Messaging and comms

Recruitment

There

Noware thattwo types of communication you have your basic action design and plan in place, you can work out what rolesmay need to consider. Internal comms are those that are between rebels, making sure everyone has the information they need including potential participants. External comms are those to the wider public, for example on social media and through the press.

Call to action

A call to action is critical particularly for mass participation actions. With your team, think about the narrative behind the action. What will get people excited and wanting to take part.

This call to action can be filled,communicated through (appropriately secure) channels such as Signal chats or emails through Action Network. Or it could be through a recruitment meeting to get people excited and thinking about what skillsrole arethey neededmight take? We want it to be as quick and howeasy manyas ofpossible eachfor role you need. So now you can start recruiting.

You might be recruitingnew people to:to join us at actions.

• HelpKeep withit planninglocal - on outreach talk about the actions happening in your area
• TakeMake ait specificpersonal support- role
Invite
• Take a specific participant role
• Or justthem to turnsign up onto the dayaction. If you can, phone them in advance, explain the plan and ask what they’d need to come e.g. info on legal rights, risk, toilets, access etc

WhetherTen committed new people joining your next action is worth so much more than a thousand sitting on a mailing list!

It’s useful to provide a document with relevant links and articles to participants so they can inform themselves of an issue and understand the talking points. Particularly if they are providing quotes or speaking to a camera.

Comunicating with the team

You will need to decide which tools to use for your coordination group and which tools for the wider attendees. Guidance on this kind of 'internal comms' is here

If it is an open or closedXRUK action you may have support from XRUK M&M (Media and Messaging). They can provide guidance on what comms are appropriate and may help develop messaging. Be aware this may lengthen the process as they will determineneed howto plan the work and have processes in place. So link up with them as early as possible to find out deadlines and agree the messaging. (Note: M&M will advise you goon aboutthe recruiting.

messaging

Openso -it’s best to be prepared to compromise so you can reach outan usingagreement anyas communicationquickly routeas availablepossible). This may effect art assets, for example banners so get this sorted before making or commissioning anything else.

Do you need to appoint an M&M link or someone who will hold the tasks relating to M&M. Establish how the team and link roles will communicate. Is that through attending a weekly meeting? Will they stay updated via a chat? Does someone from the planning team need to attend another circle or sit in another chat?

A document with top line info that can be kept up-to-date and shared easily is very helpful to cut out unnecessary comms.

Information for participants

Remember to add the event to the Movement Calendar and hence the Actions Map including specific meeting point details and a way of contact you -for Telegram,further WhatsApp,details or even better, registering via Action Network emails.so Youwe maycapture wantpotential new rebels.

It is a very good idea to usecheck that your action is displaying correctly on the designmap tooland that the links work.

Who are you hoping will get involved and how are you going to makecommunicate with them?

For closed (secure) elements, this is likely to be a nicesignal graphicchat to get people excited. You may want to put on an open call so you have the chance to convince lots of people all at once to join your action. You can go to different local group meetings and persuade them to support.

Closed - Your routes for reaching out are far more limited. Ideally you can reach out towith those who youhave knowroles. It’s best to separate those who are at higher risk of arrest from those who are not, to protect them.

For open (public) actions or actions which have both open and trustclosed for secure elements of an action and ask them to use their networks of trusted rebels to recruit. However, this does mean that you aren’t being particularly inclusive to newer rebels soelements, you may want to tryset getting people vouched - see below. This can be time consuming and does increase the risk ofup a closedtelegram action being compromised but it helps to bring more people into NVDA.

With both open and closed actions, take the time to speak 1-on-1 with your recruits is specific roles to ensure they are bought into the action, to make sure they are available, they have any necessary skills or attributes and that you know about any adjustments that might need to be made to make sure they can take part. This also makes them feel valued and part of the team.

Security

As mentioned before security and inclusion can become two ends of a scale. To make an action more secure often means making it less inclusive. As above there are ways to try to lessen this affect.

For closed planning you will likely need to communicate with your planning team and any other rebels that need to know restricted details using Signal messaging app.

The key thing here is to give information on a need to know basis. Encourage everyone to be super vigilant with this rule. Stagger giving spicy info like this - Eg. We’ve got this kind of action in late May, would you be interested? If yes, then give the date, are they available? If yes, then give the types of roles you are recruiting. If yes, then give the final details you are prepared to share.

Getting people vouched - This means inviting people on open/public channels to take a role and asking those that respond to provide someone who can vouch for them who is known to the movement (i.e. a LG coord or someone in an XR circle). Verify their phone number rather than going on a name or handle/alias, as names are often shared or different on different platforms.

On Signal turn on admin permissions for admitting new memberschannel so you knowcan communicate relevant info and get them excited about the action. Advertise this in other relevant chats or if a XRUK action you onlyshould havebe trusted people in your chat group.

(Signal chat description in the header is visibleable to anyone even if they are notget a memberrebellion ofbroadcast themessage chat.out. So be careful what information and links you put in there.)

Cryptpad is a shared document app similar to googledoc but far more secure especially if used with a password, though it isn’t as user friendly. So make sure any restricted information like plans or lists of participants is saved on a crytpad with a password.

Coordinating roles

Here is a non-exhaustive list of roles in addition to those purely participating on the day. For simpler actions, many of these roles will either not be needed or can be held by more than one person.

• Action planner
• M&M
• On the ground coord
• Action support coord
• Protest liaison
• Stewards
• Wellbeing
• Deescalation
• Legal
• Back office/PSS
• Outreach
• Creatives
• Programming
• Rhythms coord
• Budget holder
• Photo/video/livestream
• Banner holder/roadtakers
• Spokes person

You will likely need a regular meeting with your action planning team made up of some of the people holding these roles. And youThis will need anscheduling accessibleand waycontent ofprovided. communicatingSee regularlyguidance likedoc Telegram or Signal.(LINK) You may choose to organise this over more than one channels.

Aside from planning meetings, it’s a good idea to hold briefings with participants so they can meetalso andput feelout part of the team. You might hold different ones for mass participants, spicy rebels, action support etc.

If you have a spicy element to your action, you need to take extra care to balance the info given to them so they can commit and feel bought into the action, without having more info than they need. Get a legal briefing from one of our legal reps and share this so they can weigh up the risks and potential consequences.

Make sure they have time and space to discuss concernsinformation about the action andon don’tsocial feelmedia anyor unduevia pressure.email on Action Network.

AllAppoint rebelsat participatingleast in3 actionsadmin shouldand havekeep agreedon top of messages, replying to thequestions Rebeland Agreement beforehand

Extra arrangements

Do you need any extra training? Check participants have had NVDA training. You might need to rehearse using equipment or arrange rehearsals for performances.

Will you have rebels traveling from further afield? Can you offer travel expenses or can you seek out hosts to provide accommodation forkeeping the nightvibe before/after?going. CheckIf foryou’re trainplanning strikesanything earlythat andcould continuously.

risk

Usearrest this(including guidance toconspiracy) make sure admins are anonymous (via the settings). If you makeare seen as organisers you may put a target on your action accessible and inclusive to all… Diversity & Inclusivity at Actions - Google Docs. Are there any accessibility issues that you might need to plan for? Ask if rebels have any specific needs and discuss how to adjustback for them. This might mean adjusting your march route, or finding accessible travel options.arrest.