Printer-friendly versionSend to friend

I know the staff at New Tactics and at CVT, I feel appreciated, I know that they are doing great work and I consider it a privelege if I can use my own particular variety of skills to help in the work. It is not the individual tasks that I do in any one week that bring me this kind of satisfaction but feeling that I am involved in the bigger picture with an organization that is doing such important work with so few resources. The tactics that New Tactics shares with human rights activists around the world are such a testament to the innovative human spirit and underline how we are all connected by universal issues and not limited by nationality, gender, race or religion.

As someone who has spent their entire professional career in the international not-for-profit sector, first in London and Brussels and then in Washington DC, I was somewhat wary about moving to the Twin Cities. What kind of international not-for-profits actually operated out here in the Mid West?! My first enquiries were met with responses that directed me to various organizations working with immigrant populations here. That was not quite what I had in mind - I actually was looking for an organization based in the Twin Cities, but working with civil society actors in other countries. 

Kate Kelsch proved to be my saviour. We had worked together in Washington DC, she with organizations in Latin America, I with ones in Central and Eastern Europe. I had sent her on one mission to Bosnia to train domestic election monitors there. And then, preceding me to the Twin Cities by a few years she had tried the private sector only to realize it did not "get her out of bed in the mornings" and then been drawn to launch a new project at the Center for VIctims of Torture - the New Tactics in Human Rights project.

When I reconnected with her in Minneapolis, she was putting together an international human rights symposium in Turkey. In one previous incarnation I had spent several years organizing large international conferences so perhaps I could help.  As a once a week volunteer I was embraced by Kate and her small staff and found myself falling into the role of a souding board who could stand a little back from the madness of organizing a large conference and offer my previous experiences as both encouragement and warning.

What an enterprise! The NT staff were terrific and dedicated; they regularly discussed international issues rather than the latest American Idol episode.  They worked all hours for little pay and had fun along the way. Some organizations do not know how to include volunteers but NT made everyone feel equal, welcome and valued. As a small project there is little sense of hierarchy - the endless supply of homemade food in the kitchen was great too!

Post symposium New Tactics inevitably grappled with what next, both in terms of vision and funding. Those were the days of redrafting of the annual plans, 200x and beyond.........

I felt empowered when invited to participate in staff retreats and brainstorming on the next steps for the organization. And it was a real challenge. In the aftermath of an extremely successful international conference where everyone motivates everyone else and shares their future plans, returning home is always a jolt back into reality.  Momentum is much harder to maintain when you are reconfronted with the daily business of keeping your organization afloat.

New Tactics' strength in my opinion has always been its wonderful publications, intially the workbook and  tactical notebooks in hard copy and now increasingly its on-line tools and resources, including the on-line dialogues. Faced with the overwhelming difficulty of maintaining contacts with human rights activists around the world while only having access to a few staff and limited funding, New Tactics did what it does best, it rethought its own tactics and tailored them to the reality. Large international conferences cannot be repeated indefinitely but with the new possibilities offered by technology, New Tactics was able to launch a new interacitve website in 2007.  The website is a great resource for human rights activists worldwide and also as a classroom resource for university students and teachers.  This intersects beautifully with my "day job" as leadership instructor at the University of Minnesota.

I know the staff at New Tactics and at CVT, I feel appreciated, I know that they are doing great work and I consider it a privelege if I can use my own particular variety of skills to help in the work. It is not the individual tasks that I do in any one week that bring me this kind of satisfaction but feeling that I am involved in the bigger picture with an organization that is doing such important work with so few resources. The tactics that New Tactics shares with human rights activists around the world are such a testament to the innovative human spirit and underline how we are all connected by universal issues and not limited by nationality, gender, race or religion.

New Tactics is not a place for cynics who may ask how performing street theater pieces about violence against women, or citizen monitoring of local government budgets can advance the cause of human rights but in the end it was not the military power of the United States that brought down the Berlin wall, it was the courage of numerous ordinary citizens who over the course of many years had the courage to keep the concept of human rights alive in endless small examples of defiance against the authorities. What individuals struggling under repressive regimes need most is support and sharing from others who have been in similar situations. Who would imagine that the power of humor and satire could undermine powerful undemocratic leaders - just read the NT on line dialogue Tactics that Tickle: Laughing all the way to the win to find out.

Seven years after I first voluteered at New Tactics, I am still looking forward to coming into the office once a week. There is always an interesting project to research, an on-line dialogue in which to participate, reports or proposals to be written and still good snacks in the lunch room!