DON’T: Bait and switch. Be clear and honest with grassroots organizers about intentions and objectives.

DO: Share information and resources. Provide complementary funding, where appropriate, through clear accountable agreements to build long-term capacity that keeps working between election cycles.

DON’T: Come in with an agenda already in place. A useful ally’s agenda is informed by ongoing work on the ground.

DO: Work in areas where local leaders have identified existing gaps. Collaborate on strategies that strengthen long-term capacity to target demographics where local capacity is weakest.

DON’T: Employ messaging that is in conflict with ongoing campaigns. Design media strategies with long-term social change work in mind.

DO: Build on existing strengths and capacities on the ground.

DON’T: Poison the base and burn up turf. Work with grassroots organizations to extend their base, and yours, and share credit for shared work.

DO: Extend training opportunities to local organizers. Even when resources are left with local groups, those groups are too often left without the training to maintain them. Offer local organizations the training needed to maximize collaborative resources before you head home.

DON’T: Take the infrastructure and run. Hand-off what the campaign has built; hand off local volunteers and staff. Take the time for evaluation and debriefing with local partners.

]]> http://pushbacknetwork.org/2008/11/02/ten-tips-for-effective-collaborative-organizing/feed/ 0 http://pushbacknetwork.org/2008/10/31/brigid-heads-to-new-mexico/ http://pushbacknetwork.org/2008/10/31/brigid-heads-to-new-mexico/#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:26:21 +0000 Samiya Bashir http://pushbacknetwork.org/?p=164 Brigid is getting ready to head down to New Mexico for a full week of rock-doc’in the vote through PBN’s engaged civic mobilization model.

Pushback Network is excited to launch The Project in October 2008. We’re sending two of the scrappiest young organizers we know, Brigid & Jason, down South (coordinated by our own “Wizardess of Oz” Samiya, hanging with our community organzing partners in New Mexico & Mississippi all through Election Week to Rock-Doc the 2008 civic engagement process.

The days up to, through, and beyond November 2nd will be tracked using PBN’s Tumblr blog, its website, and online social networks. Follow The Project on:

Be on the lookout after the election for our wrap-up.

Through this project, PBN will capture the non-partisan, on-the-ground, electoral field programs in two of our states: Mississippi and New Mexico. “The truth is that the electorate is changing,” said Cooper, “and people are getting involved in record numbers not just in voting, but in educating themselves and their neighbors about the issues at stake in their communities. Pushback Network partners drive the ground game locally in eight states across the country. We’re going where history is being made in civic engagement and putting it on the record not just for Election Day, but for what’s next.”

The Project will track Flaherty and Cooper as they traverse the states documenting efforts live through in-person interviews using photo, video, and the latest micro-blogging tools. The days up to, through, and beyond November 2nd will be tracked using PBN’s Tumblr blog, its website, and online social networks.

Follow The Project on:

“Democracy doesn’t end on Election Day,” said Robby Rodriguez, executive director of South West Organizing Project. “We’ve got to invest in local groups that are doing the work before, during, and after the election season. Pushback understands that the changes we make in New Mexico bubble up to change the country.”

Cooper will be traveling from the Delta through and across Mississippi working with groups like Southern Echo, Parents and Youth United for a Better Webster County, Activists with a Purpose, Action Community Education Reform, Citizens for a Better Greenville, Concerned Citizens for a Better Tunica County, Sunflower County Parent Student Organization, and Fired Up! Flaherty will be traveling through battleground hot-spot of Albuquerque across New Mexico with leading community organizing groups of South West Organizing Project and SAGE Council.

“This system is so often about tearing people down,” said Leroy Johnson, executive director of Southern Echo. “They tell us we’re too poor; that the system is too sophisticated and complicated for us to comprehend. We tell our community that we believe in them. We give them the skills and allow them to do it. From there they can do it better than anyone else.”

PBN has grown in two years to eight states, Alabama, California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, and Nevada, by creating opportunities for increased networking, training, funding, and resources to help the best community-based organizing groups grow to the scale needed to do their work better. Organizers and communities around the country have heard PBN’s mission. The Project will show what PBN’s work to fuse community organizing and voter engagement work to mobilize people of color, poor people, and young people looks like in action.

Check back each day to see where we are with preparations, and see the organizing work happen in near-real-time through the post-election wind-up November 7th. Don’t miss the work we’ll be sharing from other state-wide partners who we’ll be keeping up with every day as well to see how integrated voter work builds and strengthens organizations, creates leaders from contacted voters, and shifts public consciousness towards an agenda that supports progressive social values.

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Download the Press Release here.

August 4^th, 2008

Dear Allies and Supporters of Pushback Network:

On behalf of the Pushback Network, we would like to inform you of the impending departure of our current Coordinating Director, Rodney McKenzie, Jr. Rodney’s official last day at PBN is August 31, 2008. We have been very pleased with his commitment to our goals and significant accomplishments as Coordinating Director. Rodney has been of enormous help in Pushback’s growth and development, and we are sad to see him leave.

Given this news, we would like to take the opportunity to introduce you to our Interim Director, Larry Parachini. Larry is a highly qualified consultant, with previous executive leadership experience, who served as PBN’s Interim Director from our inception in 2005 until Rodney was hired. Beginning August 1^st, Larry will manage and work closely with PBN’s staff and several consultants to continue day-to-day operations in support of our state efforts and to advance Pushback’s organizational and program priorities. We expect to hire a permanent director in the next five to six months. Larry will continue in the Interim Director role until that time and contribute to the transition to the new director when she or he is hired. We expect the transition to be fairly smooth given the current status of the Pushback Network, namely our excellent financial situation, our top-notch staff – Program Director, Jason Cooper and Program Associate, Brigid Flaherty – and the remarkable progress of our programmatic work that PBN anchor organizations and state alliances are currently demonstrating in eight states.

In terms of securing a new permanent Director, we will soon engage an experienced job search consultant, knowledgeable about the kind of work we do and committed to PBN’s values, to provide guidance and assistance with the hiring process. Interviews of priority candidates will be conducted by the special committee and finalists will be interviewed in person and selected by the Steering Committee. We are committed to hiring a permanent Director as soon as we identify the right candidate.

Until then, we are confident that Pushback Network will continue to operate at a high level of performance. We sincerely look forward to continuing to work with our allies during this transition process. Maintaining these relationships forged within the spirit of collaboration for the purposes of achieving an authentic, participatory democracy remains a top priority for PBN. Should any questions arise before we select our new director, we most certainly welcome them. For this and all other inquiries, please feel free to contact Larry Parachini at 301-587-2510 or larry@pushbacknetwork.org.

Respectfully,

Robby Rodriguez, Chair

Sondra Youdelman, Vice-Chair

Leroy Johnson, Treasurer

Hill Carmichael, Secretary

Electoral Organizers Wanted!

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth is a grassroots social justice organization with 5,500 members statewide. KFTC is hiring 9-14 electoral organizers to work in different areas of the state for an 11 week, non-partisan voter empowerment campaign. Electoral organizers will work to recruit and train volunteers, lead door-to-door canvassing efforts, and coordinate phone banks to voters between August 25 and November 8, 2008. Positions are available for people willing to work between 20 and 40 hours per week.

Location: We are seeking applications from people to work in the following locations: Louisville, Lexington, plus Rowan, Madison, Pike, Perry, Floyd, Letcher, Knott, Harlan and Warren counties.

Position description

Electoral Organizers will assist KFTC’s organizing staff to coordinate non-partisan voter empowerment campaigns aimed at registering, educating and turning out new and unlikely voters. These positions are supervised by KFTC’s Voter Empowerment Organizer, and will take day-to-day direction from a KFTC organizer in each field office.

Key responsibilities include:

-Develop and implement a door-to-door canvassing program in specific precincts, including developing a canvassing schedule and maps, recruiting and training volunteers, preparing materials, and ensuring data collection.

-Develop and implement other forms of direct-voter contact, including public events, presentations to community organizations and schools, phone banks and mailings.

-Develop and implement get-out-the-vote strategies, including recruiting volunteers to canvass, make phone calls, provide rides and raise visibility on Election Day, November 6.

-Coordinate voter education efforts, including candidate forums and candidate surveys.

Skills and Qualifications

-Knowledge of local communities, especially low-income communities, communities of color and other areas with historically low voter participation.

-Organizing experience (either as a volunteer or staff in community-based social change organizations or as an activist within student organization).

-Electoral experience, including door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, and managing volunteers.

-Excellent communication skills, including the ability to listen, persuade, and build relationships with a wide range of people.

-Ability to work effectively with people from a wide range of income, education and racial backgrounds.

-Commitment to long-term social change.

-Strong organizational skills, including planning, tracking information, and attention to details.

Compensation

Candidates must commit to work through the November 2008 election. Salary for this position is $12.17 per hour. KFTC provides full family health benefits for positions above 30-hours per week.

Application

Interested applicants should send a resume and letter as soon as possible to Dave Newton, KFTC’s Voter Empowerment Organizer, at Dave@kftc.org or 250 Plaza Drive, Suite 4, Lexington, KY 40503.

Interviews will take place between August 11 and 15. The first day of work will be a training on Monday, August 25th in Lexington. Please call 859-420-8919 with any questions.

]]> http://pushbacknetwork.org/2008/07/22/kentuckians-for-the-commonwealth-seeks-electoral-organizers/feed/ 0 http://pushbacknetwork.org/2008/05/12/pushback-network-makes-perfect-match/ http://pushbacknetwork.org/2008/05/12/pushback-network-makes-perfect-match/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 15:36:45 +0000 Samiya Bashir http://pushbacknetwork.org/?p=118 PBN proudly announced today the appointment of innovative and experienced progressive organizing leader Jason Cooper to the new position of Program Director. As the conversation about grassroots, bottom-up change becomes a defining constituent in local, regional and national politics, PBN continues to grow as a perfectly positioned organization helping ordinary people make real contributions to the political decisions that affect their lives.

“Jason brings a fresh perspective to our growing team that is based on hands-on work tested in high profile political and public education campaigns, combined with leadership, organizational and training expertise,” said PBN Director Rodney McKenzie, Jr. “Organizers in state after state are seeing the Pushback model of building progressive power from the bottom up and they want to be a part of it. PBN provides organizations that are anchoring eight state alliances, including in Alabama, California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, and New York, with critically needed financial resources, technical support, and training. Jason Cooper is a perfect match to help us meet their needs. He has worked side by side with state and local leaders across the country to build grassroots political power from the bottom up. Jason has coached and mentored staff and volunteers through 13 campaigns in 11 states and trained thousands of activists in grassroots organizing, fundraising, multiracial team building, grassroots lobbying, and developing and running winning campaigns.”

Seasoned campaigner Jason Cooper brings leadership and progressive organizing expertise to PBN team

Cooper comes to PBN most recently from his position as Deputy Director of External Relations with Young People For (YP4), a program of the People for the American Way Foundation, where he was responsible for helping to create and implement the YP4 vision, directing leadership development and education programming, and managing, with key progressive movement leaders, an extensive network of nationwide organizing partnerships. Cooper previously served as Senior Field Organizer for the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, one of the oldest and largest LGBT civil rights organizations in the country, where he recruited, coached and mentored organizing teams, including thousands of volunteers, working on a variety of issues ranging from immigration to marriage equality to affirmative action.

“I am both honored and privileged to be working alongside the individual and collective actions of people working to steer America toward social and economic justice,” said Cooper. “In communities across the country, there is the growing consensus that the status quo isn’t good enough. People are looking for ways to come together to demand that those elected to public office address the real issues that matter to them most.”

“Jason has developed the tools and experience critical to our efforts to achieve a democracy powered by the diverse skills, talents and cultures of the American people, rather than solely the wealthy and privileged,” continued McKenzie. “His vision aligns perfectly with our own of a democracy where grassroots communities, who have been historically pushed to the political margins, lead toward social change rooted in progressive values.”

“Upon the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” Cooper said, “Bayard Rustin wrote that ‘the goal of protest and social reform necessitated political participation–itself the mark of inclusion in a society.’ Today, as then, it is crucial that communities living on the margins of society, including people of color, women, poor and working-poor, and young people, continue to “Pushback” to help America achieve the healthy and true democracy that is its beacon to the world.”

]]> http://pushbacknetwork.org/2008/05/12/pushback-network-makes-perfect-match/feed/ 0 http://pushbacknetwork.org/2008/04/14/pushback-expands-network/ http://pushbacknetwork.org/2008/04/14/pushback-expands-network/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:45:29 +0000 Samiya Bashir http://pushbacknetwork.org/?p=97 New Statewide Anchor Organization, PLAN, Brings 7th State into Pushback Network

PBN is proud to announce a new State Alliance Partnership with the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), making Nevada the seventh state in its growing coast-to-coast network. PLAN was formed in 1994 to bring people and organizations together to build a better Nevada and includes more than two-dozen member groups dedicated to working for social, economic, and environmental justice.

“Pushback Network’s model is centered on building progressive power from the bottom up,” said PBN Coordinating Director Rodney McKenzie, Jr., “and PLAN will contribute a great deal to our learning and strategies. PBN focuses on developing and strengthening broad-based state alliances and supporting their community organizing and voter engagement strategies to greatly increase the knowledge base, level of participation and influence of those most underrepresented in the electorate – people of color, poor and working class communities, and young people. PBN provides organizations like PLAN, that are anchoring state alliances, with critically needed financial resources, training, and technical support. We also bring together experienced and talented staff and leaders from all of our states to learn from each other, determine and shape our overall strategies, and contribute to national goals. As our other partners, PLAN is grounded in a long history of progressive achievement. We are extremely pleased and proud to now have them join with us to achieve our common vision.”

“We at PLAN are excited and honored to affiliate with the Pushback Network,” said PLAN Board Chair Kenya Pierce. “Developing deeper relationships with some of the most innovative and powerful movement building organizations in the country will be a huge boost to our efforts here in Nevada. PLAN seeks to achieve social justice, deepen democracy and transform power–we now have a model, tool and powerful ally in the Pushback Network.”

Nevada is a Western state with a changing demographic. Alongside its powerful union allies, PLAN is the most influential progressive social and economic justice organization. “PBN is focused primarily on deepening our work at the state and local levels while strategically expanding onto new states. Nevada, with work anchored by PLAN, is a crucial and very welcome addition to our mix,” said New Mexico-based PBN Chair Robby Rodriguez. “Each partner in our Network brings a tremendous amount of value to each other and to the larger progressive movement. I am excited that PBN, our folks here in New Mexico, and our five other founding PBN State Alliance Partners (in Alabama, California, Kentucky, Mississippi, and New York) have the opportunity to work with our Western neighbors at PLAN to increase the impact of our work, build upon our tools and resources, and strengthen the alliances needed to move the achievement of an authentic participatory democracy from vision to reality.”

Go to our Media Center to download this release in full.

Go to Our Network’s page on Nevada to learn more about this exciting new State Alliance.

“Across the country, from Harlem to Albuquerque to Eastern Kentucky, residents of historically disenfranchised communities are testifying about their lives in Precinct Leader Meetings, City Halls, Neighborhood Meetings, Door-to-Door Canvasses and State and National Pushback Network Convenings,” said Pushback Network Director Rodney McKenzie. “These everyday people are testifying with clear purpose and greater hope, with support from the Pushback Network, because they are taking the steps to build the power it takes to move hope into victory.”

PBN began in 2005 as a dialogue among experienced, non-partisan, independent community-based groups. Rather than forming a newly assembled national organization, PBN connects the infrastructures of well-established, high-performance community organizing groups from across the country to achieve a breakthrough in civic participation. PBN’s founders were leaders of organizations that had built long-term, on-the-ground operations within the most challenging social environments in the country. They formed PBN to “push back” against what they considered to be shortsighted, tactical approaches to community organizing and electoral work.

“Democracy doesn’t end on Election Day,” said PBN co-chair Robby Rodriguez. “It’s best to invest resources into local groups that are doing the work before, during, and after the election season.”

Download Pushback Network’s 2007 Report on Activities here.

For more information, visit www.pushbacknetwork.org

Pushback Network is excited to announce the launch of the next generation web site for PushBackNetwork.org. The site features the same great information about PBN and its state alliance partner groups and organizations, but offers much more information about each partner, and about the work of PBN and its state alliance partners from the local to the national level.

The new site also offers multimedia images, video and more to help tell the story about Pushback Network’s vision of an authentic participatory democracy through which true social justice can be achieved. It’s not just a vision – it’s a commitment to doing the best work, developing and sharing the best tools, and building upon grassroots know-how and experience from the bottom up to achieve lasting progressive wins.

The new web site offers six main areas for users: About Us, Our Network, Our Work, Our Media Center, Join Us and Contact Us. These areas include “PBN News,” an up-to-the-minute blog feature to keep PBN users in touch with the work, and create a forum where everyone can have a voice, and where transparency and accountability are at the forefront of our work.

The site also features links to PBN’s growing online presence at social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Upcoming, Flickr, and to its growing video archives at Blip.tv and YouTube.

* * *

We seek a democracy that creates opportunities for ordinary people to make real contributions to the political decisions that affect their lives. Through our efforts, we hope to achieve a democracy powered by the diverse skills, talents and cultures of the American people, rather than solely the wealthy and privileged. With our allies, we are creating a democracy where grassroots communities, who have been historically pushed to the political margins, lead toward social change rooted in progressive values.

CONTACT:
Rodney McKenzie
Rodney@pushbacknetwork.org
Mobile: 323-274-8191