Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow. ~ ALICE M. SWAIM

Dear friends,

You’ve probably heard us talking up the release of our new book, Re:Imagining Change – How to Use Story-Based Strategies to Win Campaigns, Build Movements, and Change the World. We’re pretty psyched about the response we’re getting…

After the BP oil disaster (and subsequent PR blitz), our email box lit up with requests from the Gulf Coast to ship books to Louisiana for an organizers meeting.

As the nation’s attention turned to the racist anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona, we were boxing up books for activists offering training on the front lines in Phoenix.

After our book launch in New York City, one activist was so inspired he brought his new copy to a local environmental organizing meeting, but someone else got there first, and was already holding up a copy of the book, imploring the group to read it and firing off ideas for how they could use it to take effective action.

This is why we wrote Re:Imagining Change, and this is why we need your contribution this season.

In fact, we’ve already sold out of the first printing of the book, published by PM Press in April. With your support, smartMeme’s vision of spreading tools and inspiration for grassroots action is coming to fruition. We’ve been coast-to-coast offering training and collaborating with like-minded groups to build a stronger progressive narrative and develop media strategy across our movements.

Nevertheless, it is a dangerous and distracting time. We all know that the Tea Party doesn’t really represent the views of very many people, but they have something even more powerful than all that corporate cash — they have a powerful story! The right wing has hijacked populist anger at Wall Street bankers and is using it to sell the same old fear-mongering, race-baiting ideology.

So how can we tell a better story of ecological justice, community transformation, reconciliation and reform?

That’s why we founded smartMeme. Powerful storytelling is the rocket fuel of movement building. Grassroots activists need the skills to not only tell their stories but also to challenge the existing stories of fear, domination and greed. We’ve trained nearly 4,000 grassroots activists and partnered with over 100 organizations fighting for peace, social justice and the environment to design story-based strategies and win framing fights that matter. But the fight is far from over.

Your donation can write the next chapter of story-based strategy.

SmartMeme is offering ideas and innovation for 21^st century social change, and building stronger movements that can tell smarter stories. We do it for cents on the dollar of the corporate PR machines we fight with the generous contributions from our community of donors like you. With foundation support waning in the wake of the recession, we need your contribution now more than ever.

As you read this, we’re working on the front lines of the movement for climate justice, helping amplify the voices of grassroots leaders at the COP 16 talks in Cancun, Mexico and continuing to build momentum for the rights of Mother Earth.

With your support, we will convene the first ever “smartMeme Academy” in 2011 – an intensive training for a new generation of leaders who can carry smartMeme’s story-based strategy tools for framing back to the communities and movements who need it most.

Our goal is to raise $20,000 this holiday season. Will you chip in $500, $250, $100 or $50? Whatever amount you can give will directly support critical campaigns, training grassroots leaders, and wide-scale distribution of Re:Imagining Change. Your donation is an essential contribution to build the movement for ecological justice and progressive social change.

The demand for smartMeme’s tools and training is growing everyday: building the grassroots climate movement, fighting for migrant’s rights, challenging corporate dominance and supporting community resilience. Our modest operations can hardly keep pace with the demand for what we do. Only with your support can smartMeme continue to be a one-of-a-kind resource for progressive change makers.

Please, make a generous gift today to support smartMeme’s important mission, and change the story for a better future.

Thank you.

Onward,

Doyle Canning & Patrick Reinsborough, smartMeme Co-Directors

PS: Still haven’t got your copy of Re:Imagining Change? A holiday contribution of $50 or more gets you two signed copies: a gift for you, and one to give away!

Calling all our U.K. friends and allies!

We’re honored to be hosted by the venerable creative action, arts and campaigning organization PLATFORM for a brief presentation and interactive workshop about smartMeme’s tools and strategic approach as documented in our new book Re:Imagining Change.

How to win ‘the battle of the story’ in campaigning, movement organizing and changing the world!

An introduction to using story-based strategy

When: Saturday 31st of July, 3pm to 6pm

Where: The Stephen Lawrence Centre, 39 Brookmill Road, London, SE8 4HU

Cost: Suggested donation of £3 to cover the room hire. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Reserve a spot: Places are limited. To reserve your place, please email your confirmation to [email protected] with one sentence about what group/project/organisation you are involved with. We are trying to ensure that there is a diverse set of participants/groups represented on the day.

Workshop Description:
Storytelling has always been central to the work of activists, organizers and movement builders. Narrative is the lens through which humans process the information we encounter, be it cultural, emotional, experiential, or political. We make up stories about ourselves, our histories, our futures, and our hopes.
SmartMeme draws from many disciplines, integrating practices from organizing, broadcast media, advertising, strategic communications, education and systems thinking into their strategy and training work. Their experiments have evolved into a set of tools they call story-based strategy — a framework to link movement building with an analysis of narrative power by placing storytelling at the centre of social change strategy.

This workshop on the 31st of July, given by smartMeme co-founder Patrick Reinsborough will introduce some of the basic techniques in how to use story-based strategy as a tool in achieving social change. The workshop is aimed at people involved in social movements, community organizing, direct action groups, progressive NGOs and anyone who is interested in engaging with them.

As the seasons turn and the geese take flight, we are inspired to offer this invitation for participation!

FACT: As each goose flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird following. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if the bird flew alone.

LESSON: Those who share a common direction and sense of unity can get where they are going quicker and easier, because they are traveling on the thrust of one another…

SmartMeme is seeking a few special individuals to join our Board of Directors, and we’re issuing this invitation to our community. The Board’s primary function is to support the organizational mission and participate in making that mission manifest. As part of our commitment to inclusive movement building, the Board is majority people of color and women. Attention is made to diversity in sexual orientation, area of work, geography, ability, etc. Young people are welcome and the current group is all under 40 years old.

2009 board members start with a seaside board retreat in Northern California November 5-8, 2009. We are currently redefining and building this leadership team, and it’s an exciting time in smartMeme! Interested?

Apply today! [DOWNLOAD APPLICATION AS PDF]

Want to fly with our flock?

Read and return this application [DOWNLOAD AS PDF] and return via email by 5 pm PST on OCTOBER 14, 2009.

{More lessons from Geese}

The NY Times is reporting an interesting shift in the Democrat’s messaging around the economic crisis. Apparently “stimulus” is out and “recovery” is the new meme of choice. Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is quoted as saying “Stimulus is Washington talk and ‘economic recovery’ is how the American people think of it.” Nancy Pelosi apparently even clarified at a press conference that “We’re not using the word ‘stimulus’.”

It’s always worth paying attention to coordinated efforts to shift the framing of a critical issue but particularly in this case what does it mean? Will the Democrats start getting to the real roots of the problem or is it just new language for the same polices of denial and distraction?

The financial crisis provides us a unique opportunity to fundamentally change the way we conceptualize our economy and what makes an “economic recovery”. We are long overdue to recognize that the economy is merely a sub-system of an even more important and threatened system — the planet’s ecological operating system. Just as our economic system is sagging under the weight of toxic debt, our global environment is suffering from the debt industrialized nations have run up on the planet’s life sustaining natural systems. This uncalculated natural debt stems from the destruction of ecosystems, over-consumption by the wealthy, over extraction of limited resources and the dumping of massive amounts of pollution into the air, water and bodies of all living things. By continuing to ignore the true ecological foundation of our economy we are jeopardizing not only our economic well being but our entire global civilization.

Collectively, we must be very clear that whatever the Democrats mean by “economic recovery” it can not be the same-old, unfettered and indiscriminate “economic growth” that has created so many of our problems. It’s time to let our values and our common sense guide our economic policy. What do we want to grow? More billionaires or more organic vegetables? More strip malls selling disposable plastic crap or more just, resilient communities? More coal fired power plants or more local, renewable energy solutions? It’s time to change our thinking and change the story about what defines a healthy economy. Our movements need to demand that this economic recovery is part of a broader transformation of our economic system away from unlimited economic growth based on extraction, destruction and exploitation and towards a steady state economy based on ecological restoration, justice and equality.

There are lots of great resources out there for folks looking for the roots of this crisis and for real solutions. One of the best compilations has been put together by YES! magazine. You can also check out the new report from the Institute for Policy Studies Skewed Priorities: How the Bailouts Dwarf Other Crises which documents how that the U.S. and European governments are spending over 40 times on bailing out the financial system than they are on fighting global warming or poverty. Another resource is Break the Bailout an emerging “transpartisan coalition” that is challenging the massive taxpayer hand out to Wall Street and proposing alternatives.

Movements are the world are rising to the challenge of not only reframing the policy debates around the bail out of the financial industry but also questioning the underlying assumptions that are driving our current pathological economic system. At the recent G-20 meetings, hundreds of civil society organizations from around the planet produced a statement outlining an agenda to create an economic system that works for both people and planet. But this is just the beginning — there’s lots more work to do to make sure that the power of money works in the service of life. What are you doing to change the story around unlimited growth and create a more just, ecologically sane economy? Leave us a comment or drop us a line and let us know.