query: hiring organizers--what is organizing

[colist-admin at comm-org.utoledo.edu]

[ed:  I am going to split this discussion into two threads--the funding 
question and the what is organizing question.  This message contains 
Marshall's, Margo's, and Kathleen's responses to the what is organizing 
question.]

From: Marshall Ganz <ganz at wjh.harvard.edu>

Helen,
To the extent that teaching involves leadership identification,
recruitment and development -- and the practice of leadership being
developed is rooted in bringing others together to discern common
interests and mobilize common resources to act on those interests -- I'd
certainly consider it a kind of organizing. Similarly, organizing that
doesn't involve teaching - in the sense of moral, intellectual, and
political development - I'd argue is not organizing.

Doug,
Alinsky used to challenge graduating classes of newly ordained Catholic
clergy to choose whether they wanted to be bishops or priests. Organizing
on behalf of social change is evangelical work, thrives of a very high
level of commitment, focuses on intense streams of activities we call
campaigns, and is very difficult to but on a bureucratic basis with out
changing what it is all about. Unions have a long history of turning
organizers into business agents -- which is fine as their work becomes one
more of representation, sustaining their organizations, and so forth - and
less work of organizing new groups of workers, breaking into new sectors
of the economy, and so forth. There is a place for professionalism, but
most social movements that have in fact made real social change - from
the labor movement, civil rights, women's movement, environmental
movement, and so forth - were led not by the professionals with great
benefits, job security, and a pension plan -- but by people whose vocation
at that point of their lives was to bring about institutional changes.
Doing the ongoing work of mobilizing partricipation in our existing
instituions, teaching in our schools, and so forth is vitally important,
but it is not the same thing as doing the work of transforming those
instituions. It is very difficult  to expect the very instituions that are
being challenged to pay for it. Marshall

**********************

From: "MARGO MENCONI" <malyme at hotmail.com>

This is a very pertinent topic for me.  I am interested in grassroots adult
education, including folk, popular, social movement and development
education.  I was hired by a grassroots community organization and quickly
felt very out of place.  The thing was that success was defined as getting 2
new members a day, organizing one action per week with at least 50
neighborhood residents, and reaching a monthly quota of so much in
neighborhood membership and donations from upper class areas of the city.
This was totally out of sync with my adult education perspective, which
considers the use of popular education, leadership development, etc. and is
more qualitative than quantitative.  I felt, in short, like I was supposed
to be a sales person!  Is this typical for organizing positions to be given
these kinds of quotas?

To me it is more important to build up understanding, get people to discuss
and study the issues, develop a deeper commitment to involvement, etc., than
immediately getting numbers.  Am I off base?

I think there was misunderstanding by both the organization that hired me
and myself.  I didn't realize that everything would boil down to numbers
like that.  We literally reported in every evening on our statistics for the
day.

Margo Menconi
Philadelphia, PA

***********************

From: "Staudt, Kathleen" <kstaudt at utep.edu>

The Texas Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) has been around for over 25
years, organizing first in San Antonio (COPS), followed with efforts in El
Paso (EPISO), Dallas, Houston, Austin, and South Texas.  Organizers are
trained, skilled, and paid--with some of the dilemmas mentioned in the
original query.  However, Texas IAF support comes from faith-based
organizations and public schools, the latter in the form of Alliance Schools
(legislatively funded since 1992).  These local constituencies provide space
and legitimacy to 'grow' the IAF base. Local IAF organizers invest lots of
time in leadership development, creating huge ripple effects that multiply
the number of leaders, many of whom continue to be active with or without
the IAF leaders.