To kick off 2010 for the community involved in working towards sexuality & gender equality in WA, this post has been written to provide a review and analysis of our work last year – for which we would love your comments & opinions. This post will be followed by an entry from GALE’s 2010 Convenor Kitty Hawkins, introducing the next steps in our campaign for 2011 – informed by this review.
Shane C - Community Networks Coordinator
This will also be my last post as a member of the campaigns team at GALE, as I’m moving to Sydney this February to work with the Inspire Foundation, and on the national lobbying effort in which GALE will be taking part. It has been an inspiration and a blast being a part of the action, and I believe 2011 will be GALE’s biggest ever year. Thank you everyone for being a part of this movement for equality!
The year in review
2010 was the most active year of community engagement, activism and media coverage that GALE has seen in a very long time – as noted in the previous article Thank you for an inspirational year. This was brought about by the significant increase in community engagement, specifically community members that attended the Equal Love rallies of support in Perth, who wrote letters to the editor, puts their hands up to be interviewed for newspapers and attended our workshops & events.
We took stock of our progress in September, on which we reported back to our membership at our Annual General Meeting, held at the Northbridge Piazza Community Facility.
Engagement (as of AGM Sept 2010)
GALEWA measures member engagement via our online communication mediums, and via attendance at functions & events.
Facebook Group Members: 141 (estimated 40% increase)
Twitter Followers: 105 (estimated 20% increase)
Red Alert Subscribers: 27 (up from 3 at end of last period)
Yahoo! Discussion Group Members: 181 (5 new members)
Campaign Launch Attendance: 19
Post-Election Workshop Attendance: 32
GALE volunteers at Equal Love Rally
After the Post-Election Community Workshop, where we canvassed your feedback and input on the next stages of the campaign for equality in Western Australia – we launched the Fair Go! Campaign at Pride Fairday, October 2010. This campaign, bringing us forward into 2011, focuses on building our capacity to achieve change by building larger networks of community supporters who pledge to engage in the actions & lobbying efforts that will be required to achieve change later this year.
The theory? If we can achieve so much in 2010 with just over 100 supporters, imagine what we can do in 2011 with over 1,000 supporters, including new networks of allied individuals and organisations!
Since the launch of the campaign, our networks have increased from 143 members to a total combined membership of 345 members at the end of 2010. We are well on our way to achieving a critical mass of supporters.
Areas for attention in 2011
One of the biggest things we are still struggling with is finding ways to follow the ways that community members engage with our campaigns.
Motivating people to take meaningful action – online or offline – is another area where we need to bring more creative ideas and strategies.
In 2011, we are working with lobby groups around Australia to develop a national strategic lobbying effort towards achieving marriage equality, as well as working with state & national groups to achieve national anti-discrimination legislation and gender identity recognition / protection.
To achieve that goal, we need to build a network of thousands of people, rather than hundreds. To pull that off we believe we need to:
- build relationships with the community members already engaged;
- support and recognise your work; and
- ask you to reach out to your networks.
We will be building relationships with other community organisations in Western Australia, and asking for their help in reaching out to their networks and communities. With the support of increased members, allied individuals and allied organisations, we can provide a critical mass of people with strategic, targeted and effective lobbying actions which WILL achieve change.
Stay tuned for the next steps on the campaign trail from Kitty Hawkins, and good luck for the new year!
Signing out,
Shane Cucow
Community Networks Coordinator
Gay & Lesbian Equality (WA) Inc.
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