Rough ideas
Table of Contents
Mapping ACORN's structure
Started working on this here: mapping acorn page.
- Want to create a resource that explains ACORN's structure, legal status, rules, etc.
- work out the things that ACORN provides us like legal insurance (? forgot name for this)
- explanation of democratic processes that I know many members intend to use to reform ACORN
- making this will make it possible to get clarity on questions like:
- is ACORN reformable using its democratic processes
- what would a branch be losing if they decide to disaffiliate from ACORN (e.g. doing what ACORN Lancaster did or splitters in ACORN Manchester did)
Making youtube documentary on ACORN Oxford
ACORN Oxford (before it was destroyed) was described to me as being a very active branch with 200 members and 60 active members (! this is a lot for ACORN branches). The only information I've come across about how it collapsed is word-of-mouth and the demand letter that they put out before collapsing.
I want to find out what happened to ACORN Oxford and make mini-youtube documentary, maybe interviewing people who set up ACORN Oxford and made it so active and also why it collapsed.
I think same thing could be done for ACORN Aberyswythe, Lancaster, basically every branch where there has been a significant split or mass exodus of members which also includes (AFAIK) Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield.
Money questions
making it obvious to all members where the money is being spent
I want to find out how ACORN spends its money, maybe as part of the mapping acorn page. Its almost £1,000,000 per year, where does this all go? Heard someone mention that in previous conference there is pie-chart breaking it down, but like really this should be easily accessible to any member who is interested.
what could the money be used for?
Given ACORN UK is barely growing and uses paid staff for things like door knocking which they could easily be using volunteers for, I am suspecting they are wasting the money. The people who get the top jobs are all friends with each other, and there is not a lot of turn over of people doing these top jobs (AFAIK).
who are the third parties funding ACORN?
Another point, ACORN is not (AFAIK) transparent with where their money is coming from as a big chunk is not from member dues. Are there strings attached to this money? What are the institutions paying us? Been told the Rosa Luxembourg Institute are one example.
Coming up with ideas of things I think could be changed to improve ACORN
In my opinion, most of these suggestions couldn't happen without first democraticising ACORN because many of the reasons ACORN functions so poorly is deliberate (or at least I suspect), but leaving that aside I have list of things I think could make ACORN run better:
ACORN Handbook, Bylaws, and Legal Advice shouldn't be on a Google Doc
Keeping all important and useful information on Google Docs is not the way. A lot of it does not make sense to be kept private, or the reasons for keeping it private are massively outweighed by problems this creates. For example, legal advice to avoid us getting sued. Its nightmare actually finding this. There was a google doc for it but the link randomly changed. The only way for a member to find this is to ask a committee member for it, and like this is a big hassle. Even when you have a link to it it can just randomly change.
Only use staff for things staff need to do
Currently it seems staff are used for door-knocking. Like this seems like a waste of resources
Make a free-tier way to join as a member
Have a free-tier for people to be involved without having to pay for membership
How ACORN handles member defense cases that can be improved
- explain hot take about things that seem obviously counterproductive about how ACORN member defense cases work.
I'm pretty sure ACORN is doing committees wrong
I'm not against committees, but I have intuition that way that committees work in ACORN is not remotely how its meant to work.
In branches I've seen
Not sure how this would work, but there
For example, sole function o Currently the sole responsibility for agitprop falls f
As far as I know there is big gap in type of training that we do for
Separate the person from the function that they are meant to be doing. The way ACORN currently
How do atomised ACORN members organise?
If ACORN National is actively hostile to attempts amongst members to democratise the organisation (maybe to hold onto the privileged positions and cushy jobs that make them feel important) then it seems unlikely that they will want members to
This is actually a difficult problem