If you invite them #4
Some good news for the project.
Friends of the Earth's corporate media team have hijacked (in the most positive sense) the project. Instead of The London Letter on Climate Change, we will have a sort of All Party Open Letter on Climate Change.
This means that all groups in the country will be asked to approach their MPs with a revised version of the letter. The more MPs that sign the better. A letter from an MP to a national paper can make a news story. A letter signed by tens - perhaps scores - of MPs is more certain to attract media attention.
In London, that leaves us with a couple of pressures. For those MPs who've already signed, we have to go back to them with the revised national letter, and ensure they're happy to transfer their signature over from the London Letter.
And also, because the project came from London, it's only right that we get the highest representation of MPs on the signature list.
The publication date will be on or around 14th October, to tie off the Big Ask Big Month Big Lobby. Time is fast running out to get MPs' permissions. In London, I'm currently thinking about exactly how annoying I can get in chasing groups to get feedback from their MPs. If this was work it wouldn't matter - there's a deadline, a job to be done, I can expect results.
But this isn't work, and this is where voluntary work becomes interesting.
At work, there are rules and procedures, and getting decisions made can take a long time. However, once there's a plan of action in place, it has the endorsement of the institution of work, and deadlines have to be met. There is delegated authority in requiring action.
In voluntary work, there are few rules and procedures, so decisions can be made quickly, and more creative solutions tried in shorter timescales. However, no one, quite rightly, has delegated authority to require action of anyone else. We can only explain, and ask for buy-in. And then wait patiently.
On the whole, I find the two sides of working help each other. I can bring from work training and experience and access to information that would never be given in any voluntary work. And I can take back to work the spontaneity, creativity and enthusiasm of fellow volunteers. But there is frustration, inevitably.
When a project means a lot, and this open letter obviously a means a lot to me as I conceived it, then I don't want it to fail. And it means I'd like to do all I can to make it a success. At the moment my thinking on how to ensure it's a success is limited - it's stuck in my day job. I need to find ways of communicating that urgency, that meaning, to fellow volunteers, so that they keep up good communications on getting MPs signed up, and let their groups know about this project.
Perhaps there is merit in the words of others:
Friends of the Earth's corporate media team have hijacked (in the most positive sense) the project. Instead of The London Letter on Climate Change, we will have a sort of All Party Open Letter on Climate Change.
This means that all groups in the country will be asked to approach their MPs with a revised version of the letter. The more MPs that sign the better. A letter from an MP to a national paper can make a news story. A letter signed by tens - perhaps scores - of MPs is more certain to attract media attention.
In London, that leaves us with a couple of pressures. For those MPs who've already signed, we have to go back to them with the revised national letter, and ensure they're happy to transfer their signature over from the London Letter.
And also, because the project came from London, it's only right that we get the highest representation of MPs on the signature list.
The publication date will be on or around 14th October, to tie off the Big Ask Big Month Big Lobby. Time is fast running out to get MPs' permissions. In London, I'm currently thinking about exactly how annoying I can get in chasing groups to get feedback from their MPs. If this was work it wouldn't matter - there's a deadline, a job to be done, I can expect results.
But this isn't work, and this is where voluntary work becomes interesting.
At work, there are rules and procedures, and getting decisions made can take a long time. However, once there's a plan of action in place, it has the endorsement of the institution of work, and deadlines have to be met. There is delegated authority in requiring action.
In voluntary work, there are few rules and procedures, so decisions can be made quickly, and more creative solutions tried in shorter timescales. However, no one, quite rightly, has delegated authority to require action of anyone else. We can only explain, and ask for buy-in. And then wait patiently.
On the whole, I find the two sides of working help each other. I can bring from work training and experience and access to information that would never be given in any voluntary work. And I can take back to work the spontaneity, creativity and enthusiasm of fellow volunteers. But there is frustration, inevitably.
When a project means a lot, and this open letter obviously a means a lot to me as I conceived it, then I don't want it to fail. And it means I'd like to do all I can to make it a success. At the moment my thinking on how to ensure it's a success is limited - it's stuck in my day job. I need to find ways of communicating that urgency, that meaning, to fellow volunteers, so that they keep up good communications on getting MPs signed up, and let their groups know about this project.
Perhaps there is merit in the words of others:
"We must never be afraid to go too far, for success lies just beyond."
- Marcel Proust
"I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can't be done."
- Calvin Coolidge
"Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow."
- Plato"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing."
- Abraham Lincoln
posted by The London Letters on Climate Change at 11:01
1 Comments:
You can expect results at work? You lucky thing...
I was going to say, well, if you want support for your campaign, you just have to be *particularly* nice to us, and we can specify how you might do that...but seriously, the point is that your fellow campaigners are not doing it for you, they support your campaign for the good of everyone, and appreciate being given another 'tool' to use in their campaigning on climate change.
In the spirit of volunteering I am writing this at work though I have far too much to do, it's good to feel naughty.
K (staying anonymous cos cant' be bothered to work out how to do otherwise)
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