Written as a bit of advice to someone organizing a nonprofit group, focussed on curating, archiving, compiling, organizing, amplifying on-going historical / literary records. Shared here as I find so many organizations getting into the “business of organizing the organization” and away from the core purposes of what the organization was about to begin with, coupled with my experiences, organizing communities, both online and off the various campaigns, as well as being a erstwhile volunteer in many NPO, NGO, community, civic etc organizations over the years. Loose riffs that won’t apply to every situation, but will apply to so many organizations as a witnessed so many falling into the same downward spirals.
And using the parable presented in Mark Twain’s classic “Tom Sawyer” specifically the segment about recruiting friends to “paint the fence” as a framework. Of course, more of this jam elaborated and in various other parts of this archive, including my SXSW core conversation “crowdsourcing community projects like Tom Sawyer” – anyhow:
Stepping out & up
Before one can get others to paint the fence, or for that matter, paint the fence themselves, the fence location must be planned, foundation dug, posts set, boards assembled, colour chosen etc.
I’ve learned you – like many others with a notion to wrangle something substantial – are a doer, and want to paint the fence, however there is plenty of fence painting to do and more importantly, foundation building to do first
In practical terms, this means making a plan and setting a vision
Doing so diligently gives you the opportunity to rapidly grow/scale and organization in order to for fill the objective of disseminating information widely, plus you also give a tremendous gift to others
This may seem counterintuitive, but you give them the gift of letting them paint the fence
In other words: contributing to something bigger than themselves which helps them to move up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Built the castle, lay the foundation
The mistake many organizations – whether they be nonprofit, educational, campaigns or even businesses – make is: chasing down people first rather than having “The Fence” planned and ready to build and paint
As such, well-meaning and eager participants, whether volunteers or employees, are quickly disheartened and/or burned out because they are left spinning doing menial tasks or waiting around doing nothing.This does not fill their desire to “do something important” and, as important, “gain recognition and accolades publicly for doing said something.”
As such, before the fence can be painted there are many things to do and plan, ergo:
- The first task is assembling all information currently floating around in some form or another which pertains to what the fence is (so to speak)
- Then comes making a plan of what the purpose of *all this* information and organizational effort is, in other words: The core result
While sometimes people wait until the wheels are already turning to state a “objective” and dareisay “goals” and so on… this is a critical first as when the inevitable burn-out and confusion and conflicts arise, there is a foundational documents to reflect back upon which guides the way for all decisions.
Once this “Holy Oracle” of information is assembled, then a gaggle of possible fence painters of all sorts and skillsets are recruited, assembled, assigned very specific tasks and timelines
Purpose is the reason
A big mistake (especially volunteer organizations) make is just “recruiting volunteers” who, instead of doing world-changing work, end up doing sorta uninspiring clerical tasks, or grunt-work on fundraising campaigns with no goal or end in sight
This approach results in drop outs rapidly and is, understandably, ineffective
Instead, creating “disappearing task forces” – right-sized groups assembled to complete discrete campaigns/tasks/missions with distinctly articulated deliverables, objectives and timelines is critical
Further, sharing forward momentum frequently with the “fence painters” at-large is critical to remind people that they are part of something bigger with a distinct end point, rather than the endless “the next three months is really important” cyclical spin of nonsense (which often happens, so often) under the guise of motivation and pep talks
Leaders are removers of obstacles
Organizations fall apart when “leaders” try to do *everything* themselves and then continually whine about how overworked they are and how they are doing all the “important stuff”
Good leaders will give people constraints rather than rules, objectives rather than process and identify their primary task as removing roadblocks and acting as a sounding board rather than being a practitioner
That said, a good leader should also have practical experience in many/most of the tasks that they delegate
In other words, I used to tell my employees, “I will never give you a task I haven’t done 100 times before”
In other words, you understand their pain and effort and challenges of doing whatever you ask of them, doing so builds camaraderie as well as a familiarity with skills
Critically important in this process is chronicling (in easily shareable documents, meaning *not* endless email threads etc.) every step of the process
These documents should be *living* so they can be massaged and updated and handed off to the next wave of fence painters then will continually refine the process
Leaders are articulators
With this preamble in mind, the first steps are to “step back” and articulate what the your org is all about, and in doing so, resist the urge to bring in a think-tank, consultants, too many cooks, endless opinions, monthly meetings, drafts of report etc.
You as the “starter” are the curator and intellectual catalyst of this knowledge and this org/plan/whatever is your brain child
As such, this is for you to articulate. Do not worry about the fine details of copywriting and massaging this message into its medium… instead, let your mind range free, simply in determining the big picture questions of why you personally give a sht about all of this, and why the world should care
Do not worry about anything else besides this for starters
I’m sure you’ve already considered all of this of course, but this must be articulated into a short succinct statement or statements
Again, do not obsess about the exact copywriting, instead go into your heart of hearts, into your meditative flow and determine why this project which you are diligently tending to you is important for the past, present and most importantly, the future
Structure to fit
The other important part of this original visioning exercise is to detail what sort of “legal entity” fits best for this project
While my “hippie instincts” like to keep organizational overhead as low as possible, in this project (possibly), grants as well as a layer of legal protection for intellectual property, plus for establishing some basic banking processes, some sort of legal entity (whether for-profit corporation, limited partnership, or nonprofit organization) will be required
Maybe you’ve already gone down this path, if so, please detail current status and situation and registration details, if not, what is your gut feeling and big idea and/or any other advice you received about this topic
Decisions don’t have to be made right away, the point of this part of the exercise is to assemble the information and ideas
Inventorying the inventories
The next task is inventory of all kinds
I’ll divide this into three big categories: the physical inventory, the collaborative inventory, and the digital inventory
The physical inventory means the books, papers, dossiers, fonds, collections, recordings, video tapes, reels to reels, journals, notebooks… Everything in your possession
How much is there? (can even be articulated in linear shelf space, a rough count of notebook/journal/tapes, and even include account of unsorted boxes, letters, etc.)
Also, “where is the stuff?” And “what condition is it in?” “Is the storage facility weatherproof/safe/paid for” etc. (I realize many of these answers are obvious to you but again you are creating a holy oracle foundational document to start this project from so each detail is important)… that said, a micro inventory detailing each individual piece and assigning identification to it will come later if not already done
Next, collaborative inventory… There are other similarly-focused organizations, possible npos, ngos, university groups, libraries, collections, archives etc. etc. concerning themselves with the same broad or specific topics and contents
These need to be inventoried in a document which describes: what/who each organization is, what are their purposes, where they are located, are they University/Government/public/private whatever affiliated?
And, importantly, is there a contact or an established working/collaborative relationship? What resources do they have? What are their objectives and aims? What do they know about you and your plans for the project? Do they have newsletters/journal/periodicals? Do they give lectures? What is their website/other social media presences?
List it all in a dossier for each (by the way, this is a great project for fence painter)
Finally, digital inventory… This means what current website, Twitter addresses, Facebook pages, and other social media presences, blogs, websites etc. etc. exist for the project – including the security login processes for each (in a password-protected, 2FA, password manager with back-up and catastrophic failure plan)
This also includes email lists, physical mailing lists, domain names, email addresses, all of it. No detail left out. Also, this includes your personal/professional online profiles and properties.
You, in public and private
You Personally, but as a Public persona and a Wrangler
I’ll discuss this more later, but in brief: registration of an eponymous domain name is very important and very quickly should be built up to detail your “public life” including:
- a listing of your media appearances, publications, public speaking engagements (with round-ups and recaps/recording/artifacts)
- a media kit for other people to contact you for future speaking gigs and media reach
Once this inventory is well underway (just a note that all of this should be shared in a dedicated Google Drive (or similar) archive with a proper file name/taxonomy structure which is carefully detailed and articulated and follow explicitly), then comes inventorying possible collaborators, fence painters and helpers
Wrangling the painters
I’ll put these Into three buckets:
First is the other institution/educational organizations/media groups/established “fan clubs” who are on a similar mission as the {your institute} as os important to understand their motivations and objectives so there is cooperation rather than stepping on each other’s toes and hurt and egos and feelings are duplicating work
The next group of fence painters is to assemble a board of directors/advisers. The importance of these people isn’t to require a bunch of meetings and fussing over details, but rather giving them the gift of prestige and acknowledging their skills/intelligence by giving them the opportunity to associate themselves with {your institute’s} important intellectual tradition. These people need to be chosen and invited carefully so you have a diverse set of skills, which importantly will be use gently and specifically (think sniper missions, not carpet bombing) but also to add gravitas to the still fledgling institute by having some more faces attached to the organization who will also be key amplifiers and evangelists for this organization.
[In some ways this is what I call the “mouse, light source, and magnifying glass scenario“ in other words… If you arrange those three items in the wrong order, you will burn the little mouse to bits (this means choosing the wrong people and putting them on the wrong missions), but if you put these three items in the proper order, you make the mouse look like a big elephant (or at least a hippopotamus). In other words, {your institute} at this point it’s probably more or less just you, (and some wandering pals giving you unsolicited advice :)), by hand inviting five or seven key people with diverse skills and asking them for a commitment of about five hours a month a professional advice, and properly listing and documenting them and using them strategically, the organization and very rapidly look much bigger than it is, this in turn attracts more fence painters, more grant money, more speaking gigs… and ultimately helps {your institute} reach the objective(s) stated earlier, more quickly, but more importantly, more completely and efficiently]
The next group of fence painters i’ll call “ambassadors” for now… these are people with more than a passing interest in {the institute’s} studies and who are looking to increase their profile by attaching themselves to a bigger project with some prestige and interestingness to the name
These people will be more than foot soldiers, think of them as noncommissioned officers in the military sense… The people who get the stuff done without a big fuss, and in return, they need to be publicly recognize and acknowledges and made to feel validated, not for their sake, but to show other people how their efforts are respected
This is critical as they are not lackeys in any sense though they may well be contributing their time and effort with no monetary compensation per se, but instead receive prestige, perks and acknowledgment.
For these roles, there must be an aptitude application process not to determine if they are worthy but to determine what their best contribution might be. As such, a specific set of skills needs to be articulated and identified and make people jump through some hoops to show that they’re serious and capable
These people can be distributed worldwide/should be distributed worldwide and can be attached to universities as graduate students, people within orgs or companies who have an interest in evangelizing {your institute’s} work, ergo: people working in new media of different kinds, folks from somewhat related institutions and organizations and so on.
Eventually, they in turn will have a little squadrons of fence painters of their own but it’s important to bring the right layer of evangelist/ambassadors into the fold and let them participate in these foundational tasks so they feel engaged and committed and a sense of “ownership” of the traditions of the institute for which they are volunteering their time and efforts.
Begin as wish to continue
Early in your communication, you mentioned thinking of this as a ten year plan… And really you can think of this as a multi-decade plan as the work will be ongoing and frankly curating and documenting all the source materials and related artifacts could go on for many years, but also think of this in terms of an 18 month or two year plan in which point there will be:
- basic inventory
- objectives and goals clearly stated
- a Board of Directors & advisers
- a group of ambassador/evangelists each with assigned tasks in regions and mandates
- plus a website with a clear media-kit and an offering to various colleges/institutes/university/organizations around the world who want to bring in {your institute} to speak and educate about this stuff
- a list of resource materials (relating to the curation mentioned above) and new creations coming frequently (also referenced above)
Everywhere and nowhere
[Aside: What I mean by these new creations are at the short blog posts and videos you’ve already started creating. It’s important to start doing these now and the function of “where to post“ I’ll get to you at another time (the short answer is everywhere the audience might show up) but for now, documenting even the mundane details of your work in the dusty archive and articulating the vision is critically important.
If you release these tomorrow maybe a few dozen people watch but you have to keep in mind, these are “evergreen” pieces that 18 months from now when the organization is a full-fledged hippopotamus, people will go back and understand the story of what it took to get to this point, what the purpose is, where the passion came from, who laid the foundation, who painted the fences, and where they can get a paintbrush to participate.
Remember, the biggest motivation out there (besides a couple which off the table at this point) is recognition and acknowledgment for people, specifically and obviously the people who contribute want somewhere/something they can show their friends and say “look what I did“ – and heck, put on their LinkedIn profile and so on.
In order this for this to work efficiently, there needs to be guidelines about “who can speak for {your institute}“ and how to manage media inquiries, and outlines about how they can introduce their involvement when they’re building their own “career” or public speaking and so on.
By clearly articulating this, it avoids problems and it makes people feel super special (again, moving them up Maslow‘s hierarchy of needs).
I just like revolutions
Our collaboration so far is brief, and while you didn’t specifically ask for any of this, I provided this because I think what you’re doing is super important, and I want to help you on this journey.
As previously mentioned, before health challenges, I was at the “top of my game“ doing frequent high-profile public speaking, all sorts of media stuff and managing international groups of hundreds (including building ambassador program and running internationalizing translation programs), i also wrangled the “True North Media House“ project which was an alternative citizen documentation/reporting program during the Vancouver Olympics. I say this to verify my (previous at least) ability of bringing people together around a common cause, and was highly networked (before dropping off the map) with people at universities/institutes/companies all touching on media and communications in one way or another and helped out on many boards and as an advisor/ambassador/fence painter, and rallying the troops.
Heck, you probably know by now that I made ditto-machine and newsletters as a kid, punk rock ‘zines, poetry chapbooks all of this… like you :-) in other words, this ’tis in our blood.
The above advice allows you to go into what is really your natural role in this institute of being the “visionary“ and the “intellectual conscience“ and protecting the holy oracles at the core. This plan will also give you lots of elbow room for completing and sharing your own creations within the context of {your institute}.
My personal hope for you is that in 18 months or two years, you are able to put together speaking tours is for a month at a time once or twice a year and specific regions and do a “dog and pony show“ at various universities/Institute/company/think tanks and share not just the past of {the institute], but more so, recontextualize the knowledge this for a not just academic audience and show how this applies to the “real world“ as it is now by demonstrating y/our own projects as practitioners demonstrative creative expression across medium and disciplines. In doing so , i hope will bring a nice income for your family, intellectual stimulation for your brain, and a satisfaction of knowing that you’re doing your forebears.
For me, I just love a revolution. So, i suggest making a start from the very beginning (or you can tell me to butt out and mind my own fcking business if you want :-)) and build this institute carefully and efficiently so it can blossom into something more wonderful than we can possibly imagine at this point.