After an intense week of prepping, I was flown down to Atlanta on the 15th of July as a member of the logistics team for The Right To The City (RTC)/Homes For All (HFA) Leadership Assembly. This Leadership Assembly was a critical space for the development of Homes For All, Right To The City’s most prominent housing campaign, and Right To The City’s collective work as an alliance. This was the first time the entire leadership bodies of HFA (Organizing Committee + Translocal Committee Anchors + Regional anchors), RTC (Steering Committee) and the staff came together in one place.
As decided in our prep stage, it was critical to set some goals for the assembly in order to have a productive conversation with concrete suggestions, solutions and results. The goals of the assembly were to:
- Deepen relationships between each other
- Deepen understanding of the relationship between the structures (staffing, resources, workplans) and the strategic work of Homes For All (to build the national housing justice movement and a united land & housing front) and Right To The City (to build municipal power for the Right To The City and align the social movement left).
- Prioritize strategic campaigns in the next phase
- Clarify the DNA development process and recommit to what it will take to build that out and build consensus and cohesion.
- Assess the current landscape and prioritize how, when and to what degree Right To The City will play a role in this broader work.
We had about 30 members, many of whom came as leaders of RTC and HFA ally organizations. What was most powerful for me about being present for this assembly was being able to witness the process by which a large collective of organizers and activists conversed, debated and democratically decided the key decisions made. The people at the assembly came prepared and brought their experience, honesty, trust and wisdom to the discussions and decisionmaking, and we largely accomplished our goals, understanding that this assembly is just one part of an ongoing process. We spent significant time discussing the next steps, roles and timeline that are necessary to continue to move the work forward. Coming out of the assembly with that forward vision was inspiring; people were immediately taking upon roles, following up etc. and I really felt the invigoration that comes from the power of collective effort and passion.
As a member of the logistics team, my role was to make sure that the conference ran smoothly. I was working primarily with a hired consultant to make sure that the hotel, food, transportation, snack/coffee, printing etc. was all covered. On the days of the actual conference, I was working under the RTTC presenters and helping with writing up on butcher paper, tech, organising space for breakout sessions, agenda etc. Doing all this work allowed me to serve a purpose while existing as a sponge, absorbing all the talking and decision making and debating happening in the room. I logged my own notes on things that stood out to me; for example, I realised the value of having “energizers” at regular intervals so people could let loose and be silly and laugh to keep mind sharper during the meat of conference conversation. I was impressed by the “traffic-light” system of voting upon which the progression of the agenda depended: a majority green (i.e. support) for key decisions meant we could move on, while more yellows and reds meant we had to work harder to come to a more democratic decision. And most important were the moments outside of the conference where all of us hung out casually and were able to learn and understand each other and where we were all coming from in our approach to this work. Bonding does wonders in actual discussion – people are comfortable enough to voice their opinions, concerns and discontents without fear of backlash or judgement.
Now, in the post-assembly phase, the most critical next step is for each representative at the assembly to bring the decisions we made back to their organization and collective in order to provide organizational feedback and inform the finalizing and implementation of the 5 primary decisions we made (which, for strategic and security reasons, I will not disclose). This is collective work and we cannot achieve our goals unless everyone upholds their duties. While there is significant enthusiasm, it is up to us as the “glue” organization to urge people to follow through in a timely and comprehensive fashion, so my duties at the moment are focused on this.
It’s great to read more about your experience at the conference and see the ways in which creative collaborative tools (the traffic lights are great!) and informal bonding make the organization work. I wonder how the break-out meetings that are now happening around the country draw on this model — or if they have their own. When do you find out of these 5 primary decisions have been “ratified”? And are these actionable decisions or general goals?