Climate Activist Development Scheme

Proposed script for “public consumption” CADS youtube.

manchesterclimatemonthly — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:16:22 +0000

What do people think of this below? Comments welcome…

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So, you emerge from a campaign either pretty happy or pretty beaten up.

And you reflect “How did it go? How could it have gone better?”
“What don’t I know that I need to” And the big question might be “Why did I/we fail?”

The real answer might be “I screwed up.” of “I don’t know enough.” But your ego may not let you say that, so you blame “external factors.”

But for the sake of argument, say you overcome the ego-danger and say “What was my screw up and why did it happen?” or “Do I know enough?

So where can you – at present – turn? You have to rely on a friend’s assessment, or your own gut. Both are high risk.

This is where CADS can help. You do a series of quizzes. These give you a very rough idea of how advanced your knowledge and skills are across a wide range of “competencies.”

Then you can take a closer look at the levels, and better rate yourself (you might be better – or worse – than the quiz suggests.

Then you can look at what skills you lack to get to the next level. And if you and your friends all take the test, you may find that you both lack the same skills, in which case you can go find a way to up your skills together – safety in numbers, or else it may emerge that one of you is much more skilled and can teach the other!

You can take the quizzes again after a few months and see if you’ve improved, but that’s actually way less important than having a set of learning goals and the means to stretch yourself towards them.

Youtube: What is CADS and how you can help

manchesterclimatemonthly — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:56:54 +0000

This is very very rough, and not quite ready. But I believe in pushing stuff out the door. So, just over 2 minutes, and aimed at those of you who have already heard about the idea from me personally.

More to follow

Getting our game face on

manchesterclimatemonthly — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:10:47 +0000

This is an idea whose time has come. Gone. Come again. Gone again. Come… you get the picture.

Ya basta! Friday March 16th 2012, this sucker gets launched.

Will be tested on willing and unwilling guinea pigs. (Consent? Pah!)

Anyone who wants to help out, get in touch via mcmonthly@gmail.com

Composite skills

manchesterclimatemonthly — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:44:02 +0000

Someone made the obvious (but not banal!) point that someone can be a very useful member of a group without having a whole array of “core competencies” – that is, you might have someone who is anti-social, unsanitary and downright obnoxious. But they’re a genius with task x or y. So, as long as you know how and when to ask their help, they’ll be involved, and stay involved…

Still and all, I am interested in this question of “core competencies”…

What are the “extra dimensions”?

climateactivistdevelopmentscheme — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:32:21 +0000

This list could get quite unwieldy. At the moment it stands as…

NVDA
Lobbying
Press work
Presentation skills -leaflets, animations, video flyers etc
Infotech skills (web etc)
Operational Security
Public Speaking
Technical knowledge (research)
Cooking
Emotional work- mediation, burnout avoidance
Technical information (intellectual specialisation)

What are a climate activist’s core competencies?

climateactivistdevelopmentscheme — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:31:00 +0000

In no particular order, these are the current core competencies. Very interested in knowing if people think there are others, or if they think some of these below are optional extras rather than core.

Climate science – very basic
(Climate) Politics- local, national, global
Movement Theory and Practice
Media Practice and Theory
Legal- Your rights, NVDA, FOIA, privacy
Prisoner Support
Communications – email and social media etiquette, public speaking
Sewing
Meetings- organising, facilitating, dealing with crap behaviour in meetings
Helping Newbies- how to raise the chances that new people will stick around.
Equality and diversity- knowing about invisible power and visible power