Glenn's blog

Last night I jotted some notes down for a series of animal activist workshops. They could cover topics like letter writing, effective tabling, online activism, planning a campaign, planning a media event, graphic design fundamentals, leafleting, and much more. Not only would they be events where people could come to learn how to be more effective as animal advocates, but they could also be community-building events.

But there are issues. The wonderful people down south at the Let Live Foundation posted on their website today that they've been struggling to get people out to their workshops and activist events.

We’ve been very deliberate in our language and choice of subject matter to be as inclusive as possible so new folks don’t feel intimidated and more seasoned activists feel that their experience and input is welcomed at events. We’ve tried to get across that we’re trying to build community, no matter where you are in your knowledge, activism, etc. We’ve tried to schedule events at different times and on different days to accommodate peoples schedules.

We’ve tried everything we can think of to expand the community of people here and attendance at our events is not going up.

This makes me realize that there is more to planning a series of workshops than deciding (by myself or with a group of people) what workshops are needed by the community.

I wonder if there is a way to involve the community in the selection and planning of the events? Or a way to integrate the workshops with more socializing? I also wonder if the events can be formatted in such a way to meet multiple objectives, like learning and then practicing what was learned.

The comments on the facebook page where this note is also posted are interesting. There are some good ideas there for integrating socializing and learning, what times work best for different people, and more.

One idea might be to plan events around a smaller group of people and hold them in a cheaper and smaller location.

I think, though, that taking action is more attractive to people than learning how to be more effective with that action – so finding a way to emphasize action or a concrete outcome could be helpful.

We'll see how it goes here in Vancouver. I'd really like to find a way to do a community organized workshop series, so that the people involved would "own" the events, rather than attending an event that I've decided would be good for everyone else.

Any ideas?