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FOR DISTRIBUTION TO ALL CONSERVATIVE E-GROUPS
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                     Building An Effective Organization
                                   Part I
                                 Tony Silva
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     When the HELP*Net organizing philosophy was introduced to delegates at the
1996 GOP convention, the reaction was almost universal: They were amazed not so
much by the concept as by the fact that it worked wherever it was tried.
Precinct Organizing Comittees, the foundation of HELP*Net organization, are not
unique.  Similar organizations were in use across the country in grass roots
campaigns, some of which resulted in their groups being represented at the
convention.

     To build an effective organization, you only need to recognize the strength
of comittment in the "host" group and the strength of resources in the "host"
political party.  Precinct Organizing Comittees are a means of tapping the
strength of conservative advocacy groups, homeschool support groups and others
as a means of influencing the political process in the local party.  To be
effective, your Precinct Organizing Comittee must have a MINIMUM of three
characteristics:

    1.  A common "host" group (ie. CWA, Eagle Forum, Homeschool Group)

    2.  A comittee member who holds a party office (ie. Precinct         
        Comitteeman, Ward Chairman, etc.)

    3.  A means of communicating with other like-minded Precinct Organizing
        Comittees.

     Once your organization has an established Precinct Organizing Comittee,
it has the ability to recruit short-term volunteers, gain access to party
resources (ie. voter lists) and to coordinate their political activity with
other groups.  In our example, few members of the Parental Rights Coalition 
were aware of any leadership -- each member group operated on its own, but 
all were more or less coordinated by a common goal: nominating a candidate.

     The Precinct Organizing Comittee serves as a training base for people
who want to become more politically involved, an information source for
those who want accurate news about issues or candidates, and a link between
the host group and the host party.  As people learn more about the political 
process, new members are recruited and older members "specialize" in various 
aspects of the process.  This "specialization" over time makes it possible 
to incubate principled candidates AND their campaign organizations from the 
ground up.

     Party elites have been blind-sided by the strong showing of 
non-establishment candidates, and yet have found no defense against this 
smaller organizational structure.  They can "invade" a Comittee, but the
best they can hope for is to reach two or three other Comittees -- and very
little strategy will be apparant to them.  

FOR MORE INFORMATION:  HelpNet@xc.org