The Kraush Guide To Internal Organizing

How to utilize socials

In a previous essay, Towards a Mass (Block) Party I laid out what I call the ‘Socializers’ framework. The framework can be summed up as - many socialists don’t have the ability to commit their lives as fully to DSA as its ‘Full Timer’ core organizers which often manifests in the form of ‘Socializers’ who primarily show up to DSA’s social events instead of political work. A key point of this essay was that an expanded focus on social activities which draws in Socializers can still grow the ranks of Full Timers by engaging more people overall. Socializer is a loose category, but it can be broken down into two very broad categories - people without the inclination and resources to become Full Timers, and people who could develop into Full Timers under the right circumstances. In order to take full advantage of the latter category and grow our capacity as an organization, NYC-DSA needs to begin systemically internally organizing using social activities as a ‘site’.

How To Build A Full Timer

In order to be systematic about developing membership, we first need to establish what actually works. Years of onboarding and development work has led to the conclusion that the most effective approach centers on building reciprocity between the member and the organization. Reciprocity will be defined here¹ as:

• Having incentive for participation within an organization in the form of social connections, meaningful democratic participation and a sense that their contribution is significant to addressing the problems they wish to see fixed.

Reciprocity is equivalent to self-actualization within an organization, or an organization being intellectually, socially or emotionally rewarding to participate in. 

Reciprocity is a complex topic with multiple contributing factors, but for the scope of this essay I will focus only on the most important one - developing a sense of community within an organization.

The obvious draw of NYC-DSA’s social activities is as places to meet new people. America is an incredibly lonely place - its social fabric has been ravaged by capitalism, suburbanization, gentrification and worst of all mobile devices - and many people in DSA’s orbit have never known an authentic community. NYC-DSA, with its large member base and vibes that sometimes border on good, serves as a legitimate community institution for many. It is this sense of community - albeit often ascribed to smaller formations such as branches, working groups or caucuses rather than the chapter - that sustains many of our Full Timers and even leadership. People are more willing to do work when they feel it benefits them, even in the altruistic sense of doing so by building their community.

The quickest way for Socializers to develop a sense of community within DSA is through being inducted into spaces with a high density of Full Timers who themselves belong to inter-DSA communities. Safe, welcoming spaces with good vibes are inherently appealing and serve as an effective medium for knowledge transfer. No documentation is better at conveying the scope of an organization than chatting at the bar with veteran membership. A sense of meaningful contribution is also key to developing reciprocity, so asks provided by Full Timers who know what campaigns need can serve as the way developing members contribute as well as a means to build organizing skills.

Internal Organizing

With the importance of building relationships between Socializers and Full Timers established, we also must understand the mechanics of this relationship-building.. Member development work is almost exactly the same as other organizing work, but done within an organization instead of focused on external constituencies; which is why it is called internal organizing. In interviews with successful organizers such as the ones behind the recent TCGPlayer union drive - some things stand out:

It involved rapid-fire meeting a lot of new people and also trying to find out how they felt about the concept of organizing. A whirlwind of a lot of one-on-one conversations, lunches with people — we get long lunches to play Commander or Magic. It’s helpful to be able to share over a game casually; you don’t necessarily need to be friends with the person to sit across from them at the table and be able to chat with them like, “Hey, how do you feel about the conditions that we’re all under?” A lot of discussion in our organizing channels on Discord was like, “Hey, I’m having this lunch game today with this particular person. Does any other organizer feel like that they can hop into the game with us and give me an assist on that?”.

TCGPlayer organizers utilized social spaces in the form of lunchtime Magic: The Gathering games to begin to connect with and engage coworkers. Furthermore, they deliberately identified people they wanted to talk to and planned ahead. Outside of the novelty of the use of card games, similar techniques are commonly cited in coverage of other successful union drives.

NYC-DSA should apply these same principles to internal organizing, using the social events and clubs it has been cultivating as an organizing site no less valuable than a workplace. If we can accomplish this, these social spaces will evolve beyond the confines of fun and realize their potential as an engine of growth for the chapter. NYC-DSA organizers must be made aware of the basic techniques of internal organizing, summarized in the following principles:

1. Every social event or club should have Full Timer organizers attending with the express purpose of identifying Organizable Members, or OMs² for short..

   1. There should be enough organizers in social spaces such that newer members or Socializers are not an overwhelming majority, making these spaces an effective way for them to meet Full Timers.

   2. Full Timers should anticipate needing to attend repeat events in order to benefit from repeat social exposure and meet more new members. 

   3. Once a connection has been made with an OM, Full-Timers should feel confident asking for contact information and need to ensure they follow up within a few days.

2. Full Timers should follow up on connections with an invitation to a 1-1 conversation focused on onboarding the OM into the organization.

   1. All Full Timers engaged in this work should be trained on how to have 1-1 conversations, and asks should be prepared ahead of time. Full Timers should be expected to follow through on any ask they deliver along with 

   2. This way of making asks is much more effective than undirected asks delivered to crowds at social events, and ironically perceived as less of an imposition because it is less impersonal.

   3. 1-1 conversations should be held in person whenever possible. They can be done during a walk, over coffee, etc. One purpose of these 1-1s is to organically grow the relationship between both parties involved.

3. OMs should be supported for the duration of the ask

   1. If the ask is a canvass, the Full Timer should partner up with OMs and take the lead until they feel comfortable initiating door knocking.³

   2. If the ask is attending a meeting or strategic discussions, Full Timers should stay close to OMs, provide context even when they don’t ask and encourage them to participate in open discussion portions in small ways if they feel comfortable doing so.

   3. In any scenario it is important that the Full Timer creates space for OMs to ask questions. The most powerful political education and member development tool in any scenario is when someone hits a point where they start asking a lot of questions. This marks the point where a member begins self developing and engaging with an organization conceptually.

4. The Full Timer should be deliberate about building a relationship with OMs until they are able to navigate the organization and get involved in work independently

   1. Alternatively, if an OM no longer expresses interest in engaging, it's important to know when to step back. This will happen even with promising OMs and it is important not to take it personally.

   2. The process of developing into a Full Timer can take time, often weeks to months. This process may involve multiple cycles of attending social activities, follow up communications and successive asks. The best approach is usually a slow burn based on accommodating OMs.

5. The most important part is keeping the vibes good

   1. The trick to all of this is not rigidly following a set of instructions but building a real relationship with the people we are organizing.

   2. Socially focused internal organizing is not going to work if it is done cynically by people who don’t care about the OM they are meeting, the facade will quickly collapse. When we approach OMs it needs to be done with the intent of treating them as a potential member of our community, not a pool of labor.

   3. The most effective skill an organizer can have is taking a *legitimate interest* in the people they are working with. Time should be given between steps to let people have room to breathe, steps can and should be repeated out of order. What matters is adapting to the circumstances and going the extra mile. This process is a success if they end up as your comrade, or in other words a friend.

One Last Note

If DSA’s socials become effective sites for internal organizing, the next task is designing and promoting them in a way which draws in demographics that are underrepresented within the chapter. This could involve strategies including specific geographic targeting of activities, advertising certain events only by word of mouth, co-hosting with more diverse sections of the organization or even outside groups, and many more. From a vibes perspective alone, events filled with only 20-something white men are far from ideal, and this legitimately risks our chances of success with internal organizing. Bespoke socials would only address some of the limitations of NYC-DSA’s base demographics, but they could improve on several areas - most notably our shameful underrepresentation of women. If socials become an appealing space for people to participate in NYC-DSA, and we are able to grow our internal organizing, this system could become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

1.  Taken from a previous essay where I go into it in more detail.

2. This is incredibly lazy but I didn’t want to codify another term and add more fuel to the fire that is jargon.

3. A focus on onboarders actually canvassing with the people they were onboarding was a key point of the Illapa Campaign Buddy System. The system was instituted late and had limited data, but in cases where the onboader and onboardee were able to meet both consistently attended several successive canvasses. This had a higher apparent success rate than populations who only received an onboarding call or campaign text without a buddy system invitation.