From 0 to 20 in 9 months. Marcy explains the process by which she helped support and catalyze the formation of 20 rural and small town Human Dignity Groups in the lead up to the 1992 elections which, in Oregon, asked voters to decide whether “homosexuality” should be declared “abnormal and perverse” – and unconstitutional.
Archives: Marcy Westerling
1992 Statewide Travel Chronicle
In 1992 Marcy Westerling crisscrossed Oregon, logging thousands of miles, visiting hundreds of local human dignity activists, and catalyzing nearly 20 new Human Dignity Groups in rural and small towns across the state. Eventually, these groups would come together to form the Rural Organizing Project.
County-by-County organizing
County-by-County organizing as a “bullshit detector” – we’ve got to be able to find people who care about our message in every single county. Otherwise, what the #%?@ are we doing?
County-by-County as a strategy
What does it mean to have a “County-by-County” organizing principle? Rural organizing is more than having a meeting once a year in Bend (Oregon’s third largest city outside of the Portland metro area).
The Anne Frank exhibit
How does a group keep momentum after a crisis moment has passed? In the aftermath of intense campaigns to defeat the anti-gay Ballot Measure #9 (1992) and a subsequent rash of similar, county and city-wide initiatives (1993-94), a touring holocaust exhibit not only mobilizes and strengthens local human dignity groups–it helps prepare them for the next crisis.
Focusing on the numbers
A critical first task of new Human Dignity Groups is to build a broad base of supporters. Here, ROP Founder Marcy Westerling shares the small town-tailored approach that she and other local leaders used to build lists of supporters in their rural communities.
Feminism’s Influence
ROP founder, Marcy Westerling, traces ROP’s style of political education back to her own education through the feminist movement and Oregon’s network of anti-violence advocates.
Marcy Westerling – Building a leadership team
Why sometimes it makes sense to pause in our organizing until there’s a strong enough team to move forward – and what we, as organizers, might do to help get there.
Marcy Westerling – Sharing our own struggles
As organizers, we need to be in touch with our own struggles and process of learning and use those a bridge to support others in dealing with their own racism, sexism, classism and homophobia.
Marcy Westerling on Developing Leader-Organizers
- Kissing frogs – The importance of strong local leaders – and how to find them.
- Supporting local leaders – Sometimes supporting local leaders means taking on unconventional tasks.
- Narrating back – Sometimes the most important thing an ROP organizer can do to support local leaders is to hold up the mirror.
- ROP organizer as soulmate – Why going deep, fast, is so critical to ROP’s model for statewide organizing and developing local leaders.
- It’s the quality of the interaction that counts – Organizers face a lot of competing demands on their time. Marcy offers her advice to a younger organizer on how to support local leaders in a way that’s authentic – but quick!