Grassroots Growth

by Alex Douglas

Cover for the book

Starfish and Spiders

I recently finished reading a thought provoking book on business by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom called, "The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations." It explores the conflicts between centralized organizations and leaderless movements. The metaphors of the spider and the starfish refer to organizational structures of business and communities. The spider is a centralized organization with a head that controls the rest of the body structure. In general this is the structure of businesses, governments, churches and a vast variety of other organizations. Making money and a profit are usually the motivation behind spider organizations. The starfish is a metaphor for loosely structured organizations that have no head. As living creatures if you cut the head off a spider it will die. If you cut off its leg it will be maimed, yet will continue to live. The starfish, on the other hand, is a neural creature with no brain. If you cut off the leg of the starfish it will grow a new leg and the leg that was cut off will regenerate into another starfish. Money is not the primary concern of starfish groups, and frequently operate without much money, or from personal out of pocket expense.

It doesn't seem like an organization can exist with out some kind of top down control, but the authors give many examples of these "starfish" organizations. Many of them are internet based groups. Wikipedia is one such organization. It started out as a free encyclopedia with "experts" lined up to write articles just as the printed encyclopedias are created. Larry Sanger called it "Nupedia" originally, but the idea of using a new program called a "wiki" where users could contribute instead was adopted. One would think that it would be grossly inaccurate, but the community of contributers cross check each other and they have an acuracy of only 4 errors per article whereas the Encyclopedia Britannica has about 3 errors per article. The open source software programs such as Open Office and Mozilla Firefox are a couple more internet examples.

But this leaderless structure is not confined to the internet. Alcoholics Anonymous is an organization with no central head. Chapters are free to conduct their accountability meetings as they see fit while using the 12 step program. This is also true for Goodwill Industries which has no central leadership, according to the authors. This concept of leaderless organizations strikes me very much to be a discription of grassroots movements as well.

The authors share a historical account where a spiderlike group encountered a starfish like group. When Cortez came to Mexico, he, representing Spain as one spider, found Montezuma, the head of another spider called the Aztecs, he murdered Montezuma and was able to quickly conquer their society. Pizarro did the same with the Incas. However, when the Spanish conquistadors pushed north into what is now the United States, they came across the Apache Indians. They could not conquer them for 200 years. The Apache as a people had no leader. Their society was like the starfish. The Apache had men, of whom Geronimo was one, called Nant'an who led by example, but commanded no one. Because they acted on their own, and if succussful, people followed him, but no one had to. When Geronimo died, other Nant'an would rise up. The Apache were also nomadic so there was no single capitol like Tenochtitlan of Montezuma to assault. The Apache were finally defeated when the Spanish got the idea to freely give to the various Nant'an cattle for their own. Once they were saddled with extensive property, they naturally gravitated to central control of the people, which enabled the people to be conquered.

Grassroots Acrobatics

Some of you reading this may be wondering by now, "What has this to do with acrobatics?" It occurred to me that the starfish concept is an excellent illustration of grassroots movements. There are many who love acrobatics, who are the grassroots. The USAG and all clubs are spiders in acrobatics. All people involved in acrobatics are the starfish, or the grassroots of acrobatics. The USAG and the clubs need a grassroots growth of acrobatics for the industry to prosper. Likewise, the grassroots needs the USAG and the clubs for certain benefits of structure that competition and training provide. In ecology this is known as a symbiotic relationship, wherein both partners benefit. If the USAG and clubs, as spiders, do not help the grassroots growth of acrobatics, then the symbiotic relationships changes into a parasitic relationship which will feed off the grassroots and eventually kill it.

So, it is worthwhile understanding how the grassroots grows of which the authors provide five points.

  1. Circles. Grassroots development occurs in a multitude of circles or spheres of influences. These circles of people are usually unrelated to one another. They point out that Al Qaeda operates in this capacity, which is why the War on Terror is so difficult. In Texas the circles began in Dallas, grew in Houston then in San Antonio. In Louisiana the circle began in New Orleans went to Baton Rouge. In Missouri the circle began in St. Louis then expanded to Kansas City. Each region has a handful of areas where the circles of acrobatic enthusiasts dwell.
  2. Catalysts are people that take initiative on their own to begin a project. With the Apache, Geronimo was a catalyst. In Texas acro, Alex Douglas began Trevino's Acro Team that was the Catalyst that began the grass roots. In Louisiana it was Igor Ashkinazi with New Orleans Acrobatic Team. In Missouri it began with Marilyn Baumann with Mid America Acro and Tumbling Team. Perhaps the other regions can tell who were the catalysts in their regions.
  3. Ideology is the reason for the movement. In P2P it is the belief that computer files should be free. I would not call it an ideology, but unethical cheapness. But it is for this reason that it continues. In acro it is the passion and love of the activity. For some that passion is compounded by the desire of being the best, for others it is the sheer joy and beauty of the activity. But the grassroots growth is driven by this love for acro.
  4. The Preexisting Network is a like group that jumps on board. One of the starfish in history that the authors describe is the abolition of slavery in England. The movement found a sympathetic network of people through the Quakers. In acro the preexisting networks were two-fold. One was the entertainment and health groups. The Muscle beach crowd in California had been around for decades. The founders of American Acro competition (the USSAF, later USSA, and finally USAG Acro) was the hand balancer and Gymnast magazine publisher, Glenn Sundby, along with trampoline inventor and gymnastics equipment manufacturer, George Nissan. The second was the established gymnastics organizations of IFSA for acro, and the FIG for gymnastics internationally and the USGF/USA Gymnastics nationally.
  5. The Champion is someone who follows the example of the Catalyst and actively promotes the cause. In Texas the champion of the sport is our current state director, Lorna Spellman who has brought in a number of European coaches and found jobs for them. In Missouri it was Linda Porter who actively engaged the network of dance studios that she was already involved in to start acro programs.

Putting It to Work

Regrettably the book tells more stories of the conflict between organizations fighting to keep their profits from the grassroots. An example is the music industry fighting the file sharing programs on the internet. The first P2P (peer to peer) program was Napster made by Shawn Fanning. He was sued and went bankrupt in the year 2000. Then comes along Niklas Nennistrom, a Swede who created Kazaa to replace Napster and tried hiding, but had to sell the program to avoid the lawsuit. Then an anonymous programmer redesigned the Kazaa program, called Kazaa lite, and distributed it freely for no profit. Now the music industry has no one to sue, unless they can find individuals copying music. P2P became completely leaderless and unfightable by the music industry.

In acrobatics, however, the grassroots growth is good for the organized groups, and should be encouraged, not discouraged. The more people that want to participate in acrobatics for fun, the more business that brings clubs and the national governing bodies. So this 5 point outline of grass roots growth should be encouraged by those in the "spider" industries.

Point 1 on "Circles" and point 4 on "Pre-existing Networks" are coinciding elements. We know where the acro circles are already in our nation. Those existing circles are the starting point. The USAG had suggested a "Mentoring" program that, from my point of view, was completely impractical. Circles of influence expand locally, then outward from that local expansion. The plan should be for those already involved to reach out to other pre-existing networks. In Missouri, club expansion developed because of reaching out to dance studios. Every region should look into reaching the dance studios. Another pre-existing network is the group gymnastics community. Like the dance studios, acrobatics is a natural addition to their program. Theater companies exist in all areas to some degree. This could be a new network to reach out to in giving them training. Likewise, ice skaters use adagio lifts that would benefit from acro knowledge. The point is that the eye should not always be on people who will go directly into acrobatic competition, but to increase the general awareness of acrobatics.

The real legwork, however is found in points 2 and 5 the Catalysts and the Champions. If the USAG would use it's national influence, perhaps in working with the banks, to help energetic club owners start acrobatic programs to build new circles of influence, that would be a practical aid to growth. Perhaps an endorsement program of some kind. Or at least some recognition of those who have shown a passion and love for acrobatics who are potential catalysts and champions for the activity.

This article is not intended to be an answer to all the needs of growing our industry, but it is food for thought. It may also help the grassroots community understand more of how it has grown so far, and to recognize those who have selflessly contributed to its growth.