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March 1998, Volume 5, Number 2    Sample Campaign Plan: 1998 Oklahoma Chapter Draft Public Education Campaign Plan 1. Campaign Goals and Issue Focus  What are the overall conservation goals of your campaign that you plan to accomplish by Nov. 25, 1998?   Raise awareness. Educate the public. Build support for controls on hog mega-farms and other "concentrated animal feeding operations" (CAFOs). Enforce the rules we have now. Make connections between campaign contributions and political actions. Strengthen coalitions with family-farm proponents, university student groups and other allies. Build coalitions with the religious community and hunters and anglers.   What are your long-term goals?   To establish and enforce standards for existing hog and chicken factories. To prevent the rampant expansion of mega animal factories in the state. Reinstate Oklahoma's pre-1991 corporate farming prohibitions.   How will this issue focus advance the conservation goals of your chapter or group?   Chapter leaders agree that CAFOs are again our top priority issue for 1998. Clean water is a popular issue with our members and the public.   How will you quantify your success?   Number of events staged and attendees. Number of educational materials distributed. Amount of media coverage. Reports produced. New members and activists.   What are the overall organizational goals of your campaign?   To build on the foundations of previous campaigns. To strengthen the chapter and its groups to tackle new issues. To develop volunteer activists. To broaden and expand the scope of our coalition partners. How will this campaign strengthen your chapter?   Give us a greater credibility with the public and policy-makers. Develop our volunteer base. Recruit new activists. Build confidence. Share skills. Develop media and public relations skills.   How will this campaign recruit and develop new activists at the chapter/group level?   Presentations to group meetings. Newsletter articles. Recruit new members. Offer training. How will you involve Club members in the campaign?   Two major benchmark events. Earth Day activities. Rallies and doorhangings. Letter-to-the-editor campaigns. How will you quantify your success?   Attendance at events. Membership numbers. Length of the activist list. Media coverage. What is the main issue focus of the campaign?   The main issue focus of our campaign is to control the spread of corporate agribusiness factory farms  --  pig and chicken factories  --  in Oklahoma and address the serious environmental threats posed by these operations. 2. Story  What story will you tell to reinforce the message and themes?   Pig factories have made normal daily living activities impossible for their neighbors. Oklahoma's water quality is at risk from the runoff from the massive amounts of hog excrement carrying excess nitrates and bacteria. Chicken factories in Eastern Oklahoma are degrading the scenic Illinois River and tributaries of Grand Lake, killing fish and threatening the livelihood of area tourism as well as contributing to the pollution of Lake Eucha, Tulsa's primary drinking water supply. The villains: Giant agribusiness corporations. The victims:  Family farmers who cannot compete with giant agribusiness, rural and urban residents whose health and quality of life and safe drinking water supplies are threatened. The heroes:  Family farmers, environmental groups and other concerned citizens who have organized a powerful coalition in opposition to the rapid expansion of virtually unregulated animal factories.   3. Message and theme  What is the key message you hope to deliver through this campaign?   Protect Oklahoma's water quality, for our families, for our future! What are the key themes you will use to reinforce the message?   We all live downstream. Farmers and environmentalists  --  plowing new ground for sustainable agriculture. Protect our drinking water. Protect and restore our scenic rivers. Protect our rural communities' quality of life and livelihood. Family farms YES; Factory Farms NO.   4. Strengths and weaknesses  What are the current group/chapter strengths which will impact the campaign?   Availability of experienced and effective chapter state lobbyist. Club members in leadership of target alliances. Solid volunteer base of six key activists committed to work on this campaign. Support, enthusiasm and teamwork of five committed local groups. Increased media contacts from last year's work. Strong connection to other members of the Oklahoma Environmental Alliance, key activists throughout the state representing other environmental groups.  Support of University professors (Club members). What are the current group/chapter weaknesses which will impact the campaign? One weak local group. How will this project help strengthen the Sierra Club and how do you plan to capture the results to accomplish this goal?   It will recruit more people who want to be active. Members will be imbued with the Club's culture and tradition  --  to increase our sense of common purpose and ability to work together with non-traditional allies. This campaign will increase our outreach to new constituencies and strengthen our goal to become more inclusive. We will be able to grow the pool of leaders who are trained, motivated, and capable of operating on a broad spectrum of issues, including volunteer leadership, conservation activism, management and development. We will use a wide range of volunteer skills and abilities. We will be able to envelop and activate "fringe" members who have been thinking about getting more involved by giving them small, bite-size pieces of the campaign. They will be able to feel successful and worthwhile  --  to see the results of their labor. We will continue to improve our decision-making skills and increase our effectiveness. 5. Primary public audiences  Who are the main audiences outside of the Club membership you are attempting to reach through this campaign? A key element of your campaign should be strengthening the environmental constituency in your community. Women ages 20 to 45. Parents and others concerned about public health. Hunters and anglers. Farmers and others involved in agriculture. Young people and students. Religious Community. Tourist Industry.   6. Allies and opponents  Who are your main allies in this campaign?    Gov. Frank Keating (has gotten on the bandwagon recently). Farmer's Union. Churches, religious persons/leaders, Interfaith Alliance. Oklahoma Family Farm Alliance (NIMBYs/Save the family farm proponents). Farm Bureau (depending on approach to issue). Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment/ Farm Aid. University professors throughout the state. Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Legislative friends (Sen. Muegge, Rep. Boyd, etc.). High school and college students. Oklahoma Academy of Sciences. Allies, Club leaders from neighboring states working on the same issue. Campground operators/canoe outfitters. Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation Oklahoma Toxics Campaign. Oklahoma Wildlife Federation. Other environmental groups. Who are  your main opponents in this campaign?   State Department of Agriculture. Pork Producers Council (lobbyists). Small-time operators of factory farms working for giant corporations. Environmental Federation of Oklahoma (industry front group). Owners of CAFO operations (Seaboard, Pig Improvement Company, etc.). 7. Targets    Prominent public opinion leaders on agriculture issues in Oklahoma. Gov. Frank Keating and Secretary of Environment. 8. Tactics and timelines  Tactics: What actions will you take to make your power felt and get your campaign story heard?  Environmental Education Expo. Earth Day exhibits. Earth Day benchmark event at Oklahoma University. Also rallies and/or doorhangings in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.  Letter-to-editor campaigns, CAFO Comments newsletter. Maintenance of our new Web site. Rallies at the state capitol. Timeline Jan. 1 -- Nov. 25: Concentrated effort to improve coalition-building with other groups. Jan. 1 -- Nov. 25: Keep scrapbook of clippings, publications and photos. Jan. 1 --  Nov. 25: Bird dogging at public meetings of the Dept. of Agriculture. Jan. 1 -- Mar. 31: Prepare briefing/resource books with issue background, organizing strategies, media info for local grassroots groups and for editorial boards. Jan. 1 --  Jan. 31: Prepare, publish and mail CAFO Comments, #2. Jan. 15 --  Jan. 31: Order CAFO buttons, bumperstrips. Jan. 24:  Attend Safe Oklahoma Resource Development (SORD) Annual Meeting in the Panhandle. Feb. 1 --  Mar. 30:  Complete construction of groundwater models for public education Feb. 13: Statewide Environmental Education Expo. Feb. 22 -- 24: Booth at Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts annual meeting. Mar. 1 --  May 31: Prepare, print and disseminate CAFO Comments, #3. Mar. 1 --  May 31: Radio ad campaign. Mar. 15 --  Apr. 15: Prepare Earth Day kits for groups to use at local events. Mar. 15 -- Apr. 30: Oklahoma City rally/doorhanging re: clean water and CAFO problem. Apr. 18 --  25: Earth Day benchmark events. Apr. 25: Spring benchmark conference at Oklahoma University in Norman. July 1 --  Nov. 25: Hunter/angler outreach   --  booths, print ads, newsletter articles, etc. Aug. 1 --  31: Prepare, print and disseminate CAFO Comments, #4. Sept. 17: Booth at Keep Oklahoma Beautiful Conference. Sept. or Oct.: Fall benchmark event in Tulsa (rally and/or doorhanging re: clean water). Oct. 15 -- Nov. 15: CAFO Comments, #5. 9. Tie-in to national campaigns  How does your campaign relate to the Club's national conservation priorities? Is the location nominated particularly relevant to one or more of the national campaigns?   Our campaign to control the spread of factory farms is directly related to the national wetlands and clean water campaign. CAFOs threaten both groundwater and surface water. CAFOs are a huge threat to all of Oklahoma's clean water and safe drinking water.  In addition, the fact that much of the degradation of eastern Oklahoma's waters is due to CAFOs  should send a clear indication that the Club intends to step up its regional conservation activism so that we present a unified and thus much broader message to the public. This project has been endorsed by the Club's Clean Water/Wetlands Campaign Steering Committee. Up to Top