Opposite Poles by Mary Patrice Erdmans

Author:Mary Patrice Erdmans [Erdmans, Mary Patrice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780271030197
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Published: 1998-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Recycling Activists and Recruiting Latent Activists

The Polish Americans in Forum used the membership lists of other Polish American ethnic organizations to recruit people from the second level, while the new immigrants relied mostly on media links to bring in new members. Forum sent out over four thousand letters for the initial membership drive. The names and addresses were culled from the membership lists of numerous Polonian organizations. Because of past or present affiliations, Polish Americans in Forum had access to three thousand names (some duplicates) from the membership lists of eight established organizations: the Chicago Society, the Polish American Commercial Club, the Advocates Society, the Polish Arts Club, the Polish Welfare Association, the Polish Teachers Association, Inc., the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences, and the state divisions of the PAC.

The new immigrants also used membership lists, but because they were less established members of the community they had fewer contacts and less access to established ethnic organizations. Still, the new immigrants did get the membership lists from the Polish American Engineering Association and the Polish Medical Alliance. These organizations, although they had been established approximately forty years before, had significant numbers of new immigrants among their members. (New immigrants joined them because these organizations were composed largely of World War II émigrés not Polish Americans ethnics, and because these organizations could potentially help them with their careers.) Forum leaders had also spoken to these groups on several occasions. In addition, the new immigrants used a list of mostly World War II émigrés and new immigrants that had been prepared in 1989 for the visit of Cardinal Glemp from Poland (a visit later canceled). New immigrants also recruited members from the core of other new organizations, such as Brotherhood and the Solidarity Election Committee, an organization active during the June 1989 elections. New immigrants also used their links to Solidarity organizations throughout the United States to bring in new members. Altogether, the new immigrants contributed a quarter of the names to the membership mail drive, mostly names of other immigrants.

The established ethnics had access to many more names than the new immigrants, and they were also the ones who suggested using these preexisting address lists. Relying on these preexisting networks, Forum recruited established organizational members; that is, organizational membership was an implicit criterion for being invited to be a member of Forum. This strategy of recycling organizational members did not tap the estimated 90 percent of the population who were not members of organizations. Moreover, new immigrants had not generally joined these established organizations. In a survey of roughly a quarter of the Forum members, less than 20 percent of them were also members of other organizations in the United States. This strategy of recruiting from other organizations recycled members but did not bring in new members from the universe of potential Polonia activists (although it had the potential to activate inactive members by enticing them with new activities and a new orientation).

In contrast to the recycling strategy, the new immigrants’ main strategy for recruiting members relied on the media.

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