How to Bottomline: a Guide for Organizers Version 1. Last edited: 1/25/19 Written by: Jacob (Milwaukee IWW), Anja (Twin Cities IWW), Graham (Detroit IWW) and Taylor (Tennessee IWW) 2 Please give us feedback on this training manual. Let us know if you have questions or ideas for improv- ing this. You can reach the different writers of this training as follows: Jacob from Milwaukee IWW (j.glicklich@gmail.com) Anja from Twin Cities IWW (Anjawitek08@gmail.com) Graham from Detroit IWW (grahamkovich138@gmail.com) and Taylor from Tennessee IWW (TaylorPrince@outlook.com) If you have broader questions on other trainings that exist, or ideas to create more trainings, contact the IWW Education Department at iww.education@gmail.com Part One: Overview What is bottomlining? This is a specific role within an organizing effort. The bottomliner is the person chosen by the group to make sure a particu- lar thing happens. A successful organizing effort will have multiple people working on different aspects of the effort, and it’s useful that there be one person who is prioritizing following up with everyone’s activity. This person will ideally, consistently and energetically, keep up momentum to make sure that the bottom line is achieved. This role makes sure that the thing people are planning actually happens. If someone takes on a specific task that they personally do all of--having a one-on-one with a co-worker, writing a draft of a press release, researching a business--that is usually not referred to as bottomlining. If someone is doing something that delegates tasks to other people and coordinates collective activity for a wider group, that is bottomlining. What are the things that need to be bottomlined? There’s a lot. Meetings, trainings, high-intensity direct actions, socials, newsletters, research, following up after an organizer training, and getting people to register for an upcoming event are some examples. It might be something that involves a few people, or many. It might have a tight deadline, or a long one. It may involve physically dangerous and stressful work, or very low-key activity. There are specific aspects that make bottomlining unique to a situation, but there are some common characteristics that this training explores. Different, specific examples will be used across this manual. What is the value of bottomlining to the organizing process? People are busy. Workers are busy from trying to survive under capitalism, from personal lives, and from all their other organizing commitments. When already busy people make plans to also do a new thing, it can be very easy for this effort to fizzle. If there is one person who is focusing on making sure this happens, who is directly accountable to the whole group to do this, then it helps ensure things happen. The bottomliner can help provide a focus that reminds and redirects people to follow-through on the general commitment. Table of Contents Part One: Overview P. 2 Part Two: How to become an effective bottomliner P. 3-6 Part Three: Now That You’re a Bottomliner..... P. 6-7 Part Four: Examples P. 7-8 Part Five: Template of After-Action Report P. 8-9 “It’s important to make sure that we are thorough across the whole process.” 3 Part Two: How to become an effective bottomliner Cover your bases It’s important to make sure that we are thorough across the whole process. Doing some pre-planning lessens the risk of hav- ing to backtrack and redo tasks. Before bottomlining a task, we need to figure out the who, what, where, why, when, and how of the task. Filling out this template will help you do that: WHO Who is going to be taking on each task? WHAT What are the tasks? WHERE Where will people work on tasks? WHY Why are these tasks important to the broader project? WHEN When will the people work on the task? When is the deadline? HOW How will each task be completed? Shadow another bottomliner If at all possible, one of the best ways to learn how to bottomline a particular task is to do the task with someone else who has more experience in this mode of organizing--this is called “shadowing”. Meetup with the other person, talk with them, and watch as they do different aspects of this work. See emails they send, one-one-one conversations they have, documents they edit, etc. As you watch, you can help in a minor or major way and learn actively by doing, with someone who can make suggestions and corrections as needed. Ideally, the first time you’re bottomlining something you’ll do it in contact with a more experienced person. If it’s not possible to shadow another bottomliner in person for this thing, it will still be beneficial for you to talk with some- one, over the phone or online, to answer questions you have and get advice on best practices for the specific things you’re doing. You shouldn’t have to figure out everything from scratch. Bottomlining anything can be quite time consuming and stressful, and the more that you can understand what people have found effective, the more it saves effort for you. Roleplay #1: Asking someone if you can shadow them. Across this manual there are different possible roleplays--opportunities to practice specific aspects of the bottomliner process. It’s suggested that you do all of them that cover things you feel unfamiliar with. Find 1 or 2 other people in your committee or branch to practice these with. Do it with other people who are also seeking to improve their skills as a bottomliner, or who will give a little time to help you develop your skills. If it’s 2 people, take turns doing both sides of each roleplay. If it’s 3 people, take turns doing each part of the roleplay, with a third person observing and after giving feedback on how the roleplay went. Roleplays will generally last 2-5 minutes each. They often feel strange and awkward, but so does the process of bottomlining, and experiencing this in simulation can make doing it for real easier. Several of these roleplays are similar to exercises in the IWW’s OT 101, and may be familiar to people, some are unique to this training. If you are an at large member of the IWW, or in another situation where you don’t have anyone locally you can practice these roleplays with, you contact the IWW Education Department at iww.education@gmail.com they may be able to con- nect you with someone else to practice these exercises with over phone or video-call. For roleplay #1, it’s the end of a branch meeting. Person A hasn’t ever bottomlined outreach for monthly branch meeting, 4 but wants to learn how. Person B has done it many times, and has volunteered to do it again for next meeting. Person A will approach person B after the end of the meeting and ask if they can shadow. Person B hasn’t had others shadow them before, and may be a little hesitant at first to agree. (Possible reasons: They think they’re too busy to co-oordiante with someone else’s schedule, they think this involves them being judged, they do outreach tasks from home and aren’t comfort- able inviting Person A into their home). Shadow a second bottomliner If at all possible, shadow a second person on the same task. There will likely be many similar things that both people do in this role, but there will also be some differences. Seeing two different approaches can help avoid the danger that you’ll try to copy-paste tactics that work for another person but may not work for you. It will make it easier to evaluate and adapt from the shadowing, and do things with the particular tools and the style that is most effective for you. This also means that you’ll have contact with two people that you can draw on for advice as needed, since people are busy this redundancy can be helpful. Understand what’s required to bottomline this thing Shadowing or asking experienced bottomliners should give you this information. Lacking that, at a bare minimum you should take the time to figure out what is necessary for this effort, preferably before you volunteer to do this. If you think that doing outreach for an OT 101 or setting up a picket will only take a few hours and it’s ten times as much work as you expected, it will likely be more stressful for you. Also understand that there’s always the potential for things to get more com- plicated and to take more time. Be conservative and a little cautious in evaluating what this will definitely take, and what it may take. Roleplay #2: Asking for Information There’s a specific organizing project in the committee. Person A has never done it before and doesn’t fully understand what’s involved with it, but at the committee meeting they volunteered to bottomline it. After the meeting, they ask Person B who has been with the committee for longer what they just volunteered for, and how hard it’s going to be. Know your limits It’s essential that you be well-organized with your time, and have a good sense of what kind of effort you can put in. Have a sense of how many hours per week you can do, what kinds of work you find enjoyable or stressful, and your mental/emotional limits. If you’re not well-organized with your time, you should not volunteer to bot- tomline things until you become more organized. There are a lot of ways that people can help the work of organizing along, but when you bottom- line stuff you’re making a commitment to the group to make sure that things happen, and it’s very hard to do that without being able to plan ahead. Be honest with yourself and others if you can do that effectively. Also, plan for the long-term. If you can put in enough hours to bottomline something effectively, but doing that will make you stressed, burned out and unable to be as engaged for the following 6 months, it’s probably not a good idea for you to take on that amount of work. If it’s a situation where no one else seems able to bottomline this effort, don’t be a martyr and volunteer if you don’t have the capacity. Discuss the challenge honestly among the group, and see if there’s a way to split up the work, or if it’s too big a task to accomplish without burning people out, then you can decide to not do it. Capitalism is not going to be overthrown next week, and it will be beneficial to have you and others still be involved next week, next month and the next decade. Make enough time to be able to bottomline this effort. This very likely means not volunteering to bottomline other things, especially if the task you’re helping with is a major time commitment. It’s better to focus and accomplish one thing well than to take on 6 major projects and not effectively bot- tomline any of them. Especially the first time you bottomline something, be careful to avoid over-committing. We want to dream big and shoot for the stars, but we have to make sure smaller logistics are planned out well, or we won’t accomplish anything. See the big picture value of this project If you’re putting in a lot of time to gather bottomline this effort, this should be something that is genuinely useful and that you feel to be useful. It will be easier to keep up your energy and be effective if you appreciate how what you’re doing will 5 help organizing, and how that helps people’s lives. This shouldn’t be a frustrating obligation, it should be something that is genuinely useful. Don’t over-exaggerate how important this is (one picket will not end capitalism) but don’t sell yourself short, and take the time to be excited about what this effort will achieve. Have a short elevator pitch for the value of this project, so you can distill the importance of what you’re doing. This can help connect with and motivate other people to help out. Delegate tasks to other people The bottomliner isn’t someone who goes off and does everything themself. They are someone who helps delegate tasks to people, reminds people of tasks they’ve volunteered for, and gives reminders, support and accountability. Take on tasks yourself as often, and only as often, as necessary. Don’t just give people meaningless busy-work but instead ask people to help in ways that are genuinely useful. If you don’t do that, the thing you’re trying to put together won’t actually reflect every- one involved in this campaign, it will functionally just be your personal project, and it will be less effective in the long-term. As well, no one is perfect, and we all benefit from accountability. If you meaningfully involve other people, it will be a better effort because it builds on collective strengths. As the first verse in Solidarity Forever goes: “Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?” There has been a long pattern of highly active and involved IWW members who didn’t delegate tasks, didn’t make them- selves replaceable, and built up toxic internal dynamics. When you’re delegating tasks it’s crucial to make expectations clear, to estab- lish final deadline and check-in deadline, and help people get as much support as they need. It’s important to not press too hard on people, or they may agree without being able to do something. • Establish interest and capacity of people to do their task • Provide support as needed • Get a commitment in person if possible, have people write down what they are going to do. If communicating through email, text or facebook direct mes- sage, be very specific in what you’re asking for. Roleplay #3: Ask Someone to Do a Task There is an organizing effort at work. Person A is a more experienced person in this effort organizing committee, Person B is newer to the effort, but has had several one-one-ones, is fired up and wants to help. Person A will talk with B, and find a task that they can help with, and get deadline for when they’d do it. If Person B is a little unsure of how to do this, Person A should setup resources to help them or plan a time to give them this support. (Possible tasks can be getting contact information on people, doing research on the company, bringing food to the next com- mittee meeting, having a one-on-one conversation with a co-worker). Note: For more context on buildup necessary before asking a co-worker to do a task, see the OT 101. This roleplay can be adapted to other specific examples that make sense for you. In some cases people will at a meeting volunteer for different tasks with a project, and the bottomliner is responsible for fol- lowing up based on what people have already committed to. If this is the case, make sure to accurately record what people said they’d do and follow up with each. The same issues with people over-committing or not being organized with their time can be a factor here. The bottomliner will only be effective if they have effective communication and trust with people, so that if people haven’t completed a task or realize they won’t be able to, that they let the bottomliner know this. After you delegate tasks, follow up with people Check in with people about how their task is going, at least a week before the final deadline. Reach out to people until you hear back. Re-confirm their understanding of task and availability, and provide support as needed. Have some functional system that will ensure you check in with everyone soon enough to matter. You can use a spreadsheet, notes in your calendar, handwritten lists, online notifications, post-its, or whatever else fits your skillsets best. Develop some kind of clear system. Don’t just rely on yourself remembering. If things get busier than expected, details can fall through the cracks, having a clear system makes it easier to prevent this. If they complete the task, thank them. People like to be appreciated and have the value of their work recognized. 6 If people don’t complete a task, hold them accountable, find someone reliable to do it, or do it yourself. You want to under- stand why people might not have followed through on their commitments, and help give people support to become better organizers. Also, though, you need to make sure the thing you’re bottom lining happens as scheduled. There are techniques for how to have an effective conversation with someone who hasn’t done what they say they would do. If there is time, talk with the person directly, try to understand what lead this task to not happen, and if there are underlying reasons beyond what people say that caused them to not follow through. (Lack of knowledge, lack of passion, lack of time, etc). Roleplay #4: Follow up After a Task A week ago, Person A asked Person B to do a task, Person B agreed, but didn’t do it. They have a question, and Person A wants to find out why they didn’t complete the task, and if there’s more resources, more motivation, or a different task. Sometimes people will provide a reason (“I’m too busy”) as cover for a different thing they don’t want to say (“I don’t know how to do this, I don’t want to look dumb by saying that” or “I am too nervous to do this, and don’t want to look scared by saying this.”) Person A should try to understand and draw out these concerns, and end the conversation with renewed abil- ity to help Person B complete the task, or find another task that’s better for them. If you notice a general pattern behind multiple people being unable to complete the task they took on, make a note on it, and consider bringing it to future committee or branch discussions. It could be a certain skillset that people lack, or a col- lective pattern of people overcommitting and spreading themselves out to thin, or another factor. Identifying it as a shared problem makes it possible to develop collective resources and support against this. Part Three: Now That You’re a Bottomliner..... Evaluate your activity Write a critical post-mortem analysis after the particular event or project you’re bottomlining is done. This will useful for you looking back later, and for other people doing a similar task. It will be helpful if you summarize the activity you did for this effort, how long it took, what went well, what could have gone better, and things that you’d plan on doing differently in the future. At the end of this training manual you can see a template for summary and analysis of picket or other direct action Get feedback from other people. You may have put in more work on this project than any other single person, but that doesn’t mean your perceptions are always accurate. You can ask others to collaborate writing up the post-mortem, distribute feedback forms at the event, or do an online form immediately. Often making the form anonymous will make it more likely that people will give honest criticism. Keep learning Go to other bottomliners with questions, and possibly shadow again. Think back on what you did and what could be im- proved. Don’t be too hard on yourself, but just because you’ve done something well doesn’t mean you can’t do it better next time. It’s good to strive to keep building better organizing. Be aware of power dynamics. Especially if you’re a white, cis, able-bodied man in the union, take consideration of factors that might lead other people to not take on this role. Avoid tokenism, and don’t throw more work on people who can’t take on that task. At the same time, if all the people who bottomline crucial stuff are people of relative privilege, longterm that sends a pretty important message about who matters more in the union. Identify what the patterns in your committee or branch are. Work to continually im- prove these over time. Not much can be done to change this overnight, but long-term we can and should expect to improve our union. Keep yourself accountable. People bottomlining particular efforts generally put the most time and energy into this work. That doesn’t mean that they’re always correct in their perceptions and judgements. Important decisions should be made the by committee or branch as a whole, not by the person who is putting in the most work. Make sure that as you develop your strengths in bottomlining that you’re also developing your patience and ability to work well with others. If you become a person who is great at follow through but gets very upset when they’re outvoted in meetings and yells at people about it after, you are making yourself into a toxic presence, no matter how good your work is. Make yourself replaceable Help teach others, help develop others as leaders and active organizers. Recognize how you learnt things yourself, and make the time to help others learn. Understand that everyone has different skillsets and the exact way you learned may not 7 work for others, be open to try a few different approaches. In particular, invite other people to shadow you. Avoid gatekeeping, don’t hoard knowledge or connections that are needed to bottomline efforts like this effectively. Don’t always volunteer to bottomline stuff just because you can. Be conscious of how involved you are in the process, and how many times you’ve done a certain task. Ask other people to bottomline stuff, and give them support that would help them be effective in this. Some people who would do great at this effort may never volunteer for it, especially if they’re newer to the union. You don’t want to exhaust people or push beyond people’s limits, but we want to scale up our capacity and build collective leadership where many people have the experience to take on important roles. Rotate the bottomliner role to reduce individual stress and build up experience of others. In doing this, make sure that some- one isn’t thrown into bottomlining something that’s beyond their capacity in knowledge or time. That’s an excellent way to ensure that the project will not be done, and that people will feel less involved. Roleplay #5: Ask Someone Else to Bottomline Person A has bottomlined a specific branch project repeatedly for 10 months, Person B has never bottomlined it. Person A asks Person B to bottomline it. Person B is reluctant because they haven’t done it before and don’t think they’d be good at it. Person A tries to encourage them and give support, without pushing too much. Looking forward. Thank you for taking the time to complete this training. Please review these examples as well as how to implement bottomlin- ing in your projects. We hope these tactics prove useful in your branch, your workplace and your community. Part Four: Examples Example of good bottomlining #1: In 2018 in the MIlwaukee GMB, there was a pattern for several members of the branch to be extremely active and to over- commit to things. They started sitting next to each other at GDC and branch meetings, and to make a goal of speaking up to stop each other from volunteering for too much and exceeding their capacities. Example of good bottomlining #2: Several branches have 13 month overlapping officer terms, so a new branch secretary has one month where the outgoing branch secretary is still in the role. This makes it easier to shadow, see how they do this role and get advice, and doesn’t throw people into responsibility without any support. Example of poor bottomlining #1: In 2017, as Milwaukee IWOC tried to expand its activity with newer members of the local, someone who had been active in the group for longer tried to spread out work more. He made proposal at IWOC meeting to establish different formal roles and encouraged different people to each volunteer for a different one, establishing distinct roles of Penpal Co-Or- dinator, Meeting Setup, Meeting Folllowup, Research Co-Ordinator, and helping with letter response. Most of those roles weren’t given support, and because people volunteered at a meeting rather than a one on one conversation there wasn’t much space for people to be comfortable expressing ignorance or concern at their capabilities. Turnover in these roles and people not following through on the commitment to them was high. Example of poor bottomlining #2: In a GMB in the Midwest in the mid 2010s, a small circle of 4 people in the branch did a huge portion of the work involved with organizing. Because they were friends and spent a lot of time working together they were able to quickly communicate on details, and encourage each other to give considerable amount of time, and become skilled in things like following up with people and facilitating meetings. People in the branch got used to these 4 people doing much of the work of the branch. They would sometimes ask at meetings for others to take on certain roles, but others didn’t usually feel they had enough experience to do this effectively. People active in this work didn’t reach out one-on-one to people, do shadowing, or do other things to spread skills, so it continued to be only a few people that did most of the work. Eventually, one of the four core people (the branch treasurer) 8 made a lot of problematic online comments, including statements justifying the use of rape and torture as revolution- ary tactics, and he was banned from Convention. Subsequently, the other people in the core group defended him and mocked criticism that was done of the branch’s internal dynamics. They closed ranks rather than looking criti- cally at his behavior or holding him accountable. A huge amount of work continued to be done by the small group of people. Later, the branch treasurer was found to be embezzling money, and not making payments to GHQ. The branch was dechartered, and the treasurer was later expelled from the IWW. Within the next year, the other 3 most active members of the branch also left the IWW. Part Five: Template of After-Action Report (printable version on next page) Taken from the GDC Picket Training, this is a template used for documentation specifically after helping to organize direct actions. This is included as a resource that may make it easier to do this kind of after-the-fact summary and analysis of this activity, and make it easier to help document other aspects of your organizing. Name of Action: Date of Action: Location of Action: If action involved other groups, list them here: If this action was a counter-action to an action organized by another group, please name and briefly explain that action here: Goal: Selected strategy and tactics: How is alignment between goals, strategy, and tactics represented in the above? Are there other particular challenges, or contexts, that need to be explained in order to understand this event? If you have maps, please attach them to this report. How many planning meetings were had, and how far in advance were these meetings? Who attended them, and what specific work was accomplished in these meetings? How can this planning process be improved for the future? Please write your narrative of the events in this space: What do you feel the major lessons you learned as an individual action organizer? What lessons do you think the group of organizers and participants in this action should learn? Are there any lessons that should be spread to other GDC locals or addressed in this training? 9 After-Action Report Name of Action: Date of Action: Location of Action: If action involved other groups, list them here: If this action was a counter-action to an action organized by another group, please name and briefly explain that action here: Goal: Selected strategy and tactics: How is alignment between goals, strategy, and tactics represented in the above? Are there other particular challenges, or contexts, that need to be explained in order to understand this event? If you have maps, please attach them to this report. How many planning meetings were had, and how far in advance were these meetings? Who attended them, and what specific work was accomplished in these meetings? How can this planning process be improved for the future? Please write your narrative of the events in this space: What do you feel the major lessons you learned as an individual action organizer? What lessons do you think the group of organizers and participants in this action should learn? Are there any lessons that should be spread to other GDC locals or addressed in this training?