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I feel like I’m a freshman back at college orientation. Welcome speech by the president, check. Course reader, check. Schedule, check. Line-up of inspiring guest lecturers, check.
The only thing missing is the clusters of giddy 18-year-olds clutching their book bags and asking one another, “What’s your major?”
It’s day one of 50CAN U’s inaugural “campaign boot camp.” As a part of 50CAN U, the executive directors of our four state campaigns have flocked to 50CAN headquarters in NYC for an intensive weeklong training on how to craft a winning legislative campaign plan. The EDs were given plenty of homework beforehand, including a mammoth course reader filled with relevant policy and advocacy resources. To supplement the course reader the boot camp will feature presentations by our in-house experts on policy & research, communications and government relations, as well as seminar-style sessions with guest speakers who will share other tips and tricks of the advocacy trade, from strategic planning to effective messaging to grassroots mobilizing.
Luckily for me (and you), these sessions are open to all of 50CAN staff, which means that every day this week I will attend them and then report back to you, my fellow classmates, so that you can take part as well.
The schedule is posted at the bottom, so feel free to peruse and post a comment on this blog to let us know which sessions you’re most interested in.
You can also get real-time updates on the campaign boot camp by following @FiftyCAN on Twitter (we’ll also be tweeting with the #campaignbootcamp hashtag).
As I learned in today’s session on strategic planning by Denis Calabrese, head of the Arnold Foundation, the first step to changing the status quo is challenging the status quo within you. It’s human nature to want to stick to the familiar and routine. But to succeed in the advocacy business, as Denis explains, you have to be both brave and humble enough to “adopt a professional lifestyle in which you are in a constant state of reevaluation.”
50CAN U, like this campaign boot camp, was inspired by this idea that we can always do better. Our EDs were rockstars on their local education scene before they even came to 50CAN–that’s why we bet on them in the first place. But they’re also willing to learn even more and unafraid of trying something new. And that kind of humble courage is what it will take to pull off a successful campaign.
Denis explained that once you overcome the status quo within yourself, the next step is figuring out what your objective is—that is, what needs to happen before you can go home. Our ultimate objective at 50CAN, and of education reform in general, is not to pass a set of laws. Our objective is much bigger.
Jon Sackler, 50CAN board member and one of the original ConnCAN founders, said it best when he summed up our objective at today’s lunchtime discussion. He said our challenge is to do for education what Steve Jobs and Apple did for the computer industry: make space for the beautiful. In the crowded technology market, Steve Jobs and the other innovators at Apple carved out space for beautiful products. For us in education reform, our job is to make space in the system for beautiful innovations in education, the kinds of innovations that will give every one of our students the education they deserve. That is our mission. It’s a tall order, and to achieve it, we have to be willing to become students ourselves.
See you in class.
50CAN University’s 2011 Campaign Boot Camp: Class Schedule
Monday, October 10th
11:30am-12:30pm – Welcome lunch with 50CAN board member Jon Sackler
50CAN board member Jon Sackler will join our state leaders and national staff for lunch.
12:40pm-1:40pm – 50CAN U Orientation
Executive directors and staff will receive their course schedules and materials. Marc will give a brief overview of expectations, goals and materials.
2:00pm-3:30pm – Denis Calabrese, Head of the Arnold Foundation
Denis Calabrese will discuss his advocacy for tort reform in Texas and the lessons he believes could be applied to our campaigns.
3:40pm-4:20pm – Matt Kramer, President of Teach for America
50CAN Board Chair Matt Kramer will welcome our new executive directors to the team.
4:30pm-6:00pm – Government Relations Strategy
Vice President of Government Relations Julie Marlette will prepare our new executive directors for implementing an effective government relations strategy and developing a winning pitch for legislators. On Friday, executive directors will test their pitch in a mock one-on-one with a legislator.
6:30pm-8:30pm – Welcome Dinner Part One
The executive directors will join Executive Vice President Ellen Winn and half of the national staff for dinner.
Tuesday, October 11th
9:00am-11:00am – State Overviews for New Executive Directors
Our new executive directors will attend alternate hour-long courses delving into achievement gap data and the key players are in their state. Gretchen Guffy, our VP of policy & research, will work with executive directors on achievement gap data. Our director of new site development, Marie Garcia Melli, will brief the executive directors on the key issues and players in their state’s education reform landscape.
11:15am-12:30pm – Case Study #1: ConnCAN’s 2011 Campaign
ConnCAN’s CEO Alex Johnston and COO Anna Marcucio will share lessons learned from the 2011 campaign.
12:30pm-1:50pm – Lunch with John King, New York’s Commissioner of Education
Executive directors and national senior staff will join Commissioner King for lunch.
2:00pm-3:00pm – Writing a Winning Campaign Plan
By the end of the week, each executive director will submit a draft of their campaign plan to the senior staff for review. This class will introduce our state leaders to the qualities of an exemplary campaign plan.
3:15pm-4:15pm – Writing a Budget into the Campaign Plan
Director of Finance Alex Sierra will introduce executive directors to key principles of smart budget planning.
4:30pm-6:00pm – The Advocacy Tool Box
President Marc Porter Magee will outline the “advocacy tools” – communications, political donations, framing, relationships, coalitions, parent organizing – used by our allies in the education reform landscape and explain why the CAN model emphasizes particular tools over others.
6:30pm – Welcome Dinner Part Two
The executive directors will join President Marc Porter Magee and the other half of the national staff for dinner.
Wednesday, October 12th
9:00am-10:30am – Development Strategy
Our Vice President of Development, Maggie Jacobs, will lead this seminar with the aim of helping our executive directors formulate the development piece of their campaign plan and their funding pitch. The executive directors will test their pitch in a mock one-on-one with a potential donor on Friday.
10:45am-11:45am – Case Study #2: MinnCAN’s “Remove the Blindfold” Campaign
MinnCAN Executive Director Vallay Varro will lead a one-hour presentation on how her team won their campaign for quality pre-K.12:00pm-1:30pm – Lunch with Journalist Dana Goldstein
Our executive directors and senior staff will sit down for lunch with Dana Goldstein, who is a contributing writer to Newsweek/Daily Beast. Goldstein’s work has challenged the conventional wisdom in education reform. The conversation will focus on her piece “Should All Kids Go to College?”, published in The Nation last summer.
1:45pm-2:45pm – Case Study #3: RI-CAN’s “Putting Achievement First” Campaign
RI-CAN Executive Director Maryellen Butke will lead a one-hour presentation on how her team’s fight to bring the high-performing Achievement First charter network to the Ocean State.
2:50pm-4:30pm – Campaign Planning Time; “Professors” Hold Office Hours
Executive directors will have time to work on their campaign plans. They may also use this time to clarify lessons with national staff members who led classes today.
4:45pm-6:00pm Social Media & Online Communications
Vice President of Communications Karen Silverman and Online Communications Manager Clairelise Rodriguez will work with our executive directors on creating a focused social and online media campaign for the upcoming year.
6:00pm-7:00pm Campaign Planning Time; “Professors” Hold Office Hours
Executive directors will have time to work on their campaign plans. They may also use this time to clarify lessons with national staff members who led classes today.
7:30pm – Dinner with Professor Pedro Noguera at Five Points
Our executive directors and senior staff will sit down for dinner with Professor Pedro Noguera, an urban sociologist whose scholarship and research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions. Dr. Noguera is the author of Unfinished Business: Closing the Achievement Gap in Our Nation’s Schools (Josey Bass, 2006) and The Trouble With Black Boys…and Other Reflections on Race, Equity and the Future of Public Education (Wiley and Sons, 2008).
Thursday, October 13th
9:00am-10:30am – Print & TV Communications Strategy
Vice President of Communications Karen Silverman and Communications Manager Fiona Hoey will lead this session on developing a print & tv communications strategy. This session will prepare our executive directors for Friday’s mock interview with a reporter.
10:45am-12:00pm – Photographs and interviews with communications team
12:15pm-1:30pm – Lunch with Jeremiah Kittredge, Head of Families for Excellent Schools
Families for Excellent Schools organizes charter school parents as a political force. Jeremiah will discuss what’s his learned along the way and how our organizations can work together in the fight for education reform.
1:45pm-3:45pm – Campaign Planning Time; “Professors” Hold Office Hours
Executive directors will have time to work on their campaign plans. They may also use this time to clarify lessons with national staff members who led classes today.
4:00pm-6:00pm – Richard Barth, President of the KIPP Foundation
50CAN board member Richard Barth will discuss what KIPP’s experience can teach our executive directors as they develop a policy agenda for their upcoming campaigns.
6:30pm – Closing Dinner
Our executive directors will sit down for dinner with President Marc Porter Magee and Executive Vice President Ellen Winn.
Friday, October 14th
9:00am – Turn-in Campaign Plans
Executive directors will turn-in their campaign plan to each member of the senior staff for review.
9:00am-10:20am – Mock One-on-One with a Legislator
Executive directors will pitch their campaign plan and policy agenda in a mock one-on-one with a legislator.
10:30am-11:50am – Mock One-on-One with a Prospective Funder
Executive directors will pitch their campaign plan and policy agenda in a mock one-on-one with a prospective funder.
12:00pm-1:15pm – Pizza Lunch
1:20pm-2:40pm – Mock Interview with a Reporter
Executive directors will discuss their campaign plan and policy goals in a mock interview with a reporter.
3:00pm-3:30pm – What’s Next?
Marc will outline the next steps for executive directors as we gear-up for the next campaign season.