In order to establish a culture capable of achieving our mission, we must live and operate by the following organizational values:

Patriotism
If we don’t love our country and the principles it was founded upon, the problem of an illegal alien invasion is moot. Patriotism must be the primary motivation for the actions we take. It is the one characteristic that all of our fellow patriots, by definition, share with one another. There will always be differences in race, national origin, religion, geography, political party, or gender, but our love of country will keep us united.

Integrity
For us to maintain the respect, support, credibility, and trust of our fellow citizens, we must adhere to a very strict moral code. The foundation for this code is integrity in everything we do. It means we must choose the harder right over easier wrong. We must be truthful in all of our communications. This does not mean that we must be perfect, but we should strive for perfection. If we make a mistake, we must take responsibility for it, and make every reasonable effort to correct it.

If our bedrock principle is that every resident of the United States adhere to the rule of law, then we must adhere to every law ourselves. For, if we get to choose which laws we obey, then we have no right to suggest or demand that others cannot do the same. If we choose to exceed the speed limit or “jay-walk” because they are minor crimes, does a company, then, get to decide that hiring illegal aliens is “minor?” Or does the Department of Homeland Security get to decide that merely being present illegally in the United States is a “minor” offense not worth enforcing?

We must lead by example in this area. We must be model citizens ourselves in order to expect others to be the same. To do otherwise would be to jeopardize our credibility.

Commitment
We must be committed to our cause. Because we are not funded at anywhere near the same level as OBL groups are, such as La Raza, Mecha, LULAC, the Ford Foundation, and others like them, we must rely on the commitment of our volunteers. On an individual level, committing to an organization, project, campaign, position, or task for our fight is a serious undertaking. The future state of our nation, which we will leave to our children and grandchildren, depends on our seriousness of purpose. By committing oneself, we are telling others, “you can depend on me,” so let our “yes” be yes and our “no” be no. By doing so, we can take stock of our volunteer assets and effectively use them in taking back our country.

As an organization, we must stay the course. Many in this nation are depending on us to succeed where our government (federal, state, and local) has failed us. There are many organizations out there fighting with us. However, none of them are national in scope with the leadership necessary to unite other organizations in a coalition. We must redouble our efforts to continue this model, and inspire others with our commitment.

Servant-Leadership by Example
The FIRE Coalition has strived to be a leader in all aspects of our fight: thought-leadership, innovation, commitment, integrity, team building and more. To a large degree, we have been successful as validated by our peers. We must be willing to continue to “lead from the front.” If we are asking other organizations to participate in a project or activity, we must be the first to participate by showing them that we are not asking them to do something we are not willing to do ourselves.

Just as important is the servant aspect of our leadership model. We have been strong proponents of developing leadership at the lowest level possible (geographically and organizationally). If we have a partner organization that has an idea of a national or local project, we need to be the first to say “how can we help” and let that organization lead if desired. This servant-leadership model engenders respect amongst our coalition and builds a trust level so that our peers are confident that our relationship is a two-way street. In our experience, coalition partners that are listened to and appreciated for their contributions have proved to be very motivated and are tremendous allies.

Altruism: Mission over Ego
Along with Patriotism, one value we must always keep in the forefront of our thoughts is our altruistic purpose. We should not be in this to puff up our individual or organizational egos, but to ensure that our nation does not cease to exist as we know it. Our Partner Liaison said it best, “there should be no ego, until they go” – “they” meaning the illegal alien invaders. Once the mission is accomplished there will be plenty of time for all participants to tell war stories about how they single-handedly stopped the illegal alien invasion. In the meantime, we should lead, follow, or get out of the way. We’ve got a mission to accomplish and there is no time for petty squabbles, battles over the ownership of ideas, dragging other leaders through the mud in front of the media, etc.

On the other side of the coin, we must recognize that it is human nature to want to be recognized for significant contributions to a cause, and for a job well done. We should never deny that to anyone should accolades be warranted. If someone else is better suited for a leadership position, a particular project or group, or be better suited to speak or give interviews, we should always defer to the best candidate for the job. There is plenty of work to go around. In fact, FIRE Coalition would never have been so successful, if we hadn’t solicited and empowered great leaders in many areas of our work. This will never be a one-man war.

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Jason Mrochek
Co-founder & Executive Director
FIRE Coalition
http://www.FIRECoalition.com
http://www.firecoalition.com/blog/author/mrochek.aspx