Country: Australia
Organization: Project SafeCom Inc. - a community association in
3) Strategy Summary:
To mobilize, sometimes within hours, up to an estimated
15,000 Australian residents, human rights and refugee
advocates from a remote and isolated location, using email
combined with an attractive website, using high-quality
information dissemination only, for positive actions
applying pressure on MP's and Ministers with tangible
outcomes for asylum seekers in detention, and to generate
supporters, members and sympathisers as well as funds to
sustain its organisation.
Western Australia is the earth's second largest landmass
defined as a State, but has just 2 million inhabitants.
Reaching out to members of a 'community' is often only
feasible with email and via internet. 3 years ago Project
SafeCom Inc. (PS) started
operations in a small country town (4400 km from Sydney).
It
developed a professional email-based network, reaching out
to an estimated 15,000 people concerned with (also
indefinite) mandatory detention for asylum seekers &
refugees, held in some cases for 6 or more years. E-action
Alerts from PS have led to government MP's intervention of
detained asylum seekers while daily news bulletins keep
many
people informed about crises. Donations sales and
memberships are results of email promotions.
4) How the Strategy Works:
Using E-mail: the "refugee movement" in Australia (Oz)
developed 'spontaneously' at the time of the stand-off with
refugees on Norwegian Containership MV Tampa. While PS was
formed its operators searched for others, found them
through
the internet. Many people, including PS' operator,
communicated by email, and PS carefully stored email
addresses & other details, & names of local groups or
alliances formed by others. Details were stored in an EXCEL
file, and were updated daily to include postal and phone
details. Using database, mass-mails with up to 900
addresses
in BCC field can be sent. Currently 5000 people in
database.
E-Groups: soon many e-groups formed at Yahoo!Groups,
topica.
com and others with internet archives. PS made sure to
register as a member of each e-group it found or was told
about, but also made sure to switch the "email receiving
feature" of each group to OFF, instead accessing online
archives to read messages on the lists in its own time,
instead of receiving thousands of emails a day. Within
months there were more than 60 refugee groups messaging by
email through these lists. PS believes that its coordinator
is the only person in "the refugee action, advocacy, lobby
and support community" who is subscribed to "all known"
group lists.
At present, PS reaches a total of ca 15,000 people through
all e-groups and individual email addresses.
Website: from its start, the PS website included pages for
comments and submissions. At present people enter details
for ordering products, provide comments or feedback, or
enter endorsements of proposals or strategies on 21 pages.
Everyone gets a reply, and email addresses and other
details
of these website commentators and supporters are added to
the database.
Mass E-mail generator: an activist from another area of Oz
created a mass email generator, linked to MS Access
databases. See http://senatorslapper.netfirms.com. This
software creates individual emails for every address in one
of the selected Access databases within seconds, each with
its own Salutation, and dumps the emails into MS Outlook.
Next, opening Outlook will show the often hundreds of
emails, ready for sending. The mass email generator avoids
any accusation of "spamming" by the spam control software
at
Yahoo!Groups or other hosts, because the emails are sent
individually to each group, with its own Salutation and the
"real" name of the addressee group.
Contributing to the debate: PS also actively and frequently
"manually" replies to messages on all lists. PS always adds
a carefully chosen signature line to all its emails sent to
the groups, linking back to its website, or points to
papers, stories, speeches or other material on its website
via links.
All emails are first drafted in the NOTEPAD program or MS
WORD. Once PS is satisfied, the message is pasted into the
email program, rechecked - also for looks and layout - and
sent. PS ensures in its messages that:
there are no spelling errors
message is as short as
poss.
sentences are kept short and clear
space is
introduced between paragraphs, creating email with minimum
reading time
information is checked for accuracy ? emails
are never "forwarded" as is - with eg "angle brackets" (>)
and messy line breaks
all email text of a received email
is copied into NOTEPAD, and only relevant sections become
part of the new email or reply
all hyperlinks are accuracy
checked
E-mail not an add-on to the job: emails are often treated
as
if they are an extra add-on to the duties in the modern
office, a sign that many people still do not accept the
central place of emails in the workplace. PS treats emails
as an essential core element of its daily work, because
email is its messenger and it also creates its clients,
supporters and members: it has made PS into a main national
player in "the refugee movement".
Press releases: Media releases are sent by email only -
contrary to "protocol" which prescribes fax machines. It
has
not been a problem, because journalists rely on "the
citizens' movement" for stories. (Media are banned from
detention centres by the Australian government)
Alerts are sent for immediate action, asking people to
question MP's and Senators about asylum cases, to confront
avoidance by MP's of emergencies or languishing cases, or
to
lobby MP's for case interventions. Example is a detained
asylum claimant whose Indonesian wife was killed in the
Bali
terrorist bombings - after 3 govt refusals to allow the 2
children into Australia to visit their father, for fear
human rights lawyers would claim asylum for the little
children when they entered Australia, PS initiated e-
action,
which triggered questions in Parliament, eventually leading
to the man being released with a permanent visa, and the
children granted access to Australia.
5) Key Strategy Elements:
i. Mobilizing Citizen Support:
60% of members do not live "locally" and have become
members through the PS website, being attracted through
messages and news to the website and its work. Local event
participants, local forum audiences are recruited by
email; unknown supporters "spontaneously" replicate
notices on other lists and news websites. "Friendly" MP's
and Senators receive all news, assisting them in their
work; one email was read out in an MP's speech in
Parliament. Human rights lawyers and groups, and TV, Radio
and other news reporters - also in other countries - read
PS' FREE daily Newsletter (about 800 subscribers). See
http://lists.topica.com/lists/safecom/read and
http://lists.topica.com/lists/racvicnews/read
ii. Generating Financial and Nonfinancial Resources:
PS provides lots of news and information about asylum
seeker issues and policies in Australia 4 free: donations
and support follow spontaneously. This is one of PS's
deliberately chosen ways of working. 2003-04 saw an income
increase of 220% from 2002/03 from website sales and
donations. 2004/05 prognosis shows another increase of
130%. The PS Office is operated f/t by a coordinator on a
pro-bono basis. The PS coordinator has toured Australian
cities to share ideas and resources, and travelled to
Victoria, and Canberra ACT to attend events and
conventions. At all times income from "useful items"
matches a trip's expenditure. Once a Foundation assisted
with a $1000 grant. PS wants to develop into human rights
agency.
iii. Establishing Relationships with Strategic Partnerships:
Informed and "friendly" MP's are briefed with copies of
press releases & info bulletins. A new party expected to
hold the balance of power in the Senate from Jul 2005
requested a policy briefing from PS - then responded
publicly, strongly opposing govt policy. A few allies in
the main opposition Labor party assist: PS emails were
tabled in the party caucus. Those Media outlets who
refrain from party-political bias to the govt (many media
outlets shun asylum reports because of readership backlash
fear and fear of reporting disagreeable with the govt) are
briefed following press releases. PS' Profession approach
slowly erodes resistance of press and MP's and melts away
fear to be associated with "suspected radicals".
iv. Engaging and Managing Volunteers:
Contrary to "accepted practice" of many groups in "the
refugee movement" PS does not have weekly or less frequent
public meetings because of logistics and distance
difficulties. Volunteers are briefed and attracted from
members, supporters and sympathisers on a needs-only basis
when public events are organised in city or other areas.
Through PS's frequent e-mail notices and "high visibility"
on the internet, this system works well. Material and
financial sponsorship of events is sought and successfully
found in the lead-up to events. Turnover of volunteer core
group, often students, is accepted. No interns at this
stage, but this is part of planning & development for the
next three years.
Contrary to "accepted practice" of many groups in "the
refugee movement" PS does not have weekly or less frequent
public meetings because of logistics and distance
difficulties. Volunteers are briefed and attracted from
members, supporters and sympathisers on a needs-only basis
when public events are organised in city or other areas.
Through PS's frequent e-mail notices and "high visibility"
on the internet, this system works well. Material and
financial sponsorship of events is sought and successfully
found in the lead-up to events. Turnover of volunteer core
group, often students, is accepted. No interns at this
stage, but this is part of planning & development for the
next three years.
v. Developing Information and Spreading the Message:
Newsletter for press and other news; high crisis
periods
daily, other times frequency as req'd
Emailed promotions
of sales items related to Austr refugee issues; include
some
color text and low-resolution images in email or insert
links to source
website BLOG updates with latest news &
opinion, including publicly available RSS feeds ? Frequent
new pages & briefs as website additions
alerts to 60
E-groups on new website pages, reports and investigations
Emergency Calls to Action to be taken are sent to all
database contacts & all E-groups
Use phone contact for
briefings to & from colleagues, groups, politicians & media
Printable PDF files on website for visitors
hold public
fundraising/community educ'n
6) Increasing Self-sufficiency and Social Impact:
Many NGO's struggle with funds to sustain daily
operations, to enable growth and expansion, and raising
their profile; too many fail because of their classic
reliance on mail-outs and printed newsletters.
Incorporation law in most countries lags in terms of not
including "electronic communication" created with the
advances of the Internet and its possibilities. While PS
also struggles with these limits, many of these are
beginning to be overcome because of PS' high usage of
emails, its insistence on continuously reshaping the
relevance of current and new info on its website and its
insistence on using an intense e-group presence in its
targeted citizens groups in Australia. On its website PDF
files provide flyers and leaflets as free info and
briefing sheets; no mailing or printing costs are incurred
while 500+ daily page views evidence a growing visibility
and about 250 PS press quotes since 2001 raised its
profile.
8) Organization Mission and Vision:
To envision ... operation of a Safe Community in Western
Australia for people of any race ... nationality, who are
displaced as a result of Wars or Political .... Geological
upheaval and/or Disaster; and for other users as and when
appropriate. 'community' not neccesarily viewed as
physical.
Looking Forward to the Next Three Years:
Redesign website for content mm't system CMS
Explore RSS
feed promotion for updates
Explore network to attract
others with advanced e-skills
Explore replacing emails
with Desktop Alert tickers
Seek funding for various
community education and outreach projects
Enable payment
of salaries to staff
Broaden scope of interest as a social
justice agency
Explore negotiations of development into a
Human Rights Watch agency
Establish f/t operations office
in city location
Contact Information:
Jack H Smit
Coordinator
Project SafeCom Inc. - a community association in
PO Box 364, Narrogin, Western Australia 6312
Australia
Tel: (+61) (417) 090 130
Fax: (+61) (8) 9881 5651 (by appointment only)
Email: jackhsmit@wn.com.au
Website: http://www.safecom.org.au/
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