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Before you can get your campaign underway, you need to make
a plan for passing the policy and design a campaign organization
to carry out the plan. This section assumes you'll run a grassroots
campaign, but much of what it says applies to closed campaigns
as well. If you are going to run a coalition campaign, you'll
need to do most of the things described here with your coalition
partners.
No question generates as many apparently contradictory answers
as the question about who your audience is when you run a
policy campaign.
These answers may not be as contradictory as they look at
first. You'll never get a policy passed if you don't concentrate
on the board that has the power to pass it. On the other hand,
policies passed without support among those to whom the board
is ultimately accountable may not be around for long.
The problem with the blimp plan was not so much that the public
shouldn't be part of your audience as it was that the plan
tried to get to the public in the wrong way. It didn't focus
on the most persuadable people and it didn't focus on the
best way to persuade them. These two problems, (along with
focusing on "selling" LGBT people instead of selling the policy)
are the most common problems with campaign plans.
To get your campaign focused, write up a "passage plan" that
includes every step in the process for passing a policy. The
last step should be support among whatever "public" the board
ultimately answers to. For a city, this would typically be
voters. With a university, for example, it may be the University
community, the alumni, the state legislature, etc., depending
on who makes the decision and who they answer to.
The usefulness of the plan is likely to depend on detail;
the more you put in, describing each player at each step,
the more helpful the plan will be. The last step should include
a description of all the constituent groups (the "publics")
which the board answers to.
Next, fill in the names of the people who actually occupy
each step (except, of course, for the last). Add the names
and descriptions of people who are not direct participants
in the process who would be most likely to influence those
who are. Then add the names of all the organizations whose
support might influence the participants.
You've got a description of who you need to focus on, a map
of the process.
For each step in your plan, list the campaign tactics which,
if you could get all the resources you would need, you think
you might be able to use at that step (while you shouldn't
be conservative at this stage, do be realistic). Some tactics
will involve using people at one step to get the support of
people at another.
Along with tactics, list the messages that you think are most
likely to work with the individuals at each step. Of course,
where you have more than one person at a step, your list may
differ from person to person. Then list the tactics you might
be able to use to support the messages. See sections 8,
15, 16,
and 22.
Remember that deciding what tactics and messages are most
likely to work shouldn't be just a "gut call." You should
have spoken during your research with people experienced in
local politics who can give you solid information about what
does and does not work. You also should have talked to people
who've done these kinds of campaigns. Estimate the amount
of money you would need to actually use each of the tactics
you've got listed. Don't make the numbers up out of thin air;
talk to people who've done similar things.
You've got a plan for your ideal campaign.
Real campaign plans need to be flexible. Your resources are
likely to change as the campaign goes on and you pick up support.
Your experiences will change your ideas about what works and
what doesn't. The process described here should be going on
all the time, and you should stop and go over the whole plan
from time to time.
List your resources. Who is willing to work, what skills do
they have, what kind of time do they have? How much money
do you have, how much could you raise, and what would it take
to do it?
Go back to your ideal plan, and match your resources up to
it. Draw up a practical plan which includes your map through
the process, but which lists only those campaign tactics which
you realistically think you can use.
Do a time version of the plan. Focus on 1) logrolling techniques,
2) the sequence which some steps in the process must follow,
and 3) the sequence you've chosen for others. Then decide
the order in which you'll execute the steps in the plan.
You've got a real plan. Don't forget to keep adjusting it
as you go along and things develop.
The work in the campaign plan has to be divided up and assigned
to the people who are going to do it. Once jobs are assigned,
people need to coordinate with each other so that the phases
of the campaign are in sync, so that people don't duplicate
each others' work, etc. Whatever design you adopt for your
organization, it should build both division of tasks and coordination
into its structure.
If you have a very small campaign, all you may need to do
is divide up the work so that each worker is in charge of
some aspect of the campaign, and have the whole group meet
regularly.
If the campaign is large, or if you think you may eventually
get larger numbers of volunteers, you may want to create a
steering committee of those in charge of each part of the
campaign, and have that committee meet frequently.
There is no single right way to divide up the work. How you
do it will depend on what you have in your campaign plan and
how many people you've got. In a small campaign, the entire
group should probably divide the work up together. In a large
campaign, a core group might propose a division to present
to the entire campaign for approval at a public meeting. You
may need to change the design as the campaign progresses.
You may decide that some things could be better done if the
division were changed. As the campaign progresses, you may
not need to do some things at all anymore.
Whatever design you decide on, it is probably a good idea
to have someone in charge of running any large public meetings.
Some person or group (it could be the whole steering committee)
also needs to make up agendas for the public meetings. At
some point, you may need to do this for the steering committee
as well.
Make sure that by the end of the campaign, some person or
small group has the authority to negotiate the final terms
of the policy.
Everyone who works on the campaign should understand the proposed
policy, the case for it, and the answers to the opposition.
The best way to do this may be with regular speakers' trainings.
Have groups of volunteers meet (15 -20, not many more). Have
members of the core group explain the policy, the case and
the answers. Encourage the volunteers to ask questions. You
want to be sure they understand and this is a good way to
find out where your explanations and arguments need work.
Have your most experienced media person explain how to talk
to the media. Have your most experienced public speakers explain
how to tell groups about the policy and ask for their support.
Not everyone will have to speak in public or talk to media.
But everyone needs to answer questions they get asked by friends
or by people on the street when you set up tables or walk
precincts. The media/speaking sections of the training, because
they emphasize clear, terse explanations, will be a help to
everyone.
If you have a membership list (and you should) make it as
secure as you can. Only one or two persons should have responsibility
for keeping it. You should make it policy that anyone can
have her or his name removed from the membership list right
away just by asking. It should be policy that the list is
never shown to anyone outside the organization for any reason.
If the law regulates your organization, it may not be possible
to keep the list confidential. If it isn't, people should
be told that before they sign up. It is also always possible
that a hostile government agency or someone else exploiting
the courts could get your membership list, and people should
always be warned that no one can guarantee confidentiality.
You should set up a regular system for communicating what
the campaign is doing to the LGBT community and the public
at large. This will be invaluable for lobbying and for rallying
people. You should also set up a system for email alerts or
an internal phone tree in case of emergency meetings or unexpected
events (surprise public hearings, etc.)
There is no best way to run a campaign's meetings or its day
to day business. Your campaign will develop its own processes.
Here are a few general tips which may make it easier at the
start. First, check with your lawyer to find out if the law
in your area regulates organizations set up to work for the
kind of policy you want to pass. In most places, unless you
are working for a state law, there probably won't be, but
it is important to check at the start.
Someone with basic bookkeeping skills should be in charge
of the campaign's money. Although most campaigns won't involve
a lot of money, you might want to look into the possibility
of getting a bond for your treasurer. Call a local insurance
agent. If the law requires campaigns like yours to make reports
on finances, your treasurer needs to know that at the start
so that your books can be set up to make the reporting easy,
and so that pledge cards and donation cards ask for the right
information.
You need to have some basic ground rules for your public campaign
meetings. You may want to consider:
- limiting the length of comments in debate
- setting times for each item on the agenda, allowing
the group as whole to vote to extend them
- recognizing people who've not spoken before those who
already have
- agreeing to use some published set of rules (like Robert's)
for situations where you have no rules
- rules about how people can add items to the agenda
- having each part of the campaign briefly report on what
it has been doing at each meeting.
You should try to get a regular meeting time and place (i.e.,
7:30 the first Thursday of the month at the Swedish American
Hall). It is much easier for people to keep track of the meetings
that way.
Don't skip this one; it may be the most important of them
all.
The two great enemies of a successful campaign are emotion
and exaggeration. Most Americans like to believe that we consider
policy through rational processes, and to most people, rational
process means mostly unemotional process. If you run a campaign
in which your messages are delivered with an emotional pitch
(no matter what they say), even sympathetic people are likely
to think your case for the policy is so weak you can't make
it dispassionately. Some people will buy into some old stereotypes
about LGBT people and use your own tactics as a reason not
to adopt the policy.
It is very difficult to remain calm when some of the arguments
made against you amount to nothing more than attacks on our
humanity, especially when delivered with a veneer of reason
and driven at best by ignorance and at worst by hate. But
your chances of making people see that are much greater if
you stay calm. You can't ignore attacks, but you ought to
react as if you are strong enough to rise above them.
This is not to say that occasional emotional appeals do not
have their value. They do; but they need to be thought through
and carefully timed.
Opposing a nondiscrimination policy is not the same thing
as committing a mass murder. But analogies that far fetched
and worse -- repeals of civil rights laws have been compared
to the holocaust -- get made. Exaggerated comparisons destroy
a campaign's credibility because they make it look like the
campaigners have no perspective. Exaggerated claims pose a
similar problem. If you say there are hundreds of discrimination
stories and you present only two, people will think the problem
turns out to be far less serious than you said it was. They
may think you were lying to them.
The simple truth about who LGBT people are and why a policy
is a good idea, calmly delivered, should be enough. If it
isn't, emotion and exaggeration, far from helping, will probably
make the next round more difficult.
The campaign's overall tone should also be the tone of its
individual workers. In hearings, at public meetings, with
the media, in conversations with board members or leaders,
be rational and don't exaggerate. Never swear, never lose
it. Never leave a meeting under circumstances that make it
impossible to meet with the same people again.
It will end. It will end for sure when you get your policy.
It may end before that, if an attempt fails and people want
a break before trying again. If your campaign ends without
a policy, you should make sure that whatever information and
materials the campaign has put together are saved and accessible
to anyone who may want to try again or try with a different
institution.
Very few campaign organizations survive in any form once the
campaign ends. Lots of organizers see this as a failing. It
may just be unavoidable. Campaigns are very demanding, and
most people want to get away from intense activism for a while
once the campaign ends. Even people who want to keep working
will usually want to work on different things. A single organization
may well be unable to accommodate them all, and, if the organization
was really built for the campaign, it may not work well for
any of them.
You can make it a little more likely that the energy and knowledge
your campaign has marshaled will not be lost with a little
planning. Think about the kinds of organizations politically
active people in your area tend to use. They may be political
clubs, civic associations, caucuses of unions or churches,
etc. Ask the people involved in your campaign to think while
the campaign is going on about how they might want to stay
involved in politics, either by joining existing political
organizations, or by setting up new ones, or new caucuses
in existing ones. When the campaign does end, have a post
campaign meeting, and as a part of it, ask members of the
campaign to present their ideas for future activism. Then
let nature take its course. And make sure the post campaign
meeting is a victory party. Whether you got the policy or
not, you won if you got people involved, got them skills in
the process, and got the issue on the table.
>> Next: 8. Building the Case
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