Resources for State Alliances

Forming a New LFA State Affiliate: How to Get Started

What Are the Steps in Forming a New Learning First Alliance State Affiliate?

1. Informally discuss the idea of creating an LFA State Affiliate with the leaders of a few organizations with which you already have a working relationship. Assess their level of interest and talk about what big goals an alliance might be able to achieve. The national LFA can help individuals or small exploratory groups brainstorm ideas for their organizing efforts.

2. Host an informal meeting for potential member organizations to explore interest and consider possibilities for forming an LFA State Affiliate. Find out what ideas and purposes interest and appeal to the group. Are these things in which your organization would be willing to invest time, energy, and maybe money?

3. When you are ready, launch a goal planning meeting with decision-makers, inviting all the interested organizations. This is where your group decides 1) What your vision is and 2) What Big Ideas ignite and inspire the energy for the group. The national LFA can assist by helping you plan processes for this meeting, processes that will help the group reach consensus on key ideas. We can also provide a meeting facilitator.

4. Learn from existing state alliances. The national LFA can pair your state with one of the current affiliates. Experienced state affiliate leaders can advise you about potential pitfalls, help you solve difficult problems, and share alliance resources and ideas with you.

5. In early meetings. focus on the Work, not on governance issues. If the work meets the needs of the participating organizations, the governance details will evolve as the work progresses and creates some early successes.

6. Participate in LFA's bi-monthly conference calls with leaders of current and potential state affiliates. Conference call participants share ideas, address common problems, hear updates from the national LFA organizations, and learn from each other. Experienced state leaders are very happy to answer questions you may have, and you can begin making connections with potential members. The calls take place from 1-2 PM Eastern time on the fourth Wednesdays of May, August, September, November, January and March.

7. Attend the annual meeting of LFA State Affiliates. This meeting helps energize state affiliate leaders, stretch their thinking about common issues, increase their knowledge and understanding of new ideas, and provide ongoing support and networking opportunities for state affiliate leaders.