How to organize a party chapter?
March 7, 2010 9:13 PM Subscribe
How do I make a Green Party Chapter from near scratch?
Six months ago, I joined the Green Party of the United states and the Green Party of Virginia. As you can tell by their website, it doesn't look too polished. Evidently there was a large scuffle that really set the state party back quite a bit. Since then, Green activity has been pretty limited.
On Saturday, I went to the meeting of the newly organized Hampton Roads Green Party (which is just a local chapter of the State party) and was stunned to see only 4 other people show up. I quickly went from being a new recruit to a major player in the chapter.
Now comes the business of organizing a Green movement for a metropolitan area of near 2 million people. On one side, we don't have a treasurer, bank account, bylaws, physical meeting structure, flyers, or a real membership roster. Additionally, we only recently created a web page, so we don't have much of the online stuff either.
The question I have is, how would you go about building this into an organization that would do this area justice? We need to be able to connect with people who are members of the Green Party, sympathize with our issues, or would be interested in joining, but we haven't nearly no infrastructure. Virginia's Green Party is pretty meager, so we can't readily ask him for help. What resources would you use to do this? What ideas would you use to create it? I know many of you, even if you're not Green, have a lot of experience in webpages and in political organizing. This is a pretty open question as so much needs to be done.
Six months ago, I joined the Green Party of the United states and the Green Party of Virginia. As you can tell by their website, it doesn't look too polished. Evidently there was a large scuffle that really set the state party back quite a bit. Since then, Green activity has been pretty limited.
On Saturday, I went to the meeting of the newly organized Hampton Roads Green Party (which is just a local chapter of the State party) and was stunned to see only 4 other people show up. I quickly went from being a new recruit to a major player in the chapter.
Now comes the business of organizing a Green movement for a metropolitan area of near 2 million people. On one side, we don't have a treasurer, bank account, bylaws, physical meeting structure, flyers, or a real membership roster. Additionally, we only recently created a web page, so we don't have much of the online stuff either.
The question I have is, how would you go about building this into an organization that would do this area justice? We need to be able to connect with people who are members of the Green Party, sympathize with our issues, or would be interested in joining, but we haven't nearly no infrastructure. Virginia's Green Party is pretty meager, so we can't readily ask him for help. What resources would you use to do this? What ideas would you use to create it? I know many of you, even if you're not Green, have a lot of experience in webpages and in political organizing. This is a pretty open question as so much needs to be done.
Response by poster: Ah, I should clarify that we have a very limited Facebook page now (the State party doesn't have one), and a blank website that we wish to make into something better than a green screen.
We also are planning on having a monthly meeting in April, hopefully in the farmers market, next to the Green Alternatives store.
By the way, should I go out and collect names and addresses to make a Green database that would get info and literature from us? How does the whole clipboard registry work (not registering them with Virginia as greens, but rather as part of our organization)? I've never done any of this, and we don't have a lot of experience at our fingertips.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 9:58 PM on March 7, 2010
We also are planning on having a monthly meeting in April, hopefully in the farmers market, next to the Green Alternatives store.
By the way, should I go out and collect names and addresses to make a Green database that would get info and literature from us? How does the whole clipboard registry work (not registering them with Virginia as greens, but rather as part of our organization)? I've never done any of this, and we don't have a lot of experience at our fingertips.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 9:58 PM on March 7, 2010
Best answer: Honestly, at this point I would not put a ton of energy into the website, except to make sure it's up-to-date on really basic stuff, like the party's platform, contact info and upcoming events. Putting a ton of resources into designing a new website at this point would be like taking a car that's been stripped of its steering wheel, seats and brakes, and deciding that the best way to sell it is to wash the outside. Yeah, you might attract a few buyers that way, but they'll lose interest when they see the car's been stripped.
You're correct in thinking that, right now, you need an infrastructure. The way to do that is to find your key people for leadership positions: treasurer, chair, vice chair, political person, fundraiser, communications person, someone who knows field organizing, etc. But how do you find those people? You need a campaign - something concrete and finite and at least semi-winnable, that your membership will rally around and that will attract new people to the party. The obvious pick here is a candidate, and it is an election year. Of course, you have to pick a race where a Green stands a chance of winning. If Virginia has ballot initiatives and there's one that Green-types would find appealing, you might want to hitch your wagon to that and do everything you can, as a party, to get it passed.
Basically, you need an excuse to start calling your lists and asking them to get involved. It is a million bajillion times easier to get people involved by starting out with something concrete (ie, a night of phonebanking, or a fundraiser) than by registering "general interest." Then, once you have your core of volunteers, you start canvassing for the candidate or the ballot initiative, and that's where you start to cast a wider net. But always start from your existing list and work outwards.
We also are planning on having a monthly meeting in April,
Good - that can be the first thing you invite people to. Make sure your meetings are at the same time and place every month. You'll also want a firm agenda, that people get ahead of time, and that it's as action-oriented as possible. Don't let people spend a lot of time debating Health Care Reform, for instance. And I find it's always good to end a meeting with some sort of concrete action - say, a half hour of phonebanking. Not everyone will want to do this, and that's the point. The people who want to go to a meeting but don't want to phonebank also tend to be the kinds of people who want to be in the party so they can feel important, not so they can win elections. The people who are excited to phone bank and want to do more? Those are the people to develop as leaders.
Oh, and make sure you all have lots of fun together. If it's a young group, go out for drinks after your meetings. If it's older or mixed, maybe have your monthly meetings be potluck dinners. Get to know your fellow party activists. If your friends, the work is a lot easier and more fun.
/professional political organizer
posted by lunasol at 12:08 AM on March 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
You're correct in thinking that, right now, you need an infrastructure. The way to do that is to find your key people for leadership positions: treasurer, chair, vice chair, political person, fundraiser, communications person, someone who knows field organizing, etc. But how do you find those people? You need a campaign - something concrete and finite and at least semi-winnable, that your membership will rally around and that will attract new people to the party. The obvious pick here is a candidate, and it is an election year. Of course, you have to pick a race where a Green stands a chance of winning. If Virginia has ballot initiatives and there's one that Green-types would find appealing, you might want to hitch your wagon to that and do everything you can, as a party, to get it passed.
Basically, you need an excuse to start calling your lists and asking them to get involved. It is a million bajillion times easier to get people involved by starting out with something concrete (ie, a night of phonebanking, or a fundraiser) than by registering "general interest." Then, once you have your core of volunteers, you start canvassing for the candidate or the ballot initiative, and that's where you start to cast a wider net. But always start from your existing list and work outwards.
We also are planning on having a monthly meeting in April,
Good - that can be the first thing you invite people to. Make sure your meetings are at the same time and place every month. You'll also want a firm agenda, that people get ahead of time, and that it's as action-oriented as possible. Don't let people spend a lot of time debating Health Care Reform, for instance. And I find it's always good to end a meeting with some sort of concrete action - say, a half hour of phonebanking. Not everyone will want to do this, and that's the point. The people who want to go to a meeting but don't want to phonebank also tend to be the kinds of people who want to be in the party so they can feel important, not so they can win elections. The people who are excited to phone bank and want to do more? Those are the people to develop as leaders.
Oh, and make sure you all have lots of fun together. If it's a young group, go out for drinks after your meetings. If it's older or mixed, maybe have your monthly meetings be potluck dinners. Get to know your fellow party activists. If your friends, the work is a lot easier and more fun.
/professional political organizer
posted by lunasol at 12:08 AM on March 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Watch out for volunteers who are just going to be toxic.
At some point you could do a direct mailing to the local greens, the va sec of state should have their addresses on file.
I'm a big fan of monthly meetings, even if its just over dinner someplace, though a volunteer night is better. It's lonely enough being a green, having like minded company is great.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 9:49 PM on March 7, 2010