First Steps to Building a Strategic Plan

At our October 25th General Meeting, we took the first steps to building a strategic plan for District 2 Neighbors. We broke into small groups and discussed four prompts. What follows below is a high-level summary of what we collectively came up with. Your steering committee will hold a strategic planning retreat later on this month—the discussion provided valuable input for our session.

Prompt 1: 
What have we accomplished?  What are you proud of? What have you found meaningful?

I think the best summary statement here is that we’re building community and building hope. Participants reflected on how they felt (“spirit of camaraderie”, “a comfortable group to be in”, “People appreciate what we’re doing”, feeling personally more confident about being an activist), along with all the things that we’ve done together, including: the most recent No Kings, and other marches; honk and wave; freeway overpass bannering; the book group; PIRC bracelets; the letter to City Council; signs and flyers, buttons and yard signs; the safety team.

They also acknowledged the growth and development of our organization (“We’re increasingly better organized and more knowledgeable”, “growing membership”, “offering a range of participation”, “a wide range of perspectives”, “a variety of personalities”, “role models”), and how we do things (“we take action!”, “safety and non-violence”, “amazing unity across [Indivisible] districts”, “working with police”, “we didn’t take the bait!”, “joy, music, humor, whimsy”).

Two final comments: “We’re creating a counter-narrative of what America is.”
“We’re building our mental muscles to talk with people about what’s happening.”

Prompt 2:
Do you feel like you’ve found your political home? Do you feel like you’re growing in knowledge & skills?

The response was pretty positive: “100%!” The connection with national and the What’s the Plan calls were cited several times. The multiple ways we stay connected was also cited, including the general meetings, team meetings, the newsletter and Slack.

Knowledge/skills that members are learning include: Safety/de-escalation; social, organizational, and listening skills; how to do outreach; patience; understanding personal boundaries; knowing one’s own limits; communication; running a meeting; political knowledge and skills. The Resistance Bootcamp was mentioned as a big positive. One comment: “Growing confidence: no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”

Prompt 3:
What’s lacking? What do you want to see more of/less of?

Some positives: the monthly meeting; the newsletter; work teams; there’s a place for all of us; enthusiasm; easy to plug in; peacekeeper training; local focus.

What’s lacking: lots of ideas for improvement, including:

Website needs more consistent updates; help with technology; we need specific outreach activities to diversify our membership; more Portapotties for marches!; support for non-able bodied people; what do we want: policy proposals; awareness of the regime spying on us through technology; involve/connect with political leaders; future focus; strategic planning; ways to make a bigger splash; mutual aid campaigns; website URL on all communications; land-based healing work; a speakers bureau; rebooting/influencing Democratic Party; more yard signs, more merch, more money for sound systems; outreach plan for us to appear at strategic events/meetings; more social events like craftivism, potlucks, especially with aligned groups; small pod/hyper local events; specific goals re city council, local businesses who are collaborating with the regime; develop the pillars; focus on corruption

If you haven’t yet found your niche, what have been the barriers? What strengths of yours have not yet been engaged? How can we facilitate that?

Underutilized skills included: theater, video, graphic design, journalism, policy development

How to help engagement:

Clipboards with team signups at each meeting
“Buddy system” for newbies
Keep pushing What’s the Plan for people to tune into
Fear is a barrier—offer safe alternative events like “PJs and pastries”
Assistance for those overwhelmed by need/paralysis analysis

If you don’t see your input included, or if you have thought of some other things to add to the discussion (or if you weren’t there and would like your ideas included), please email your comments to district2neighbors@gmail.com. And don’t worry, there will be more opportunities for all of our input as we develop the plan over the next few months.