Wellstone Action and Envir. Policy Campaign

Wellstone Action is a non-profit with several leadership and campaign training programs. Some are for people who are working on campaigns for office, some are related to unions, and so forth. Usually participants have to pay a lot for the training. Campus Camp Wellstone is focused on issue-based campaigns and is co-funded by a sponsor and Wellstone Action. Individuals attend for free and the workshops last a day an a half over a weekend.

The one I attended at UW was sponsored by Planned Parenthood and the case study was a bill about hospitals providing information about emergency contraception to rape victims. The attendees were mostly undergrads, and only some of them were involved in the particular campaign. They were activists from all sorts of fields and the issue was a foil for skills. At the same time, Planned Parenthood had much of their work done for them and found new supporters among us (they did win the campaign after a hard fight). The training covered coalition-building strategy, messaging, leadership skills and how to organize and retain volunteers. The skills apply to any campaign or work in a non-profit and also to professional life.

Here are some links about the Wellstone leadership training:

• About Campus Camp Wellstone
• Bringing Campus Camp Wellstone to your school
  

This is a rough game plan for working with Wellstone Action.

1. Pick an issue and partner organizations. This will be something to organize a campaign around, like a bill that we organize people to lobby for. Maybe the partner org can help fund leadership training.
2. Work on the campaign, brainstorm strategy.
3. We help sponsor a Campus Camp Wellstone for the campus at large. It is a training opportunity for Nelsonites and activist undegrads and others. The training uses our issue as a case study and in the process helps us develop our campaign and get ideas about being effective.
4. Do the campaign (lobbying, letter-writing, etc) soon after camp Wellstone.