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woke up still thinking about the #dsa100k recruitment drive lol so gonna write a few thoughts out, if this is annoying to you please mute this thread!
a lot of this stuff was discussed on the twitch stream (??) last night with @workerism @JonahFurman @jackcalifano @lodgepolepines @HondaWang so i'm definitely going to be stealing/reiterating many of their thoughts
firstly i think the goal (growing our membership org) is very good and necessary. if people disagree with that on its face i'd like to hear why. one criticism i hear is that dsa is not a perfect org yet (not even close!) and should focus on its internal problems before growing
this is def true but 1) i think we can do both at the same time and people are actually trying to 2) we can't wait for the org to be perfect to grow (will never happen) 3) we need more people in the org and to do work to improve internal functionality
i also am hearing criticisms of recruitment tactics. one of these big issues is social media, people think that's shallow recruitment. but anyone can go to the dsa website and join online at any time, there's no litmus test or anything you have to do except join
all the social media posts are just encouraging people to do a pretty easy thing (join the org), and i think we can assume that people would not join the democratic socialists of america if they didn't somewhat agree with the ideology
of course if that's not true now then that's always untrue, and that's a separate issue from the recruitment drive, which does nothing different or new from regular joining except provide some guidance and urgency and friendly competition
i also have heard people talk about the make up of dsa (with regards to race, gender, age, geography, etc) - all extremely valid points that dsa needs to improve upon. but we can't do that if we stay the exact same size. we need to grow! more on that here: https://dsaorganizer.org/2019/07/03/why-recruit/#more-240
i've seen people talk about "strategic recruitment," ie in certain industries. i think that's a great idea and there's nothing stopping anyone from recruiting that way. all the drive does is encourage members to recruit 3 people - how you recruit and who you recruit is up to you
i've also seen people say they don't know how to make the ask or talk about dsa. i think dsa could do a better job of helping people through that, but i also think it's just not that deep. why are you in dsa? just talk about that, and go from there
we're not asking for someone to give us their first born child, we're asking them to pay a small amount of dues money to an organization that shares their values that could potentially materially improve their life. this is on tuesday if you need support https://actionnetwork.org/events/dsa-recruitment-drive-kickoff-and-100k-pledge-training-2?clear_id=true
but i think most of these things just come down to fear - people are afraid to make the ask, people are afraid dsa isn't good enough, people are afraid they'll seem weird. that isn't a dsa problem, that's a personal problem that all organizers need to work through at some point!
and i'll just say, on a personal note, that yes, i am winning the recruitment drive. i haven't appreciated the subtweets about "shallow recruitment" by the same people who are *also* sharing their join links on social media
there are people with far more followers than me (rob delaney, 1.5 million!) who have shared their links and recruited far fewer people. i do not think it's a question of twitter followers as much as a question of who we are and the work we do
i hope that people see me and the work i do for dsa and respect it enough to say, ok i think i'm gonna finally join. i'm not going to be made to feel embarrassed by that. i'm proud that i've done a good job of showing how important dsa is and encouraging people to join me
maybe social media is dumb, but it's also real. what you don't see from my tweets are the many DM conversations i have been having with people who have wanted to join but have had something holding them back, and also of course with people in my real life!
if you're a dsa member, you already have the skills to ask someone to join, you just need to harness them. and i encourage you to do so during the membership drive because it takes a lot of pressure off you!
instead of having a more serious convo with stakes that feel higher, you can be like, "the weird org i'm in is making me ask you NOW and also i really want to win this hat!" it makes it feel way more chill while also lighting a fire under your ass. now is totally the time!!!!
and of course, if you're thinking about joining dsa, we would absolutely love to have you! and in fact, we NEED you. please join! http://bit.ly/mindyDSA
