What are some of the best practices for recruiting, training, and retaining community organizers?

One thing I've found is having clearly defined goals that you're looking to accomplish goes a long way when bringing on organizers. You have to make sure the organizer can see the mission before they get started. Having a great field plan is key. Being able to verbally communicate objectives and having them in a written format is necessary.

In my role, many partnerships have been cultivate through their outreach to my school. I take time to have a conversation first. I invite them to see the school and meet with the principal. I vet them by telling them our expectation, learning how they could address our goals, and understanding their practices in reaching our goals. With sustaining constant communication and event participation, our partners have become woven into the fabric of our school culture.

Some of the best organizers I've managed came from a non traditional network and brought a unique perspective to the work. You can find great organizers everywhere.

Training is key. You have to be a coach. Everybody has different personalities so you need to recognize that to bring out the best in your organizers. Support is critical. I would always make sure organizer or intern they felt like they had the ability to not only do their job, but eventually my position too. I remember during a past election cycle in Iowa when one of my organizers came to me and said the organizers from a Presidential campaign wanted to know how we were having so much success and what we were doing to organize in the community. They couldn't figure it out. Funny thing is that organizer of mine was doing the job for the very first time. He was going to college and working overnight at a hotel prior to being an organizer.

If you don't allow them/encourage them to get out there and "get to work" you won't ever know whether or not your training "took" :) It's like riding a bicycle...you can tell people how to ride and they may understand the basics, but it's in actually riding that bike as many times as it takes to put those lessons into practice to actually be able to ride the bike! Then as they build confidence, watch out...cause if they are as good as you thought they were when you originally recruited them? They may just take off and be more than you ever dreamed they could be!!

As a grant manager, I try to encourage my partners to think of their bottom line. It often occurs that if they work for free, the quality is poor. When there are evaluations, work products, and planning documents request the accountability drives quality. Quality delivers funding. I trust my partners to deliver quality and to offer evidence of their performance. This can be through tutoring students, hosting parent workshops, or attending cultural events. Having skin in the game shows their willingness to define their own value to our community.

Absolutely, time spent together in celebration of the work that everyone has done is critical! Everyone needs some down time and some time just to relax with each other, have fun and enjoy the moment. During a presidential campaign I volunteered for we had a social once a month to celebrate the work that we all had done that month. It helped us sustain our teams and move through a long road to re-electing the president :)

One thing I always want to do is shout out the good work of our partners. Thankfully, our local newspaper has participated in covering numerous events. They take time to capture stakeholder comments. Also, I make a point of thanking them after each event. Showing our appreciation of their time goes a long way. Furthermore, I host an annual end of year conference to update them on the our accomplishments and projections for the upcoming year. It allows them to feel valued our governance and budgeting process.