This was part II of the first organizing workshop, and it was on positive messaging. [Avoid getting caught in manipulative tactics because you are trying to understand (and also trying to create bridges, get along).]
- Get a good marketing firm, they said, and know what messages you want to put out.
- Create a site like CSU Connects — an alternative to an organ like La Louisiane. They have it for every campus. The stories on the site would also go out to a PR wire service, and posts would be promoted on Facebook.
- Remember you are always selling your story, not your organization.
- Monday morning is a good time to get things into the paper.
- Bring stories to life with visual elements.
- Tie events you may hold to the current calendar or a current issue.
- Choose and train spokespeople, and choose them well, they must be animated.
- Even if you are complaining, remain positive: emphasize positive goals.
- Write and publish my article (the language and … article) in the CHE.
- Events and campus commitments to support them — educational events, consciousness raising events.
- Letters to all new faculty.
- Labor day social.
- Orientation packet.
- Reception after orientation.
- Problems we have: hostility, demoralization, fragmentation.
- The message is always that you are supporting students, faculty and the educational mission of the university.
I really doubt anyone else would lift a finger to start something like this and also it presupposes such a different political culture. But there is an organizing plan, or a good part of one.
Axé.
