A series of announcements out of California today indicate that Equality California is gearing up for the next battle in the fight for marriage equality. And based on these announcements, it seems they’ve learned a lesson the hard way.

The lesson?

That grassroots activism and comprehensive outreach to communities of color and faith are necessary strategies in this fight as we move forward.

The first piece of news to break was that Marc Soloman, the current director of MassEquality will be coming on to lead the campaign to restore and preserve the right to marry for all Californians. Given that Soloman is the only person to have run one of these campaigns before and come out on top, I’m all for his taking this position of leadership. While the Massachussetts fight was very different from last year’s struggle over Prop 8 or what presumably will be a whole other battle in 2010, Solomon’s experience managing the message of a campaign like this one is unparallelled.

The other hiring decision that indicates EQCA has recommitted itself to doing this campaign, and doing it right, is bringing on Andrea Shorter as the coalition coordinator. Shorter’s background is in coalition work– she is the founder of And Marriage for All, an advocacy organization that works to engage communities of color in the movement for equality– and her hiring reveals the increased emphasis EQCA is putting on outreaching to communities they might have failed to reach last time around.

In addition, the Human Rights Campaign announced today that it would be sponsoring additional iterations of Camp Courage, the weekend-long activist training camps that the Courage Campaign has been running since the election. The HRC announcement, in particular, demonstrates a shift in conventional wisdom and an investment in a larger grassroots movement for equality.

While none of this guarantees a victory the next go-around, I think it at least indicates that EQCA has listened to its critics, and made necessary adjustments. So for that, kudos.