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The following campaign planning guidelines are an abbreviated list of steps that can help your coalition. These ideas are partially derived from the Midwest Academy’s Direct Action Organizing Model. For a more in-depth discussion, pick up Organizing for Social Change at www.midwestacademy.com.
1. Campaign Goals and Issue Focus: What specific transit issue do you want to focus on this year? Determine your goals around this issue. Remember, pick issues and goals that will help strengthen your group.
TIP: When identifying your goals, ask yourself these questions: What are our long-term objectives? What is a victory? What do we want to accomplish? What are our political goals? What are our organizational goals? Goals must be clear, shared and communicated, well articulated and generally quantifiable. You should also ask: How will this issue focus advance the goals of our group/chapter?
2. External Communications: What is the key message you hope to deliver through this campaign? Your message (or slogan) should fit on a bumpersticker. What story will you tell to define your issue? What are the key themes you will use to reinforce the message and story? The theme backs up the message by providing several arguments that provide clarification and substantive backup to the overall message.
TIP: Message: Keep Our City Moving, Protect Jobs and Our Quality of Life. Story: Tell "Human" stories like: Union worker can't get to work, senior can't get to the doctor, disabled can't go anywhere, commuters spending more time on the road than with the family, etc. Theme: Need planned growth with sensible mix of transportation choices.
3. Strengths and Weaknesses: What are the coalition's strengths and weaknesses that will impact the campaign? You should plan to come out of the campaign organizationally stronger than you went in. List the resources you bring to the campaign as well as the specific ways you want your organization to be strengthened by the campaign.
TIP: Seniors provide ground troops and voter mobilization skills, but little money; professors provide stats but no organizing skill, ethnic or business groups can provide known visible leadership good for chairpersonships, advisory boards can provide official public record reports.
4. Targets: A target is always a person (or group of people) who has the power to grant your demands. You must be able to name them by name. What power you have over your target, or someone who has power over your target? Who besides the Club has power over your target? What motivates or interests your target?
5. Tactics: What actions will you take to make your power felt by your targets and get your campaign story heard? What is your timeline?
TIP: Tactics are actions taken by your group that will bring the desired response from your target. For each target, list the tactics that each constituent group can best use to make its power felt. Tactics should be fun and demonstrate real power. Tactics can raise the morale of your members, get media coverage and demonstrate power directly to your target. Examples: Radio spots, rallies, tabling, literature drops, scorecards, and letters to the editor.
6. Put it in Writing! There's an old organizing statement: "If it ain't written, it ain't a plan." Put your campaign strategy on paper. People need to see it, agree to it, and use it as a road map for their work. Having a plan on paper keeps you on course and provides you with the means to hold everyone accountable.
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