"You're really good at what you do, Alex. You've got people volunteered for stuff before they even realize it!"

Ahh, music to any organizer's ears. I was having lunch with a wonderful couple in Giles County yesterday after I'd traveled down that way to attend mass and facilitate the planning meeting of the church subcommittee on capital punishment. It was a great meeting in that we've scheduled a TCASK write-a-thon in Pulaski, an educational film screening, and planned a lobby training- which is a lot for a small town in one meeting- but it should keep people busy.

Even better, though, is who is doing it. Picking apart tasks into manageable little chunks for new volunteers is a great way of getting people involved, oh yes, and let them do it in twos, both to check on eachother and to make things less overwhelming. So I brought two folders on how to plan a write-a-thon, and refused (gently) to give them to the usual suspects and got two other people to plan the write-a-thon for March 1st (International Death Penalty Abolition Day)- which is a pretty manageable task. Two other people will plan the film screening- which we scheduled at the meeting. So that basically consists of getting the films from me and putting announcements in the bulletin and maybe some local papers. But the key is that people are doing something other than attending a meeting and they can see that their work is important and doable. And so, instead of having 2 people working like crazy to get all kinds of stuff in hand, you have 6 people doing a little bit of productive work each.

And that (as we say in Tennessee) is gettin' 'er done.