A Longer Launchpad to Action
The Launch Day Organising Team meeting over Zoom
"If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together."
- traditional African proverb
When I attended our most recent 5 Day training earlier this year, I was struck by this quote shared by one of the trainers. It captures our approach to organising so well, and I’ve been reflecting on it ever since, particularly as we enter our action season.
As the organiser for our action season Launch Day - a full day convergence on NSW Parliament in September alongside the Hunter Community Alliance - I have been helping draw together our organising team (pictured above). Over our first two meetings, 25 different leaders from 14 different organisations have gathered to plan and organise the action.
Both meetings have been full of energy and diversity, but they have also been large ships to steer! After our most recent meeting, the co-chairs and I debriefed and sensed there were more questions than answers about the work ahead.
In many ways, it would be easier and quicker to let a small group of paid staff drive the work for this type of gathering, but we take a different approach for good reason.
A broad-based coalition derives its strength from the collective ownership of its leaders and organisations. The co-chairs and I agreed that the slow, patient route we are taking, where leaders of varying gifts are shaping and taking responsibility for the action, will make us all the more powerful come September.
We are aiming to have 80 leaders involved on the day. If we continue at our current pace, around one in three people will have been actively involved in organising from the beginning. That will make a real difference on a day that is likely to be complex and unpredictable, and where unity will be so important.
And if we step back from Launch Day, we can see that this approach has been building power over a much longer organising cycle.
It was over a year ago, in June 2025, when the Sydney Alliance Council resolved to begin a season of listening. It was then another 11 months, 4 listening events, and a phase of discernment on 4 different issues before we agreed, at the Discernment Convention, on our campaign solutions and actions.
Each moment on this journey has been an opportunity to build power because we have prioritised finding ways to go together. As we come to the pointy end of this cycle, I'm feeling energised and ready for the actions we have set ourselves up for because together, we will go far.
Raul Sugunanthan
Community Organiser
