OPL Advocates: How Our Library Advocacy Coalition Began
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The City of Oakland Library Commission. The Friends of the Oakland Public Library. The Youth Leadership Council. Branch Friends groups. Save Oakland Libraries. All of these groups advocate on behalf of the Oakland Public Library.
Oakland is beyond fortunate to have so many groups working together to support OPL. But there was a time when these groups knew little of each other and couldn’t take maximum advantage of their varying superpowers. That all changed on Dec. 8, 2013 – the first time these groups sat down together at the Lakeview Branch to compare goals, resources, strengths and weaknesses.
From that meeting, OPL Advocates was born.
The essential institution at the heart of all of these groups is the Oakland Public Library, a city agency funded primarily by parcel taxes (Measures D and C) and the city’s General Fund. The city budget, which includes the library, is decided by the City Council, after the Mayor and City Administrator present a draft budget. Then, the City Council holds town halls and adopts a final budget no later than June 30. Midcycle budget adjustments also are possible.
For a deep dive into the groups that advocate on behalf of OPL, read this blog post, "The Superpowers of OPL's Advocate Groups."
Library funding – both protecting it and increasing it – is often the main focus of all of OPL’s advocacy groups. So knowing who fills the library’s “wallet” is crucial.
How It Was Before
Before OPL Advocates, each advocate group would await the start of the city’s two-year budget cycle, which often involved an existential funding threat to the library. Back then, we also knew that Measure Q – OPL’s lone parcel tax – would eventually expire, and if voters failed to renew it, a catastrophic funding shortfall would occur. The city’s draft budgets also often included proposed cuts to library funding.
All this put OPL’s pre-coalition advocate groups through a recurring two-year “crisis cycle” that looked like this:
Budget Review
Threat: fewer or no dollars for Library
Frantic activity to avert threat – with little time to plan or organize. Everyone’s lives temporarily dominated by the crisis.
Crisis averted (or not – funding lost)
Return to regular jobs and activities
Repeat
Finally, exhausted advocates began to ask: How do we stop this cycle? There had to be a better way.
We Need to Join Forces
At our first meeting in December 2013, OPL’s advocate groups realized we had many common goals, but we knew little about each other. By the end of that meeting, we were lit up by the idea of joining forces. We could combine resources, reduce duplication of efforts, create and elevate talking points, and make much better use of our combined energy with goals such as:
Keeping the cause active and on people’s minds between budget cycles.
Using the “peacetime” between budget cycles to build support. It’s valuable time for recruiting advocates and banking future “yes” votes.
Holding regular events throughout the year to get the advocates accustomed to gathering on behalf of the library and building a positive habit.
Reminding each other and ourselves that you should never assume anyone – especially decision makers – know about the library’s services or funding.
Or, in the words of one wise advocate: “Be ready so you don’t have to get ready.”
Our goals:
Build a trained, skilled, disciplined advocate base that can educate the public.
Always be ready to do battle, with advocacy roles identified, and workers, materials and resources prepared for quick deployment.
Find Your People
So, where to start? First, we sought our natural allies among local groups, commissions, friends, teen advisory groups, youth leadership, active patrons, librarians, unions, etc.
Then, we gathered our circle of supporters together and started drawing the outlines of our coalition:
Determine the purpose, type and structure of the group.
Determine the timing that works – when to meet, how often, whom.
Develop a communication plan – for leaders, the whole coalition membership, the larger community – via social media, emails, messaging apps, websites, etc.
Define what each member group does well and how involved each wants to be.
Watch out for landmines (existing conflicts between groups, for example) and work to resolve them.
Attend each other’s meetings.
Share best practices.
Create participatory opportunities. Repeating budget and library facts makes advocates more knowledgeable and able to repeat them to others. Data and stories are best. Collect resources about libraries – and stories about “how the library changed your life.”
Seize critical moments (such as one-time surplus city funds) for the opportunity to bond, educate, celebrate, and harness energy.
Form a Coalition
There are many different coalition types, and many stages to building one:
Start with your purpose – we defined ours at our initial meeting.
Define members and name each group’s strengths.
Create a structure to fit strengths and needs – and to balance the work. Be flexible, but clear.
Decide how you will decide – this is crucial.
Structure decision-making carefully. Will it be consensus-based? Will we agree to disagree?
We created an executive committee with representatives from as many groups as possible. We figured out at the executive level what the unifying goals are, and then we returned to our member groups and communicated them.
We respect and reflect each other’s roles and strengths.
But there also is communication the other way; we carry from our groups what our individual concerns, needs, and plans are.
We recognize that contributions will vary.
We distribute the credit fairly.
Communication:
How will you communicate with each other – from the executive committee to the general membership?
From there, the coalition itself can coordinate ongoing operations:
Determine how to communicate/reach target persons (in our case, the budget deciders)
Decide how may you want to interact with the local news media
Set up social media before you need it. We’ve used Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Some elected officials were on either Facebook OR Twitter, while a lot of patrons were on Instagram. Go where your targets are.
We enlisted the talents and generosity of OPL librarian Amy Martin to design an OPL Advocates logo, which we’ve used on T-shirts, our website, signs, table drapes, and other key branding.
Maintain the coalition as an informal gathering of representatives from existing groups. It is NOT an entity in and of itself. Decline invitations to “the Coalition” to support or participate in efforts, and redirect those invitations to the appropriate member group(s) instead. Keep a “small c” on the coalition, so you don’t undercut the importance of the member groups.
Strengthen Your Coalition
Once OPL Advocates was up and running, we wanted to take steps to make sure we kept it strong and growing. Here are some of our strategies:
Mutual support: Attend each other’s meetings.
Foster transparency: Communicate and evaluate.
Landmines: Make conflict constructive Resolving it can be illuminating and also build trust. Identify common conflict triggers, and focus on resolving them. Make note of common misperceptions, and work to eliminate them.
Create opportunities for education. For example, schedule regular sessions so advocates can practice their “elevator speech” – a one-minute overview of OPL funding and advocate goals. This helps make the most of scheduled or chance meetings with decision-makers. Information enables participation.
Go to community events together in order to foster cooperation, ensure the library message is getting out there, and gather info on library supporters. (We’ve had great results attending special events like the 2017 Women’s March and annual events like Oaktoberfest.).
Keep “We Love Library” stickers on hand for use at community events. Most people will happily let you slap a sticker on them during public events!
When possible, support fund-raising efforts for your own or other groups throughout the year.
Offer patrons “Why I Love OPL” signs at events, and take their photos holding their signs.
Make an email list of library supporters, and keep it updated. (We currently use MailChimp for this.)
Train library staff in advocacy and the use of value-based language. According to EveryLibrary, the nationwide library advocacy organization, voters base their decisions on their personal relationships with library staff.
Hold an annual meeting of supporters. We’ve held an OPL Advocates Mixer annually since 2013, and it’s become a beloved and much-anticipated event.
Seize Opportunities
An active coalition can act quickly to seize opportunities. Here are some examples:
When the city of Oakland once announced an unexpected budget surplus, OPL Advocates helped secure an extra $500,000 for the library.
When we bump into elected officials, our shared talking points and “elevator speeches” are ready to deploy.
We can deliver the message for the whole coalition, not just one group, by coordinating coverage.
Speak one-on-one with candidates.
Plan events and invite candidates.
Attend election and budget forums and ask questions about library funding.
Gather data and library stories.
Check in with library administration to ensure messages are consistent and/or what administration would LIKE to say, but can’t.
We’ve given Valentine’s Day gifts to Council Members that highlighted information about OPL funding and services.
Measure D – 76.89% YES in 2018!
When the campaign for OPL’s Measure D began, OPL Advocates had been preparing for several years:
Coalition/leadership were already in place.
Personal relationships with decision-makers already existed.
Supporters became campaign volunteers and financial supporters, after years of work promoting the library to the public and decision-makers.
Measure C – 82% YES in 2022!
In June 2022, Oakland voters overwhelmingly approved Measure C, with an 82% "yes" vote. The intent of this measure was to extend a parcel tax for the Oakland Public Library for the next 30 years, providing the library with $18 million annually, or 40% of its budget. Advocates were again heavily involved in leading the campaign, speaking to local groups, meeting with elected officials, knocking on doors, and phone-banking, among other things.
Spreading the Word and Going Strong
This blog post is based on a workshop called “Building a Standing Army of Library Advocates: Lessons from Oakland Public Library’s Friends, Commission, Staff, Youth and Community,” presented by OPL Advocates in November 2014 at the California Library Association Annual Conference.
The workshop was updated and presented again at the California Public Library Advocates Spring Workshop, held in May 2019 at the 81st Ave. Branch with the title, “Build a Coalition of Library Groups.”
Huge thanks to former OPL librarian Amy Sonnie for significant contributions to the original presentation and to all who presented at both workshops, including Victoria Barbero, Helen Bloch, Ronile Lahti, and Kathryn Sterbenc.
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