To kick off 2026, each KTA will be paired with monthly virtual office hours with ROP staff, where you can join other human dignity leaders and organizers from around the state to talk more about the topic, receive peer mentorWHYship, skill up, and strengthen your group! Register for January office hours here
WHY THIS ACTIVITY?
2025 was a big growth year for our movement. ROP added 18 new Human Dignity Groups to bring the total to 95 groups across the state, and our database grew by about 1,300 people. We know from conversations with many of you that your group experienced similar growth as people emerged from your community, ready to organize. How do we, as leaders, manage this growing base and increase our ability to organize for social justice?
To make this growth sustainable, we need to make sure we are growing not just in our base of general supporters (the folks that occasionally show up at rallies, or to a city council meeting), but that we are also growing our active supporters (folks that help out at a weekly meal, or bring the cookies to your monthly meetings), and especially our core leadership teams (those committed 3-12 people who are holding the big picture or a significant chunk of the planning).
Whether your group is struggling to follow up with new supporters, feeling scattered and pulled in too many directions, or relying on one or two folks who are exhausted trying to hold it all together, now is a good time to consider beefing up your leadership team.
WHAT IS THIS ACTIVITY?
This month’s Kitchen Table Activity is all about how you get new folks to take on leadership roles so that we can build a leaderful movement for human dignity and democracy. We’ll be focusing on building your group’s leadership team through one-on-one conversations so you can take on new projects or expand on existing ones in 2026.
If you’ve ever been added to an email list where someone is asking for people to sign up to lead a committee, join the leadership team, or take on the role of Treasurer, chances are you’ve thought to yourself, “Someone else would be more qualified for that.” So instead of putting out general calls for volunteers, this month we will be identifying specific people whose skills you have seen in action, and asking them to fill a specific role.
Without structure, a group can complete projects (especially given the urgency so many newly politicized folks felt in 2025), but it will struggle to sustain an ongoing presence that shapes community in the long term. Having a named leadership team allows the group to be more accessible to potential supporters and establishes that the people calling for human dignity and democracy are members of the community, not outsiders. It also allows the group to have a clear decision-making process. Finally, it helps define for leaders what is expected of them so that they are better able to contribute and to know when to ask someone else to take on a role.
HOW TO COMPLETE THE ACTIVITY
- Register for ROP’s January Office Hours to learn more about building a strong leadership team and to receive direct support from staff and other leaders from around the state.
- Sit down with your existing team members and brainstorm a list:
- Who do you want to invite into a more significant leadership position in your organization?
- What specific strengths do they have that make them a good fit for that role?
- When would be the best time to meet up with them, and who from your team is best suited to have that meeting?
- Practice as a team! After a year that left many folks feeling exhausted, asking someone to commit their precious time to your group can feel daunting. Do a run-through with everyone so folks can shake off the cobwebs. How do you want to present this role to your potential new leaders? What do you love about being part of your team?
- It’s go time! Reach out to the people you think are most strategic to bring in and set up a time to meet for coffee, or go for a walk.
- Make a genuine connection with the person. How are they managing in these times? What keeps them going?
- Provide context on the role you hope they will fill, why you think they would be a good fit, and ask them directly if they would like to fill it.
- Listen and discuss: Perhaps they want a smaller or larger role; make room for them to find their place in your group.
- Plan next moves: Do they want time to think about it? Do they want specific support in getting oriented to the role? Get clear on what they need and when you will be connecting next.
- Follow up! Make sure that whatever you committed to in the meeting, you stick to. Life gets busy, and sending a quick thank you or reminder can ensure the conversation doesn’t end after just one meeting.
- Let us know how it went so we can share your experiences with folks across rural Oregon! Send a note to elias@rop.org. We’d love to hear from you!
For a printable resource about one-on-one recruitment, click here. For more details on leadership teams, roles for leadership team members, or more, check out our Capacity Building Toolkit.
Kitchen Table Activism (KTA) is a monthly activity by the Rural Organizing Project. The idea is that small actions can lead to powerful collective results when groups of people gather to complete the same action across the state of Oregon. ROP works to keep each KTA easily achievable so that groups with other projects or groups with limited immediate energy can still complete the KTA each month.
