Integrating On-line and Off-line Organising - A Case Study

A recent conference of NZEI school support staff union members led to an opportunity to intergrate some on and off-line organising. The conference was to have a professionally focused ICT workshop but I had the opportunity to discuss this with some conference organising committee members at a union leadership development course. They decided instead to focus the workshop on using the union's on-line networking and campaigning sites. Intitally they asked me to run the workshop but as I was unable I decided to look for a member who could run it. That proved fairly easy as all I had to do was look at the site and see who have been active and had engagaed in a number of different ways. One local member, Linda, stood out. I approached her about running the workshop and after she had agreed I worked with her on the workshop content.

Here are a couple of photos of the conference workshop.

The venue suffered from dodgy internet but Linda ran the workshop successfully resulting in new members signing up and a few of these people quickly adding content and comment. Linda asked all of the workshop participants to agree to an on-line task and because she has met these peole she is going to follow up with them.

Here's an email I got from Linda following the workshop.

Marshall Ganz on Organising

Professor Marshall Ganz is a long-time organiser and trainer who worked on Barack Obama's grassroots presidential election campaign.

As well as his acclaimed organising campaign work for Obama and his earlier work with the United Farm Workers (alongside Cesar Chavez) Ganz has held roles as a lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and a principal of Harvard’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations.

Ganz has put together a series of seven web modules on organising covering some of the key concepts and practical strategies. Each module has downloadable lecture notes and streaming video of the accompanying lecture. This vignette gives a taster for the series.



The lectures are insightful and, because of Ganz's experience and easy-going manner, easy to digest. The series has been put on-line as a resource for organisers, and social change educators. As well as the lecture notes and videos there are links and teaching resources – syllabi and examples of facilitation guides.

I highly recommend this to anyone interested in organising or union education. However, one small grumble - the videos are in real media format and the site recommends RealPlayer. That player has been the subject of much criticism and many people don't want to install it. There is an alternative called Real Alternative which will allow you to watch the videos.

Maori Experiences of Organising

more about "Maori Experiences of Organising ", posted with vodpod