Weekend Retreat 2007

More than ever, social change activists and progressive movements are focusing on new media technologies to engage the public, mobilize supporters, and organize their actions, and the need for more effective ecampaigning tools, tactics and strategies is at the top of many organizations’ priority lists.

At the same time, our work lives as new media campaigning advocates are getting busier and more complex, and in the day-to-day management of our tools and campaigns, we don't often get time to look at larger questions about the work we do and how we do it:

• How can we build strong, more supportive, peer networks? As social tech activists, we often work in isolation within our organizations and we rely on our colleagues within the broader movement for ideas, support and inspiration.
• How can we more effectively collaborate and share our resource, time and energy with our colleagues across the spectrum of the social change movement?
• How do we embody our social change values in the work that we do? Do we use the tools of electronic media to effectively empower and inspire our constituents, or are we tending to follow the models of commercial/corporate media?
• What is our role as advocates for the use of new media in social change movements? How can we inform and inspire our colleagues, especially those who have resisted getting involved with new media technologies?

In a relaxed, informal, and inspiring atmosphere, we will explore these and other themes relating to our collective work as new media and social change advocates.

Our goals for the weekend

It's a sort of "meta level" finish to the topics discussed at the eCampaigning Forum. We'll have a small group of people, and we're keeping the agenda pretty open, looking at four main areas. In no particular order:

• What are our roles in the tactics and choices we make? Taking a step back from the "rat race" of what's cool and new, what are trends?
• How do we align what we're doing with our own values?
• How can we be creative and more diverse in the techniques, tools and facilitation of the workshop, conferences, trainings we do, to get to other types of results?
• How do we build "nurturing relations" and peer networks, and become partners and allies for each other in our work? How to deepen our own professional relationships? (One particular question is the cross-pollination of ideas for what's happening in the UK and Europe in general, and the lessons we could swap with the nonprofit internet scene in the US)

Agenda

• Friday 11 May, Evening
• Saturday 12 May, All day
• Sunday 13 May, Morning

Participants

• Beka Economopoulos, Greenpeace USA
• Brian Cugelman, University of Wolverhampton
• Duane Raymond, FairSay
• George Irish, Amnesty International Canada
• Justin Perkins, Care2
• Petri Savolainen, FairSay
• Rob Purdie, Important Projects
• Rolf Kleef, drostan.org

Photos:

Here is a flickr slideshow of photos from the retreat, showing the venue at St. Stephens House, some small group discussions in the lounge, and a walking tour of Oxford.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishg/sets/72157600209908112/show/