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A handful of Marshalltown residents learned some of the optimal steps in organizing against data centers.
Neighbors vs Data Centers, a new statewide movement, hosted an informational meeting focused on how to fight the controversial facilities at the Marshalltown Public Library on Saturday. Co-chair Aaron Lynch of Ames is already a familiar face amongst the data center resistance in Marshalltown. The group fought against the LightEdge data center in Ames, a project which was stalled after the city council implemented a nine-month delay in July.
Lynch said the first thing they did was create a Facebook page dedicated to the fight as many people tend to get information about upcoming events from social media platforms. They then coordinated with other community-centered pages which were not focused on data centers to share their content. People created reels to post, and they also livestreamed events.
"Our big public protest had almost 2,000 people watching live in TikTok Live thanks to one of our members who was a local social media influencer," he said. "Before we got to that point of having people making reels, one of the key things that helped us coordinate the fight was having one thing everyone was linking back to. For us, that was a petition."
The petition asked for email addresses from people who signed. That made it easier to reach out to interested people on how to get involved and how to volunteer, and it made it easier to maintain communication which is a huge piece of the puzzle..
Lynch and co-chair Morgan said another early action was "craftivism," making buttons and stickers to get the word out.
"One thing we learned in the craftivism thing is that it's important to be considerate of the time it takes to make these things," Morgan said.
She suggested that people start designing and creating similar items at least one week prior to the roll-out. They were up all night designing and making before events and meetings.
"It's also a really great way to have a bonding experience among other organizers,” Morgan said. "It helps cement people being engaged, because it is time to spend together, talk about what's bringing you here and it will keep people coming back."
Lynch said it is also a way to employ people's talents and interests. For example, people who stay up to date on city ordinance and meeting minutiae will be able to notify people of optimal times to gather, and what officials will discuss. Another example he gave was people talented in finding key pieces of information.
"Having a way for different folks to coordinate and share information, for each to bring their different skills and perspectives to the table is really important," he said. " . . . Then you've got to get people back out there in the streets. That looks like a lot of tabling and canvassing."
Morgan said canvassing is one of the hardest activities as participants go door-to-door and attempt to have conversations with residents.
"You need to be strategic by choosing areas of town you canvas, try to be strategic about where you will get the most support," she advised. "Each canvassing effort, the most we had in a turnout was five or six people."
Lynch suggested that larger numbers can be obtained by utilizing community events where many residents have gathered.
Morgan said when volunteer numbers are limited, the best way to talk to people is to ask businesses to hang up materials in windows or place them on tables or counters. Lynch said providing translations of materials in other languages spoken in town is "worth it's weight in gold," which is another valuable talent to have on board.
"To make sure you're reaching everybody," he said. "You're not just preaching to people who only speak English. You're connecting with people in neighborhoods that may be affected. That may be a huge difference and give you a groundswell of support."
Lynch said data center resistance is a non-partisan issue, attracting the attention of members of both major political parties.
"Eighty percent of voters all across the political spectrum oppose data centers being built in their communities," he said. "You can find surprising, unlikely allies in a lot of places. . . . Bringing together people from lots of different perspectives and reasons why they oppose data centers was really important to us."
After getting enough interest, Lynch said they engaged the "inside outside" strategy with pople from established organizations who began lobbying and talking with policy makers. They also had the grassroots efforts in which people would gather in streets and organize public events.
"Whenever you do bigger interaction, how do you absorb that energy and make your next action even bigger?" he asked. "The way that worked was getting everyone signing the petition, getting them to volunteer and then getting them to show up to city council meetings in person. Every single city council meeting in Ames this summer, we had 100-plus people showing up. On the flip side, who is prepared to go to the media, to talk to reporters, to be interviewed, to make public comments on camera. Having folks trained to do that and ready to respond to some of the likely questions and likely counter-arguments."
Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.