This summer, SOCM is investing in what has always been at the heart of our work: people. Through our "Back to the Basics of Base Building" collective effort, we are reaching out across Tennessee to form meaningful relationships, welcome new members, develop leaders, and deepen the connections that make grassroots organizing possible.

​

For more than five decades, SOCM has empowered Tennesseans to protect, defend, and improve the quality of life in their communities through civic engagement and collective action. As a member-run organization, we know that lasting change happens when neighbors come together, build trust, and organize around the issues that matter most in their lives.

Leading up to our Annual Meeting in October, members will be purposefully connecting with their neighbors across the state through one-on-one conversations on front porches and in living rooms. In each chapter, we will test whether our current/potential campaigns resonate with our communities, gain clarity on a specific, actionable solution that has community power behind it, and identify local people who have a clear self-interest in the outcome and are motivated to win. The practice of listening to impacted people in our communities in a structured, focused and deliberate manner is the foundation of everything else we do.

​

So what is base building and why is it important? In the video below, world-renowned organizer Jane McAlevey shares how bringing new people into the work is the first step to building power and winning big.