ActionStation’s Collaborative Campaign Cultivation
In New Zealand, ActionStation uses the ControlShift platform to power their member-led campaigning site, OurActionStation. As with any distributed organizing program, building a community of member leaders and strategic campaigns takes plenty of intentional cultivation. However, rather than centering moderation and approval of new campaigns just with their paid staff, ActionStation has developed a system that engages some of their most dedicated volunteer members.
This Member Review Panel uses the Loomio collaboration platform to make decisions about whether new campaigns should go live on the site. ActionStation outlines the full process in this post, but this sums up the underlying philosophy:
The purpose of the Member Review Panel is to be the kaitiaki or guardians of ActionStation community values. We engage with all campaign creators to make sure they understand decisions made by the Panel.
Distributed organizing can be a powerful way to build leadership and distribute leadership broadly through an organization. ActionStation has taken this philosophy one step further, by not just using their platform as a hub for crowdsourced petition ideas, but by also engaging their members in the day-to-day processes of managing the program.
Talk about putting their values into action!