San Leandro, CA        ACORN’s responsibility to the Anthropocene Alliance, and its vast network of over 350 groups now, is to work with some fifteen or so groups in ten areas.  After six regional trainings with over 100 people from almost as many groups, we narrowed down the list and are now in the process of seeing what they need and in some cases responding to the needs they have articulated.  Craig Robbins, an ACORN veteran, found himself in Baltimore training an ”academy” for Progressive Maryland in door knocking, at the same time I was meeting in San Leandro, California with first the staff of My Eden Voice and then for several hours in the evening with the leadership of the organization.  Nothing but the good times!

My Eden Voice is an interesting organization, one of two that we’re supporting in the Bay Area, both of which are working in unincorporated areas of their counties.  For MEV that means Alameda on the East Bay.  The organization is relatively young and in its current formation only two years and from inception about five.  It turns out that I’m visiting with them at an interesting juncture.  Both the staff and the leadership are in a dialogue about the effectiveness of the current structure of the organization and its direction forward.

Meeting with the staff team of three organizers and two co-directors was a good introduction to their program and current projects.  A campaign to win “just cause” for tenants was a major topic.  They have been training “captains” among community leaders to lead the organizing.  We spent a lot of time discussing landlord registries and licensing, along with tactics and strategies for them to move forward.  We may see if we can support including the organizers in some of our upcoming drives in Toronto, Cleveland, or New Orleans.

Being able to meet with their leaders for several hours in the evening was a gift.  This meeting involved semi-simultaneous translation, with most of the debate in Spanish.  MEV’s basic governing structure is centered on four “base” groups in their areas, but they also have independent membership and a loosely maintained dues system.  The leadership and the staff are in discussions about how the structure works, along with various proposals about how to make it more effective.  Charts prepared to articulate the state of these conversations made it clear that the issue of how to integrate the membership was unresolved.

One leader after another expressed their concerns along with their vision for My Eden Voice.  They did so often under the guise of asking me questions about ACORN or other organizational alignments and formations and how they worked, but in some interesting ways I was a foil for a friendly debate among themselves.  Much of the staff discussion had focused on how members and groups understand and enter the “front door” of the organization.  I was advising them to leave it swinging wide open.  Without exactly that formulation, the leaders were essentially debating how much to “control” that door, making membership a more selective and difficult progress, as opposed to opening it wide to be able to win campaigns and build power.  I couldn’t decide the issue for them, obviously, although if I were counting votes, I believe the “open door” program would win.

At this stage of development, organizers can be tentative about what leaders really think and how they view change.  My favorite moment was when one leader, decked out in an MEV blue t-shirt, made a dramatic and enthusiastic argument that the dues were too darned low at $3 a month, and they needed to get serious.  I offered to come back on my next visit and do a door knocking and membership dues training and take 20,30, or 50 of them out on the doors so they could gauge the response people would give them to getting serious about membership, winning, and power.

What fun!