The important thing to remember is that people don’t really follow ideas. They follow people, but until you convince them to follow you they are going to futz about with ideas. In order to get them to follow you, you have to give them room to grow and think. That’s why when you launch a coalition, you have to keep it loose.
I’ve worked in coalitions in towns across America. I’ve seen them work. I’ve seen them fail. I’ve seen very powerful people convene them and go nowhere. I’ve seen near nobodies eventually win everyone to their table and rock the house. A big difference is whether or not they keep it loose.
You can’t control coalitions entirely. They are ungainly monsters who don’t stay on message or consistent or follow perfectly. To win them over and win their trust, you have to keep it loose. You have to permit members to follow courses you are unsure about, you have to let multiple things happen at once, you have to let people argue. As long as it all stays civil and loose and you keep reaching out, it will grow.
You don’t often see business leaders joining progressive coalitions, even when it’s in their interest. I think it’s because on some level they can’t stand the loosey goosey nature. You know, in the business world, when something needs doing, you tell someone to do it and it’s done. In the coalition world, if something needs doing and no one volunteers, you’re sort of out of luck (of course, that’s sort of your fault, as the leader, for not anticipating it and asking someone quietly to consider doing it before the meeting).
There’s a lot of talk in the political world about being on message, staying tight, clear tactics and a well-honed agenda. I see a lot of young people try to bring these ideas to the table when they launch coalitions. It’s bogus. If you’re going to work with a bunch of people who don’t have to be there with you, then you have to keep it loose, open and flexible or you lose them.
Filed under: national, organizing, organizing networks, professional, schools-of-thought
I haven’t had a chance to go through this in detail yet, but I would like to draw readers’ attention to the Organizers’ Forum.
My actual life as an Organizer has been really hot lately, so the blog has been cold. Hopefully I will have some great reflections for you all soon. In the meantime, I’d love for some readers to report on what they think about information on the site above.
Looking at their Board of Directors, I mostly see people I’m impressed by. Not so interested in hearing from support groups like the Center for Community Change or the Tides Foundation, but it’s nice to see major leaders in groups like DART, Gamaliel and major Unions on there.
The most interesting part of the site is the Dialogues, though. You can look forward to the Organizer reviewing this section in the near future.
Five of the Dialogues have interesting topics. Do we care about Organizing in South Africa, India or the crews’ road trip to Brazil? No. And the most recent dialogue touches on perhaps the Organizers’ least favorite, most beaten-into-the-ground topic in contemporary Organizing. If we discuss that Dialogue, you know our bias from the outset. I am going to rip it to shreds. I have not even read it yet but I’ve been-there/done-that enough times already. I know what they are going to say already. It’s like a broken record.
That said, Immigrant Organizing, The Future of Organizing, Corporate Campaigns — that’s all hot stuff. I want to see what they have to say. Soon. OR, you can read it now and write your own assessment here. Email it to theorganizer.wordpress@gmail.com and I might even just go ahead and post it as a guest entry. How’s that sound? I don’t even have to agree with it to post it. Just make it smart.
I was looking at searches that got people onto this blog, and I found a few different versions of this question. It just so happens, I know the answer. How much do you make as an Organizer for ACORN?
You’ll start at $25,000 a year these days with ACORN. That’s for pretty much everyone. It might have gone up a little bit, but it will be right around there. That’s for 54 hours of work per week, minimum. It’s in their employee manual. Ten hours per day and four on Saturdays. No overtime, no comp-time to speak of unless you’re really working over an amount that’s truly above and beyond the call.
If you’ve got a lot of experience in the organizing world, it can go up from that a little if you argue it from the very beginning. They have a policy that you can take all your years of organizing experience, remove a quarter of it, and they’ll start you off at that level of seniority on the pay scale. The pay scale is all seniority based. So if you had been an Organizer for 12 years, you’d come in as if you’d be an organizer for 9 (that is, if the person hiring you wants you badly enough to run this by their board – I’ve only met one person it ever happened for and I’ve met other Organizers with them that didn’t know about the policy). It won’t hike your pay up all that much, as the annual salary increases are pretty pathetic.
You could work there 30 years and you won’t crack a $60K salary.
They do periodically move the whole payscale up. You’ll get a raise for every year of seniority (usually it’s like $750 per year, though it varies. Some years are better). You also get a little responsibility boost, so when you start managing other Organizers you get an extra grand (I think – something like that), on your salary. No performance based boosts. No bonuses.
Here’s what you won’t get:
A normal amount of vacation. You start off at a week per year and maybe a couple flex days. I don’t know any other organization that starts at less than two weeks.
A decent health plan. Their health plan is totally brand X. Your doctor will look perplexedly at your insurance card.
You’ll travel all over the country for really pointless meetings that waste you’re time. You’ll work even more while you are out for those, and they won’t pay for your food. How ridiculous is that? You travel at their behest and you’ve got to go around dropping $6-$15 per meal to eat out when you could be eating at $2 per meal at home. Fair? No. Also not normal. Other organizations pick up your meal tab when you leave town for organizational work. You’ll also probably sleep on the floor of some other Organizer when you travel.
If you need something, you buy it yourself and ACORN reimburses you. Someday. Don’t expect the check to come any time soon.
So, there, that’s what you have to look forward to if you decide to work for ACORN. Hope that helps.
