Planning the Action

Carrying Out the Action

Other Helpful Items:

Duct tape, extension cords, sashes, scissor, small stapler, safety pins, bullhorns, rope, pens, first aid kit, and sunscreen.

Action vs. Service

The temptation to engage in service-oriented activities is great, for much work of this kind needs to be done. Certainly, service activities are needed and are important. However, the personal decision of whether to engage in service or action must be separated from the Campus Action NOW organizational decision.

For example, the bad treatment of a rape victim by your local police department can be the impetus for a campaign to change the department's policies and procedures, and could lead you to pursue legislative changes so this will not happen to other women in the future. In the long run, this will be more effective for all women than orienting the group's activity toward individual "band-aids" such as volunteering at a local rape crisis center, although individual members may do this on their own.

NOW takes action to bring women, as a group, into full equality and to address problems at their root cause, rather than offering aid to individual women in achieving personal solutions or temporary relief from oppression. Of course, sometimes the plight of an individual can be the perfect "hook" for your campus group to take action that will make real change.

NOW's self-defined role has been to initiate institutional change at the broadest level, to affect the legal and institutional structures of our society in a way that systematically expands the choices and opportunities available to all people.

Campus Action NOW Development and Action

Many NOW activists become very task oriented as we go about the work of changing the world. If a piece of legislation or policy on campus needs to be passed, we plan a lobbying campaign to pass it. If an individual or a group comes to us because they've been denied their civil rights, we set about targeting campus or elected officials or corporation heads to right the wrong. If the group is asked to join in a state, regional or national action, we swing into action with buses and sign-making parties. But all too often, we pass up the chance to set and to achieve organizational development goals and objectives at the same time!

Every action or project in which a Campus Action NOW group participates, in addition to the goals of the action--numbers of people, diversity objectives for the crowd and speakers, good press for the issue--should also have the following organizational development objectives:

1. Building your membership and activist base--how many new members will want to become a part of the group around this action or project? Being able to report "We got X new members" is a real win for any group.

2. Building your financial base for this and future actions. Few groups will have a substantial financial cushion that enables them to participate in actions without doing fundraising, and we don't want Campus Action NOW groups to not do actions because they feel they can't afford them. Issue fundraising (selling message-specific buttons, bumper stickers and T-shirts) as well as directly asking for contributions to fund the event will not only pay most of the bills, but also increase the number of people who have a stake in the action.

3. Increasing the group's visibility in the campus community. Set goals for the amount of publicity you want to get and don't give up because one kind of media isn't an option (the local campus newspaper editor may be unfriendly, but a local radio station might welcome the group's spokesperson on a talk show, or the TV station might do a story). If all else fails, fundraise around visibility for the action, so you can buy ad space in/on the best form of media for the event.

4. Strengthening community contacts and coalition contacts. This is a good time to look at how the group might work on diversity goals it sets for itself—making certain that all possible allies are represented in a coalition, and/or involving groups with which we haven't had much opportunity for contact. The organization's role is frequently to see who is NOT at the table and to insist on their participation.