ACTION: A Culmination of Your Work
Document Actions
Send this page to somebody
Print this page
An action is an event that brings people together to express their
beliefs and demands. An action publicly demonstrates the power of
a group of people. It is not the same as an initial meeting; you
should build up to an action over time, once you have created a Tikkun
Community and done the ‘map making’ work of deciding upon issues,
goals, and tactics. An action might take the form of a rally, a
speak-out, a march, a vigil, a building occupation, or some combination
of all of these.
Action Planning Checklist
The Midwest Academy Organizing Manual offers a checklist of questions to help you as you plan an action. A slightly modified version of their action-planning checklist follows. To make this more concrete, you could imagine that you are planning a rally to promote ethical consumption on your campus. You plan to gather outside of College Hall, the major administration building on your campus. At the end of the rally, you have made an appointment for a delegation to meet with the president of your college, and present her with a letter that calls for more ecologically sensitive practices with specific demands for reform on your campus.
1. Will you action be based on real power? How many people can you involve?
2. Is the action within the experience of group members? In other words, is your community comfortable and familiar with what is going to happen, and with their role in the action?
3. Will the action be outside the experience of the people for whom it is being staged? In this case, this means that the president of your college should not be confronted with a rally, a large number of letters, and an appointment with a group of students very often. We want the administration to be taken aback.
4. Are your demands clear and simple? Do you have fallback demands?
5. Do you have an appointment with the president?
6. Do you know the layout of the building? Is it accessible to people with disabilities? Where are the phones, bathrooms, stairs, and elevators? Where is the President’s office and the parking lot or nearby public transit?
7. Who will speak at the rally? Who will present the letters and speak with the President? Is everyone prepared?
8. Have you done a dress rehearsal?
9. How will you show your power? How many people, petitions, and letters do you have to back you up?
10. Do you have a method of getting a good turnout for your action? Have you made reminder phone calls?
11. If you want media coverage, have you notified them? The manual recommends calling the news media one week ahead of time so the action can be listed in the weekly calendar of events. You should do a press release one week ahead of the action date, and call page editors one day before the event.
12. Do you have a media point person who is designated to speak with the media? Do you have a note-taker?
13. Have you planned a time and place to debrief after the action? Do you know who will facilitate this debriefing?
Action Planning Checklist
The Midwest Academy Organizing Manual offers a checklist of questions to help you as you plan an action. A slightly modified version of their action-planning checklist follows. To make this more concrete, you could imagine that you are planning a rally to promote ethical consumption on your campus. You plan to gather outside of College Hall, the major administration building on your campus. At the end of the rally, you have made an appointment for a delegation to meet with the president of your college, and present her with a letter that calls for more ecologically sensitive practices with specific demands for reform on your campus.
1. Will you action be based on real power? How many people can you involve?
2. Is the action within the experience of group members? In other words, is your community comfortable and familiar with what is going to happen, and with their role in the action?
3. Will the action be outside the experience of the people for whom it is being staged? In this case, this means that the president of your college should not be confronted with a rally, a large number of letters, and an appointment with a group of students very often. We want the administration to be taken aback.
4. Are your demands clear and simple? Do you have fallback demands?
5. Do you have an appointment with the president?
6. Do you know the layout of the building? Is it accessible to people with disabilities? Where are the phones, bathrooms, stairs, and elevators? Where is the President’s office and the parking lot or nearby public transit?
7. Who will speak at the rally? Who will present the letters and speak with the President? Is everyone prepared?
8. Have you done a dress rehearsal?
9. How will you show your power? How many people, petitions, and letters do you have to back you up?
10. Do you have a method of getting a good turnout for your action? Have you made reminder phone calls?
11. If you want media coverage, have you notified them? The manual recommends calling the news media one week ahead of time so the action can be listed in the weekly calendar of events. You should do a press release one week ahead of the action date, and call page editors one day before the event.
12. Do you have a media point person who is designated to speak with the media? Do you have a note-taker?
13. Have you planned a time and place to debrief after the action? Do you know who will facilitate this debriefing?
We are an international community of people of many faiths calling for social justice and political freedom in the context of new structures of work, caring communities, and democratic social and economic arrangements. We seek to influence public discourse in order to inspire compassion, generosity, non-violence and recognition of the spiritual dimensions of life.
