Organizing Tips: Building Your Visibility
May 6, 2012
Part of building a strong student government is making sure that everyone on campus knows what the student government is, what you do, and how they can help.
Visibility helps to educate the campus about your accomplishments, increase your reputation as a group that gets things done, set the stage for students to get involved, and increase turnout at your events.Read more
Organizing Tips: Recruiting Volunteers
April 18, 2012
The beginning of each term is a prime time for student groups - including your student government - to recruit new members to participate in your campaigns.
With more people involved, your student government can bring more ideas to the table, generate more public support for your campaigns, be more visible and build a bigger buzz on campus, and develop more leaders to take on more responsibility - all of which means you’re able to win more victories on the issues that affect students.
Student governments should strive to have a large base of volunteers who are involved in projects, even if they’re not elected members.Read more
Organizing Tips: Campaign Planning
March 4, 2012
Once you decide what issue to work on, sometimes the hardest part is figuring out where to start. Here are a set of questions you can ask to help you take a problem and turn it into a campaign that your student government can work on and win.
- What is the problem?
- Why is it a problem?
- What are the solutions?
- What is the process to solve it?
- Who are the decision-makers?
- What do they care about?
- What's our goal?
- What's our strategy?
- What are our tactics?
Organizing Tips: Choosing Issues
February 18, 2012
There are no shortage of problems for you to work on, and it can be hard to choose where to spend you time. Picking the right issues for your student government to work on can help the organization recruit more people to get involved, focus your energy where you'll make the biggest impact, and build your image as an organization that gets results.
Here are some questions to consider when picking an issue to work on.Read more
Organizing Tips: Building Grassroots Support
February 6, 2012
When you're working to influence public policy, one of the most powerful tools at your disposal is building and demonstrating widespread public support for your issue. Even if you don't have as much power or influence as the groups pushing against your proposals, decision-makers care about what the public thinks. If you're working on issues that affect the student body, there are always a ton of students who care and are willing to take action - by signing a petition or postcard, writing a letter, or making a phone call.Read more
Organizing Tips: Lobbying 101
January 25, 2012
Lobbying is one of the key tools for getting a decision-maker to act. You can lobby a state or federal legislator by meeting with them (or their staff) at the statehouse or in DC, by visiting them while they’re in-district, or even by inviting them to come to campus.Read more
Organizing Tips: Building Coalitions
January 17, 2012
It's easier to tackle a problem if you have some backup. Building a coalition of supportive organizations and individuals is an effective way to increase your influence.
Why build a coalition?
- More groups = more people, more ideas, more resources = You can accomplish more.
- Different groups bring different strengths to the table, such as members, prestige, credibility, or expertise.
- A big and diverse coalition shows that there is widespread support for the issue.