1YE/YB REPORTS: 2006

2TABLE OF CONTENTS

2007 Calendar 3YE/YB Agenda 4Chief Organizer Report 10Natl Ops/Exec. Director Report 43Natl Field Operations 48Natl Field Coordinator 53Natl Campaigns 55Financial Justice 63Research 66Legislative 68Communications 73Social Policy magazine 76Technology 79KABF 81KNON 83CCI 88Legal 92Training 93Living Wage Resource Center 95Fair Housing 99Development 101Local 880 SEIU 102Local 100 SEIU 121Political Operations 125Pol. Ops Field 130Pol. Ops. SWORD 133Project Vote Election Admin. 137Project Vote 138AZ Homeownership Program 142

Arkansas ACORN 143California ACORN 146

Colorado ACORN 167Connecticut ACORN 172D.C. ACORN 178Florida ACORN 189Georgia ACORN 202Hawaii ACORN 205Iowa ACORN 208Indiana ACORN 210Kansas ACORN 212Louisiana ACORN 215Massachusetts ACORN 218 Michigan ACORN 220Minnesota ACORN 221Mississippi ACORN 226Missouri ACORN 230Nebraska ACORN 234New Jersey ACORN 236New Mexico ACORN 242North Carolina ACORN 247Ohio ACORN 250Pennsylvania ACORN 259Rhode Island ACORN 272South Carolina 274Texas ACORN 278

Midwest Region 281Southern Region 287North Atlantic Region 292Western Region 299

Canada 302Latin America 307

3GENERAL ORGANIZATIONAL CALENDAR**2007**

January 1 New Years Day Offices Closed -- HolidayJanuary 6 ACORN Executive Board New OrleansJanuary 15 Martin Luther King Day Offices Closed HolidayJanuary 21-25 World Social Forum Nairobi, KenyaFebruary 20 Mardi Gras LA Offices Closed HolidayMarch 3-4 Organizing Dialogue San AntonioMarch 9 Management Staff Council New York CityMarch 11-15 ACORN Legislative/Political Conf Washington, DCMarch 31 Field Operations New OrleansApril 6 Good Friday -Or Equiv. Non-LA Offices Closed HolidayApril 14-15 Association Board Little Rock, ArkansasMay 3-4 Organizers Forum Dialogue XI Training Practices and Methods MontanaMay 28 Memorial Day Observed Offices Closed New HolidayJune 1-2 Mid-Year Management Santa Fe, New Mexico - TBAJune 16 ACORN National Nhood Cleanup Day Everywhere!June 18 ACORN 37th Anniversary All Offices Recognition June 23-24 Local 100-880 Staff/Board Retreat TBAJuly 1-6 ACORN Leadership School DetroitJuly 4 Independence Day Offices Closed Holiday July 21 Local 100 Leadership Conference Lake CharlesJuly 28 ACORN Canada Board TorontoJuly 28-29 ACORN International Board TorontoAugust 3-8 Annual Organizer Training Los Angeles Colby RanchAugust 26-27 Management Training Santa FeAugust 30-31 Site Fighters III Conference San Francisco Bay AreaSeptember 3 Labor Day Offices Closed HolidaySept 10 ACORN National Schools Day EverywhereSeptember 14 Management Staff Council DenverSept 24 Sept 28 Organizers Forum Global Dialogue RussiaOct 6-7 ACORN Field Operations New OrleansOct 13-14 Association Board Meeting TBANovember 22 Thanksgiving Day Offices Closed HolidayDec 13-14 Organizers Forum Board Meeting New OrleansDec 14-15 Year End Year Begin Meeting New OrleansDec 24-28 Local 100 Shutdown Week All Local 100 Offices

Skeleton CrewDecember 25 Christmas Day Holiday Offices Closed Holiday

4YEAR END YEAR BEGIN 2006December 14-17, 2006

Sheraton Hotel Canal StreetNew Orleans, Louisiana

PRE-MEETING, December 12-13, 2006ACORN Housing Staff House Gutting and Cleaning (optional) Contact: supportrebuildingnola@acorn.orgACORN and Other Staff House Gutting and Cleaning (optional)Tours of New Orleans Neighborhoods and the 9th Ward (optional) Contact: laacornlower9@yahoo.com

THURSDAY, December 14, 20068:30 AM -- 9:00 PM ACORN Housing Counselors Meeting9:00 AM -- 12:00 PM Big State Head Organizers Meeting9:00 AM -- 12:00 PM LEAP II - Lead Heads Meeting 1:00 PM -- 9:00 PM Field Operations Meeting and Training1:00 PM -- 8:00 PM Political Operations Small Group Meeting9:30 PM -- until Womens Caucus

FRIDAY, December 15, 20068:30 AM -- 11:30 AM ACORN Housing Counselor Meeting8:30 AM -- 11:30 AM Political Operations Meeting9:00 AM -- 11:30 AM A-CLOC Meeting8:30 AM -- 11:30 AM Head Organizers Meeting

12:00 PM -- 2:00 PM Plenary Introduction and Welcome Discussion of Agenda & Goals for the Meeting Chief Organizer Report Field Director Report Political Director Report 2:00 PM -- 2:45 PM Organizing on the Web!

Justin Ruben, Organizing Director, Move On - Austin

52:45 PM -- 3:15 PM Housing Director Report Executive Director Report

3:15 PM -- 4:00 PM Re-thinking Education for Low Income Families

Mike Feinberg, Co-Founder, KIPP Schools, Superintendent - Houston

4:00 PM -- 6:00 PM Operational Meetings Financial Operations Housing Operations Field Operations National Operations Political Operations Labor Operations Communications Operations International Operations (w/ Field)

6:00 PM -- 7:30 PM Dinner Break 7:30 PM -- 8:30 PM Preparing for Power: The Next Cycle? John Podesta, Center for American Progress

8:30 PM -- 10:00 PM Campaign Workshops

Money Mart / Payday Lending: Jordan Ash (Financial Justice Center), Matthew Henderson (New Mexico, Southwest Region), Katrina McKeown (Vancouver)

Pressing Ahead to Combat Neighborhood Violence: John Eller (San Francisco), Robin Hood (Chicago), Liz Kropp (Cleveland), and Ben Winthrop (Tampa)

Healthcare Expansion & Environmental Health Campaigns: Jose Manuel Escobedo (El Paso), Derrick Jessup (Baltimore), Beth Butler (Louisiana), and David Sharples (San Mateo)

Targeting Developers in the Housing Market: Anthony Panarese (Oakland), Harold Miller (New York), Peter Kuhns (Los Angeles)

Tenant Organizing Lupita Gonzalez (Los Angeles), Ryan Spangler (Madison), and Julie Roberts (Paterson), Sergio Aguirre (NY)

Getting 150,000 Votes on Your Own Ballot Line: The WFP Story! Emma Wolfe (Organizing Director NY/WFP), Theo Moore (NYC Organizer, NY/WFP), Louisa Pacheco (Upstate NY, NY/WFP)

6 Research for campaigns Liz Wolff (Research Dept), Val Coffin (Fair Housing Dept), Marc Seiden (Campaign Dept), Gina Vickery (New Orleans Katrina Projects), and Greg Mellowe (WARN Research Director Orlando)

Wal-Mart Rick Smith (WARN Florida), Wendy Torrez (WARN-Merced), and Madeline Talbott (Illinois)

From Living Wage to Paid Sick Days a Working Families Agenda: Jen Kern (Living Wage Resource Ctr), Mimi Ramos (Massachusetts), Neil Sealy (Arkansas), Orell Fitzsimmons (Local 100 Houston)

Working with Unions Leslie Mendoza Kamstra (CLOC), Brandon Nesson (Minnesota), America Canas (NY Childcare Organizing Project), and Myra Glassman (Local 880)

Taking on the Utility Companies Eric Weathersby (Northern Indiana), Allison Brim (Dallas/Ft.Worth), Deidre Murch (Lansing)

Building Organizational Power Through Ballot Initiatives Katy Gall (Ohio), Ben Hanna (Colorado), Andrew Ginsberg (Kansas City, MO)

Building the Working Families Party - Clare Crawford (WFP Field Director 07) , Dan Cantor (Director, NY WFP)

Immigrant Organizing Plans for 2007 Brenda Muniz (Legislative Director), Damaris Rostran (New Jersey), Alain Cisneros (Houston), Teresa Castro (New Orleans)

Building the Base and Moving Campaigns through VITA and Benefit Centers: Jayne Junkin (Houston), Laura Godines (San Francisco), Urell Spain (Philadelphia), Marie Flores (Dallas)

Organizing Against Voter Suppression Efforts Mike Slater (Project Vote National), Ali Kronley (Philadelphia)

Campaign Finance 101 the Rules of the Game Jeff Robinson (Deputy Political

Director / Electoral DC), Steve Bachmann (General Counsel IN), Hollis Shepherd (CCI Legal New Orleans), Brian Mellor (Legal Political, Boston), Jessica Kudji (CCI)

Brave New World: Campaigning On-line -- Kevin Whelan (Communications), Nathan

Henderson-James (Oakland Political), Tunde Obaze (KNON)

AHC Converting Production to Leadership in the Housing Industry Richard Hayes (DC, Moderator), Bruce Dorpalen (Philadelphia), and others TBA

10:00 PM -- Queer Caucus

7 Organizers of Color Caucus I

10:00 PM -- Until Solidarity

Saturday, December 16, 2006 8:00 AM -- 9:00 AM Dawn Patrol: Special Session with Nathan and

Denis on Using the Database More Effectively

9:00 AM -- 9:20 AM Media Communications Report CCI Report 9:20 AM -- 10:00 AM Shelter from the Storm: Explanation and Response to Attack Steve Bachmann, General Counsel & Kevin

Whelan, Comm Director

10:00 AM -- 12:00 PM Services and Skills Workshops

Performance Based Management Beth Butler (Middle South Region) and Matthew Luskin (SEIU 880)

Basics in Using your Local Website: What to Do and How to Do it! - Mark Madere (Webmaster), Nathan Waldrip-Fruin (Communications), Laura Goodhue (Florida)

Design Upgrades: Help to Create Better Fliers and Materials! Reico Robichaux (Communications Dept - Designer), Jewel Bush (Communications Writer/Editor)

Getting Good Press: Charles Jackson (Communications Dept) , Sonya Murphy (Jackson)

Innovative Electoral Campaign Tactics: Dear Neighbor and Friends & Neighbor Programs Emma Wolfe (Organizing Director NY WFP), Bill Lipton (Deputy Director NY WFP)

Building and Maintaining Large Electoral Canvass Programs Johanna Sharrard (Pol Ops CO/MO), Debaniesha Wright (Pol Ops OH), Beth Berendsen (Pol Ops OH), Jake Olsen (Pol Ops MO)

AHC Managers (ONLY): Increasing Local Capacity and Time Management Jean Withers (Seattle) (Moderator), Rosalind Carroll (Philly), Alex Dicotighano (Las Vegas), and Ernie Boyd (Seattle)

AHC: Creating Successful Post-Purchase Classes Tara Benigno (Moderator - Brooklyn), Reagan Brewer (Chicago), Fantaye Akbar (Dallas), Alexa Milton (St. Paul) , Munai Newash (Chicago)

8 AHC: Housing Counseling 101: Making the Most Out of Our Lending Agreements Doris La Torre (Moderator - Bridgeport), Christy Leffall (Oakland), Raquel Ravelo (Brooklyn)

Fundraising from Issue Campaigns Steve Bradberry (New Orleans), Maryellen Hayden (Pittsburgh), Dave Lagstein (Detroit)

Working with Navision Denis Petrov (CCI), Mary Ann LeBlanc (CCI), and Irvine Figueroa (CCI)

How to Build Power in your City and State Jon Kest (New York), Ginny Goldman (Texas), Derecka Mehrens (California)

Event Based Fundraising Dave Chaos (KNON), Sara Albee (New Orleans Rebuilding Program)

Moving Members to be Volunteer Organizers Chris Entrikin (Pol Ops Los Angeles), David Perkins (Albuquerque), Carrie Guzman (Michigan), Amanda Thorson (AZ), Tai Smith (Cleveland), Becky Wagner (Rhode Island); Amy Teitleman (Cincinnati)

Alternative Membership Strategies / house meetings Alain Cisneros (Houston), Barbara Clark (Cleveland)

How to Pass State Legislation: Brian Kettenring (SE RD/ Miami), Amy Schur (Campaign Director), Ronald Coleman ( New Orleans)

AHC: Get Ready for 2007: Organizing Successful Fundraising Events Jose Luis Trevino (Moderator San Jose), Munai Newash (Chicago), Sherry Randall (Dallas), Pam Beard (San Diego), Lydia Lopez (Fresno), Susan Wayman (New Orleans)

AHC: 2006 Production Cinderellas: How to Blow Away Everyones Expectations! Angie Oliver (Moderator - Boston), Jorge Guerrero (Dallas), Alex Dicogtinano (Las Vegas), Theresa Naylor (Springfield), Carmen Blatt (Kansas City), Michelle Celestin (Ft. Lauderdale)

Housing Development: How 2006 Experience Informs 2007 Plans Mary Shalloo (Development Director, Chicago), Ismene Speliotis (MHANY, NY), Marie Lee (New Orleans), Marilyn Perez (Phoenix), Tony Fuller (Chicago)

Mind Meld: Researchers Coordination Meeting (Invitation Only) Liz Wolff, Research Director

Dues and Donts Without Bargaining Barbara Watson (Wal-Mart Workers Association - Orlando), Rosa Hines (Local 100 NO), Maria Castilleja (Working Families Association Houston)

912:00 PM -- 1:30 PM Lunch Break Special Meeting: ACORN and Allied Tech Staff Discussion Place TBA Special Caucus: Footprint Meeting to Discuss Citigroup and ACORN Partnership with Eric Eve

1:30 PM -- 2:00 PM You Should Have Been There WhenDramatic Re-creations of the Best of 2006!

2:00 PM -- 2:30 PM Labor Report 880 Labor Report 100 ACORN Community Labor Organizing Center (A-CLOC) ACORN International Report

2:30 PM -- 3:30 PM New Initiatives

Corporate and Volunteer Contributions Mitch Klein (Office of Chief Organizer) and Darryl Durham (NO Clean-out Program)

Katrina Update Wade Rathke and Steve Bradberry

3:30 PM -- 5:30 PM Organizing Workshops

Organizing and Operating VITA and Benefit Sites-- Jeff Karlson (New Orleans), Maryellen Hayden (Pittsburgh), Urell Spain (Philly), Tanya Hicks (Cincinnati)

Moving Volunteers Sara Albee (New Orleans Gutting), Karen Elben (ACORN Tax and Benefit Centers New Orleans)

Working with Clergy -- Leiland Woods (Dayton), Bertha Lewis (New York)

Working in Coalitions Dave Lagstein (Michigan), Katy Gall (Ohio), Anthony Panarese (Oakland)

Building Organization from Provisional Members Brennan Griffin (CO Office / NO), Ali Kronley (PA), James Wardlaw (Toronto), Jeff Partridge (Rhode Island)

How to Fundraise Canvass John Anderson (Ottawa), Kris Harsh (OH), Ryan Spangler (Madison)

Intakes and Membership Tiffany Jones (WARN), Mimi Ramos (Massachusetts), and Eric Weathersby (NW Indiana)

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Creating Big Turnouts: Aimee Olin (Providence), Derrick Jessup (Baltimore), Christina Spach (Atlanta)

Organizing in Middle-Income Communities: Antoinette Krause (SE PA), Amanda Thorson (Mesa), Brandon Nessen (Minneapolis)

Associate Membership Canvass Greg Basta (New York), Neil Herman (SE PA), Brittany Petit (RI)

Organizing Informal Workers Brynne Seibert (880-Chi), Julie Roberts (Paterson),

Organizing Partnerships with Labor -- Derecka Mehrens (California), Ross Fitzgerald (A-CLOC), Rosa Hines (SEIU 100 New Orleans)

Getting the message: Working with leaders to build ACORN's Brand -- Kevin Whelan (Communications Director), Toni McElroy (Houston),

Developing International and National Campaign Strategies: Amy Schur (Campaign Director) and Judy Duncan (Canada), and Dine Butler (Argentina)

Writing Grants -- Janet Reasoner (Wyoming), Camellia Phillips (New York), Carolyn Carr (DC)

6:30 PM -- 9:00 PM Dinner and Banquet 6:30 PM Seating and Social7:00 PM Dinner Served

7:45 PM Program

Awards: ACORN President Maude Hurd Local 100 SEIU President Mildred Edmond Local 880 SEIU President Helen Miller AHC President Alton Bennett

Special Guest Speaker: Eric Eve, Senior Vice-President, Citigroup on the Value of Partnerships

Sunday, December 17th

9:00 AM -- 3:00 PM Political Operations Meeting

ORGANIZE EVERYTHING THAT MOVES!BEST WISHES FOR A GREAT 2007!

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CHIEF ORGANIZER REPORTYEAR END YEAR BEGIN 2006

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December 10, 2006

Staffing Helene OBrien Field Director Phoenix/NOLA Zach Polett Political Director Little Rock Mike Shea Housing Director Chicago Steve Kest Executive Director New York Jules Nunn CCI Controller New Orleans Donna Pharr CCI Administrative Director New Orleans James Smith CCI Internal Auditor New Orleans Steve Bachmann General Counsel South Bend (IN) Jordan Ash ACORN Financial Justice Center St. Paul Judy Duncan ACORN Canada Head Organizer Toronto Ercilia Sahores Latin American Director Buenos Aires Reena Desai ACORN India FDI Watch Mumbai Barbara Bowen Coordinator, Organizers Forum San Francisco Amy Schur Campaign Director Los Angeles Kevin Whelan Communications Director Minneapolis / NOLA Liz Wolff Research Director Dallas / NOLA Ross Fitzgerald A-CLOC Field Director Houston

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Rick Smith WARN Florida Director St. Petersburg Jeff Karlson ACORN Tax & Benefit Access New Orleans Dale Rathke Chief Organizer Assistant - Finance New Orleans Brennan Griffin Chief Organizer Assistant - Labor Baton Rouge Mitch Klein Chief Organizer Assistant - Field New Orleans Lorette Orodgne Chief Organizer Assistant Support New Orleans John Proulx ACORN Services, Inc. New Orleans Darryl Durham ACORN Home Gutting Program New Orleans

Wade Rathke Chief Organizer New Orleans

National Operations New Offices 2006 Quad Cities (IA) Formerly Davenport, IA Office Saginaw (MI) Northwest (IN) Omaha (NE) New State

Re-Opened Offices 2006 Columbia (SC) New State Des Moines (IA) State Capitol Lansing (MI) State Capitol Springfield (MA)

New Loan Counseling El Paso (TX)

New Housing Development New Orleans (LA) Paterson (NJ)

New Field Offices for 2007 Salt Lake City (UT) New State / State Capital Boise (ID) New State / State Capital Riverside (CA) Tacoma (WA) Spokane (WA)

Re-Opened Offices 2007 None Scheduled International Operations

New Offices 2006 Ottawa, Canada (July) Buenos Aires, Argentina (July)

New Offices 2007 Mexico City, Mexico (July) Montreal, Canada (July) Campaign Offices 2006 Mumbai, India (March)

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Delhi, India (April) Bangalore, India (November)

Directions and Priorities in Field Operations

Breaking 400 Field Organizers: We come into the YEYB with more than 350 organizers thanks to the partnership of field and political and the conversion of 06 cycle capacity into field organizers.

Opening new offices: As we have discussed throughout the year, the pace of expansion has slowed to allow for us to stabilize growth and procedures, while restructuring operations as well. The inventory of offices is now at 107 offices in the US (with 3 in Canada, 3 in Latin America, and 3 in India).

Expanding Canvass Via Field Operations: With the assistance and support of New York, field operations is envisioning major growth in associate membership categories around base operations through establishment of dedicated canvass operations. The goals are significant: Boston Suburbs: Up to Lowell and Lawrence Detroit Suburbs: Warren, Sterling Heights, and others Bay Area Suburbs: Fremont and Heyward particularly Twin City Suburbs: Seven County Area St. Louis Suburbs Los Angeles Suburbs: Inglewood and other parts of Los Angeles County Phoenix Suburbs Cleveland Suburbs: Including Lorain Dallas Suburbs: Re-staffing Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving, and opening Grand

Prairie

Stabilization Program in Field Operations: By revising new office expansion goals, Field intends to concentrate this program in North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, Orange County, Oklahoma, Florida, and Hawaii. More detailed plans are being made for this program during the end of the year meetings.

Joint Projects and Partnerships: We continue to explore strategic alliances with other

community networks and with labor unions that would help us grow where we are and where we want to be.

We held a series of meetings to consolidate the partnership between SEIU and ACORN and executed new improvements to the master agreement in 2006.

Our relationship continues to also deepen with the Gameliel network. Work in New Jersey was added to the work in San Diego. I attended the 3rd DLA and thanked the leaders and staff for their generous contributions to our Rebuilding and Recovery Fund.

In Canada we have an emerging partnership with the British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU).

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Katrina Rebuilding allowed us to consolidate a joint project with the Canadian Automobile Workers (CAW) which will help us in both countries.

Service Based Support: We continue to push a services-based model in addition to the campaign-based model using both our EITC work and ACORN Tax Access Centers and adding ACORN Benefit Access Centers as a year-round addition in many locations in 2006. We continue to find offices willing to fully exploit the potential to tap non-traditional sources have achieved significant support. We need to accelerate. At the same time we are increasingly aware that we are going to have to move this program to a more performance based system. Too many offices are hardly using the benefit access at all, so the cost per member for development and implement is still excessive. We need to integrate this more fully. The ACORN Tax Access and Benefit Centers are now not supporting offices achieving under a baseline performance standard, and this needs to continue to increase as an accountable program with clear production.

Figure: New Orleans ACORN members celebrate the opening of their local VITA site in 2005.

Campaign Based Support: We have seen significant progress in recent years in this area and continue to believe the long term prospects are significant. Mitch Kleins movement to headquarters sees him focusing significant amounts of time in research and development in this area. Short term there are some issues we found in 2006 that were disconcerting. Our expenditures of almost $250,000 for tax prep campaigns in 2006 yield almost nothing for us. The most significant expenditure in the Amscot in the central and bay area of Florida in fact saw us spend significantly for a campaign that never really happened and a payoff received before an agreement was consolidated, and the whole thing ended up as a huge lesson. But the rest of the work was marginal as well on all targets and produced in all honesty, less if anything. Candidly confusion between good faith campaigns designed to win industry standards and support future work and infrastructure became confused as if it were little more than an office income supplement. We have to battle this tendency and review the future. In 2007 we are also looking at the end of the Household campaign support, though we are still hopeful of renegotiating at some level, even the most optimistic have to realize the number will deteriorate substantially.

Partnership Based Support: In moving forward to develop new and non-traditional resources, we are seeking to identify corporations and other institutions that intersect with our constituency base as potential partners that can unite with us

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programmatically to create a mutually beneficial result and accompanying resources to allow for our expansion and core support. Over recent years the development of the partnerships produced from the struggle of campaigns with various corporations offer constructive learning models about the multiplier effects of such relationships forged in conflict. This is no more evident than in the developing relationship with Citigroup and H&R Block as two examples. Continuing the work the partnerships aggressively and across operations has paid significant benefits throughout the ACORN family and continues to do so. The supplemental side letter being finalized with Citigroup during the 1st week of 2007 to add 10 offices with an elastic footprint for the agreement is very important. Citigroups interest in adding support and discussion of international operations to the relationship meeting at the same time in order to discuss partnerships in Latin America, India, and Africa with ACORN could be significant in stabilizing resources capacity for expansion and maintenance in these emerging ACORN International operations. None of this is every sure fire or guaranteed. We still seemingly have a long way to go to create a stable and sustainable relationship across operations with Household and HSBC, but the point of this discussion is that we are targeting this sector1 for aggressive exploration around resource development. This corporate and related assault has been tasked to Mitch Klein as my assistant in the Office of Chief Organizer. Thus far we have either met or have meetings scheduled with Entergy, Allstate, Florida Power & Light, Prudential, General Services, GMAC,2 and Mitsubishi for example. The broad discussions are around our interests and their interests, partnership intersections around our constituency and their customers, followed by our submission of a concept paper, further discussions, and development of partnership agreements and support. The response has been most enthusiastic on adaptations and extensions of the ACORN Tax and Benefit Centers. This is not something you should try at home! These are not local options for development, but are field support systems, meaning that offices broadly will benefit and receive support as these partnerships are developed.

Grassroots Base Development: A companion program that we are developing is based on deepening the utilization of both partnership institutions and their employees in volunteer activity and support as well as activating these volunteers and our own members to more aggressively pursue work-based fundraising opportunities. One of the lessons learned from the Katrina experience came from Starbucks (developed by one of Mitchs predecessors) which has become the primary monthly sponsor of the New Orleans Home Gutting program. Anyone who volunteers in certain periods with us and registers through a Starbucks outlet anywhere in Louisiana triggers a payment by the company of something on the order of $25 per hour. We have gotten checks on a monthly basis from Starbucks of between $10-12K per month! Similarly, we have been able to pursue oil companies like Shell, Chevron, and so forth that will match both sweat and/or financial contributions made to us on a proportionate basis depending on the company.

1 The notable exceptionality is around traditional mortgage banks where AHC is going to largely continue to lead based on an inter-operational agreement made between housing and field in Santa Fe in mid-2006.

2 Auto insurance issues.

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Citigroup now continually asks us their employee volunteers in our programs, and we are going to have to start measuring as well as joining with them to encourage such support particularly in the ATBAC operations in 07. We believe working partnerships at the grassroots level with many companies with similar programs could make the difference in many of our offices between running in the red and breaking even. We have developed a list of thousands of businesses with similar programs which we are in the process of databasing, sorting by office and interest, and preparing for all operations utilization. We argue on the grassroots level that this program needs to be combined with the workplace activism and giving programs accessible in other ways to our members as well3 through both the Combined Federal Campaign (our ACORN Institute application is currently being prepared) and aggressive utilization of United Way donor directed programs where they already are mandatory (Seattle, Portland, Bay Area, etc) or available (everywhere based on applications which the Office of Chief Organizer will support working with Field Operations). Yes, all of this is work, but it is work, that privileges the base and our local operations programs and is totally holistic and sustainable. Mitch is also at the point here as part of his responsibilities in field support. In short though this is something that you will have to do at home!

ACORN International Operations

The highlights of the year were the effective reorganization of the management of our program both in Canada under Judy Duncan as head organizer and in Latin America under Ercilia Sahores. Our offices are stabilizing, though not sustainable at this point. We suffered terribly from the learning curve at CCI in handling our international business on a financial and legal front and significant resources and time was lost on basic business, particularly in Mexico. The actual work, as reflected in the reports4, indicates that the response and demand for ACORN in other countries is deep and real, but our efforts are still embryonic and our aspirations huge. Certainly one of the personal highlights of my year was spending several weeks helping open the Buenos Aires office! Some brief notes are offered below about where we are going here, since this question is often asked me.

ACORN Canada An early 2006 reorganization of staff was critical in Canada to finally consolidating our gains and allowing the field program to take priority in the organization. An obnoxious amount of time in the wake of this relief though has been spent maintaining the important stability of the breakthrough grant from the McConnell Foundation, the largest foundation in Canada (based in Montreal) and perhaps the most chauvinistic. Judy, our lawyers, and the foundation have been in a constant mode of re-establishing core trusts and understandings. Additional resources are now forthcoming from the Atkinson Foundation (Toronto) and others which should put us in good stead for the future, as well as allow ACORN

3 Remember some of them will be eligible on the former front as well. Talking to some of the MN ACORN leadership a couple of days ago about this program several responded immediately that their companies had had such programs (UM, 3M, etc) and one had been a loaned executive once to the United Way!

4 Separate country and operations reports in this area have been written of course by Ecilia and Judy.

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Canada to steadily resolve family debt obligations and anchor growth of the entire international operation.

ACORN Latin America

ACORN Mexico The costs in Mexico are exorbitant compared to the rest of our Latin American operations (1/2 US payroll costs) and there had developed a mismatch between expenditures, resources and dues levels, along with significant mismanagement of registration and resources by CCI. The staff has now been right-sized somewhat, and we are trying to increase membership production and finally raise the profile of the operation on issues and campaigns. Efforts to support Wal-Mart sitefights in Baja could be helpful in this regard, as was recent exploration and meetings in Mexico City (and press Mexican and US press!) around our role in the Wal-Mart efforts. Timing on opening the office in the DF rests on staff training and development as well as resource stabilization. Citigroup financing uneven but important.

ACORN Peru Registration was finally completed with much work. Groups are now expanding more rapidly. Campaign profile needs to increase at this point. Joint project with FENTAP on water privatization continues to find support from Panta Rhea. Overall budget in reasonable shape externally because of support from Ameriquest,5 but this requires constant diligence and is totally an ACORN relationship play.

Figure: Actions were made across the Americas on November 29th for a coordinated international campaign against Shermin Williams. Sherman Williams representative admitted to ACORN Per that they still sell lead-based paint.

5 Instability of the company could threaten budget stability in Peru in 2007-8.

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ACORN Argentina Office has now been open less than 6 months and continues to grow. Staff has been remarkably stable. First actions are generating attention. Resources provided for the opening of the office from the Frontera Fund of the Tides Foundation. Great hopes remain here for the future.

Additional Latin America Training being done by Ismene Speliotis and Ercilia Sahores in Puerto Rico6 may provide support for operations as well as begin introduction of ACORN more directly there. Recruiting finally moving up the list of priorities for Dominican Republic, so if a staff person is identified and trained in Peru or Argentina in 2007, office opening could be late 2007 or early 2008.

ACORN Africa An invitation is being evaluated seriously for ACORN Nigeria. Bertha Lewis of NY ACORN visited over Thanksgiving week and was very impressed with front end work having been already done by former Brooklyn ACORN leaders, including potential donation of a piece of land to provide resource support for the first 2 years of the organization on the proposal we have made to the Nigerian sponsoring committee. I am visiting late in January to also assess. Meetings with Sunday Alabie (MN ACORN) and Tunde of KNON hopefully will create a US based ACORN Nigeria support committee to raise money for the ongoing organizing to supplement dues.7

ACORN Asia 2007 should see further developments of the partnership relationships between training centers in Korea and the Philippines and our operations. These will be determined by meetings tentatively scheduled with a network of community organizations in March 2007 where both training and direct affiliation and/or joint campaign work with ACORN is on the agenda. We have also committed to a joint training week sometime in 2007 with both organizations to be held in Korea with participants from the Philippines and from Thailand to learn our training methodology. It is unlikely that these efforts will mature fully to the point of work in individual countries or direct registrations and membership until 2008.

ACORN India The first project under the auspices of ACORN India is under discussion for the famous Mills area of Mumbai for sometime beginning perhaps as early as the spring of 2007. Potential organizers are also being identified for hire in Delhi.8

6 Supported by Mott Foundation.

7 The local non-resident immigrant community support model is one that we are trying to build to support India and Africa expansion currently.

8 See more discussion of India under the Wal-Mart section on ACORN-India FDI Watch.

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Figure: ACORN volunteers at the India Social Forum. FDI Watch organizers hosted a table atthe forum to help extend outreach for the campaign.

National Staffing

Staff Training and Development The 15th Annual Organizer Training and the 14th Advanced Organizer Training were held at Colby Ranch in no-cell phone country supposedly in Los Angeles, but about as far as you can get and still be in the county. We had in St. Petersburg on training models in 2006. Training programs are part of the upgraded agenda for 2007, though we will have a dialogue in San Antonio early in the year while the plans are being made.

Mid-Year Management Meeting The 13th such meeting was held in Santa Fe, NM. Highlights were Zephyr Teachout on internet campaigning and the presentation of the preliminary results branding exercise along with the preview of the Sage Partners consultation on field operations.

Structure Herb and Marian Sandler provided generous support for an outside review of ACORN Field Operations and related activity in order to allow us with help! to assess our infrastructure requirements and needs. Many of the recommendations were based on common sense conclusions rooted in fundamental efficiencies to Field Operations, including increased centralization, streamlined and direct management accountability, upgrades in training, recruitment, and placement, among other suggestions. Additionally, there were important analytical insights achieved which have made planning more realistic and achievable, especially around growth goals. The calculation and identification of a 5-year financial breakeven average for new offices was an important conclusion, particularly in an area where conjecture can be disconcerting and consistency to goal can be challenging. As importantly, the process has finely focused operations at all levels on the gap in finances that must be developed in order to achieve overall organizational goals, since the numbers are huge. We continue to be highly engaged in

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puzzling out some of the programs, including examining structural issues around management operations, departmental organizations, and other areas with institutional importance and support. We also are still working with the Sandlers to come to an understanding of where they may be willing to support increased field capacity.

Departments We will be convening departmental meetings on a regular basis in 2007 to achieve greater coordination between field and non-field operations and within support functions in general. Additionally, there will be a process of budget and revenue generation limits and goals established for departments in 2007.

Office of Chief Organizer We have taken important steps here particularly in recent months with the full addition of both Brennan Griffin and Mitch Klein to upgrade ability of overall management, development and support operations of the Chief Organizer. We are still seeking to find the right replacement for Sharon Kerry, now trapped indefinitely on the West Coast. There is likely to be an addition on the international side here, but nothing much more expected, since many of the other goals will be achieved early in 07 and throughout the first quarter through centralization in New Orleans.

National Budget Developments

Here are the bottom lines on the challenges before us financially:

A five-year sustainability timeline on US-Canada based offices requires more resources for support of below average offices.

We can not run development that is unable to pitch and sell the entire ACORN program more aggressively, as opposed to shifting through the prism of politics or campaigns.

We face the challenge of raising huge numbers (over $50 M gaps) to achieve our goals and no systems or personnel in place have the ability currently to achieve these goals, nor have we identified sources sufficient create such revenues. We have to expand the size of the pie.

We have in place elements that with proper support and management can create sustainable offices if we can achieve the discipline to run the program.

We can not move to the next institutional level without more clarity around institutional vehicles (separations and relationships of c3, c4, and other instruments), constructive and holistic integration as well as full communication and transparency across all operations, and rigor in finances, back office, and legal support (i.e. the CCI functionality). Where we do not have this, we have to achieve it. Where we have managers uncomfortable with this, we have to overcome resistance or replace. Where we have problems, we have to have solutions.

Our ambitions continue to outstrip our resources. Culturally, we have traditionally been slow to invest in capacity. We can not achieve efficiencies of scale, operations or personnel without

centralization.

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Development activity must be constant and robust and succeeds better when creative and innovative as well.

Success is a total and collective effort. Silos have to be collapsed so that information can flow.

Saying all of this the template from last years report still is true for our sustainability efforts.9

Many of the initiatives around resource generation on a number of fronts are elsewhere in the report, but there are few areas where we are more focused than this.

National Actions and Conferences

The Columbus 2006 ACORN National Convention was an excellent event. Old timers might grouse at the lack of a target honored by time-honored tradition of these affairs, but the membership was ecstatic with the affair. Equally valuable for the resources and expense was the huge press boost, particularly to the Ohio minimum wage effort and the great internal recognition of the organizations, its members, and leadership by public figures and leading future candidates. We arrived in an additional way by having attracted for the first time our own counter demonstration both at the convention and at the

9 In seeking to achieve both growth and sustainability we continue to support and expand initiatives around (1) field operations budget modeling, though a real system of subsidy versus scale and sustainability; (2) we have deepened partnership work; (3) we have continued to privilege our base and the labor collaborations are the best examples; (4) we have continued to integrate core operations and the Katrina work and response has been the biggest success; (5) agreement based work and campaigns continue to be core; and (6) we have to make progress in solidifying our service and intake based operations.

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state capitol with a rolling billboard truck attacking the organization. Now, if we can just finally pay off the last $140,000 in bills.

2006 saw the sixth annual ACORN Community Clean-up Day and the ACORN Schools Day continue to be interesting without really getting traction, or institutional investment and replication. In 2007 we are looking to reprogram these events as opportunities for community and corporate volunteerism in a program that Mitch Klein will be supporting.

With the changing dynamics in Washington beginning to make Congress a place of some interest rather than continued dread, the 2007 Legislative Conference is likely to be an important opportunity for the organization to imprint our special brand on emerging events, especially with concessions everywhere that the minimum wage will be an important first step in new legislation.

In conjunction with our Wal-Mart organizing in Florida as well as ACORN and our allies extensive work around big box siting, where we have developed unparalleled expertise, as well as the riveting interest Chicago ACORN and allies were able to create in the struggle to win a big box wage rate in that city for retail, WARN, the Wal-Mart Workers Association, and ACORN among others sponsored the early September Site Fighters Conference II in Sacramento, California bringing together all elements of the Wal-Mart campaign. The most important outcomes of the meeting were our ability to showcase our Florida work along with the Merced work to halt development of a distribution center, and the combination of these forces to begin to create a more intense and productive relationship with the Teamsters around distribution issues and interests.

Focusing our Katrina work in 2006 around the right to return and the issues of Katrina Survivors in a number of Gulf South cities, led to a wintry pilgrimage to Washington on busses from the diaspora. Great work by the national and DC based staff, as well as hard sweat and great luck in equal measure delivered by the communications department, saw the ACORN Katrina Survivors March on Washington on the front page of the Washington Post, as well as in a host of critical meetings that gave us some credibility on the happy coincidence and confluence of events that ended shortly after our return home with final passage of financial commitments for the disaster.

Political Development

The political department under Zach Poletts leadership continues to be a juggernaut and expanded its capacity and reach significantly in 2006. The milestones will be covered in the political report no doubt, but the highlight film would include obviously the 4 successful initiative petitions for minimum wage, more than 500,000 new voters registered, millions of dollars raised on all fronts10, highly successful recruiting and placement in management positions, and clearly thats not even the whole story. The political posture and position of the

10 In partnership with Steve Kest.

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organization is such that we have been the first friend of progressives and the scourge of the right and the Wall Street Journal.

In 2007 we are looking position ourselves even more deeply. Conversations before the election focused on assembling a meeting of more than 1000 members, likely in Vegas, to vet the key candidates from both parties (if they will come), and move towards an early engagement and endorsement significantly before the run-up to the primaries. We have already begun conversations with key allies (like SEIU) about how to segue our programs with others to create momentum for preferable policies and the people willing to embrace them publicly and commit politically.

The 07-08 cycle challenges us to continue to expand our capacity and clout, while at the same time always keeping in mind that the machinery rests and only operates well when firmly attached to the growing membership base throughout the country. Continuing the encouraging integration of recent years continues to be a high priority of mine, and certainly of both the field and political departments.

The Working Families Party in New York and Connecticut continued to establish themselves shrewdly as political forces. The ballot project in Massachusetts to advance election opportunities (read fusion) made it to the ballot, which was never easy, but unfortunately could not overcome some of its negatives, so lost decidedly by a woeful margin, even in the trenches of liberalism. This will be something that we will have to answer in the future. South Carolina moved forward smartly in 07 as a small consolation. Efforts to move ballot coalitions forward in Washington and Oregon showed promise but were never able to muster up on a short timeline, so decision points for 08 remain in the northwest. Field operations have been assumed by Clare Crawford for 07, who will be missed in the ACORN Field Operations, but understood the priority and the challenge on this frontier. The integration of the WPF into the COUNCIL and the overall ACORN family of organizations made such a transfer possible, and one recognizes many names from ACORN in any stroll through the WFP Empire.

Discussions about both the need to mop-up on minimum wage initiatives in states where the opportunity still avails, particularly for indexing, which seems unlikely in the near term from our friends in Congress, as well as starting the next generation of initiatives around health care based issues seems important now. Additionally, looking in 07 at opportunities in local areas should keep our skills well hewn. Los Angeles sill looms large as a place where we need to do a local minimum wage very badly to finally position ourselves where we need to be in the 2nd city, and the addition of the field membership canvass in Bay Area cities (as well as Wal-Mart and other work) could make a host of smaller communities targets for exciting local initiatives. New Mexico continues to be a dog with a bone on this issue pushing to expand to every nook and cranny of their state, as rightly they should.

National Campaigns

Predatory Lending This is an area where the ACORN Financial Justice Center continues to concentrate across various fronts.

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Wells Fargo has continued to persistently avoid either justice or peace with honor. We continue to pursue enough public activity at board meetings, press statements, and selected events to keep a fire burning to help light the path, but most of our hopes lie in a settlement of our legal claims. The Board voted to approve negotiations for a heavily California weighted class to enliven the hopes for settlement, but prospects remain tenuous and uneven.

Canada and the US had entered direct meetings with Money Mart and some of the payday lenders and Canada particularly continues to lead on this effort, but again any resolution has been illusive. Changes in the law at the national level under the Harper government seem to be rationalizing the ability for provinces to move model programs, so there is discussion here and possibly some action coming in 2007, where we will play a key role. Our office in Ottawa and research and legislative capacity there should be helpful on this score. An action on the US side at the board meeting of Money Marts owners hopefully augurs for more interest in taking up the scourge of payday lending more broadly.

The concentration of the sub-prime industry in southern California, particularly in Orange County, has argued for several years that we needed a significant southern California initiative by the ACORN Financial Justice Center. Earlier in 2006 we did a round of meetings to open up direct negotiations around reforms with New Century (now the largest sub-prime lender), Option One (a unit of H&R Block, we have been pursuing), and others. Several meetings with New Century have now moved us to an early 07 decision point or more public engagement as we euphemistically argue. Assistance from cy pres monies from the Cachet firm, has now allowed us to finally hire staff in California for the AFJC, as we expand this effort. The strategy is to bring all major sub-primes under the same rules and regimes. 2007 will see how close we can get in continued jawboning and legal feints before more direct engagement.

Living Wages See political discussion earlier.

Education Last year I remarked here about the quip of an unnamed ACORN organizer quoted at the Hartford conference as having called education campaigns, the Viet Nam of organizing. Perhaps as our understanding continues to deepen with greater experience in Iraq, we are coming to the point where it will be more accurate to refer to our dilemma here as Iraq of organizing. I mentioned last year in this report that, The increasing list of non-performing schools is not being met by a campaign of outrage and anger equal to the problem yet. Another year has gone by and it is even truer now. Part of what has been immobilizing us is our own version of sectarian problems. Our allies in the main, both on the left and in labor, have been unwilling to break out of existing patterns to assess the drastic need for a new strategy. We are now absolutely and categorically there. The question is where. I had hoped a joint education meeting that had been proposed for 2006 between ACORN cities with education projects and PICO cities with strong education work would produce some insights and direction in this regard, but the meeting did not come together. One of the co-founders of the KIPP schools is coming to the YE/YB and will be meeting with education organizers. We have to nationalize our work in an effective program for our constituency, and we simply are not there today.

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Tax Preparers RALs We entered 2006 with the cry of give us Liberty, or give us death! Thankfully, Liberty gave in relatively quickly when finally realizing through field and other action that we were not going away and were intensifying our campaign. Jordan Ash and I met with representatives of Liberty early in the year and managed to bring them into the pattern. The demonstration city will be Raleigh, North Carolina. This settlement (notwithstanding the lessons learned from the Liberty experience!) allowed us to look to complete the pattern. Amscot, headquartered in the Tampa Bay area Ive already discussed, and they have come into line after a fashion and we are still trying to pull them to plump. Other large companies in a highly disaggregated industry are as much payday operations or purveyors of other financial services as they are tax preparers. The long and short of it, is that we did not make progress sufficient to justify the investment. The results of the ACORN Tax and Benefit Centers were so significant that we were surprised to get a renewal request from Marguerite Casey for this combination of service and campaigning, because they feel it is perhaps the most clearly successful program they have funded. We asked for $1.3 M over 2 years and have recently heard that we will receive $1.5M over 3 years. Our efforts are likely to concentrate (in addition to expanding ATBC) on moving upstream on the preparers and the RALS by targeting the factors supplying the money and adding the fees we have not been able to negotiate away! particularly HSBC and Santa Barbara Trust.11

Wal-Mart Campaign 2005 was the startup year for our Wal-Mart organizing, and 2006 gave us a full year of experience on a number of fronts. The developments have been fascinating, and we (both through WARN and ACORN) continue to be at ground zero in the real campaign that is engaging this company, and in our case we would argue in fact is winning against the company, but the work is uneven and still hangs in the balance to determine the end results, which need several more years to bring to fruition.

Wal-Mart Workers Association The heartland of our strength continues to be around the Orlando area. Activity maintains strength with steady store based results. Membership has not achieved stability against turnover or scale because of unresolved list problems. We are looking to finally invest in additional lists in early 2007 as delayed resources become available in order to more robustly test our original proposition and climb over the hump. This has been the most difficult piece of our project.

WARN / Florida Here we have rocked! We won the big box moratorium in Orange County (Orlando) and our record in blocking Wal-Mart construction is around 12-0 now since the beginning of the project. We have arguable the strongest research team per person and pound in the our work now in our Tampa and Orlando offices, combining straight research with organizing and campaign skills, and led by the uniquely methodical, Greg Mellowe. Our software development on predictive siting, database to messaging, and other tools have put us in a position to win and the strength of this operation and the record Florida under Rick Smiths overall direction have given us huge traction in the work. We are moving to ballot initiatives in 2007 in Sarasota and hopefully St. Petersburg which will combine big box restrictions with requirements for

11 More details on the strategic thinking and planning will be furnished no doubt in Jordans AFJC report

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higher minimum wages in any publicly subsidized project (a loophole in the Florida local restrictions around local living wages!).

WARN / Merced Relationships built in the Bay Area by ACORN led us into a series of meetings that culminated in a contract between UFCW locals, the UFCW, and IBT locals to support research, community and other organizing to seek to block construction of planned Wal-Mart distribution center. The project is more than six months old. Project staffing has finally stabilized, and we are continuing to move well on the ground. The eventual outcome of the work is hard to predict, but we are fully engaged in a strategy to deny the company the ability upstream to expand operations.

WARN / Expansion Following the Merced and other California discussions and experience on the ground, we are finally moving forward to propose expansion of the WARN-ACORN program in other designated areas. We have had some problems with the primary outside funder for this strategy, the Panta Rhea Foundation, but are hoping to work these issues out going into 2007. Meetings are being organized in Denver, Michigan, and Ohio to present the program tailored to expansion by Wal-Mart in key markets in these areas where UFCW and other labor local interests with both appreciation of the threat and resource capacity to engage.12 Continue to see to expand WARN into the Bay Area, but are now worried about resources in California Healthy Communities, our partner in this project.

Teamsters / Distribution Centers Program 2007 Following meetings at the Site Fighters Conference with the IBT organizing director and staff for warehousing at their request we submitted a M proposal and plan for organizing our site fight WARN program targeted at blocking predicted sites and projects for distribution centers in 7 western states and 5 specific targets. We have also argued that we create Wal-Mart Workers Associations at the existing distribution centers in order to create membership pressure within the company. Our proposal is premised on what we believed will be higher community density for distribution workers in the smaller towns where they are located. The organizing department of the warehouse division has endorsed the proposal and is taking it to President Hoffa before the end of the year, so we are hopeful that with his approval of the entire program or some phases of the program, we will be able to implement in early 2007.

ACORN India FDI Watch Campaign As part of our overall Wal-Mart campaign our work in India has been important and assisted in delaying expansion into this 1+ billion person market an additional year. In some ways with our allies we have perhaps been too successful, because the denial of Wal-Marts direct entry with the firestorm we assisted in creating around the governments unilateral approval of single brand retail earlier in 2006 forced any approval of significant FDI (foreign direct investment) modifications to be shelved because of the evaporation of political support from the left parties and the continued opposition by the right all of whom have significantly assisted

12 UFCW locals spent approximately $7 M per year on site fights with Wal-Mart so our premise is based on the belief that any real success is more likely achievable with full local union commitment and investment, rather than believing that this is something that can be shouldered by the International.

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our campaign. The entry into retail of the Indian utility giant, Reliance, on the classic Wal-Mart business model of distribution hubs and large stores, finally forced the companys hands, and realizing that the modifications of FDI were now significantly blocked, the company announced a joint venture, which is regulated differently, with the Bharti group (cell phones and communications) to attempt to enter the market by the middle of 2007. We have staff and operations in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore and finally secured some separate funding from Change to Win to support this work directly. Building our credibility and profile in India as ACORN has been a huge benefit derived through the campaign. Meetings with party leaders, heads of other social movements, unions, and both community based and trader based organizations have all been at a level that would have been inconceivable had our entry into India been simply at the grassroots level. We have now begun the application process for ACORN India and see spring boarding the continued campaign work in coming years into building ACORN India on the ground with membership in both Mumbai and Delhi potentially as early as mid-2007.

Katrina Rebuilding and Recovery Campaign Fifteen months and counting from the storm, New Orleans and many of our operations are still, as we say here, all Katrina, all the time! The city seems perpetually on the verge of rebuilding and recovery, but as many of you will see as YE/YB 06 returns to the Sheraton, this is often more mirage than vision. All of this work is done with the full cooperation and support of the New Orleans and Louisiana ACORN staff and leadership and supplements the continuingly amazing membership and field organizing that they do in New Orleans, as well as the great work throughout diaspora, particularly in Houston and throughout Texas. There are major developments that are still huge in our contributions to this work, and importantly, though often uneasily, none of these achievements have been possible without the full integration of field, communications, national, housing, and other operations.

ACORN Home Gutting Program This has been a fascinating learning curve but has become arguably the program which defines for many supporters as well as much of power structure of New Orleans, the overarching contribution that ACORN has made in an unparalleled way to the recovery. We have now gutted perhaps as many as 2000 homes and have a waiting list of almost as many as 2000 homes still to go with a deadline for demolition often looming ominously before us, and often forestalled by quick actions and rebukes from ACORNs neighborhood leaders and members. The program is now being ably managed by Darryl Durham, the former head organizer of Atlanta ACORN,13 with fundraising support from Sara Albee, one of my former assistants. The effort is volunteer-based at this point, and there have been several thousand volunteers who have been parts of the gutting from all over the US, Canada, and elsewhere. The good will has generated has been widespread and enormous.

13 Darryl was also ACORN Organizer of the Year 2004 when he was in Houston.

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Figure: New York ACORN volunteer gutting homes with Canadian volunteers.

ACORN Services, Inc (ASI) ASI has been the vehicle for rebuilding and rehabbing houses (and the ACORN office!) ever since the arrival of Scott Hagy from Wyoming. The transition of ASI to more intensive rehab of member houses was facilitated by the joint partnership between ACORN and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) discussed earlier on two showcase houses, one on Alvar Street and the other on Congress Street, which have gained great attention and support. We are also converting this partnership in New Orleans into a similar effort with the United Auto Workers (UAW) and their Ford Division and Skilled Trades Department under VP Bob King which seems highly likely for the early part of 2007 as they absorb the downsizing of Ford. We are now trying to create an on-going role for ASI moving into 2007 in the rehabbing of houses where members are trying to come home, have or get obtain resources, but need sensitive and professional work in order to come home. The day to day operation of ASI is being increasingly handled by John Proulx, as Scott sorts out his future role in ASI and building operations.

ACORN Housing AHC has been a warrior in the rebuilding often taking on roles and responsibilities where they either had little experience, but knew there was an urgent need (planning!) or projects where they knew better but jumped into the fray anyway because it was necessary to do so, regardless of the operational and financial consequences (early home building partnerships). The results at the end of the day continue to speak to AHC having still been at the right place at the right time, and the benefits in terms of full appreciation of AHCs capacity and abilities writ large from the New Orleans experience will redound to their long term operational benefit. AHC has led the partnership with LSU, ASI, ACORN, and others which will

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complete the rebuilding of the first 2 new houses on Delery Street in the lower 9th ward since the storm and perhaps for decades. AHC led the partnership with Cornell,

Figure: ACORN Housing works in partnership to build the 3301 Delery St house for ACORN members.

Pratt, ACORN and others that won the right to be the district planner for both the upper and lower 9th ward (in a contested process against 65 of the top architectural and planning firms in the country where we were rated among the top and polled the highest!) only to see the contract rescinded as fears of ACORNs role forced the yuppies and elites to panic. AHC was able to secure 150 adjudicated properties in the lower 9th and New Orleans East which should be a key component in the comeback in 2007. None of this has been easy, but all of it has been important.

Media and Reputation

A year ago as some of my brothers and sisters were dogging blog-bullets, it would have perhaps been inconceivable to think that at this point our institutional reputation has been virtually guaranteed as one of the heroes of Katrina not only in New Orleans but throughout the country 14 based on all that we have collectively done in the aftermath of the storm. In the same way that Katrina has become a iconic about race and poverty in the United States, so has Katrina become part of the standard description of ACORN and its work from foe and friend. This has been perhaps the only area in which both our work and hegemony is simply categorical and unquestioned. We have answered and asked questions of community organizing that others will have to try and meet with a response for decades to come as the full institutional weight of the organization was found to be necessary in dealing with our

14 And the world, though it seems presumptuous to say so, but our invitation at the World Urban Forum in Vancouver and reports from our colleagues in both Indonesia in the wake of the tsunami and the Philippines all report to us having heard everywhere about the great work and unparalleled work that ACORN has done in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina.

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membership. Press work continues to be begrudging but nonetheless in no small part due to an excellent job by communications, remains voluminous. A piece in the current issue of Tikkun by John Atlas and Peter Drier that essentially argues that the untold and hidden story of the aftermath of Katrina is in the work of community organizations, especially ACORN, will find a powerful audience.

Sherwin-Williams and the Expanding Lead Camapign

As an outgrowth of the neighborhood lead-based campaigns in recent years, the profile of our lead work leaped forward targeting giant paint manufacturer Sherwin-Williams. Legal settlements in Rhode Island most notably gave us encouragement that some level of victory was possible in finally winning remediation for the impacts of lead paint. The initial gamut of the company and others was to attempt to force us to tread water with the trade association, but meetings won through early actions produced nothing. Amy Schur, directing this effort, was vigilant, and

Figure: Ohio ACORN floats giant balloons and banners were floated in front of CEO Chris Conner's

house. Ohio leaders directly confront a Sherman Williams representative.

having dogged them all year, has constructed a legal strategy with ALERT and the Cachet firm that has now brought the cities of San Diego and Los Angeles into the lawsuit. Actions in Buenos Aires and Lima are now potentially internationalizing the campaign and reports from these countries and Mexico indicate that Sherwin-Williams may still be selling lead-based paint, despite the known impacts and legal restrictions in Latin America. Aggressive movement in ACORNs Latin American operation along with the important legal fronts now opening could finally lead the company to the place where we need them to be.

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Building Community Institutions and Resources

Our efforts are concentrated on housing counseling, housing development, media, and schools. We made continued progress in most areas in 2006 perhaps with the exception in schools, which separate reports will detail. Special note must be made of the progress in housing development, which continued to accelerate throughout the year especially in New Orleans and the expansion from New Yorks experience.

Jeff Karlson directs the ACORN Tax and Benefit Access Centers nationally and was able to establish significantly more VITA sites in almost 70 ACORN cities in the 2006 season with support of resources from Marguerite Casey, H&R Block, and the Citigroup Partnership. Importantly, we handled more than 20,000 tax returns last year and delivered more than $20 M in refunds about half of which were on EITC. We have now become after AARP and the military, the 3rd largest non-profit operator of VITA sites in the country according to the IRS. We continue to push for sites in all of our offices in order to institutionalize this program and its support as part of our office sustainability model.

Though there continual problems and delays, we were finally able to add the benefits screening to a number of offices in 10 states, which was a critical 2006 breakthrough. Most of these additions came after the tax season when the flow is most significant, so the utilization rates on the benefit access has been minimal to date, so impossible to quantify in terms of entitlements received, though we will do better recording these take-up rates in 2007. We intend to add more states rapidly to the benefit side of the program, and see utilization rates seek to hit near 100% for all EITC eligible participants in the ATBAC and 20% for non-EITC eligibles for 2007. The enthusiasm and 3 years of additional support for building this infrastructure and capacity from Marguerite Casey is critical and has been previously discussed. We may be able in some markets (New Orleans for one) to add work keys which allows job screening and certification, which would add yet more power to our service access center programs, but we are still trying to merge these programs together more effectively and resource them separately.

Labor Collaboratives

Our program continues to be that we will work with any federation and any union committed to a major organizing program, and that will continue to be our message and program in 2007 and beyond. This area of our work has also become very large for us in a very short time. Not surprisingly because of our history, the most significant partner continues to be SEIU. An attack editorial in the Wall Street Journal drawing from 2005 Labor Management reports indicated that we had done more than $2.5 million worth of business with SEIU over that period, so besides being good work in the main, our collaboratives are producing important and critical capacity and infrastructure support for the organization. Ross Fitzgerald continues to do yeomans work on the implementation side of this work.

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ACORN-SEIU Partnership In early 2006 we renegotiated the terms of the master agreement to expand the purposes and application of the partnership. Flexibility in the work has now increased since amendments only need a work order appendix to move forward. Our work in the partnership has expanded from its original design in the public sector to also now include expanding work with the building services division and discussions of future work with the healthcare division that have not yet materialized.

Figure: Labor Staff Board Retreat: members from SEIU Local 100, Local 880, ACLOC, AWA, WARN, and WWA meet to collaborate and critique strategies and

campaigns.

ACORN-SEIU Childcare Partnership: Public Division15

Since 2004 we have had an active partnership around childcare workers organizing with SEIU. In 2006 the profile of this work altered and receded as strategic concerns gained longer shadows in SEIU planning and in other cases SEIU used local capacity to mount efforts with mixed results. We revived the partnership in Massachusetts on the short term and continue to find Maryland and California confused. There continues to be conversations about our moving forward with work in this area in both Arizona and Colorado in 2007, which we are hoping to confirm before the end of the year. We have tried to move childcare work that was suspended in Iowa and Ohio to other unions without success to date. Losses on ballot initiatives in Massachusetts

15 In somewhat of an irony our only other significant public division contract was first signing up Houston city workers SEIU, then re-signing up city workers for the HOPE arrangement between SEIU and AFSMCE, and potentially later expecting more work on the contract campaign and membership sign-up efforts. The irony being that we could have done with SEIU Local 100 years ago, but..

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and Rhode Island may impact on SEIU thinking about this work, but we continue to seek to have this constituency organized broadly throughout the country.

ACORN-SEIU Building Services Partnerships

Having moved the partnership over into a 2nd critical division with SEIU, we saw work develop on a number of different fronts, though in some cases not without some difficulty.

Houston Janitors: We played a critical role in organizing janitors both in the strike and contract campaign training and supervising a staff of a half-dozen that we developed, and now in all likelihood continuing in another phase in the membership signup in early 2007. Much of this work flowed importantly through the historic relationships with Local 1 in Chicago as well as the overall divisions support.

Simon Malls: The Midwest footprint and the national relationship fashioned a contract that developed an ACORN campaign around Simon Malls. The good news is that the work provided important support for organizational growth and SEIU last week won an agreement with Simon. The downside is that ACORN has had real difficulty in maintaining organizational integrity and consistent campaign management on our own business. We now are finally setting a national meeting with Simon Malls for Indianapolis in 1/07, but have lost much of our leverage with SEIU having settled early. This was not an A-CLOC contract for staffing or campaign support, but actually involved ACORN in a direct campaign, so raises more difficult issues at every level.

More Malls: SEIU has indicated an interest in future malls work both at the regional and national level, but at this point any future work is on hold until we resolve the campaign problems on the ACORN side. We are seeking to do so now.

ACORN-SEIU Health Care Division Partnerships

There have been several discussions in 2006 about campaign support and other A-CLOC work with the health care division but most have not matured to date.

General: Work to support organizing membership based nurses alliances was discussed at a preliminary level. If this work becomes a higher budget priority for 2007, it could lead to good work in Missouri, Colorado, and other states. Additional work to support hospital organizing campaigns was agreed in California with United Healthcare West (SEIU 250) in Los Angeles and San Diego, but had mixed reviews.

Local Unions: The big breakthrough has been the agreement with President Tyrone Freeman to move an 18-month partnership between ACORN and Local 434B in California to build home health care worker support and ACORN chapters in counties both where we have current chapters as well as in many areas where we do not. This work is valued at close to $1.5 M over the period and supports the

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expansion of 434Bs acquisition of homecare jurisdiction within SEIU and former AFSCME areas and its membership reach of over 200,000. The primary work is being done here by California ACORN supported by A-CLOC. Through A-CLOC we also continue to provide supplemental staffing and drive support to our own brothers and sisters at Local 880.

ACORN-AFT Childcare Partnership New York Our partnership with United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and AFT to organize over 50,000 home child care workers in NY continues to develop. AFSCME and AFT split jurisdiction in an agreement in 2006, but our partnership continued to maintain numbers that could yield between 25 and 30000 workers in the metro NYC area once the unit is incorporated. Legislative action achieved a near victory to yield a process for recognition that hopefully will either be secured before year end or reset in early 2007 through an executive order. Working with NY ACORN, the re-signing required continues to move forward. With the stars and moons aligned we could see this project brought in fully in 2007. We continue to be hopeful that we can construct a permanent partnership in the ongoing organizational maintenance and support for this unit as well.

ACORN-CWA Childcare Partnership New Jersey

Our organizing partnership with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in New Jersey has secured next level recognition here and bargaining. We have not been successful in leveraging this partnership into further work with CWA in NJ or elsewhere to date, though it is worth more work in 2007.

A-CLOC/SEIU Canada Training

In 2006 we continued our training agreement in Canada and transitioned successfully. Work moving along a number of lines that could involve both training and campaign work for 2007, but planning still not complete.

A-CLOC Apprenticeship Program

We continue to do well with the apprenticeship program utilized by SEIU and administered by Pa McCoy, ACORNs Training Director. In 06 we finally got the website up and are moving, though slowly, to create more of a face, form, and brand for the program. We have not figured out yet how to move this other unions which remains the largest priority for 07.

Working Families Association

This pilot among largely mexicano immigrants in hospitality, food service, and construction work has been supported by CCHD. Membership growth has resisted reaching scale and visibility has been marginal in Houston even in a period when the

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profile for immigrants and their issues has been rising. We hope to meet both of these challenges in 2007.

American Workers Association

We closed down this pilot in Dallas in 2006 until we could re-staff with project management with community organizing background and clearer recognition of project goals and objections, as well as resource support. The location for any future pilot in 2007 is currently not determined, but under review.

Change to Win Federation Partnerships

The biggest project under discussion has focused on a C2W full court press across various sectors in Miami. We have done some limited preliminary work with the SEIU building services piece there, but the project has had the usual difficult path to implementation. We understand in recent weeks that more of the C2W leadership has come on board around the effort so we are hopeful that by March 2007 we will see a major effort involving A-CLOC and Florida ACORN across the footprint of our southern Florida offices.

UFCW-Arizona Campaign Support Excellent local relationships with the head of the UFCW local in Phoenix and ACORN at the state and national level, led to a proposal by A-CLOC and AZ ACORN to provide staffing and support work to pressure organizing targets, especially Food City. The work has been uneven, but current plans have been prioritized to succeed in this important area.

Other Internal and External Developments and Initiatives

Archives Development The Wisconsin State Historical Society handles all of our archives in their Social Change Collection. Carolyn Carr handles all questions in this area.16

Technical Developments We now have more than 250000 names in the ANDB. Some of the redundancy for emergency preparations has still not been completed and awaits work on the overall new building construction in New Orleans. We have a full-tech team under Mark Madere. Thank goodness when even the front page of the New York Times notes the

16 This note is in my reports annually because Im certain that many do not realize that our records are our history and need to be forwarded to Madison regularly from all of our offices with Carolyns help.

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incredible multiplying capacity of spam these days! We are examining ways to move faster to support all of our operations.

Training This is a priority area for increased development and capacity for 2007.

Figure: Organizers learn from Bertha Lewis in Colby Ranch, California.

Communication There is simply no comparison to the seamless ability we mastered in handling 06 communications under the harshest glare compared to the mayhem of message from the 04 election. The priority here continues to be to stabilizing the team, move on increasing priorities, participate in resource development, integrate radio more effectively, and continue to hone overall departmental skills and capacity. The addition of more effective ability in web campaigning is a key priority for 07 as well.

Organizers Forum

The Organizers Forum implemented two dialogues for senior community and labor organizers in 2006: one in Minneapolis on the theme of communications and technology and another in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey 17 around the issues of mass organization and globalization. The Board met again in New Orleans after the Katrina hiatus in Chicago to plan the program for 2007. The program will include a dialogue in Montana first among elite organizer training programs on an invitation only and potentially for additional days with a larger group on best practices on training. The International dialogue for 2007 will likely be in Russia. Results of the dialogues are summarized and published in Social Policy as well as on the web at www.organziersforum.org.

17 ACORNs participants were Judy Duncan (Toronto) and Ali Kronley (Philadelphia).

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Figure: Delegations from the Organizers Forum meet with organizers in a Roma village in Istanbul.

Relationships with Other Organizing Networks

There is some progress to report here, but nothing overwhelming. Work around immigration with Gamaliel, particularly in San Diego with JOB, has meant a lot to them, and having just returned from another National Leadership Assembly, they continue to value the relationship. PICO has been more symbolic than substantive, and having carried weight in some areas for them in New Orleans, we felt abandoned when we found that they had not covered our back on the planning contract issue. Nonetheless, nationally they did respond quickly and appropriately to the problem. We have (with nudging from Herb Sandler) gotten Scott Reed of PICO to finally join the board for 07 for the Organizers Forum. Jobs with Justice continued to be our partner on some Wal-Mart work and were both accountable and supportive. We are still trying to determine the future here and what makes sense for both of us. We are also trying to see if there is work we can do together in India and other parts of Asia. The IAF had someone join the Turkey trip for the Organizers Forum, and certainly met with our New Orleans team, particularly Steve Bradberry, frequently. We are getting better at all of this, but the rewards in some cases must be found in the future.

Enlace

We are pushing them to be more helpful as we expand in Mexico, so we will see how this values.

Building International Membership Bridges and Strategies

ACORN Dominican Council: Nominal, but we will see as we begin recruiting in the DR in 07.

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World Social Forum: We passed on the WSF in Caracas in 06. We are part of the play in 07 combining a number of agendas.

Habitat International Coalition: We joined this international lower income based housing coalition at the October board meeting. We were impressed with some of their reach in Vancouver and in Santiago and have agreed to participate in their program in Nairobi.

World Urban Forum Vancouver: This was basically a good experience for Katrina work and ACORN Canada exposure and introduced us to helpful allies for our international work.

SEIU and C2W: We are seeking to work out arrangements between both of our international operations that are mutually beneficial.

Training: We participated in advocacy training for NGOs in Tajikistan (Matthew Henderson, NM) and Russia (Neil Sealy, AR), and are trying to figure out a way to develop our own capacity and resources here on an international basis through partnerships or our own institutions.

Leadership Maude Hurd, as President, and her team continue to be somewhat embattled but opposition has become more specific and marginalized on many issues. It is easiest to understand the national board though these days as having two parties: the ruling party and the opposition party. Some progress was made in some ways in the October meeting in moving the opposition party to being more of a loyal opposition, and that is a hopeful sign, if it continues to trend. On the level of staff to board communications we continue to make progress, but there are bridges we can not cross. Less happily, the President with full board backing had to impose Article XIII administratorship procedures in St. Louis for the first utilization of this bylaw in decades18 while also appointing Bertha Lewis from New York as the trustee. This situation is still seeking stability, but we are weathering the storm. The leadership has established a committee to consider succession issues in the staff and will begin this process in January and April.

Branding This continues to be an obsessional theme for communications and myself, and I like to delude myself that we are making progress, especially in the winter when the black polartecs come out and now the new red sweatshirts and when I see the New Orleans based organizing staff in constant uniform, but in my travels I can tell that we are still not winning enough of these battles. This has to be a priority for field as well as communications in 2007.

Social Policy Magazine Some highs and some lows in 2006. We caught up, we continue to grow on the web version and are now over 2500 readers per month, we are breaking even financially, and we are finding a place for the magazine. The issues were uneven in some ways perhaps because of the catch-up which meant any copy available was likely to find its way into the magazine. Luckily we have achieved some stability here, so we confident of finding our footing ever firmly and continuing to advance in the future.

18 Reno was the last instance in the late 70s.

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Mass Membership Experiments Last year this was in my report as a marker of progress and now this is an organizational program that says something quite fine about 2006 and the field programs progress on this front!

Disasters One lesson of Katrina is that we need to be ready for the next time and not just in New Orleans. We are developing (with Mitch on point) a proposal and strategy for offices, particularly in Florida, California, and along the Gulf Coast, for disaster prevention and preparedness, and seeing whether we can first get a planning grant and then build some real capacity in this area to support these offices. We are making progress on the paper, and I am hoping to intrigue Marguerite Casey on the overlap of footprint for the planning, and we believe that this could be important in developing both resources, infrastructure and capacity for the future.

Figure: Louisiana Head Organizer Steve Bradberry leading a Planning Commission for the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Threats and Challenges The Fredrick Douglass quote that essentially power concedes nothing without struggle is a byword for this current passage of the organization as we amass a larger and more powerful role in public affairs in the United States. ACORN is now seen as a central and indispensable -- component of the progressive coalition. The conclusion of the Democracy Alliance process of creating infrastructure was summed up for me recently by SEIUs Andy Stern, as having concluded that there simply were only a few institutions that were capable of sustainable activity, and ACORN was on that short list. The same conclusion has been made by the right as we saw in the coordinated and direct pre-election attacks on ACORN on websites, blogs, and at our own

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convention as well as on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, the FEC complaints filed by the Republican party in Pennsylvania, Florida, and Missouri, and the partisan accusations of voter fraud by conservative, party line hunkering ideologues in Kansas City and St. Louis. The fine point of this attack were the requests for voluminous records by then Chairman and Senator Charles Grassley of the Senate Finance Committee from ACORN that are in fact still on-going. If it were not so tedious and expensive organizationally and angering and insulting personally, it would certainly be a damned fine honor!

Being of the school that when they want you, they will get you does not mean that we should not learn from this as we go forward and tighten up our internal procedures, inspect the borders and retaining walls between various organizations, and in some cases change what we are doing and the personnel in such a way to limit exposure and clarify operations, both for offense and defense. This review is still continuing in the immediate aftermath and mop-up from the exhilaration of the election, but internally this was the subject of leadership and management