My Life. My neighborhood. Our world.

Now that you have done your homework and researched The Big Picture surrounding your issue, it is time to Map the Issue Space. Mapping the issue space helps you to find a course of action - your agenda - with goals you can measure and success you can track. This is a real brainstorming event, and it gets to be a lot of fun.

To Map an Issue:

1. Define your issue precisely (may not be as easy as you think!)
2. List every isssue/element you can think of that directly impacts this issue
3. List every issue/element you can think of that is related to this issue, but does not impact it directly
4. List other issues/elements that may be peripherally related
5. On your three lists mark each item as having either a positive, negative, or neutral effect on your issue
6. Now put a 1, 2, or 3 in front of each item in your lists to indicate its importance to your issue
7. Finally, select the top 5-8 positive and 5-8 negative items most related to your issue
8. By the end of this process you should more easily find your first agenda

Sound confusing? Here's a brief example from some work I did in Montana with farmers, ranchers, and wind power that should help you get started mapping your issue space.

Case Example: Montana is the fifth windiest state in the United States but in 2003 there were almost no wind turbines operating.

Homework: In the 1970s Montanans embraced wind power and put money into developing a turbine test bed in Livingston Montana. In the 1930s Montana was the home of two famous wind turbine design pioneers (Jacobs brothers) who designed and sold over 50,000 windmill units to farmers and ranchers all across the United States. Yet in 2003 most Montanans dismissed the economic potential of wind power. They claimed that wind was too powerful in Montana. In the 1970s when wind was a hot topic during the last energy crisis, the test bed turbines in Livingston either fell over or the blades broke to much news coverage. Talking with ranchers and farmers I heard over and over, "everybody knows that wind power just will not work in Montana."

Issue:To generate keen interest in the potential of wind energy in north central Montana and to get Montana farmers and ranchers to apply for 2004 USDA Farm Bill funding for wind power projects.

(Note: I'll skip the brainstorming lists in the first part of Step 4 and get to a sample of the most relevant positive and negative elements in my issue space.

Minus side:

• Livingston turbine test bed failures in the 1970s
• Powerful political resistance to wind power from the oil, coal and gas interests
• Poor communication across a sparse and widespread population
• The high cost of turbine projects
• Power transmission regulations
• Resistance from rural electrical cooperatives
• Widespread gossip and hearsay that wind power wouldn't work for Montana

Plus side:

• Some Montana environmental groups were already pushing hard on green power issues
• Montana Wind Working Group had just been formed by the Secretary of State
• Federal government had grants to cover 25% of wind project costs
• Alternative energy was gaining popularity across US
• Cost of electrical energy to MT consumers had jumped significantly over the past 6 months
• Rising cost of energy would hit famers and ranchers during the harsh Montana winter

Our issue map helped us decide that the best potential for making a difference on the wind power issue in Montana would be to work directly with consumers who were being impacted by the jump in their costs for power. We needed to bring the most current information available on the economic and cost savings potential of self-generating power with small wind turbines, directly to farmers and ranchers. Experts they could trust, needed to tell them that turbine designs had significantly improved since the 1970s and that wind power was truly viable in north central Montana.

From mapping our issue space we came up with our first agenda - a wind power workshop for farmers, ranchers, tribal and Hutterite leaders, and local politicians to be held in remote Havre Montana - a hub town in the heart of farm/ranch/tribal areas in northcentral Montana.

The larger issue of how to get wind power interest going in Montana was now winnowed down to a manageable, do-able agenda where we could set measureable goals and track our success.

Looking back over the Four Steps of Phase One in our Grassroots Organizing model you can see the importance of each of the first four steps in helping you to define an agenda in the issue area that you care about passionately.

Once you have your agenda, we move next to Phase Two - Identifying Resources and Support.