This is what I call A Progressive Experience... Participating in the New Organizing Institute Campaign Bootcamp was indeed an amazing and remarkable experience and if I ever have the chance to do it again, I would do it without no doubt. I personally would like to thank each one who made that possible. Zack Exley, Judith Freeman and Roz Lemieux thank you for ALL the hard work that you put into the program and each one of us; to the trainers thank you for sharing your knowledge and providing us with the tools needed to have a successful camapign. To the sponsors, thank you for giving us the opportunity to be part of such amazing program. Each one of you has contributed to the development of 60 progressive young leaders who are going to make a difference as they return to their respective communities.

The NOI Bootcamp not only provided me with the tools and skills needed to conduct an effective campaign utilizing technology, but also linked me with other progressive organizations and amazing progressive people like you. I view this program as a place where progressive people exchange ideas and gain the skills needed to serve their communities.

One of my highlights of the program, from many that I had throughout the whole week, was meeting Professor Marshall Ganz. Indeed he is a fascinating person to meet and has so much history to share with progressive serving leaders like him. I was impressed with his candor and his eager to share his knowledge with progressive young leaders like us.

Quite often servant leaders, likewise organizers, don't receive the credit that they deserve in this society and it’s mainly because they do it to give back not to get credit for. Servant leaders and organizers embrace the meaning of democracy throughout what they do for their communities. Democracy is not helping someone in an individual level, like some politicians do, rather than bringing people together and committee them for social changes. One of the things that Professor Ganz explained in the meeting is that many politicians use the words "constituencies” not knowing the real meaning of the word and what stand for. The word constituency is derived from the Latin root. For instance, Cons-tituency—means together; while Constituency—means stand; so constituency embraces these words: “a community that works together stand together”

An organizer links the resources to empower the community under the ideology of eradicating social inequality in this society; while, some politicians, in the other hand, take away those resources available in the community so constituencies cannot empower themselves.

It is important to find where is the source or who hold the power as Professor Ganz explained at the meeting. Servant leaders utilize the power to empower members of the community and other servant leaders as well; while, politicians like to abuse their power upon the constituencies in their communities

When it comes to the qualities that politician and servant leader must have, I look into:
1. Relations skills—which is the foundation of a good leader
2. Motivation—knowing what’s your constituencies stand in certain issues
3. Values—highlights who you are as a person and your believes
4. Strategies—what are you going to do for your community and how you are going to achieve your goals.
5. Action—making things happening in the community and live by your promise.

One of the things that drive organizers to do good for their community is the fact that they know the people their community and also they know how to serve them. I firmly believe that some politicians don’t know who their constituencies are and by not knowing them, they often don’t know how to serve them.

Overall, it is time to think like organizers as we move forward in becoming server leaders in our communities. People in our communities need more organizers rather than some self-driven politician who only purpose to become an elect official is to help him or herself and help those ones who think like him/her. So, would you rather have a server leader who is community-driven or a self-driven politician? Think about it as we move on into ‘08!

Once again, thank you for allowing me to participated in such amazing program. It was indeed a learning experience, THANK YOU!

Sincerely,
Edwin Zambrano
Progressive by heart, through actions and by spirit

“It is time to live the present, focusing in the future, but always retaining the past. I have seeing a lack current of leadership and we found ourselves shopping and looking back in previous great leaders. It is time to emerge a class of progressive leaders that will become the current and future Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, as well as others organizers”  ¶ posted by TazEdwin @ 9:53 AM