What motivates us activists? What is it that makes some people go to shopping centres to sign people up to a campaign against the British Weapons of Mass Destruction rather than to go shopping? And what it is that makes people want to go to a Greenpeace meeting, then go to the pub; rather than simply spending all evening in the pub? I recently attended a workshop, run by Greenpeace Head Office, that attempted to answer this question.
The first motivating factor, according to Head Office, was the need to feel you've achieved something tangible. People who have high achievement needs tend to focus on how many people have signed up to the campaign against the Heathrow Third Runway, how many people have come to a film showing or public meeting and how many stalls have been held at events. In short, they're the sort of people who write blog posts like this.
The second motivating factor was the need to feel you're part of something. This can mean you simply want to get to know people in the local group as people rather than simply as co-activists. It can also mean you want to feel part of the wider Greenpeace movement, or part of a wider movement for social change that has a long history and is much wider than simply Greenpeace.
The third motivating factor was the need to feel you're influencing something. We didn't spend much time on this, which I felt was a shame as surely influencing people is what we're here for.
It's worth stressing that these factors are not mutually exclusive and most people are motivated by all these factors, though different factors motivate different people to different degrees.
Of course, all the above is very interesting, but how well does South West London Greenpeace do in motivating people according to these criteria. My feelings on this are far too complicated to explain in a blog post. Buy me a beer sometime and I'll tell you what I think. Or, even better, come to our next planning meeting and judge for yourself.
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