this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
61 points (100.0% liked)
askchapo
23211 readers
122 users here now
Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
-
Posts must ask a question.
-
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
-
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
-
Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
That's exactly how it is. Bide some time and make some minor accomplishments to build credibility. If you have any initiative/leadership skill at all there's a solid chance that in 6-8 months they'll give you the keys to the org. Then your challenge is to build any of your useful allies into leaders.
It sort of sucks how easy it is, but most organizations have no direction because they are consumed by liberal idealism (sounds like yours has a concept of demcent, but that doesn't fix everything, obviously I don't known the details). If you browse this site you should have a decent concept of what your org is actually trying to accomplish, and the tactics you'll need to get there.
If you aren't finding any useful people in the existing org, your focus ought to be on recruitment and onboarding. Give a consistent onboarding presentation, and then recruit your new recruits to deliver the onboarding presentation. That gets them involved and useful pretty much instantly. When you need something more advanced, now you have a pool of established volunteers to draw from.
Focusing on onboarding and internal development puts you in a powerful position, and it's immediately useful.
I like this advice. Can vouch for it. Have to build that credibility. Start doing shit and people will notice, and if you're competent and build a good reputation, people will start looking to you for answers and they'll listen to what you say. You may discover within yourself leadership abilities you didn't know you had, like I did.
I've posted about this elsewhere, but I'm itching to apply this to organizing this year.
It's almost kind of sad how easy it is. I wish there were robust socialist leadership that one would have to compete with to get a leadership position, but that's not usually the case. Even people who are well intentioned are often already burnt out because they don't know how to build an organization that can support them (recruitment -> onboarding -> development -> fundraising as the foundation)