Organizing 101:

Itʼs NOT “whoʼs going to bring the chips?”

BY LAUREN MCLENNAN MAR VISTA HIGH

Organizing is building a community around shared values and strategizing ways for that community to build power in order to achieve their goals.

Harvard professor Marshall Ganz puts it this way: “Organizers engage people in discerning why they should act to change their world—their values—and how they can act to change it—their strategy.”

As educators, we share values. We value the importance of excellent public education in protecting and furthering democracy. We share values about promoting equality and caring for young people and the communities in which they live. Our goals are derived from our shared values. For example, if we value fairness in how students are assessed, we may create a goal to make sure assessments are tested, results are examined, and fairness is assured. Our next step would be to think about what resources we have available to reach this goal, and then strategize ways in which we can apply resources to make this goal a reality. As a union, our main resource is people power. For this reason, many organizing activities involve the application of our collective power to achieve our goals.

So once we have set goals, how do we build power? We build power by consistently communicating with each other about our values, by spending time together refining our vision, and by regularly evaluating our goals. We build power through relationships. In order to maintain and assert power, we must be involved with our union at our sites, and with our union leadership so we can communicate effectively with each other.

Want to learn more about organizing? Come to an organizing meeting at the SEA office. We will meet on February 8, March 8, March 29, and May 10 at 4pm.

More to come in later editions- stay tuned!