Meet in the Middle is this Saturday May the 30th in Fresno. 1pm. City Hall. We’ll be there. Join us.

There are an awful lot of groups you can join or work with to help.

Matt has a pretty complete list at stop8.org

This is a decentralized movement. A first as far as I know. There are many groups you can help.
I’ve spent a lot of time getting to know what’s going on in this new movement. Here are some personal thoughts about what I view as the most critical organizations to getting a successful ballot initiative. Please help them or any of the other groups listed at stop8.org or begin your own to meet an unmet need.

Courage Campaign is very agile and entrepreneurial new group. It is dedicated to a general progressive movement in CA. Marriage equality is one issue they care about, and what they are focussed on right now. CC has done effective grassroots training via
Camp Courage which was inspired in part by Camp Obama and, I believe, even Equality Camp. I’ve been through the training and they are very well run. CC is good at listening and communicating appreciation and inclusion to people who want to get involved with them.

Courage Campaign has a small paid staff and is the most Net savvy (aside from our Equality Camp crew + JointheImpact). It has done a nice job of community management thus far and I get the impression it is committed to sharing voter data during a signature drive or initiative.

Marriage Equality USAhas been fighting on this issue forever. it has institutional wisdom without being institutional because it seems to be a federation of local grassroots groups across the country. MEUSA’s fearless and very visible leader Molly McKay (though she’s very overworked and underpaid -or perhaps completely volunteer. People donate some money. If anyone would benefit the movement by having some serious salary help, it’s Molly).

MEUSA is as grassroots as it comes. It’s in all 50 CA counties I believe. It could use a lot of help in the Net department but that seems to be an issue of money and people. Savvy strategy geeks who can do pro bono work could have a huge impact with MEUSA. Contact us if you’d like to be of help.

EQCA is the 800 lb gorilla in the CA marriage equality movement. It has far and away the most money. It also has the most baggage. That’s because the group and its leader Geoff Kors were in a key position during the failed and troubled Noon8 campaign. Geoff did publicly make some mea culpa during the Equality Summit and I give him points for that. For example he vowed never again to turn over our community’s well-being to outside consultants who are not part of the community.

I believe EQCA was begun as a lobby and it sure seemed to know how to do that, because it helped get marriage equality passed through the CA Legislature (it was vetoed by Arnold both times). I was surprised to see EQCA engage in a full fledged grassroots plan but it seems to have gone out and bought instead of built a grassroots team (Marc Solomon and Amy Mello from Massachusetts about whom I hear great things). It also has Andrea Shorter who runs coalitions and partnerships I believe.

No one has been more dubious than I about EQCA and the No on 8 committee groups. You can listen to the talk show I did on what went wrong with Prop 8. But EQCA has the same end goal as everyone else: winning. And it seems to have been learning from its mistakes. The first ads it has made have gay families in them. They’re exactly the kinds of spots that I wish we had seen during the Prop 8 campaign but am happy to see now. It’s trying to connect with faith groups and be more mindful of the many ethnic, racial and faith communities in California.

My recent and first conversation with Amy left me hopeful. She seemed to really understand the kind of interpersonal work EQCA has to do to play nicely with the many other grassroots groups. She told me verbally that EQCA would share its voter data and that it’s being audited and would post fundraising information. All of these things, if done, will go a long way to helping the movement work well and find advantage in its decentralized nature. I believe many others organizers are dubious about these things happening but, frankly, I don’t see us all succeeding without them occurring. We all want equality and we need to do whatever we can to help EQCA make these shifts.

EQCA has an online community manager beginning work shortly but community management, the Net and Net strategy is definitely its biggest blind spot. EQCA has a lot of work to do to tap into the strong grassroots groups (there are so many I can’t list them all here) run by people with a lot of heart and a little budget. EQCA is similar to most larger organizations who are used to a pre-Net operational mode of claiming credit in the press and asking people for their money but not necessarily their ideas or input. I’ve been around the Net long enough to know that this is a culture shift that can take a very long time. We don’t have a very long time but the motivations for winning are very high. At this point I’m going to presume the best. This is new territory. They are moving faster than the record labels did (how is it that Hilary Rosen ends up in these situations? ie.Board member of HRC former head RIAA)

We need more open data, sharing and geeks with the right skills to help these many groups in order for this movement to coalesce as effectively as it can. So any geeks with open source project management experience would be very valuable help for the civil rights movement of our time.

There is valuable work being done by many groups, but these seem to be the highest profile now in terms of grassroots ballot initiative organizing with the breadth to oversee the initiative.

-heather

I’ve decided to begin posting personal stories that support marriage equality here. The kinds of stories that were missing in the Prop 8 campaign. Smaller states like Vermont and New Hampshire having been holding hearings as their legislatures review the issue. The personal testimonies are powerful.

The abstract idea of “civil unions” or “gay marriage” sounds like a theoretical debate to people. Grounding the conversation in our real lives and real experiences and feelings is how we will make equality happen and things change.

I’ll continue to post personal stories that aren’t packaged ads from any group. If you’d like to make one, please do. Just upload it to youtube and then email the link and a 2 sentence description to me at apple [at] subvert [dot] com.

Here’s how I recommend telling your story:
1. Make it less than 4 minutes.
2. If you’re uncomfortable speaking into the camera record yourself while talking to someone.
3. Introduce yourself, your name and where you live.
4. Tell us about your relationship, if you are in one.
5. Explain how legal inequality has affected you. If a particular issue has affected you (inability to visit your spouse in the hospital, difficulty with custody, taxes etc) please do go in to that.
6. Speak from the heart. Speak like you’re really being heard and understood. I am listening to each one of you. We all are.

-heather

It’s coming. I promise.

But in the mean time, here’s another tidbit to tide you over …

It was a last minute decision but I’m glad I opted to sit on in tonight’s call with California State Assemblymember, John Perez.  Six organizations that have arisen as key players in the marriage equality movement worked together to make this call happen. Those organizations were: Courage Campaign, Equality Network, Equal Roots Coalition, Postcards to the President, White Knot, & Won Together (apologies to the Won Together folks as several Google searches turned up empty for related web sites).

From his dining room in Los Angeles, Rick Jacobs, the Founder and Chair of the Courage Campaign, served as master of ceremonies. He welcomed everyone, introduced Assemblymember Perez and then handed moderation of the Q&A session to Sarah Polaro and Frank Voce (they were never properly introduced on the call so I don’t know from what organization they come or if that’s even the correct spelling of their names …).

I opted to start the recording a minute or two into Rick’s introduction so missed the first bit, and there are a few moments of technology clash when my attempt to interact with the call meant I had to take it off speaker phone … so there’s a bit of a content speed bump at the end, but you should get a pretty good idea.

So without further ado (or further disclaimer or apology) here is the discussion in (very close to) its entirety.

— Cathy

Courage Campaign EqualityHub
EqualityHub is the Courage Campaign’s tool for online organizing. Provided by Bluestate Digital, this is a version of the software that ran MyBarackObama for the Obama Campaign. EqualityHub is a powerful tool that makes it easy to organize online campaigns, with phone banking, events, and actions. Results from phone banking can be transferred into the master voter database. EqualityHub is one of many tools that are useful for online organizing. It won’t be as useful as tools like Facebook as a social networking website. EqualityHub doesn’t have a Facebook app yet, and it doesn’t yet have APIs (application programming interfaces that allow developers to connect and extend it). Any group created in the Courage Campaign would be a group within Courage Campaign. Donations within EqualityHub go to the Courage Campaign, and cannot be targeted at Marriage Equality.

How to keep folks engaged?
Keep folks engaged by having interesting things on the home page regularly. Network with other groups to find activities that are suitable for your constituency.

Twitter
What is Twitter, and how is it used in a real world scenario? Twitter is like Facebook Status updates on steroids – and it allows people to respond to those status updates instead of just leaving a comment on your profile. You have up to 140 characters to type your message. You can use Twitter to spread links to videos, events, and other content you want to share. It’s great for creating “flash mob” events. You can set your Twitter updates to be public (viewable by everyone) or private (viewable only by people following you, and you approve followers).

Email Best Practices
If you have a small organization and don’t want to “bcc” – there are companies can send broadcast email for a small fee for each email. You get basic reporting on the people you send emails to (who opened it and who didn’t, who subscribed when). Pay attention to the response rate to your action alerts — if you’re getting thirty percent of emails going through, then that’s good. One recommended tool is Constant Contact ($14.00 / month).

When using services, be careful because they get blacklisted for violating ISP spam policies. Be careful to stay on the “white lists” . If service providers are worried about you, they’ll blacklist you and kick you off. It’s a real struggle for a small organization to be white listed. Make sure to build your list organically – sign up folks who want your emails or you can get in trouble with the service provider. Be careful if you’ve got 501c3 status and don’t announce your 527 activities (political organizations can take unlimited amount of money)

How does Courage Campaign handle email opt-in?
Courage Campaign uses “single opt-in” – anyone who signs up with us gets on the list. We don’t add people to it randomly. If you’re on the list, then you’ve done some sort of action with Courage Campaign.

What is the most effective way to spread the word?
There is no one magic bullet. We need to use multiple platforms. Facebook and Twitter are good for younger generation. There are more African-Americans on MySpace. It’s good to have an email newsletter that is sent at regular intervals. You can use SMS to send text messages to community members. Mobile Commons is an SMS service provider. Google’s Open Social is an emerging standard enabling different social networking sites to connect.

Is there a place to brainstorm events?
You can create a Google group or a Facebook group and have a group discussion to plan events. Also, tools like Google Docs, pbwiki and wetpaint can be used to work together on plan details. Social networking tools are best for rapid organization. EqualityHub is best at executing long term plans for groups working over a period of months

How can I use online video?
You can use viral video to promote events and campaigns. Post your video to Youtube and use Digg.com to get interest. Send the video out to your list — folks are more likely to watch a video than read an email. To take advantage of the ranking system (the hottest videos), send your video out out RIGHT BEFORE you start a promotion (sending emails, facebook messages, texts, twitter, etc). You get 48 hours to get as many viewers as possible to be on those daily lists. As a non-profit, you can rise up the ranking faster because there are fewer folks who are uploading things in the category.

It costs money to produce high quality videos. But you can produce video cheaply – get a flipcam. Video editing tools include Windows video editor, photobucket.com, flickr.com (can give you metrics, demographic data on who’s looking at your videos, when, where, how, etc)

Volunteer Management Software
There is no good version of this that really exists. Everyone wants to do different things with their lists, so it’s very difficult to make a system to manage volunteers. Courage Campaign VAN is good for storing data – but not managing volunteers. It sounds easy to write a voter management application, but for a large campaign, you’ll need different people at different levels to be able to access different functions, and to allow volunteers to say what tasks they’ve done. The process is different for every campaign, so it’s hard to write good general-purpose softare.

Jointheimpact.com
Jointheimpact.com arose to meet a need for events to organically happen and a place to publicize the events.
But the wiki site is not user-friendly for non-techies. They need to make system more user-friendly or plug into other tools. Want it to be better? Join them and help them be more organized. They’re interested in getting help.

Causecast
Causecast.org – register events there – nonprofits get free services (community of users internationally)

How to coordinate around tech tools for organizing?
There’s a brand new Facebook group, Geeks for Equality to stay in touch and learn.

Frequently asked questions
Information about tools and practices will be found on EqualityCamp website. A link will be posted to the Facebook Geeks for Equality group.

Equality Camp
Host an EqualityCamp, an open event bringing Tech people together with activists to brainstorm and create tools and organizing activities.

Upcoming Events
Online Voter Contact Tools for Organizations – what’s available and how to use them
Wed, Feb 4th, 6pm PST
Dial-in: (714) 432-0800
Guestcode: 814042
Email julia at couragecampaign dot org if you cannot make that call

On Feb 8th there will be Planning meeting about creating an online clearinghouse for all LGBT events coming up
See Geeks for Equality Facebook group for more information.

Equality Summit
>organized by dozens of groups and a committee of over 50
>expensive impersonal convention center
>rock hard bagels
>check you off on a list
>wifi available for pay ($14/day_ few power outlets)
>tables with tablecloths for seating
>panels with lawyers
>anger between audience and plenaries. Questions unanswered about past
>facilitators provided for breakout sessions with flip charts for writing notes
>multiple plenary sessions with opening and closing comments by politicians and everyone who politically had to be included
>Obama mentioned a few times from stage

Camp Courage
>organized by a few paid staff for Campaign Courage
>donated rec center in W Hollywood
>nice soft bagels, packets of trail mix, fruit, little powdered sugar donuts
>please find your own name on the registration list
>free wifi + many extension cords
>open seating in assigned small groups (6-8) with new people to meet
>storytelling sessions
>no focus on past
>people running own sessions with info structure
>no plenary sessions: multiple airings of stories from veteran organizers
>Obama campaign referenced a great deal (Camp Obama + Equality Camp models for Camp Courage): Mantra borrowed from Obama campaign for entire event and practice: Respect – Empower – Include

-heather

Today’s opening session is a collection of voices from the 2008 election cycle and the (now notorious) efforts executed (or not, as some say) for the No on 8 campaign.

But I’m a rather lousy live-blogger, so won’t attempt to encapsulate the session now, rather I wanted to proffer a tidbit from one of the press releases they gave me … It’s about a research report from David Binder Research. He’ll be speaking a bit later, and I’m hoping to snare a few minutes on video with him, but in advance of that here’s a tidbit:

The headline reads: “Prop 8 Study Reveals Conversations with Friends, Family, Co-workers, Most Influential in Driving ‘NO’ vote.”

Gosh there’s a shocker.

You mean actually meeting and getting to know real people and hearing real stories may have impact in winning hearts and minds? Sorry if I sound a bit bitter, but isn’t that precisely what any good effort towards social change endeavors to accomplish?

Okay, so how about this next tidbit that came in the sub-headline of the release:

“Study finds 73% of people who voted for Prop. 8 said nothing could’ve changed their vote.”

This, also, doesn’t really surprise me … what surprised me is that the release buried a point that I think matters more… On the second page of the release, in the second to last paragraph is this:

“Only about 15% of yes on 8 voters could name something tangible that could cause them to change their mind and support same sex marriage, including:
- Call marriage by another name
- Ensure marriage for same-sex couples will not be taught in schools
- Ensure churches will not be forced to perform same sex marriages
- Approval, or lack of formal opposition, from churches or religious leaders”

This says two things to me:

1) It reconfirms my belief that while focusing efforts on changing those minds is a waste of energy, that does <em>not</em> mean we should not endeavor to engage with that community … This is pretty much my take away after the ever-so-educational interaction with The Rev. Chauncey Killens at EqualityCamp.

2) There are points outlined above that may be worth at least considering, if for no other reason than at least understanding what kind of middle ground might be acceptable. I’m not suggesting we acquiesce, but I do believe that within our strength we need to avoid stridency and strive to find middle ground.

—–  Cathy

I think we’ll get to meet a lot of these people this weekend. Let us know if you have any questions or ideas for them. We’ll all be on twitter and live tweeting using #eqcampsf and #equalitysummit.

Gettoknowusfirst.org aired these spots in most California counties during the inauguration (the kind of spots that we wish would have started 6 months before the prop 8 vote, but I guess we’re starting nice and early for the next vote). But KABC of LA serving Orang County refused to air the spots because “many families will be watching.”

Queer folks and our families and our entire movement need to make good use of the word family. 1) it gets used (as above) as away to avoid saying “watching gay people exist together makes me uncomfortable” and 2) it’s a powerful truth. We have families. We were children. We have children. It gets at the heart of connection, love and social belonging all of which are truths today. The more visible and strong our reality, the more quickly our legal equality will come.
-heather

There’s just about a week before EQCA’s Equality Summit in LA. All five of the EqualityCamp organizing posse will be hitting the road to attend and hope to see many of you there. The good news for those who can’t make it is that EQCA will be webcasting much of the proceedings with a 30 minute delay. I’m also glad to report that the organizers of Equality Summit have rethought their previous moratorium on media attendance at the gathering. So this WILL be an open event, though they will be asking the press to get specific permission to quote material in any of the breakout sessions or smaller workshops.

One of the highlights in the program (at least for me) is a session with David Binder – a guru of research and major player in the Obama/Biden campaign. He’ll be bringing his research findings on the No on 8 campaign sorting out where precisely it went wrong. They will have a 30 minute Q&A session with him after his discussion.  They don’t indicate whether they’ll open up those questions to the folks watching by Internet, but my guess is that the 30 minute delay will make that impossible. So if you have specific questions you want asked, just leave a comment on this post and your Equality Camp posse will ensure we at least toss a hand in the air and try to get it answered.

Now without further ado, here’s the program as of Jan. 17:

7:45 AM Registration begins. Coffee, Pastries & Networking in Main Room

8:00 AM Shabbat services available with Rabbi Denise L. Eger

9:00 AM OPENING PLENARY SESSION – Looking Backward and Moving Forward

Welcome by State Assemblymember John A. Perez

Presentations from NO on 8 and Let California Ring Staff and Marriage Equality USA

Proposition 8 Post-Election California Voter Survey, presented by David Binder, Consultant to Obama/Biden Campaign
Question & Answer session

Keynote Speech by Eva Paterson, Equal Justice Society 11:20 AM

Break 11:30 AM

BREAKOUT SESSIONS for networking & strategy by interest/constituency:
African American; Asian & Pacific Islander; Faith Communities; Families; Government/elected officials/legislative advocates; Grassroots Community Organizers; Labor Unions; Latino; Legal; Media (Earned and Paid); Netroots/Web 2.0; Transgender; and Youth

12:30 PM lunch break (food court open and available)

1:30 PM PLENARY SESSION – Race, Religion & the LGBT Movement Presentation and Q&A Prop 8 polling data analysis released by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, by Patrick J. Egan, Ph.D., of New York University, and Kenneth Sherrill, Ph.D., of Hunter College, CUNY Discussion facilitated by Jan Adams and Bob Wing

3:00 PM break

3:10 PM BREAKOUT SESSIONS for networking & strategy by region: Central Valley/Central Coast/Nor Cal Rural areas; Inland Empire/Coachella Valley; Los Angeles County; Orange County/Long Beach; Sacramento Area; San Diego area; San Francisco Bay Area; and Statewide & National

4:10 PM break

4:20 PM PLENARY SESSION – What’s Next?

Panel update on legal and electoral issues
Open Source development of strategy ideas from attendees

5:20 PM break, snacks

5:30 PM BREAKOUT SESSIONS for next step strategy planning

Sessions proposed and led by summit attendees.

6:30 PM break, snacks

6:40 PM CLOSING PLENARY SESSION – What’s Next?
Report back from breakout groups, facilitated by Lawrence Ellis

Closing at 7:30

– Cathy