Ocean of Organizing

I am constantly looking for ways to make organizing easier on organizers and when I met the folks of Action Network and Action Builder at Netroots nation this year, I was super excited to learn more about the tools they are building. Martha Grant is the Director of Product Strategy at the nonprofit Action Network and Action Builder. She builds and designs digital tools for and with community organizers, especially in the labor movement.

Swing Left helps folks find the most impactful ways of electing democrats in the most important elections all across the United States. Their focus for 2020 is flipping the senate, winning the white house, and tackling gerrymandering. Steve Pierce is on the show sharing with us ways we can get involved with a couple pro tips to boot.

Anat Shenker-Osario is a leading researcher in progressive messaging and communications with her research and writing being featured in a myriad of publications including The Atlantic, Boston Globe, Salon, and The Guardian, among others. She is also the host of the new podcast Brave New Words, where she takes listeners behind the scenes of different campaigns and what goes into crafting a winning message. Tune in to hear Anat's advice for progressive organizers on how to communicate your message to the masses in the most effective way.

Chris O'Connor shares with us his 5 years of experience as a development director at Equality Maine, one of the largest LGBTQ advocacy organizations in the state. Chris came to Equality Maine with a boat load of experience organizing and working with teams, but had little to no fundraising experience. He shares with us how he learned the ropes, the highs and lows and how he has centered his development work around the community and values that his organization serves.

In this episode I share with you how this podcast came to be, goals for the future, and last but not least I share with you a little nugget of one of the biggest lessons that organizing has taught me.

Cooper Reed got his start in political organizing as a young person (pre-teen!) volunteering on Obama’s 2008 campaign and has worked on a myriad of issue and candidate campaigns. Currently he is the Political and Organizing Director of the Maine Democratic party. He shares with us what it was like getting started as a young person, the impact that organizing has had on his life, the ups and downs of winning and losing and how we can make organizing more accessible to younger folks.

Recording from the Netroots Nation conference in Philadelphia, this episode highlights some vendors and causes while also sharing some tips from fellow organizers. Netroots Nation is one of the largest gatherings of progressive organizers in the country.

Hi Team!! This is not a typical episode, rather an opportunity to connect, express my gratitude, and update you on the happenings here at Ocean of Organizing. To show my appreciation, the first 25 folks who head over to the oceanoforganizing.com website and share with me your thoughts and feedback, will receive a hand printed thank you card with hand written note and an Ocean of Organizing sticker. Also note there will be no episode next week as I'll be at Netroots Nation hopefully meeting some of you fine folks in person!

Jeanie has worked on LGBTQ advocacy campaigns on both marriage and non-discrimination efforts. She shares with us some of her favorite memories and greatest challenges in the work. Currently she is off hiking the Pacific Crest Trail as part of her goal to be walking for a year, she'll be heading over to the Continental Divide Trail next.

Sass shares a powerful story of how a direct action protesting trains transporting fracked oil through their small Maine town forever changed the direction of their life. Now as an organizer for Resources for Organizing Social Change (ROSC) they share the skills they have learned over the years. I should note that this is a skype call I had with Sass last winter so when they discuss different events the timing was much earlier in the year than when this is landing in your inbox.

100 people die from gun violence every day in America. We have the highest rate of gun violence in the world. This month (June) is gun violence awareness month and this weekend beginning June 7th marks a nation wide weekend of action to bring about awareness of gun violence in america called "wear orange". To help us better understand gun violence and its roots in our history, I hopped on the phone with special guest Thom Hartmann. Thom is a New York Times best selling author of 24 books in print and hosts his own progressive TV and radio show with an audience of over 6.5 million people. His latest book The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment dives deep into our history and sets the record straight for the framer’s intent of the second amendment based on thorough research. To learn more about Wear Orange, gun violence prevention, and Thom Hartmann, head on over to oceanoforganizing.com/episode10

This week I am thrilled to have my friend and mentor Monna Wong on the show. Currently living in San Francisco with roots in New York, I met Monna when she was the Regional Field Director for marriage equality in Maine in 2012. Running the Portland field operation she grew the team to where by election day there were over 2,000 volunteers that walked through the Portland office alone in the final two weeks of the campaign. She shares with us some of her favorite moments, biggest struggles, and inspirations that keep her in the work. She hooked me into organizing and I continue to learn from Monna with virtually every interaction we have and this interview is no exception. Monna has experience running and directing field operations for LGBTQ campaigns on Marriage Equality and Non-Discrimination, she was the Executive Director of API Equality of Northern California working to build LGBTQ Asian and Pacific Islander power, she has consulted on a myriad of projects and is currently a Partner in Special Projects at The Management center. She is also passionate about life and health and as a newish parent with her partner is constantly inspiring in her ability to prioritize the things she cares about most.

Chris Perez is an urban farmer and food justice advocate. Their passion is supporting and building sustainable food systems in their communities. Chris comes from a background of organizing for LGBTQ rights and racial justice organizing and has applied that experience to their gardening and community building around food and working with youth. Chris shares with us how you can get started in growing your own food, and how to feed your spirit through maintaining hope for our future.

Soon to graduate as part of the NYU Law class of 2019, Molly was previously political campaign strategist for LGBTQ issues around the United States. She shares with us her experiences, and how to think strategically around movement building and how to take care of yourself along the way.

Quinn Gormley and I discuss what its like growing a non-profit that is part organizing part direct service and all the unique struggles of serving a marginalized community. Quinn is the executive director of the Maine Transgender Network, often referred to as MaineTransNet or MTN for short. MTN is a trans led peer to peer support network dedicated to supporting and empowering transgender people to create a world where they can thrive. Their work centers around the more than 30 support groups offered throughout the state, which, primarily in rural communities, serve more than 2,500 people each year.

Professor Vassallo, a political science comparativist specializing in contentious politics and protest movements across Europe shares with us a bit about the green party's success in countries across Europe, the culture of protesting in France, social capital and how to build it, and why it is so important to show up to vote.

This episode is a solo episode where I share some frameworks and ways of thinking about volunteer recruitment that will help you in your volunteer recruitment efforts to increase your capacity through building a team. These frameworks can be applied to various different organizing efforts though they are rooted in my experience on political campaigns.

In this episode, I jumped on a skype call with Megan Brooker, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of California Irvine. She specializes in social movements, political sociology, culture, and qualitative methods. We discuss how to navigate decisions on whether or not to organize within institutionalized politics or to go outside it, coalition work, the impact of social movements on political parties and so much more.

Samaa Abdurraqib’s resume of experience in the world of organizing is long. She has been a professor, abortion rights and reproductive justice organizer, she has organized for access to healthcare and so much more. In her current job she provides training, support, and project coordination for the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. What we talk the most about though is the organizing she is doing outside of her 40 hour a week job, which is doing resiliency work within communities of color. We discuss what it means to meet folks where they are at and the importance of finding work that fills your cup.

Shane Diamond, founder of Speak About it sits down with me to talk about how he started an organization that through theatrical plays, has presented to over 300,000 high school juniors, seniors, and college freshmen across the country and around the world about sexual assault prevention and consent. He shares with us wisdom from starting something new, launching an organization, the language around consent, growing in leadership, asking for help, self care, and soo much more.