Summer Organizing Institute 2010 attendees
For the past two summers REC has organized a summer training for its upcoming student organizers and other interested students. Students gather to learn from each other’s experiences, walk through the past successes that REC has seen at schools nationwide, and then learn and discuss ways to get there on their own campuses. We just wrapped up our third Summer Organizing Institute, which was a big success!
This year we covered a number of subjects that we’ve also worked on in past years, including an overview of endowments and finance and how to research your endowment. We also included a lot of material about organizing, recruitment, and engagement of campus groups and media, all of which were pieces that were popular in past years. Previous organizing director Cheyenna Weber stopped by on Thursday for a discussion of effective tactics, and Drew alum and organizer Alan Kantz ’10 gave a great presentation finding your strategy through S.M.A.R.T. goals. (Can anyone tell me what SMART stands for? I hope so!)
Dan goes over some Community Investment 101
This year we also infused quite a bit of new energy and material into the week. Dan gave a thorough overview of community investment as an effective strategy to empower communities and make a statement against the practices of the big banks. Julian Hattem from the Huffington Post joined us for a discussion of the success of the Move Your Money campaign, and Vonda Brunsting from SEIU discussed their efforts to move institutional money away from big banks and towards local institutions.
Overall we had a great week. Thanks to Starlet, Dave, and Jack for joining us – it was great to meet you and hear your contributions! As for the participants in this year’s student organizer program, you’ll be learning a little bit more about them soon. Thank you also to the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the CUNY Grad Center, and the SEIU New York Regional Office for hosting us. Without you none of this would have been possible!
Interested in attending a future REC training? We plan on holding them every summer and winter. Email organize@endowmentethics.org and watch our ‘upcoming events’ section to learn more!
