this below. !!! When attacked, respond based on your values and the public's needs.! Be proud of the names they call you-- do not mumble appeasing demurrals.! !!! 4.! MAKE FRIENDS. !Make a list of groups that seem likely to agree with some part of your plan.! Start to contact them.! Don't be surprised by surprises: some likely opponents will help; some likely allies may yawn.! You'll develop generic flyers, but each of these groups deserves a special appeal.! Following pages show samples of focused outreach.! Begin with who is ready to begin.! Keep the doors open--! I have repeatedly worked alongside people I've earlier battled, when interests overlap. !!! Distribute literature personally in public places, to get feedback.! Answering questions sharpens your pitch.! You can best speak the language of the public by tabling, to explain your plan and answer questions.! This process develops a crisp efficient rap, enabling you to speak to the press in 15 second bites, 30 seconds and one minute.! It's good to be able to talk like a lawyer, a saint, a news broadcaster, a street tough, or suburbanite. !!! Announce a time and place for the first public meeting. Issue a press release about the meeting, the group, and its purpose. !!! 5.! TRAVEL LIGHT.! The more you own or owe, the more you are controlled.! Fancy offices, fancy equipment, fancy salaries require steady income from foundations and large donors, who prefer polite advocacy.! That requires compromise.! So decide what you really need, diversify your income, reduce your dependence on dollars. !!! Your! mission will thrive by relying on informal, in-kind income for office space, food and transit.! There's lots of free office equipment available.! Publish a newsletter and sell ads.! Print your own credits.! Barter with members and customers. !!! When your networks are strong enough, you might employ someone primarily through donated apartment, health care, local food, bicycle,! movies. !!! Pricey membership and events repel the people you most need.! The public must be able to afford to participate. !!! Bylaws are thus strongly recommended which stipulate a maximum wage for employees that's not more than twice the region's livable wage.! This will ensure that employees are hired who are more attracted to the mission than to money.!! You want people who are excited to make life better for all. !!! 6.! STICK TOGETHER.! Within any group there will inevitably be misunderstanding, disagreement, power struggles, romances.! Once! I served on a board of directors who loved our mission and each another, until state officials pushed us into combat mode.! So cultivate love and teamwork, but be ready to agree to disagree.! !!! Better than exploding and becoming enemies, subdivide into two or more related organizations, then form a coalition.! This allows divergent strategies to complement rather than frustrate.
!!! 7.! DECENTRALIZE AUTHORITY.! Relying on one great leader makes the group vulnerable to burnout, betrayal, assassination.! Remember that everyone contains creative genius and that an ultimate goal of all activism is a society where that genius is celebrated.! Therefore, cultivate several media spokespersons.! The most powerful whistleblower of all time was not Julian Assange of Wikileaks, but the global network Anonymous. !!! 8.! SURF THE CURVE.! New conditions and new information require new plans.! Successful social movements nimbly adjust tactics (short range action) and strategy (big picture) to run rings around bureaucracy. !!! 9.! BE HONEST.!! Otherwise, why bother?! Try to be a personal example of the values you promote.! This is tough. !!! 10.! BE FUN.! Whether opposing genocide or planting gardens, people need to party.
HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR PLAN
!!! NOVELTY.! What is different about your plan than any other?! Advertisers call this the Unique Selling Proposition, and it applies as much to organizing social change as to selling cars.! The difference is that while advertisers hype junk, you're offering genuine benefit. !!! When starting the Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP), for example, I didn't say merely "We're planting some fruit trees."! I raised a stunning vision of orchards everywhere, with dynamic economic and social benefits.! We were not just another garden club, but a movement to reconstruct Philly's economy and culture.! I posted a critique of vacant land use; asserting that creating jobs feeding people is more urgent land use than condos.! So within eight months we were featured by a half page article in the New York Times' Real Estate section. !!! Likewise, starting the Patch Adams Free Clinic carried the combined novelties of Patch Adams'! name, solar-powered earth-sheltered design, training for healing,! farming and selfhelp. !!! DRAMA: How does your plan contrast with official plans?! When promoting simple bridges as an alternative to a 4-lane highway, my cartoon posters were headlined "Why New Rte 96 is a Bad Idea" and by contrast "Why Plan A Bridges are a Good Idea."! The League of Uninsured Voters (LUV) rallies the most powerrless Americans to confront the most powerful, and to take that power from them.