My friend Chris Bartlett sent me a link to this post a few weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to posting the link. Philadelphia's Alex Hillman has done a fabulous job of outlining Harvey Milk's vision for social change, which includes five steps: Inspire, Motivate, Organize, Mobilization, and Repeat! Here's his take on the first step:

1- Inspire

Harvey’s first step was to take a step at all. Given his groundbreaking goals, making any forward motion was inspiring in itself. He failed at being elected to office, and he failed more than once. His persistence and attitude attracted like-minded movers and shakers. Some of those movers and shakers came with momentum of their own. Others were movers and shakers with potential. Harvey wasn’t discriminating towards either. Anne Kronenberg had prior campaign experience, and was an organizer herself. Others, like Cleve Jones, had less experience with formal community mobilization but Harvey knew that he had potential, and more importantly, knew how and when to put Cleve in opportunities to show that potential.

As a community organizer, your first move to action is to not be alone. Inspire those around you, and gain some critical mass. From that critical mass, identify new blood to continue recruitment and spreading of the message.

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