How to Start a GLSEN Chapter

Mar 14, 2006

GLSEN chapters are at the heart of our organization. In just a very short time, GLSEN has grown from a single, local volunteer-based organization in Boston to one of the largest and most successful grassroots organizations in the movement for LGBT equality, with chapters in over 40 communities.

This document will provide an overview of the chapter organizing process from the initial contact with Chapter Organizing staff to full accreditation as a GLSEN chapter. Please feel free to contact one of the GLSEN Chapter Organizing staff (see contact information below) at any time with questions you might have.

Chapter Organizing Staff: Shawn Gaylord Director of Chapter Organizing sgaylord@glsen.org 202-347-7780 x202 Amena Johnson Chapter Organizing Associate ajohnson@glsen.org 202-347-7780 x201 Kiwi Grady Chapter Organizing Associate kgrady@glsen.org 646-388-6552 Martha Langmuir Chapter Organizing Manager mlangmuir@glsen.org 646-388-6598

ABOUT GLSEN

Because education policy is determined at the most local level by school boards and because there are many stakeholders who have a say in such policy and its implementation, it is imperative that we establish community-based chapters that work to create schools where respect for all is taught. GLSEN is about changing schools and school culture around LGBT issues and people.

What is GLSEN’s Mission?
GLSEN strives to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. We believe that such an atmosphere engenders a positive sense of self, which is the basis of educational achievement and personal growth. Since homophobia and heterosexism undermine a healthy school climate, we work to educate teachers, students, and the public at large about the damaging effects these forces have on youth and adults alike. We recognize that forces such as racism and sexism have similarly adverse impacts on communities, and we support schools in seeking to redress all such inequities. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes in creating a more vibrant and diverse community. We welcome as members any and all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation or occupation who share this philosophy.

What is GLSEN’s Vision? How do we see our future as a society?
GLSEN envisions a future where every child will learn the values of respect and acceptance for all people, regardless of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

How does GLSEN fit into this future? Who are we, and why does GLSEN’s work matter?
GLSEN believes that what children learn in our schools is essential to fulfilling this vision for our future. We know that life-shaping lessons are best learned when we are young. Therefore, we are dedicated to bringing positive change to every school in every community.

GLSEN is a leader and ally in the progressive movement for social justice. Change begins with grassroots organizing, with chapter-building and employing the talents of individual volunteers. We are gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, and transgender. We come from every walk of life and occupation, and we value and welcome all who share our philosophy. Working with GLSEN gives us all the purpose and the power to achieve our vision.

What are GLSEN’s fundamental values? What do we sincerely believe? GLSEN believes that nothing is impossible. We recognize the power, dignity, and worth of the individual. We know that every person has value, that every person can make a difference, and that we must work together to create positive change. We believe every person has the right to choose the course of his or her own life, full of promise and free of intimidation. In our daily lives, we play fair and we always treat others with respect. We know that our work is of earth-shattering importance.

GLSEN’s HISTORY
Founded as a local group in 1990, the Gay and Lesbian Independent School Teachers Network (GLSTN) began as a volunteer group of 70 gay and lesbian educators. At that time, there were two Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) in the nation, only one state with policy in place to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students, and a general lack of awareness of the needs of LGBT students. LGBT youth did not have a voice in the education community or in the LGBT movement. There were few, if any, resources available for teachers to discuss LGBT issues.

However, groups of concerned individuals began to establish chapters across the country, advocating locally and regionally for safe schools for students who were, or were perceived to be, LGBT.

In 1995 GLSTN became a national organization and hired it first full time staff person, GLSTN’s founder and Executive Director Kevin Jennings. In 1997, GLSTN staged its first national conference in Salt Lake City, UT to respond to the legislature’s move to ban all student groups in an effort to prevent the formation of GSAs in the state. It is also this year that GLSTN changes its name to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, in order to attract new members to the struggle for safe schools for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/ expression.

Currently, GLSEN has registered more than 2500 GSAs, has approximately 30 full time staff, a governing board of 20 members and two advisory committees at the national level. At this point GLSEN has successfully hosted 8 national conferences to bring together student leaders, educators, chapter leaders and activists. GLSEN also sponsors the National Day of Silence, which close to 2 million students, teachers, and staff have been a part of at 3029 school campuses across the country. GLSEN’s newest national project is National No Name Calling Week. In coalition with leading education organizations, including the National Education Association and the National Middle School Association, GLSEN is proud to be a part of an event geared toward educating middle school students about the negative impact of bullying and harassment.

WHAT DOES GLSEN DO?
GLSEN believes that the key to ending anti-gay prejudice and hate-motivated violence is education. For this reason, GLSEN brings together students, educators, families, and other community members – of any sexual orientation or gender identity – to reform America’s educational system. GLSEN affects such reform in the following four ways, each of which is crucial to GLSEN’s success, both nationally and at the chapter level.

Local Organizing for Local Results
Thousands of volunteers participate in our chapter network of over 40 chapters. Supported by Chapter Organizing staff in Washington, DC and New York, GLSEN helps local chapter activists to learn and develop their organizing skills with regard to volunteer and membership recruitment, fundraising, and leadership development. With this assistance, chapter leaders are most likely to be effective in positively impacting local school district policy, curricular change, student support, and adoption of LGBT-friendly resources.

Impacting Public Policy, Shaping Public Opinion
Our Washington, DC – based Public Policy Office works with elected officials, educational policy leaders, and local chapter activists at local, state, and federal levels. The goal? To ensure that basic protections are in place for LGBT students, teachers and families. We bring LGBT education issues into the court of public opinion through public awareness campaigns and coalition building.

Educating the Educators
Today’s students are tomorrow’s parents, neighbors, and voters. That’s why GLSEN creates groundbreaking teacher training materials and inclusive curricular resources. By ensuring that today’s teachers teach the lessons of respect for all, we ensure that the next generation of Americans will live in a world where anti-LGBT prejudice is an exception, not the rule.

Helping Students Fight for Rights
GLSEN's Student Organizing Department provides support and resources to youth in even the most isolated places. We support students as they form and lead gay-straight alliances – helping them to change their own school environments from the inside out. Student Organizing also works to help GSAs form alliances with each other and share valuable experiences and resources.

HOW IS GLSEN ORGANIZED?

Constituents
GLSEN works to reform schools and to change school culture around LGBT issues. As such, GLSEN’s constituents are all individuals and groups of people affected by schools and school policy in the nation’s public school districts and other private and parochial schools. GLSEN’s constituents include, but are not limited to, students, teachers, support staff, administrators, parents, and other members of local communities.

Chapters
GLSEN chapters are the heart and soul of GLSEN’s grassroots organizing efforts. Because decision-making most often occurs at the local school district level, GLSEN’s chapters are crucial to successfully achieving GLSEN’s mission. Chapters consist of many volunteers led by dedicated leadership teams. A few chapters have paid staff.

National Staff
GLSEN includes a small team of dedicated staff working in the areas of communication, education, student organizing, public policy, and development. Many of these national staff work out of the New York City Office, and the others work out of the Washington, DC office. The Director of Chapter Organizing and Chapter Organizing Associates work specifically with chapters and other community organizers.

Governance
GLSEN policy, operation, and national fundraising is directed by a national board of directors. This board directs the Executive Director to carry out national policies, establish strategic goals and fundraise. Similarly, each chapter has a steering committee or local board that helps to direct chapter activities. Both the national organization and local chapters operate under policies and By-Laws established by the national board.

WHY BE PART OF GLSEN?
There are many benefits in joining the GLSEN network of chapters:

GLSEN is national
GLSEN helps to ensure that chapters don’t operate in isolation. GLSEN fosters chapter-to-chapter communication and sharing. GLSEN is an important boost to the morale of chapter members. GLSEN is a leader in effectively building coalitions with other national organizations.

By utilizing its collaborative history in working with national organizations such as the National Education Association, American Civil Liberties Union, National Center for Lesbian Rights, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Parents, Friends and Families of Lesbians and Gays, and by networking with its chapters, GLSEN has been able to help obtain passage of safe schools legislation in Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, and New Jersey. These successes help raise morale among chapter activists and provide a sense that battles for social justice can, indeed, be won.

GLSEN is unique
GLSEN is about changing schools by focusing on creating change in schools and by targeting all stakeholders in schools: administrators, teachers, support staff, students, parents, and community members. GLSEN uniquely works beyond single constituencies to organize across public, parochial, and private school lines, across many sexual orientations and gender identities, and even across various political ideologies.

In Modesto, CA, the GLSEN chapter has effectively worked with many stakeholders to affect district policy that is embraced by people with divergent political views. The chapter has worked closely with school administrators, all members of the Modesto City School Board (both progressive and conservative), communities-of-faith, teachers, parents, and students. This broad-based work has established for the chapter a solid reputation and good working relationship for further work in the schools.

GLSEN is successful
GLSEN has positively affected change in schools nationwide. GLSEN is the nation’s leader in providing resources to 1200+ gay-straight alliances around the nation. GLSEN and its chapters have sponsored awareness and training workshops in hundreds of schools. GLSEN’s School Climate surveys have effectively encouraged school districts. GLSEN’s videos, curriculum guides, and other resources are highly effective in raising awareness of LGBTQ issues.

In the Albany, NY Capital Region, the GLSEN chapter has utilized GLSEN’s ongoing support, skill, and resources to positively change school district policy around LGBT issues. GLSEN helped the local chapter to determine appropriate specific short and intermediate goals, to discern the chapter’s organizational ability to affect these goals, to identify constituents and allies who could help in the campaign, to identify the specific decision makers who had the power to make the policy changes, and to consider the specific tactics likely to be most effective in this campaign.

GLSEN is supportive
GLSEN chapters can call Chapter Organizing staff for ongoing support. [These staff regularly visit chapters to provide trainings in a variety of subject areas, board development consulting, and national visibility for fundraising and media attention.] GLSEN has intensively trained over 500 activists for free or at cost, most often through its widely acclaimed summer Leadership Training Institutes and winter Graduate Training Institutes. GLSEN has conducted 150 chapter site visits in the last three years. The GLSEN web site includes hundreds of resources that are available for free, articles about chapter successes, so that local leaders may learn from each other, and contact information for every local legislator and school district in the nation. A bi-weekly newsletter is also produced throughout the year for chapter leaders.

In Orange County, California, field visits, GLSEN staff support, and leadership training, helped the local GLSEN chapter and a GSA in Orange County, CA to pressure a local school board to rescind its denial of a GSA to form. Though this 18-month situation could easily have depleted the chapter’s energy and resources, GLSEN’s support and advice helped the chapter to develop a set of strategies around this campaign, to work effectively with local and national media, to wade through the organizing challenges of encouraging participation at numerous public hearings, and to increase the chapter’s membership and volunteer base. With GLSEN’s help, the chapter ended the campaign with substantially increased membership, newly-identified chapter leaders, additional volunteers eager to work with the chapter on other projects, a positive working relationship with local media, increased visibility in the community, and a collective sense of power.

GETTING A CHAPTER OFF THE GROUND

Step 1: Contact Chapter Organizing staff
The most effective way to initiate the process of starting a chapter is first to call a Chapter Organizing staff person. That person will be able to offer many suggestions and help so that your chapter starts off in a direction that will ensure success in the future.

Once you have had discussions with a Chapter Organizing staff person and you believe that you and your local colleagues are able and willing to start a chapter in your community, you should complete a "New Chapter Questionnaire."

Step 2: Build a leadership team
It is most important to start building a leadership team from the beginning. Chapters that are most successful over time are those that started with building a team of dedicated activists who are willing to carry out the chapter’s activities. Chapters that have experienced problems often include those that initially rely on just a couple of people to do the work.

A chapter leadership team should not be confused with a chapter board. It is premature, at this point, to worry about a chapter board or establishment of chapter officers. Instead, you should focus only on gaining people interested in the chapter. Think of your leadership team as a flexible steering committee that moves the chapter forward, not a board entrenched in structure. A fluid and flexible leadership team is crucial to the health of any emerging chapter.

One effective way to build such a leadership team is for each person interested in forming a GLSEN chapter to develop a “Rolodex list,” a list of every friend, colleague, or acquaintance who might be informed about GLSEN and asked about their own interest in supporting a chapter. Broadening your approach to building a chapter is more likely to be an effective way to ensure diversity in your chapter.

Conducting substantive one-on-one meetings with potential chapter activists is the most effective means of ensuring success in building a diverse team of committed leaders. GLSEN strives to ensure that youth, people of color, people in different occupations, and people of varying sexual orientations and gender identities are integral to the life of each chapter and the national organization.

Step 3: Hold a successful general information meeting (GIM)
The first General Information Meeting (GIM) is presented to as many people as possible – to inform them about GLSEN, its mission, and its potential. Rather than being a meeting to first conduct formal chapter business, the GIM is most effective if it provides participants with information and enthusiasm about how the group can win concrete victories. A GIM agenda should look something like this:

• Introductions
• Overview of GLSEN mission, “basics,” and programs
• Brainstorm ideas about which issues could be tackled
• Brainstorm ideas about how these issues could be tackled
• Sign-up of volunteers to turn ideas into action
• Closure

Timing of the GIM, roles of the organizers, the specific agenda, outreach to potential guests, advertising, and costs are aspects of the GIM that should be considered carefully. This is the meeting from which potential active volunteers can be found. It is crucial that the audience for this first GIM be broad-based. Outreach for such an event absolutely must be widespread if you are going foster diversity.

Step 4: Conduct a successful first steering committee meeting
Within two or three days of the GIM, the chapter’s first organizational business meeting should be held. This should be one in which the leadership team / steering committee sets a direction for the first few months of the chapter. A facilitator for the group should be identified. The meeting should include a set of clear and concise objectives, and should lead to specific, measurable actions the chapter can take and specific commitments individuals are willing to make over the first few months.

Step 5: Assess the community’s needs
The first set of actions taken by a chapter should be to identify and assess community needs. While this may run counter to the desire of many to take immediate action, it is a crucial step toward ensuring that the chapter is effective in its work. Using GLSEN’s School Climate Survey to gather information and data about the needs of a given school community or set of school communities will go a long way toward helping the chapter build relationships with many allied organizations. Such assessment also will help your chapter in being diverse and fully inclusive. Assessing the community’s needs ensures that future work of the chapter is, in fact, necessary and successful. Chapter Organizing staff can help you to identify effective methods of needs assessments.

Step 6: Choose an issue
Only after the community’s needs have been assessed is it appropriate for a chapter’s steering committee to start choosing issue(s) to tackle. An issue (or issue campaign) is a solution to a problem. Anti-LGBT harassment in the schools of a given school district is a problem. The solution – the issue – is for local school district anti-harassment policy to be adopted, implemented, and enforced. The issue campaign is the set of steps that compel the school district’s decision makers to adopt anti-harassment policy that explicitly includes LGBT references. If such policy adoption is a need expressed by the community (not just by a few people in an emerging chapter), then it might be a campaign that a chapter should consider working to win. You should speak with a Chapter Organizing staff person for suggestions and advice on effectively identifying your chapter’s first issue campaign.

There are three primary requirements for choosing a successful issue:

• Create real, tangible change in people’s lives. A chapter’s work should result in “SMART” outcomes: specific, measurable, attainable, results-oriented, and time sensitive. How, specifically, does the issue campaign change schools?
• Make people aware of their own power. A chapter’s work should empower people to feel and know that they CAN make a difference in their community’s schools. Will many people be involved in the effort and will that effort make them feel more powerful?
• Hold policy decision-makers accountable. A chapter’s work should alter the relations of power so that school decision-makers recognize, respect, and respond to the efforts and expertise of the chapter. How, specifically, will chapter activists know that they wield power and/or influence over the schools’ decision makers?

It is important that an emerging chapter not take on more than one issue at first. It is far better to work effectively to win that single-issue campaign than to spread too thinly its resources. Speak with a Chapter Organizing staff person who can help your chapter select one from among a list of possible issues.

Step 7: Develop a strategic plan for action
Once an issue has been identified and selected, it is important to develop a long-range plan for winning the issue campaign. Identifying an issue campaign and carrying out its long-range plan is called Direct Action Organizing (DAO). It may be a natural reaction to jump right into specific and immediate actions to attempt to win a campaign. However, long-range planning is crucial to achieve sustainable success. Such strategic plans should include responses to the following categories:

• Set short and intermediate goals
• Identify your group’s financial and human resources; also identify its needs
• Identify your constituents and allies
• Identify the decision-maker(s)
• Select specific action(s) to attain your goals

You will be very wise to speak about strategy with a Chapter Organizing staff person who has had substantial experience in helping to develop such a strategic plan with many chapters.

CHAPTER ACCREDITATION

Once your leadership team has accomplished the seven steps toward getting your chapter off the ground, it is time to begin to raise tax-deductible funds under GLSEN’s name. To do so, GLSEN requires annual accreditation. This accreditation process is required for several reasons:

• Financial accountability is required, legally. Because most chapters operate under the umbrella of GLSEN’s 501(c)3 status with the Internal Revenue Service, it is imperative that a chapter’s financial operations are maintained properly. The annual accreditation helps to ensure necessary accuracy.
• Program and organizational accountability at the chapter level is necessary for the health of the entire organization. Because chapters use GLSEN’s name and because a chapter’s actions and activities reflect on the entire organization, we all need to make sure that we are consistent in our attempts to achieve the GLSEN mission.
• The accreditation process is a planning tool. Annual accreditation provides a planning tool for chapters to identify issues, strategies, and actions to achieve the chapter’s goals. An intended positive consequence is that accreditation also provides a consistent and effective mechanism for GLSEN Chapter Organizing staff to help chapters achieve their local goals.

CONCLUSION

If you effectively carry out the seven steps outlined here, you will have initiated a great beginning, not only in starting a chapter, but in starting a chapter that will most likely achieve sustainable success long into the future. These initial steps also will informally start you on the road toward official accreditation. Once your chapter leaders feel that you are ready to formally accredit, the Chapter Organizing staff will provide accreditation materials and help to guide you through the process.

Thanks for your interest in helping to initiate a GLSEN chapter in your local community. We hope that you will feel free to contact a Chapter Organizing staff person, with any questions you may have about the process.

HELPFUL HINTS FROM FORMER CO-CHAIRS
Following are various suggestions passed on to us by chapter leaders who wish to help you in your efforts at starting a chapter:

Personal Advice: Take Care of Yourselves

• Be aware of your limits.
• Don’t neglect your personal needs.
• Do not expect to do all of the work, even if you are the Co-Chair.
• Treat yourself to something you like after a chapter meeting.
• Be patient with yourself.
• Be aware of what pushes your own buttons.
• Work to steer clear of these “hot spots”.
• Remember that change comes one heart and mind at a time.

Organizational Advice: Take Care of Each Other.

• Spend some time every week bringing new people to the organization.
• Spend some time every week moving people up and developing them as leaders.
• Be clear about the roles and duties of steering committee and board members.
• Be sure that all understand and can commit to those roles and duties.
• Set clear boundaries for the roles of each leader.
• Be warm and welcoming.
• Be patient with others.
• Encourage new people to get involved.
• Get to know and embrace different working styles.
• Guide discussions toward constructive comments and criticism.
• Guide discussions away from personal attacks.
• Encourage communication; seek regular feedback.
• Frequently thank people for their efforts.

Operational Advice: Effectively Manage Your Chapter

• Draft an “inventory of tasks” for steering committee or board members.
• Do not expect the Co-Chairs to do all the work.
• Use GLSEN Chapter Organizing staff often.
• Take advantage of GLSEN technical support.
• Regularly analyze the effectiveness of your meetings.
• Regularly review the accomplishments of your chapter.
• Regularly analyze the effectiveness of your networking and 1:1 meetings.
• Keep a phone log of the things you do.
• Maintain a written history of your chapter’s activities.
• Be organized; set up a system for all operations.