If you don t win anything folks become discouraged, and consider it all to have been a waste of time. In the future they won t work as hard for the organization, give as much money, or be there for the next fight. Because accountability sessions need to end with a win, there must be at least one demand that you are quite sure you will get. You can even try to hide it among more ambitious proposals, but it has to be there. What this means, however, is that just as there is pressure on the target to settle with you, there is also some need for you to settle with her.
Demands fall into two broad categories, substantive and procedural .
Substantive means actually getting something of substance like five more patrol cars. Procedural involves such things as getting a bill out of committee, a public hearing, or a study. This distinction is a useful basis for analyzing your demands. Main demands are usually substantive, and fallback demands, which are made after a main demand is refused, are often procedural. Sometimes the best fallback is to simply to ask for less.