Join smartMeme December 3rd at Third Sector New England in Boston for the Be the Media! Mini-Conference, and our workshop, “Narrative & Power: Story-based Strategies for Social Change.”

From bethemediaevent.org :

The annual Be the Media! Mini-Conference helps participants understand the link between strategic communications and organizing strategies as well as learn essential communications tools and techniques.

The theme of the third annual Be the Media! Mini-Conference is: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of New Media for Grassroots Organizations.

Communications and media work are powerful tools for organizers and non-profits working on community and social issues, but they can also present challenges, particularly for under-resourced groups. In recent years, the development of new media tools such as social networking sites, blogs with multi-media content, YouTube, and cell phones as mass communication devices have both given groups more options and raised questions about where to focus already limited staff and volunteer time. At this year’s conference, we will explore not only how to implement these tools, but identify what are their best and most impactful uses for grassroots organizations.

The conference is designed to serve change makers at levels of communication experience including those who are doing communications work as part of their current positions, such as organizers, executive directors, or policy advocates.

Sponsored by: Progressive Communicators Network, Third Sector New England and Project Think Different
Co-sponsored by: Boston Women’s Fund, Resist, and Press Pass TV.

Exciting news from the campaign to restore the Klamath river basin! Last week the campaign came one step closer to removing four of the destructive dams that have so negatively impacted the environment, economy and traditional cultures of the basin.

The owner of the dams — the PacifiCorp power company (a subsidiary of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway corporation) — announced an Agreement in Principle (AIP) with the Federal government and the governments of California and Oregon to begin a process that would remove the dams by 2020.

The non-binding agreement is only a first step but it is being welcomed by diverse groups in the basin as a first step in the right direction towards what could be the largest dam removal in history. Read more about the Campaign: New York Times, National Geographic and the San Francisco Chronicle.

A joint statement from the Karuk, Yurok and Klamath tribes, the Klamath Water User’s Assosciation , the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Federations and several environmental groups said, “The signing of the AIP is welcome news to the Tribes, conservationists, commercial fishermen, farmers and ranchers who see dam removal as the missing element of the more comprehensive Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement released earlier this year.”

The federal government’s statement and the text of the Agreement in Principle can be found on the Department of the Interior’s website.

The campaign’s coalition building has allowed tribes, commercial fisherman and irrigators to move beyond fighting each other as the impacts of the crisis roll from community to community to uniting all stake holders to restore the basin. SmartMeme has been supporting this campaign since 2004 with strategy facilitation, messaging, advertising and design. We are honored to have helped these groups change the story in the basin from one of crisis and division towards a unified vision of a restored basin with intact cultures, economies and ecosystems.

SmartMeme offers our heart felt congratulations to all our friends and colleagues, both native and non-native, many of whom have worked for a lifetime to protect the river, maintain their cultural traditions and win environmental justice for their communities.

There is still lots of work to be done and no doubt the road ahead will be long. But this agreement will hopefully mark a turning point when PacifiCorp and the state and federal governments act responsibly and in good faith to restore the Klamath basin.

BRAVO to the Alliance - and VIVA SALMON NATION!