Thank you Stewart.  Good morning.  As Stewart stated I am the Director of the Organizing Institute and it is my privilege to be a part of this panel. 

In this discussion of building capacity in unions we need to talk about recruiting and training organizers.  This needs to be a high priority on campaigns. 

In discussing this there are three main things I want to focus on this morning.

1.      We need a  general system for developing organizers.

2.      We can not forget the fundamentals of organizing.

3.      Diversity! Diversity! Diversity!   Diversity of staff is so important.

Lets talk a little bit about what are we looking for in organizers- An organizer has to be a motivator, full of energy, a self starter, a little crazy but not too crazy.  A rebel who can take orders.  A fighter who knows how to take risks but is willing to work within a structured environment.  I have been an organizer for 11 years and believe me we are special people and these qualities are not that easy to find.  So that is what we are looking for.

Lets go back to the first item I mentioned – a system for developing organizers.

Before we do anything about staffing there are a few things we should address.

First is Recruiting People- the last five years I have focused my time recruiting and training organizers from our membership and outside of the labor movement.  When I worked with AFSCME we focused on both.  The one thing I know for sure is that we have to constantly be on the look out for good organizers.

Second is some sort of classroom training.   It could be a one or two day training but it has to cover the basics.  This is what we do at the Organizing Institute 3-day training.  We teach the basics and test for understanding and some ability.  We do this through role playing campaign scenarios.

The third thing we need to do in a system for developing organizers is field training.  You may start with testing people in the field over a weekend to see if they are able to communicate with strangers one-on-one.  But there needs to be a longer field test, people need to be brought out on lost time, where this new organizer is on a campaign for a month at least.  This is to evaluate if they can be self motivated, can deal with the pace and can handle themselves working in a campaign setting beyond one or two days.

The OI is happy to consult on these issues and I am available to talk with you about it.

So that’s the system for developing organizers..

Lets talk about the fundamentals of organizing.  We need to keep an eye on this.  In a campaign it is important for an organizer to learn how to deal with media, build alliances with the community and other pieces of a corporate campaign, but we can not forget the fundamentals.  By the fundamentals I mean talking to workers one on one, listening to them, identifying the leaders and moving the workers to take action.

Now just because we know how to do these discussion does not mean that they are not a challenge-  they are.

When I did direct organizing, I organized nurses and other healthcare professionals.  I learned a lot from them so you will see me refer to them a lot.  A nurse in the ER knows her job but no matter how many cases come through those ER doors each case is a challenge.  The same applies for organizers.  I have knocked on 1000’s of doors  between working for SEIU and AFSCME, but if you sent me out there on a campaign today each door would be a new challenge for me.  Doing these one-on-ones is hard, but crucial to winning.

We can not lose sight of the importance of one-on-one communication with workers no matter the strategy.

My last point is about diversity.  Our members are a diverse group of people and our staff should reflect our membership.  Having a diverse staff aid in creative solutions that we need in this increasingly complex world of organizing. 

By diversity I am not just talking about people of color and gender.  I am talking about language, cultural differences and life experiences.

Now we need to be deliberate about our efforts.  What I am saying is this is not just about recruiting but also retention.  We need to evaluate the barriers that limit women and people of color from fully contributing and staying within organized labor.

This in no means diminish the fact that we need to test them to make sure they are capable of doing this work.  But once we see that people have the ability and skills to organize we need to mentor them and keep them in the labor movement. 

We also need to think about how we fill any voids in our staff.  If we are organizing a workforce that is predominantly Spanish speaking we may need to go outside of our current membership to find talent that can help us win our campaign.

Each campaign is different but in any case we need to look at the general system for developing organizers, be sure to go back to the fundamentals and have a diverse staff reflective of the workers we are organizing.

Thank you.