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February 24, 2006
"Bob Fulkerson, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada"
Welcome to Leadership Talks with Bob Fulkerson, Leadership Alliance of Nevada. Questions and answers will appear below starting at 1 pm EST on February 24, 2006. You may need to hit refresh periodically during the interview to see the latest responses. Read background Leadership for a Changing World
Thank you for joining us for today's Leadership Talks with Bob Fulkerson of Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.
Bob, how did you get into social justice work?
Bob Fulkerson
How personal should I get? I’m a fifth generation Nevadan and in my younger days was a conservative Republican who worked on Capitol Hill and on Reagan’s presidential campaign. When my dad was in Vietnam my mom hung peace banners outside our window—which my 4th grade teacher criticized and was my first real example of activism.
I came to social justice work by getting pissed off that the land, water and people of my state were being bombed, dumped on and wasted . A group called Citizen Alert was fighting the MX missile, the nuclear waste dump and weapons testing here, so I volunteered for them when I was 22. A year later I was hired as executive director. I was there for ten years of numerous arrests, encouraging victories, set backs, and working with some of the most inspirations folks around. In 1994, some of us got together and created the states first progressive coalition—PLAN. Been here ever since and I love it.
Bangor, ME
Can you give us some key points on how to be successful with making change from within the "system" (i.e. how to make policy change)?
Bob Fulkerson
I think it’s key if you want to make change from within the system, it’s good to get on the inside, which generally means getting elected or getting appointed. And so take the time to either get yourself or people from your organization elected to the school board, the city council, the state legislature, or work on a campaign. The best way to build relationships with people on the inside is to volunteer for their campaign. Working on a campaign builds relationships with elected officials that money can’t buy. So the key is either getting elected to office or building relationships with those who are elected to office. It’s a long-term process, so don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t happen immediately. We’re an instant-results culture, but change takes time, so don’t get discouraged if change doesn’t happen immediately.
Bailey Island, ME
You seem to work on a variety of issues. How do you choose what is next? Is it a group decision?
Bob Fulkerson
It’s absolutely a group decision and we have 40 different member organizations who span the issues from gay and lesbian to labor to environment to low-income, and what we do is we choose issues that may not be at the top of everybody’s list, but are essential for winning, that are essential for all of us to have success in on our individual group issues. We try to develop a cross-pollination of issues, so trying to get labor unions to speak out in favor of LGBT rights and getting environmental groups to speak out in favor of low-income advocacy issues. In a practical matter, when we discuss our legislative priorities, we start off with 60 issues that all our groups choose two or three issues to bring to the table and through a consensus process, we whittle it down to five key legislative issues every session. For example in the last session, the issues were water, GLBT equality, the state budget, and everybody agrees to work on those issues collectively.
Cleveland Hts., Ohio
In your experience, what happens to the people who have strongly held opposing views after they have been working in these unlikely coalitions for a period of time?
Bob Fulkerson
There are three things that happen to people who have strongly held opposing views. Some people leave, unfortunately; we’ve had three or four leave over our position of reproductive choice and LBGT rights. Sometimes people change their views. They may have strongly held opposing views, but over time those views change. And some people just stay rigid in their beliefs, and we just agree to disagree, and that’s fine. The old adage is if you’re in a coalition and everybody is comfortable and agreeing with each other, your coalition isn’t big enough.
Leadership for a Changing World
Leadership comes in many forms. How would you describe your leadership style?
Bob Fulkerson
I guess my leadership style could be defined as collaborative and evolving. Collaboration involves following and walking side by side, and if you’re out in front in the traditional leadership sense you better look behind you—there might not be anyone following! That said, it’s important to speak one’s truth, to be clear about the direction you feel needs to be taken. Which reminds me, one of the best questions a leader should be asking is “are we headed in the right direction?” Listen to what others are saying, then be able change your mind, shift ground, or stand firm. It’s the leadership dance. It’s fun and fascinating.
Malibu, CA
Do you, and if so how, integrate youth into your work to enable the next generation to rise up?
Bob Fulkerson
Absolutely. It’s totally essential. Since 1998, we’ve had a dedicated youth organizer on our staff, and the program we run is the Nevada Youth Activists Projects, or NYAP. They’ve been involved in voter registration and engagement issues. Right now, the key focus is antiwar organizing and immigration. I was lucky enough to be hired to run an organization when I was 23 years old, and I daresay we’re not giving young people those types of opportunities today, and it’s perilous. We need to have youth organizing and make room to insert youth in positions of power and leadership professionally.
Alexandria, VA
You work on making policy change. How have you seen your efforts on that level inform and impact work on the ground level and vice versa?
Bob Fulkerson
It’s like two hands clapping. Unless you have the work at the ground level, the policy change isn’t going to happen. And unless the policy change impacts people at the ground level, it’s meaningless. So the two, both the grassroots level and what happens in the halls of the legislature, are essentially related. We’re interested in making policies that directly improve people’s lives, particularly those who have been shut of the system. So when we work on ex-felon issues, we bring ex-felons to Carson City to lobby and to testify about their issues. So, the polices have changed in our state that directly effect ex-felons and help them make their lives better.
Denver
How do you use media in your work?
Bob Fulkerson
We love using the media, and Nevada is an activist’s dream because we have great access to TV, radio, and print media. On our Web page, you can see the articles that have been written about PLAN over the years. Earned media is the critical tool in helping to shape public opinion and helping to promote progressive values. It is integrated into every aspect of our organizing work, and we spend a lot of time training our leaders how to interact with the media; it’s a skill in terms of how to do a press conference to how to do a TV interview to how to run a meeting with the editorial board of a newspaper or write an op-ed piece. I think one of the challenges is developing new spokespersons who can speak out on their own issues. The press loves to go to those recognized leaders, unfortunately, like me. Our biggest challenge is to cultivate new spokespeople so that the base of messengers is broadened. Unless you’re working with the media, you are undercutting the movement. I feel very strongly that working with the media and developing relationships with them is part and parcel of building power and building movements.
Norman, OK
In a rural area, is it difficult to organize people on such a variety of topics? How do you keep people energized?
Bob Fulkerson
The advantages of working in a rural setting are too numerous to list, but a couple that leap to the top of my mind immediately would be the people and the setting. I’ve had the privilege of working with Indigenous people and other rural people in Nevada, and I am still in touch with those I met 20 years ago. They’re not going anywhere, so the stability is a great advantage. And they live in some of the most beautiful areas on God’s green earth--though it’s a bit browner here in the deserts of Nevada. Still, rural Nevada is gorgeous, and one of the best things about working on water is that it often brings me back to my rural roots.
One challenge would be geographic-driving 400 miles for a half-day meeting is common. Another challenge is overcoming my erroneous belief that rural people, Mormon farmers or conservative ranchers, are too set in their ways, could never be progressive, are anti-gay. That’s really stupid, yet we fall into that trap, stereotyping others the way we abhor being stereotyped. If I really believe what Gandhi said about people being able to change, then I need to be able to work with all kinds of people, including rural conservatives. Another challenge is how to have the difficult conversations on wedge issues such as immigration or gay rights with rural folks with whom we’re allied on water or other issues. It’s important to agree to “leave our guns at the door” and focus on the issue at hand (water). But as the relationship deepens, how do you bring wedge issues into the room as a way of inoculating ourselves against potential division—and as a way of moving people on key issues?
Bridgeport, CT
There is so much division in this country and in politics. What advice would you give others who want to creat similar "unlikely coalitions"?
Bob Fulkerson
I would say that trust is the essential building block and building that trust through one-on-one relationships is key, and that takes time. Also, try to reach beyond ideology and dogma and understand that you are not going to agree with this person or this organization on all of the issues. That’s not what it’s about anyway. The coalitions that I’m interesting in building are about bringing together competing and disparate organizations to aggregate their power that results in achieving concrete social justice victories. So it’s essential that you are able to let these organizations you’re trying to bring to the table know that it’s in their self-interest to be involved with organizations they may not get along with. Conflict is inevitable in any relationship, especially in a coalition, so the time needs to be taken to deepen and cultivate personal relationships across your institutions. Go out, have coffee with these leaders and grassroots people from different organizations that you’re trying to pull together, meet with them one-on-one, and then start bringing them together and create some shared values. It doesn’t have to be a manifesto, but at least there will be shared values you can coalesce around, such as a mission statement.
Again, building trust and relationships needs to happen first, before the issues are even mentioned. Trust and relationships are the foundation of a coalition, and you must continually rebuild it.
Leadership for a Changing World
You recently traveled to the World Social Forum in Venezuela. How did this experience shape your view of organizing nationally and internationally?
Bob Fulkerson
The key lesson for me is how much we have to learn from our neighbors in the global South. People in the United States have been brought up in this country to believe we set the bar on everything, but that’s just not true. When it comes to organizing style and organizing technique, we have a great deal to learn. Look at Bolivia: 20 years ago, indigenous people were hustled off the sidewalks in the capital. Today, indigenous people run the country with Evo Morales as president and 60 percent of parliament comprised of indigenous people. How they inspired a mass movement to make substantial electoral gains is something we can learn from. One issue we’re looking at in Nevada is privatization of water. Bolivians just kicked out Bechtel from privatizing their water system, a five-year battle that cost 100 lives. Their notion of struggle and our notion of struggle are different. The upside of globalization is the increasing relationships being built between activists communities. There are not only new techniques but a great deal of inspiration that cannot be discounted.
Sacramento, CA
How have you been able to secure funding when working on such a variety of issues and across political lines?
Bob Fulkerson
It hasn’t been easy. You go to a donor and ask him for money for PLAN. The first thing they do is look at your member list and say, we support the environment, but we don’t like all those labor unions. Or they’ll say, we support labor unions, but we don’t support all these gay and lesbian groups. So it’s difficult. In fact, we came very close to folding in our first 18 months because we couldn’t raise money. We had an angel in Nevada, though, who financed our first year. Each one of our staff is responsible for cultivating between five and twenty individual donors. Each of those donors is able to give between $100 and $5,000. We have made the conscious decision to merge our program with our fundraising. It’s not as if we have one person responsible for fundraising; that’s a house divided, and it will not stand. So having everybody involved in the fundraising is really important, but we still have a long way to go. We just had a 15-minute DVD produced called “The PLAN Story” and we’re encouraging staff members, board members, and volunteers to hold house parties to show the DVD. If you would like a copy, please contact us.
The key to fundraising is a variety of income sources, like mail, house parties, donor visits, or foundations, and many people being involved in the fundraising. It cannot be left up just to the director or a development director. Everyone in the organization is responsible. We say, give, get, or get, which means you give money, you get money, or you get out. You want people to give what for them is substantial, which may be a dollar or a dollar followed by many zeroes; it’s relative to the individual.
Washington, DC
Sometimes in this type of work it is hard to keep going and you try to appreciate the smaller things. How do you define success?
Bob Fulkerson
As a leader, success is watching others you had a hand in developing coming into the fullness of their personal power and leadership ability. Policy victories are also benchmarks of success but they can always be yanked away. Cultivating and bringing up new leaders can help ensure we achieve and maintain concrete victories related to social justice.
Another huge mark of success is seeing people you worked with on social justice issues being elected to public office, from school board to the legislature. I think we need to consciously instill in organizers and leaders the responsibility they have to run for and serve in public office. That way we build power on the inside, as we continue to agitate from the outside. Getting people of color, especially women, elected to office is critical. Finally, success is when white organizers like me continually sharpen our anti-racist analysis to make sure we’re not replicating the oppressive BS we’ve been steeped in since birth that keeps leaders of color from emerging in our own organizations.
Glendale, NY
What would you like to see PLAN focus on in the future?
Bob Fulkerson
I would like to see us continue our work around economic, racial, and environmental justice issues, but at a greater capacity. I don’t see us branching off into many new issues, because we’re already multi-issue, covering a broad array of social justice issues. In terms of a new focus, it would be around broadening capacity, developing stronger communications. In terms of new directions, I’d like to broaden our technological capacity, using the Internet as a way to reach new people that we haven’t been able to reach it. Nevada is the fastest-growing state in the country, so thousands of people are moving here who have no idea who PLAN is, so we need to develop better strategies, using communication and technology, to reach these new people and build our base. We also need to keep our ear to the ground and listen to trends that are percolating that are going to arise that we may not have any idea today, in terms of issues or developments that we’ll need to focus on. So we need to stay flexible.
Leadership for a Changing World
Thanks again for a great discussion. We have time for one more questions that we like to ask all of our guests.
How do you sustain yourself and your staff to prevent burnout?
Bob Fulkerson
I try to sustain myself through yoga, meditation, backpacking, fishing, breathing and laughing. The breathing part is more difficult than it sounds, because in these high stress times we’re constricted in so many ways. We try to build a culture in PLAN that makes staff feel totally free to take time off for burn-out prevention, and we have a generous vacation policy. I try to take a personal interest in the health of those I love, which includes the people I work with. I encourage them to practice yoga and I teach classes twice a week. We want our people to love coming to work, and we want them to stay in social justice work for the long haul. Obviously there’s many challenges related to that and it doesn’t always work out that way. But we continue to strive.
Leadership for a Changing World
Thank you for joining us for today's Leadership Talks with Bob Fulkerson of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. For more information on the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada please contact:
Robert A. Fulkerson
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada
1101 Riverside Drive
Reno, NV 89503
Phone: 775-348-7557
Fax: 775-348-7707
Email: bfulkerson@planevada.org
Web: www.planevada.org
Bob Fulkerson
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Archived Talks
The Brotherhood/Sister Sol United Vision for Idaho (UVI) Will Allen of Growing Power Community Food Center and Anthony Flaccavento of Appalachian Sustainable Development Padres Unidos David Utter, Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana Hopi Foundation Bhairavi Desai, New York Taxi Workers Alliance Joyce and Nelson Johnson, Beloved Community Center Arnold Aprill, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education David Cohen, Advocacy Institute co-founder Sandra Barnhill, Aid to Children of Imprisoned Mothers, Inc. Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger Montana Human Rights Network Hawaiian Community Assets Abby Scher, Independent Press Association-New York Eddie Bautista, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest Richard Townsell, Lawndale Christian Development Corp. Parents United for Responsible Education Lily Yeh, Village of Arts & Humanities Andrea Cruz, Southeast Georgia Communities Project Marilyn Smith, Abused Deaf Women's Advocacy Services John Logue, Ohio Employee Ownership Center Gerry Roll, Hazard Perry County Community Ministries Lateefah Simon, Center for Young Women's Development Regional AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN) Terrol Johnson and Tristan Reader of Tohono O'odham Community Action Ruth Wise, New Road Community Development Group Julie Stewart of Families Against Mandatory Minimums John Parvensky of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless Dale Asis of CAAELII Cynthia Chandler and Cassandra Shaylor of Justice Now Bill Rauch of the Cornerstone Theater Company Milo Mumgaard, Executive Director, Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition Phill Wilson of the African American AIDS Policy and Training Institute Chris Fitzsimon of the Common Sense Foundation Leadership Talk with MOSES Transportation Task Force of Detroit Leadership Talk with The Brotherhood/Sister Sol Hope House Director Carol Fennelly From Crack House to School
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