To There To Here

Before I continue on, here's a big link dump of various books and articles I've read recently that helped shape my thinking on the topic of building a growing organization.  I'm also drawing on my experience working in and founding a few local and regional anarchist organizations, as well as the IWW.  There's also an abstract research project I developed recently on the concept of building complex self-sustaining structures from scratch using discrete progressive steps - I'll probably talk a bit about that later, even though the specific details won't be of interest to many people.

Here's the list, grouped into categories and ordered roughly by how interesting I found them.  The short articles are all available online, but many of the full length books aren't.  Fortunately, many of the books can be bought online used relatively cheaply.

Historical examples:

• I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle, by Charles M. Payne
• Dedication and Leadership Techniques, by Douglas Hyde
• The Long Haul, autobiography of Myles Horton

Organizing manuals:

• The Purpose-driven Church, by Rick Warren
• Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy : Manual for Activists, by Kimberley A. Bobo, Steve Max
• How to Recruit People to Your Organization, by Michael J Brown
• Rules for Radicals, by Saul Alinsky
• Reveille for Radicals, by Saul Alinsky
• An Anarchist Organizing Manual, from Zabalaza
• Basics of Organizing – You Can’t Build A Machine Without Nuts And Bolts, by Shel Trapp
• Dynamics of Organizing, by Shel Trapp
• Roots to Power: A Manual for Grassroots Organizing, by Lee Staples 
• Acorn Organizing Model (circa 1973)
• Power: A Repossession Manual, by Greg Speeter (from CITP)

Organization structure and process:

• Rustys Rules
• Tyranny of Structurelessness

Organizational handbooks:

• Ohio 4H club officer manuals:
• ISO New Members Packet

Articles on small groups in churches:

• The Saddleback Small Group Difference:  The core philosophy of the Purpose-Driven Small Groups movement,  by Steve Gladen
• 5 Small-Group Myths: Home bible studies don't always operate by the textbook, by David A. Womack
• How big is a small group? by Josh Hunt

General organizational discipline:

• When Everyone's a Volunteer: The Effective Functioning of All-Volunteer Groups, by Ivan H. Scheier
• How to Mobilize Church Volunteers, by Marlene Wilson
• Beyond experts: A guide for citizen group training, by Duane Dale (from CITP)
• Planning, for a Change, by Duane Dale and Nancy Mitiguy (from CITP)
• How to Make Citizen Involvement Work: Strategies for Developing Clout, by Duane Dale (from CITP)

General information on small group dynamics:

• How to Design Small Decision Making Groups
• Discrete Hierarchical Organization of Social Group Sizes
• Network scaling reveals consistent fractal pattern in hierarchical mammalian societies

Funding:

• The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, from INCITE!
• Effective funding for anarchist organizations by Common Cause
• Dues as a means of fundraising for anarchist organizations
• Self-Help Accounting: A Guide for the Volunteer Treasurer by John Paul Dalsimer, CPA