Using The “Open Source” System For Organizing The goal is to organize 5 Hotel “service worker” groups into 1 collective group of 300 workers and bring them to the point of filing for election. The group will be broken into 5 sub-groups of approximately 60 workers each. Each group will be assigned an organizer to work on their behalf.

5 Organizers at Work Each organizer focuses on the individual circumstances of each group in the chain of 5 Hotels. Each organizers identifies 4 qualified representatives from their group. Each organizer explains the technical communication systems that will be available to the groups. Each organizer will arrange an initial 2 hour conference meeting with their perspective group representatives. Each organizer will tutor their representatives in the use of technology such as computers and secure group websites; cell phones will be distributed.

Secure Website and Recording Lead organizer will moderate a secure website. Group members will be assigned passwords such as A31, B13, C11, D7, and E41, with each letter identifying the group that each member belongs to. Moderator will monitor activity and involvement of members over a 5 month period of time. Organizers will communicate progress and concerns with each other via email so as to automatically build a chronological journal of activities and results. Upon reaching a critical mass of 50% involvement, a dinner meeting (conference) will be called.

Into Action At the dinner party speeches will be made by organizers and representatives as prearranged. Research and feasibility studies will be released to the prospective local. Conversing and sharing cares and concerns along with making key contacts will be encouraged. 300 customized DVDs will be distributed to the members, that target and address the actual logistics of the prospective local. Potentials and financial projections will be addressed and discussed.

Bringing it Home Organizers will allow time after the conference for members to communicate. A prospective date will be posted on the group website for a poll. A full campaign be engaged, using all communication vehicles such as door-to-door, telephone calls, emails, text messaging and group site infomercials will be conducted for a chosen period of time. A poll will be conducted and the outcome will determine whether another dinner conference/rally will be held to file for election.

Cell Phones for Text Messaging or Telephones for Conversation ? Our organizers chose cell phones to text message. Because it is common technology among the workers and text messaging is more private than telephone conversations. Also, we can send batch messages quickly with the push of a couple couple of buttons. This is our primary source of technology for communications with the workers and field representatives. Create a group - give a name and cell number for each worker and store them. Send everyone in the group a text message from your cell phone in seconds. It was determined that we will need fifteen cell phones for our organizers. Each organizer will handle 60 workers. Telephone calls are more expensive than text messaging and they are time consuming to dial and converse.

E-Mail or Snail Mail The organizers decided we would use every means possible to connect with the workers. Although not all the workers have computers that are internet assessable or the technical skills necessary to receive or send E-Mail. We will train a few of the workers how to use this technology and share this information with their co-workers. We will show them where to get free access to computers to use E-Mail. Public Libraries Schools Friends and Relatives Mass mailings are to costly and to slow to deliver time sensitive information.

DVD or Video Cassette Another form of communication to be used in our organizing campaign will be a visual product. DVD technology is far more advanced than video cassette technology. It was determined that most workers have access to DVD players. We will contact unions that represent the same industry we are trying to organize and ask if we can borrow their promotional DVD’s. With the unions permission we will make copies to distribute to our organizers for viewing by the workers. Video cassettes are a bit cumbersome but, we will use them if necessary.

Web Page or Newsletter Software will be purchased so we can develop and maintain our own Web page for our organizing campaign. We will update it when necessary as events change. There are numerous Web hosts on the internet that will host our page free. We can get 150 megabytes of space, unlimited bandwidth, and free sub-domains. Our organizers realize that most of the workers don’t have computers or the technical skills needed to explore the Web. But, we will train a few and see where it goes from there. The Web page will give the workers easy access to important information. Newsletters are costly to produce and would be slow in disseminating information to the workers.

Organizing Technology Budget Fifteen cell phones with 2 year agreement for each cell phone Free Fifteen cell phone agreements $25.00 per month includes 50 text messages/mo $4500.00 Five lap top computers for field reps $800.00 each $4000/00 Wireless Internet service for five lap tops $20.00 per month for each $1800.00 Five hundred blank DVD’s $ 150.00 Microsoft Front Page for Web page development $ 200.00 Total $10,650.00

Our Goal is to File for Election Good Luck Brother’s and Sister’s