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Resources: written guides

Our guides are designed to help you be more effective in your campaign, co-op or project.

The ideas, examples and tips in our guides are based on working with many different groups and projects, both as campaigners and as trainers.

We've also linked to other resources you might find useful.

All Seeds for Change guides are anti-copyright. Feel free to copy, adapt, use and distribute them, as long as the final work remains anti-copyright. If you translate any of our work please let us know so that we can link to your translation.

Please feel free to get in touch with any feedback on our resources, including how you are using them.

  • Campaign Skills

    Campaign Strategy

    This guide gives pointers for how create a strategic plan that gives you the best chance of winning. It also includes more general tips on how to campaign effectively, including building a strong campaign group and generating the maximum pressure to achieve your campaign goals.
    Web page | PDF - 1.2Mb

    Facilitating campaign strategy planning

    This guide explores how you can make campaign planning work as a group. It includes a suggested process for your meetings and a set of facilitation tools you can use to help you agree your aims, analyse your situation, come up with creative ideas, draw everything together in a plan and evaluate how it is working.
    PDF - 954k

    Messaging Strategy

    The right campaign message can increase understanding of an issue, win support for your goals and inspire people to action. It can also build towards the long-term goals needed to make radical change. In this guide you'll find ideas on how to develop a strategic message that gets across your analysis and values.
    Web page | PDF - 805k

    Good Publicity and Outreach

    Publicity and outreach are essential for communicating campaign messages and getting people involved in taking action. In this guide you will find plenty of tips on how to best get your message across.
    Web page | PDF - 368k

    Door-knocking and Stalls

    Having face to face conversations with members of the public is one of the most powerful ways you can reach outside your ‘bubble’ and build a stronger base for your campaign. This guide covers how you can use these techniques strategically, and develop the skills to be really effective.
    Web page | PDF - 632k | Audio mp3 - 55MB

    Using Mainstream Media

    Using the media can help you win your campain. This guide covers the basics you need to know about getting your campaign message across in newspaper, radio and on tv.
    Web page | PDF - 1.2Mb

    Organising public meetings

    Public meetings can be a great boost to your campaign by helping you reach people who aren’t already involved in your group. This guide will help you think through how to organise a public meeting in such a way that participants leave feeling empowered and motivated to join your campaign.
    Web page | PDF 494k

    Venues and Accessibility

    A big part of organising events is looking for a good venue that is accessible to anyone who might want to come. This guide offers tip and check lists to help you choose and prepare venues to meet everyone’s access requirements. (For a facilitator's guide to access issues see Making Meetings Accessible).
    Web page | PDF - 390k

    Affinity Groups

    An affinity group is a small, autonomous group of people who come together to take direct action. This guide covers how to create an affinity group, decide on your aims and tactics, and prepare for and take action. It offers tips for how to sustain your affinity group and deal with common problems that arise.
    Web page | PDF - 1.4mb

    Raising Cash and Writing Funding Bids

    A guide to getting money for your campaign.
    Web page | PDF - 1.2Mb

    Growing your campaign group

    To win, most campaigns need to grow! With more people more actively involved, you can increase your power and impact. This short guide offers practical tips and suggestions on how to attract and integrate new group members.
    PDF - 346k

  • Direct Action

    What is direct action?

    Direct action is a powerful tool that can be used to prevent injustice, win campaigns and achieve political goals. This guide explores direct action through recent successful examples in Britain, covering the tactics and roles involved, and analysing why the action was effective in its context. It will help you think through how direct action could work in your own context to achieve your goals.
    Web page | PDF - 805k

    Action Planning

    Direct action can be a powerful political tool. This guide covers the key things to consider in order to plan and carry out an effective action: your strategy, how you will take care of yourselves as a group, practicalities like logistics and roles, and legal considerations.
    Web page | PDF - 205k

    Affinity Groups

    An affinity group is a small, autonomous group of people who come together to take direct action. This guide covers how to create an affinity group, decide on your aims and tactics, and prepare for and take action. It offers tips for how to sustain your affinity group and deal with common problems that arise.
    Web page | PDF - 1.4mb

    Quick Consensus Decision Making

    A guide to using consensus in fast moving situations, including actions and protests.
    Web page | PDF - 635k

    Impact of convictions

    Criminal convictions can impact a person’s life in different ways, and knowing these impacts can inform the decisions of you or your group when taking protest action. This guide helps you understand how criminal records work. It covers the impact of convictions on various areas of life for people in the UK, including employment, immigration status, housing and other areas.
    Web page | PDF - 283k | Audio mp3

    External resources:
    Direct Action Handbook - Lots of ideas and info on taking direct action.
    Delia Smith's Basic Guide to Blockading - lots of useful info, please note the legal info is out of date.

  • Skills for Working in Groups

    Effective groups

    A guide to successful group organising, from starting up groups to keeping them going. With lots of tips, examples and questions to help you create a group that is inclusive and effective.
    Web page | PDF

    Online Decision Making

    Decision making online comes with a lot of challenges - this guide outlines common dynamics and practical issues, and offers tips for how to do online decision making in a way that is democratic, easy to engage with and fun!
    Web page | PDF - 530k | Audio mp3 - 31MB

    Organising Successful Meetings

    Good meetings are vital to working together as a group, whether this is a campaign group, a self-development or support group. They can make all the difference between a group feeling motivated and dynamic or a group getting stuck.
    Web page | PDF - 275k

    Active Listening

    Active listening is a useful skill for all sorts of situations - whether you're taking part in meetings and workshops or dealing with conflict. By actively listening we can come to understand how the speaker feels about a subject or situation - this briefing explains how we can hear people through their words and tune into their underlying emotions, concerns and tensions.
    Web page | PDF - 325k

    Giving and Receiving Feedback

    Sharing feedback regularly helps members of a group to develop skills, build stronger relationships, and be accountable to each other. This guide offers tips on how to give and receive feedback in a way that is most useful for you and your group. It is written for non-hierarchical groups, workplaces and educational settings.
    Web page | PDF - 315k

    Growing your campaign group

    To win, most campaigns need to grow! With more people more actively involved, you can increase your power and impact. This short guide offers practical tips and suggestions on how to attract and integrate new group members.
    PDF - 346k

    Working with Conflict in our Groups: a guide for grassroots activists.

    This 40 page booklet, written by our sister co-op Navigate (previously called Seeds for Change Oxford) and published by EYFA is aimed at people and groups working for social change who want to develop an understanding of conflict and how to deal with it. There are sections on what conflict is, the benefits of addressing it, and tools to work though conflict and maintain healthy and effective social change groups.
    PDF - 315k

    Anarchic Agreements

    A guide to the questions a set of people needs to answer together in order form into a group, in a way that is engaging and empowering for everyone involved.
    Web page | PDF - 1.7MB

  • Facilitation

    Facilitating Meetings

    Facilitation is about making meetings as easy and effective as possible. This guide offers tips, techniques and concepts to help you create positive and successful meetings. If you are facilitating for the first time, or you've been doing it for a while and want a chance to reflect - this guide is for you.
    Short guide - Web page | PDF - 250k | Audio mp3
    Long guide - Web page | PDF - 1.4MB

    Facilitation Tools for Meetings and Workshops

    A compilation of tools and techniques we find useful when working in groups and facilitating meetings or workshops.
    Web page | PDF - 1.4Mb

    Organising Successful Meetings

    Good meetings are vital to working together as a group, whether this is a campaign group, a self-development or support group. They can make all the difference between a group feeling motivated and dynamic or a group getting stuck.
    Web page | PDF - 275k

    Online Decision Making

    Decision making online comes with a lot of challenges - this guide outlines common dynamics and practical issues, and offers tips for how to do online decision making in a way that is democratic, easy to engage with and fun!
    Web page | PDF - 300k

    Active Listening

    Active listening is a useful skill for all sorts of situations - whether you're taking part in meetings and workshops or dealing with conflict. By actively listening we can come to understand how the speaker feels about a subject or situation - this briefing explains how we can hear people through their words and tune into their underlying emotions, concerns and tensions.
    Web page | PDF - 325k

    Taking Minutes at Meetings

    The minutes of a meeting are a record of important points that will be useful for the groups to remember. This guide offers tips to help you create informative, accessible minutes that are quick and easy to write.
    Web page | PDF - 340k | Audio mp3 - 17MB

    Facilitating campaign strategy planning

    This guide explores how you can make campaign planning work as a group. It includes a suggested process for your meetings and a set of facilitation tools you can use to help you agree your aims, analyse your situation, come up with creative ideas, draw everything together in a plan and evaluate how it is working.
    PDF - 954k

    Hand Signals

    Some of the most commonly used hand signals used to make meetings run more smoothly, and help the facilitator spot emerging agreements.
    PDF - 320k

    Group Agreements for workshops and meetings

    Group agreements can be a useful tool for making your event or meeting a good experience for everyone involved. In this guide we look at the process for creating a group agreement, as well as its benefits and potential pitfalls.
    Web page | PDF - 400k

  • Consensus Decision Making

    About consensus decision making

    Consensus is a way of reaching agreement in a group that is creative and co-operative. It means working together to find solutions that everyone actively supports. This guide covers the values and principles of consensus, a common process for reaching consensus decisions, and tips for making it work. Also includes sections on core skills, using consensus in large groups and ideas for tackling common challenges.

    Short guide - Web page | PDF - 1.7Mb | Audio mp3 - 74Mb
    Long guide - Web page | PDF - 4.1Mb

    A Consensus Handbook cover of A Consensus HandbookCo-operative decision-making for activists, co-ops and communities

    A 228 page handbook explaining the spirit and philosophy of co-operative decision making, as well as providing practical guidance on how to facilitate a consensus process. Includes edited and expanded versions of materials available on this page, plus new material on how to address conflict and power imbalances in your consensus based group, facilitating virtual meetings and thoughts on how consensus might work on a community, regional or even national level.
    Get your copy: paperback, ebook or free PDF - 10Mb

    Consensus Videos

    Watch our series of three short videos explaining what consensus decision making is, how to do it and some tips on making it work well. Total viewing time for all three videos: 5min 23s.

    Quick Consensus Decision Making

    A guide to using consensus in fast moving situations, including actions and protests.
    Web page | PDF - 213k

    The spokescouncil technique for large group consensus

    The spokescouncil is a technique that enables consensus decisions with hundreds and thousands of people, with the maximum number of opinions and ideas being heard in an efficient way. It is used by many groups such as social centres, workers' co-ops, peace and environmental movements.
    Web page | PDF - 105k

    Consensus Flowchart

    A flowchart of how consensus can be reached - this complements our guides on facilitation and consensus.
    Web page | PDF - 100k

  • Running Workshops

    Facilitating Workshops

    Running a workshop is a great way to share your skills or help people learn from each other. It can feel a bit daunting if you're new to it, but this briefing will help you put a good workshop together.
    Short guide - Web page | PDF - 775k
    Long guide - Web page | PDF - 1.2Mb

    Facilitation Tools for Meetings and Workshops

    A compilation of tools and techniques we find useful when working in groups and facilitating meetings or workshops.
    Web page | PDF - 1.4Mb

    Using Questions in workshops

    Questioning is a technique often used by facilitators during workshops, meetings or one-on-one mentoring or coaching as an alternative to presenting information and answers.This briefing discusses how you can use questioning as part of your facilitation toolkit.
    Web page | PDF - 325k

    AGiving and Receiving Feedback

    Feedback is an essential tool to help us learn new skills and improve existing ones. Like most things, giving inexpert feedback can hinder rather than help. This is a short guide to making the most of your feedback sessions.
    Web page | PDF - 315k

    Group Agreements for workshops and meetings

    Group agreements can be a useful tool for making your event or meeting a good experience for everyone involved. In this guide we look at the process for creating a group agreement, as well as its benefits and potential pitfalls.
    Web page | PDF - 400k

  • Resources for Co-ops

    Co-operatives

    A quick look at what co-operatives are and what they do.
    Web page | PDF - 1.2Mb

    Setting Up A Workers' Co-operative

    5 steps to setting up your workers' co-op - a quick checklist.
    Web page | PDF - 1Mb

    How to Set Up a Workers' Co-op

    cover of How To Set Up A Workers' Co-op

    Workers' co-ops give us a way to reclaim a small but significant part of the world - our working lives. In this book you'll find lots of information you need to set up your workers' co-op, including organising your workplace, making decisions, choosing the right legal form, business planning along with info on tax, insurance and other such details.
    This is a guide Seeds for Change co-authored with Radical Routes (Hard copies available for £7 from them).
    PDF - 3.6Mb
    (See below for more co-op guides from Radical Routes)

    Financial Literacy for Co-operatives

    We think it’s important that more than one or two people in any co-op understand what's going on with the finances if we want to be truly democratic in our decision-making and develop successful alternative business models. So we wrote this guide aimed at anyone who is involved in co-ops: the aim is to demystify the world of finance to enable all co-op members to fully participate in financial decision-making.
    Web page | PDF - 1.1Mb

    Timeline for setting up a Workers' Co-op

    An overview of what you need to do to get your Worker's Co-op off the ground (A4 Poster).
    PDF - 200k

    Model Articles of Association for a Workers' Co-operative (Company Limited by Guarantee)

    These articles (constitution) are for a workers’ co‑operative registering as a company limited by guarantee. They are for a workers’ co‑operative which is fully mutual, using either consensus decision making or voting and in common ownership.
    Includes explanatory notes and sample secondary rules.
    These articles are on the ‘Approved Model List’ of both the Co‑operative Enterprise Hub and Co‑operatives UK. This means that both bodies may will register your co‑op with these articles (or you can register yourself by following the instructions in the How To Set Up a Workers' Co-op handbook).
    These articles are also suitable for use by co-operative consortia (service Co-ops) - instructions on how to adapt them are included.
    ODT - 280k Libreoffice | PDF - 350k | DOC - 510k Microsoft Word

    Sample constitution for groups (unincorporated associations)

    This is a sample constitution for groups to adapt and use - you may need a constitution if your group wants to open a bank account or apply for funding.
    ODT - 33k Libreoffice | DOC - 120k Microsoft Word.

    Legal Forms for Co-operatives

    A brief comparison of legal forms available to common types of co-op.
    Web page | PDF - 320kb

    The Co-operative Principles and Values

    An A4 poster of the Co-operative Principles and Values
    Web page | PDF - 800k

    External resources:

    • Introduction to Radical Routes booklet introducing Radical Routes. Topics covered include Aims and principles; How Radical Routes works; How to join; How we raise and then lend money to our Members; Other services we can offer to members.
    • Radical Routes: How to set up a Housing Co-op "We believe that everyone should be in control of their own housing, not at the whim of their landlord. Co-ops also provide secure homes, so that your housing is not dependent on your financial security."
    • Radical Routes: How to Set Up a Social Centre legal structures, business planning, property maintenance, licencing, policies, housing legislation, running a bar, etc, etc, etc.
    • Co-operatives UK: Simply Finance guide from Co-operatives UK, an excellent guide to finance in your co-op or other social enterprise.
    • Co-operatives UK: Simply Legal a comprehensive guide to the different options for financing a community enterprise.
    • Co-operatives UK: Simply Startup a guide for anyone involved in the creation of an enterprise that will be owned by, run by, and supported by the community in which it operates.
    • Co-operatives UK: From Conflict to Co-operation how to deal with conflict by improving communication, improving meetings and decision-making, managing the change caused by organisational growth and development and clarifying the role of the governing body.
    • Co-operatives UK: Simply Governance a comprehensive guide to understanding the systems and processes concerned with the running of a sustainable community enterprise.
    • Co-operatives UK: Worker Co-operative Code of Governance based on the seven co-operative principles this guide explains how to use these principles to both run your business and govern your co-operative successfully.
    • Select a Structure Tool from Co-operatives UK - to help you choose a structure and legal form for your co-operative, mutual or non-profit organisation.
    • More resources from Co-operatives UK.
    • The Hive - a business support programme from Co-operatives UK offering a mix of online resources, training and advice for new start and existing co-ops.

The views expressed in any linked site or third party resources are not necessarily those of Seeds for Change.