the dream gets organized

I missed the entire month of November. My favorite holiday, the presidential election, the official change of seasons-- somehow I forgot to make time for recording my thoughts throughout time I can't get back. If I believed in regret, I'd feel it now.

But it's okay; I'll pick up here and fill in gaps as I go to catch myself up to speed. So much has happened: I played my part in the 2008 election and participated in voter registration in a swing state, I saw the blessed union of great friends from my past and my present as they committed their future to each other, I broke bread and gave thanks with great friends for all that I have and yet do not deserve.

I worked on my plan to continue debt eradication and paid off a major credit card to under a $2000 balance. I committed to living in a Christian intentional community and have been continuously searching for houses in neighborhoods prepared for ministry. I strengthened relationships with my roommate, unexpected friends in a covenant discipleship class and new people from foreign countries. I reunited with old friends. And finally, the fire of Project Empowerment was rekindled; and I am overwhelmed with how great and beyond me my own vision has grown. It's mere proof that this dream is not my own.

I really want to talk about that (however scattered are these thoughts), so that I don't lose these precious new contributions to the overall design of the project. I spent two weekends, including the weekend and days leading up to the election volunteering in Columbus, Ohio on the Obama campaign. The presidential election has also been the highlight of an amazingly engaging class on religion and politics. After multiple conversations about campaigning and voter demographic targeting and community organizing and then after witnessing it-- and participating in it-- myself, I can only attribute these recent developments to Project Empowerment as influenced by what I have learned.

Throughout the debates and on SNL and other amusing programs I heard tons of talk of "Obama, the community organizer." So many doubting republicans attempted to discredit Obama as presidentially qualified because of his experience as a "community organizer" (apply air quotes where applicable). The smart-mouthed progressive Christians replied with "Jesus was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a governor" (and while amused, I'm not entirely comfortable with the parallel that draws, either). But I saw community organization myself, I helped to instruct others to canvass and walked the street on my own and saw from several levels how Obama organized his campaign. He WAS organized. He used those skills to motivate the masses, and once their energy was generated, he had the infrastructure to funnel volunteers exactly where he needed them, to beat the streets, make the calls, and reach the voters. And he won the election because of it.

I feel silly talking about the election now, after even folks in Washington, DC have moved on, but I really internalized that organization. The way things fell so satisfactorily into place has been constantly on my mind-- at the front and the back-- and I have begun to incorporate organizational ideas/strategies into my implementation plans of Project Empowerment. One of the things I would like to do when I travel and meet new communities to work with is be able to offer some sort of immediate assistance. Now, I know that I'll be spending one to two weeks doing my best to help in whatever ways possible; if they are planting trees, I'll plant trees; if they are building wells, I'll build wells; and in addition to my actual contribution of physical labor, I'll be photographing and writing and doing my very best to capture the essence of the work they are doing so that I can share it with my corner of the world (and beyond). Spreading the knowledge of the work is good. But even that seems not particularly helpful, when you consider the very real necessities of eating and surviving-- and PR doesn't do the work to make those possible.

Now the obvious form of immediate assistence would be money. But I don't know the rules about raising money, I don't want to be carrying large amounts of money, and I want to be able to be creative about meeting needs-- and money isn't the way to do that. So I had been thinking about other types of donations, and how willing are most people I know to donate to worthy causes. So the idea evolved: what if I could take up a certain collection for each community project, and provide them exactly what they needed? If I were visiting a school, I could bring school supplies. If I were working with the tin for guns program in the mountains where it's cold, I could bring scarves and hats, etc. A custom-fitted contribution, from caring individuals in the United States to wherever else in the world I might be. It's personal, it's personalized, it's precisely what I was looking for.

Precisely incomplete. This type of project presents several problems which I will attempt to list in completion here: 1) I am backpacking and under no circumstances will I be able to carry such donations with me-- two years and fifty sites worth? 2) That amount of donations would far exceed my ability to raise. Even at seminary and at church I don't have enough personal contacts to rally fifty different collections! 3) If I were able to do such a thing, baggage allowances are small and shipping costs are expensive! 4) This trip is not supposed to be about me doing everything; it's supposed to be about me changing paradigms and connecting people who are empowered to change their circumstances with people who don't think they can-- it's about me telling others yes, you can, and you should, and getting everyone I know involved on some level.

So it's going to take major organization-- a very real structure-- to get this done. It's going to require caring individuals working at the grassroots level to make big things happen on a massive scale. I have been thinking about a website for quite some time (after a very obvious suggestion from a supporter-- I still can't believe I didn't think of it myself!), but I finally began to see how a website would be a tool of organization. WHAT IF my website were the portal for the people in the know (about the project) to pass the word on to those who don't know? I struggle with sharing an accurate yet concise description of PE when I get the opportunity to-- so how much more difficult will it be for those who haven't thought every aspect of the project through? But if all the tools were at the click of a mouse, downloadable, re-printable, and you could even sign up to help on the website-- well, technology's a beautiful thing and we all buy into beauty.

The organizational structure of volunteer participants, co-owners in this beautiful vision was born: I will divide my itinerary into geographical regions, equitable distributions of projects. In this way, I limit the amount of work and the time frame a organizer would be responsible for. If I have 50 sites, I can enlist 10 organizers who would each be responsible, in turn, for recruiting 5 coordinators. This would be a six week to two and a half month (roughly, depending on the length of the project) commitment, and once that time frame had passed, the work would be passed with it. The organizer finds the coordinators, the coordinators run the donation collections, and voila! All the work is done. And I have involved just 10 people I know first hand-- but through that wonderful network of connectedness, 60 people have actually done the work, and each of them would have connected with hundreds more individuals who would donate to the collections for specific sites.

This really got me thinking of move-on.org and their AMAZING database of progressive democrats. I know that in politico-world, campaigns pay good money, millions of dollars trying to get people's information so they know how to contact and who to contact to get their candidate elected. Well, I don't really care so much about building a database (I can't see it's importance unless this project were to be replicated), but I do see the value in the organization of it all for the sake of posterity. How fantastic would it be to say, "These are the 3,491 names of the people that my small seedling of an idea grew to include?" Additionally, if I'm really interested in connecting people to people, I'm not just interested in your donation. I'm interested in you and how you can be improved by knowing the face of the one you just donated to. And I'm interested in giving items of practical use to people who need them, and being able to tell them, this is the name of the person who wants you to stay warm this winter.

So each coordinator would use his or her entire community to do good; they could collect from church, from school, from work, from family. But it doesn't end there.

I have outlined six ways for any individual to get involved. And this would be passed on through word of mouth, through the handing out of pre-made, ready to print cards with the website information on it so that any individual, anywhere, would be able to help. Forget six degrees of separation-- I don't have to know you first at all! You can find my card in a library book or on the bulletin board at the supermarket (and if you had every interested person distributing, think about the traffic! Think about the publicity!) So here they are:

1) TELL. Everyone you know. Spread the word. Tell your friends, then your momma, then your friends' mommas, then your momma's friends. Print the cards online. Hand them out. Leave them in libraries, stores, the DMV! Use the form email (available on the website) and send it to everyone on your email list! We all spend countless hours receiving and wading through email forwards for no cause at all or just for a laugh. Why not contribute a few more seconds to pass on one that could change the world? Share, share, share. You can send them in your Christmas cards! Send them with your kid to school to be distributed to all the parents in the class! Better yet-- talk to the principal about the school sponsoring one of the sites-- the school can host the donation drive, educate the entire community on the particular issue their site is facing, and possibly even recruit someone to work with me while I'm abroad!

2) ORGANIZE. The ten organizers I mentioned would be responsible for quite a lot of work. So maybe I'll need twenty five organizers, and each of them will be responsible for only recruiting two coordinators. I'm hoping this person will not only recruit the coordinators, but handle the donations after they have been collected. This person will need to ship the donations to particular addresses to be brought overseas and to keep track of their coordinators and the particular communities that they enlist to help. Besides the ten (or twenty five) organizers I mentioned already, I'll need organizers who will be willing to receive written material and photographs from me, possibly edit them into a newsletter and distribute newsletters (both hardcopy and electronic) to every donor and volunteer-- this project isn't going to disappear once you've contributed some crayons. I want you to know what you've become a part of-- and encourage you to participate more than once. It also might be helpful this way to get my writing distributed, in case there are possibilities for the writing aspect beyond a grassroots newsletter.

3) COORDINATE. We need fifty coordinators, each paired with a particular site, who knows the whole story of the site, understands the needs, and can handle collecting donations for them. This person would keep records on the donors who contribute to the collection and physically be responsible for setting out the box, picking up the box, sorting through what's been offered. Coordinators also help spread the word, to enlist other coordinators for his or her own Organizer or other Organizers. A Coordinator has to be willing to engage in his or her own community-- a church, a school, a business or company, etc. to gather enough persons willing to donate. Because of this, the Coordinator position might be absolutely ideal for my fellow pastors-in-training (who will likely be pastors by the time I depart for the first site of this journey). Additionally, we want to make sure donors and other volunteer people feel connected and appreciated for the work they do-- Coordinators will distribute the newsletters to their donors on record.

4) COME AND SEE FOR YOURSELF. I am ready and prepared to travel the entire trip alone, but one of my initial ideas concerning getting everyone I know involved was to invite them along! Come for a week or two-week long trip and we can work together to learn a community and their story. Select your site by choosing a social justice issue close to your heart, a culture or region you are passionate about, or just based on when you can get vacation time from work. Traveling Companions will also be responsible for importing donations-- the Coordinator/Organizer will domestically ship the donations box to the Traveling Companion who will be responsible for checking it as luggage. Because I understand the costs of long-distance travel, I presume I will have fewer Traveling Companions than sites, so potentially more than one Donation Box will need to be imported per Travleing Companion (It will be easier to ship domestically from within the foreign country). Additionally, smaller sustainability packages with personal items I will need will be passed along with Traveling Companions, as well.

5) MANAGE MY WEBSITE. Yup, that's right. This sounds like a LOT of web-based work, and I am certain I will be in places without even internet connections. I'll need someone to oversee the American side of operations, and to manage the portal (also known as the place where you can enter everything and download stuff). I need someone into design, who can create the cards for people to download, who can generate a coordinated collection of email banners and thank-you cards and newsletter headings (hopefully from the photographs I take while abroad). Who will be the keeper of information, and build the actual internet infrastructure to let Coordinators enter donor contact information, Organizers enter Coordinator information, and people who hear about the project through the grapevine to sign up to receive the newsletter. I'll need new articles and photos uploaded from wherever I am. This is kind of huge. I either have to find someone who loves me to do this, or I might have to pay someone (yikes!)

6) PRAY. This is a journey of FAITH, and I know the road is marked with ruts and potholes. I'd like to know you're praying for me (ahem ahem, website manager?), so that I can be built up by the care of my community of Christians, my church. I know how hard it is to travel, especially in new places, especially on your own, especially for long periods of time. I'm not sure backpacking is actually a sustainable lifestyle for two years (but I'm still willing to risk it). I will need all the prayer I can get. And I'm not the only one. We need prayer for every involved person on this project-- the communities who are working hard for change at their respective sites, dealing with their respective struggles, the Organizers, Coordinators, Donors, Traveling Companions, the Website Manager. And wouldn't it be great if we could send prayers (written, with names of the interceder) to the sites with the donation box? I once read of a terminally ill child who wanted to know what people were praying for her. So there was a system set up so that every time you prayed for her, you called her pager number and she would get a page and know. Another system had her receiving the prayer via text message. How comforting to hear the prayers of others! What a strong message it would send to the struggling in another country of love and encouragement and support to hear the words (or read them) of their brothers and sisters of faith! (ooh! translators!)

Well. I've gone and done it-- I've overwhelmed myself in one sitting. This goes so far beyond me I can't take it all in at once. And as a friend pointed out, there are several things I'll have to return to later; the impact my 'donations' may have on the local economy (would donating hats and scarves detract from business of a local tailor, for instance?), the vetting of sites-- I'll have to be very discriminatory in choosing to make sure that I and my work will be accepted, that the practices the community is engaging in are healthy and inclusive, etc. So much of the language of this outline reads like a business (which is weird because I don't know anything about that). I will think more on it. A dangerous promise, to be sure.