ACORN (Southern Region)

Constituency ACORN has a broad, active, and engaged low and moderate income membership base: ACORN has over 250,000 low- and moderate-income member families, organized into 700 neighborhood chapters in 107 cities across the country. These are active members, who participate in neighborhood meetings and local issue campaigns, not ?donor? members whose sole organizational contact is to write a check to a canvasser (or to a direct mail post office box). Furthermore, each of these members, on her own initiative, took steps to join the organization, rather than finding herself counted as a member because her church?s or union?s leadership may have affiliated with the organization. Structure ACORN functions as a membership democracy, with members responsible for decision making, as well as developing and carrying out plans at all levels of the organization, from neighborhood to area-wide campaigns. Membership entitles people to voting privileges, at all membership meetings where decisions are made to select campaign issues, choose strategies and tactics, and elect officers. Members in each neighborhood group meet regularly, develop their own local campaigns, and elect their own leaders. The Chairperson of each neighborhood chapter sits on the ACORN Board of Directors, which is the governing body for the organization as a whole. The Board meets once a month; its tasks include deciding on are-wide campaigns, campaign planning, deciding when to join or form coalitions, overseeing the budget, providing direction to the staff, deciding on what new neighborhoods to organize in, discussing broader issues that affect all of the neighborhoods and generally serving as the policy-making body for the organization. ACORN staff are hired, trained and supervised by the Head Organizer, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the office. The Head Organizer and Field Organizers work with existing neighborhood groups on local campaigns and help organize new neighborhood groups. The Head Organizer reports to and is accountable to the Board. Decision-making process This structure is ideal because it builds multiple forms of accountability into the organizing process. Staff, directed by the Head Organizer, is accountable to leaders (the Board). At the same time, those leaders are elected by and accountable to the neighborhood group membership. Another advantage of ACORN?s structure is that it enables the organization to engage in both local organizing around local issues and larger citywide or regional campaigns. When the organization is engaged in larger campaigns, the Board representatives from each neighborhood group have the ability both to ensure that their group?s needs are addressed in the campaign and to mobilize large numbers of members from their neighborhood group for the campaign?s activities.