Over the last few days, I have learned much about how my organization functions in the public sphere. I met (well, encountered) two of its board members in the real world, learned about its role in transit legislative coalitions, and spent some less-than-captivating time with the online member database.
I was tabling this past Sunday at Open Streets, a fun community event where a street is reclaimed for pedestrians and non-motorized traffic. There I was able to observe the general public's response to our work, while tabling with one of our board members. Then just yesterday while taking notes at a Met Council meeting, I realized that one of the council members is also on our board. It was interesting for me to note that TLC lobbies a governing body whose member also governs TLC. It sparked me to wonder what other intricacies might exist in the board.
I also learned about TLC's advocacy strategies, specifically how we target two groups, grassroots and grass tops. The roots are of course the members and targeted populations, but the tops are other organizations and their leaders. When pushing for a specific legislative action, our organization will coordinate with other organizations, such as Sierra Club, and even trade member lists to broaden our base of support. This is a very delicate process since even two such compatible goals as transit funding and environmental protection can butt heads, especially when messaging comes into play. TLC might want to emphasize the health, economic, or social benefits of transit where Sierra Club would prioritize just the environmental advantages.
Seeing this back-and-worth has been thought-provoking so far, and I am hoping to learn more coalition-building over the next month.
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