Small Groups Strategy
From BluWiki
Why Onward Oregon needs small groups
Our mission requires a large membership that not only votes and applies pressure to our representatives, but also generates new ideas and expertise to advance progressive goals. But large organizations, such as environmental acvocacy groups and our major political parties, struggle to attract and retain members. Members may be strongly committed to the values of the organization, but may feel that the organization only wants their money and their signature on political action campaigns. An organization that attempts to coordinate and direct its members from the top down will become distant and unresponsive to members as it grows large.
Small groups are a proven way to avoid this problem. The organization grows by adding more small groups so that members remain engaged and committed to their role with a group of close friends. As in any network, the problems of communication and coordination between groups does grow as more groups are added, but online tools such as email, discussion forums, wikis, and websites provide effective communication tools for communities that include millions of members.
The primary benefits we hope to gain via Onward Oregon small groups are:
- greater commitment from members
- longer commitment from members
- larger response for urgent actions
- more effective dissemination of information and training
- a diverse, robust forum for generating, testing, and refining new ideas
- another vehicle for recruiting members
Requirements for success
To realize these benefits, the literature on small groups suggests that our strategy must ensure that group members come to view membership as a regular and important part of their lives. For their commitment, they get
- enjoyable activities with friends
- pride in achieving goals with support of the group
- knowing their contribution is appreciated
- knowledge and skills
- spiritual fulfillment of purpose
- efficient use of time through good organization, well defined responsibilities, and group discipline.
How we organize and sustain small groups
The following proposals for how we organize and sustain small groups should address each of the requirements listed above. The key idea that we adopt from others is to provide resources and suggestions, but to allow the groups to organize themselves, defining their own core interests, values, and finding compatible members. This strengthens the identity of the groups and frees Onward Oregon from the work of managing membership.
The services offered by Onward Oregon include
- suggestions for how to organize, run groups
- explicit motivation that small groups empower members to shape local politics
- leader training resources
- meet-up service for joining groups
- responsibility for identifying concensus action tasks, soliciting member actions.
- recognizing individual and group achievements
- blogs allow groups to reach a wider audience with results of their work
- wiki for groups to access and contribute to an online reference library of research, information links, action plans, and process documentation.
- moderated forums for identification and discussion of topics relevant to Onward Oregon.
- mechanism to solicit group discussion of topic and show result summary for large membership
- resources for group activities
- exploring progressive issues and principles
- recommended books, articles
- lesson plans, study questions, summarys of group responses to questions
- "ice breakers", games and other fun activities
It seems likely that the various needs and interests of individuals are best met by offering groups with distinct types of activities:
- study group activity focus is reading and discussion to enlighten members
- action group focus is on effecting real-world change
- support group focus is on personal stories of group members
!Short term strategy To begin our small groups strategy, it is tempting to try to engineer the first groups to increase their likelyhood of success, but we must be cautious that we do not sew the seeds of failure by denying these groups their autonomy. For example, we may desire that the first groups be "action groups", but the members may need to relax that focus to avoid burnout.
It has been suggested that we focus on:
- starting groups in a few strategic geographic locations. Say, 5 teams, salem, eugene, coast, jackson county, bend
- encourage monthly meetings
- begin with existing seeds like the blackberry group in cottage grove
Alternatively, we could focus on providing the services needed to start and sustain such groups; including soliciting groups to build such services.
- build Onward Oregon group services
- email membership to describe initial groups and gently solicit more group leaders to phone, knock on doors.
- let meetup service facilitate more group formation.
