2014-06-20
Chilla Bulbeck
New member welcome
More than 450 new members (who joined over the last year, basically during our three elections) were invited to a Sundowner on Friday 13th June MCed by Senator Scott Ludlam. Convenors of the working groups spruiked their activities. Many of the 40 new members in attendance signed up for our field campaign or one of the working groups. On the following Monday night we stuffed and posted welcome kits to the other 400 new members.
#BusttheBudget hits the streets
Just because we dont have an election on, doesnt mean we are not out in the field engaging with voters. Greens (WA) are part of the national #BusttheBudget campaign, with the additional strength of Senator Rachel Siewert parsing the almost unbelievable meanness and unfairness of the budget for the 200 people at our #BusttheBudget forum on Monday 9th June. Both Rachel and Scott in Senate Estimates discovered how little detail and understanding the government has on so many aspects of its budget.
On the night, four field teams were formed with around 10 members in each. We took to the suburbs doorknocking on the weekend of 14th and 15th of June. I was in Bentley where many householders were angry with the government and the budget and signed our petition. In the alternate weeks we will engage with the community in other ways – for example clients outside Centrelink offices, shoppers at suburban shopping centres and commuters at train stations. A small team of volunteers is also phone banking every week and has already encouraged another dozen members and supporters to join the field teams.
Thanks to Ogy Simic for co-ordinating this campaign and to Anthony Blond for the wonderful gVIRS which just keeps on giving us walk maps so we have an idea who we are talking to and which houses are a waste of time (e.g. no voters live there).
Strategic planning to retain our new energy and strengthen our future
After the senate by-election we conducted a thorough evaluation of the campaign: a survey of our election volunteers which yielded 360 responses; a telephone survey of 300 voters who we had telephoned or door knocked; and an exit poll of a sample of general WA voters. From this we know that the by-election was a massive energy hit for those engaged; that 'one conversation at a time contact was really effective in moving people up the 'ladder of engagement (to voting Green, to talking to friends about voting Green, to handing out HTVs, to joining the Greens) and that the lack of 'noise from a lower house campaign combined with media savvy and the phenomenal success of Scotts YouTube video inviting Abbott to WA was crucial.
But so was the brilliant leadership of the campaign by Jess McColl, as campaign manager, through the team organising booths, managing the social and mainstream media and managing the field campaign down through the final organisational layer of neighbourhood organisers for doorknocking, regional booth captains and so on. As a result, many members and supporters came to 'own the campaign, offering and organising their own contributions: fund-raising concerts, rock candies saying 'Scott Rocks!, newspaper advertisements to vote for renewable energy, screen printing t-shirts with Scotts hair and 'Noted! on them.
One of our supporters, Galen White, is an organisational architect. He has been guiding us through a strategic planning process. At the end of each election we produce a wish-list, for example specific campaigns linked to each politicians portfolio and combining electoral office work with an evidence-driven field campaign; building particular interest sub-groups within the Greens who undertake to engage with cognate community groups; building an energetic social media campaign that posts and reposts every day to friends and related sites; etc, etc. So far we have lacked the organisational resources to make these dreams come true. Galen is working with us to identify the capabilities and resources we need to realise our goals. We held a planning day on Saturday 7th June attended by 60 members who were productively energised by the idea of 'a 500 year plan for the Greens (Scott Ludlam seizing our imaginations).
Policy revision
The Policy Working Group has been reviewing the draft Voluntary Euthanasia Policy at the state level and the draft Industry and the draft Banking & Finance Policies at the national level.
Constitutional review
Meanwhile Giz Watson, Christine Cunningham and Adam Duncan have been working on the review of the Australian Greens Constitution. Around 30 members attended a forum on Saturday 14th June, generating a surprising amount of agreement around at least some of the issues. This is a bit of a practice run for our own Greens (WA) Constitutional revision which we plan to achieve by the end of the year.
Joining the porous organisation
Our new induction handout says 'The Greens welcome new members straight into all levels of our organisation. You may only just have joined, but you are, for example, encouraged to come along, as an observer, to the monthly meetings of our State decision-making body (the Representatives Council). Or you can stand to become an office bearer next year. Or nominate to be a candidate at the next election! We know because many new members before you have filled these roles within months of joining. You will be mentored and trained. You will be enthusiastically welcomed. We believe you will be deeply rewarded.
Already our new members have energised much of our work. They led neighbourhood teams during the by-election and work in the senators offices. The new convenor of the Greens Refugee Action Group, Nick Averbuj, has been with us for less than a year but is also permanent representative for Curtin Regional Group. Another new member, Gabriel Reed, has designed the website for our State Conference to be held 27th to 29th September, our first shot at a three day conference. All Australian Greens members are welcome to attend: find out more today.
The amazing work of The Information Communication Technologies Working Group during the by-election was absolutely crucial. As the brilliant and hard-working convenor, Grahame Bowland, puts it: ICT is now the "infrastructure for everything". Web site and facebook management, phone call centre, IT support for the office, electoral analysis mapping are just some of the things that this group undertook during the campaign and continue to work on. Robin Elden, another new face, walked in off the street one night and singlehandedly built a telephone call centre that made 50,000 calls to voters out of bits of old telephones (not quite, but we like this apocryphal story!) [and he's now been snapped up as the IT Coordinator for the Victorian Greens — ed].
Just to demonstrate how central ICT infrastructure is, Representatives Council has been thrown out of the Greens office and is forced to wander in the wilderness of hired community halls to make way for an ongoing call centre of about 10 telephone stations which will support ongoing field campaign work.