UNION ENDORSEMENTS - ONLINE VOTING & SKIN IN THE GAME

Union endorsement processes should be online voting. They should be open to all members who are contributing financially and who will commit at least 2 hours of work to each candidate or issue they vote to endorse.

Given that the processes of primary and general elections have hard legal deadlines for filing as candidates and for the dates of the elections, there is no legitimate reason that endorsement processes aren't detailed on the web at least 3 months before legal filing deadlines.

Given this tool called the internet, why are union processes stuck in the 30's and 50's? In the 30's, and before, millions of us lived close to where we worked. IF leaders wanted membership at meetings, they could hold the meetings miles from the work site. For a few decades after WWII, even though sub-urbanization was exploding, there were millions of family wage jobs. Family wage jobs mean it is easier to participate in non work activities, and, those days are gone. We can change, or, we can continue to shrink.

+++++

MEETINGS, AGENDAS, ABBREVIATED ROBERT'S RULES - ONLINE AND OPEN
We working stiffs need a different structure to meetings, agendas, proposals (new business items) and Robert's Rules. Structures and processes from legislative bodies who are paid and who work full time at legislating don't work for people who participate on a part time basis.

http://organizingteacherswa.blogspot.com/2014/06/meetings-agendas-abbreviated-roberts.html

+++++

UNIONS MUST DO ORGANIZING ONLINE
Campaign volunteers need to be able to self-organize on the web because it is too hard to participate. It is too hard to participate because campaign volunteers spend too much time searching for the details to the questions of WHAT, WHERE, WHO, WHEN, HOW when volunteers want to help a campaign.  Volunteers should just be able to go to 1 or 2 connected websites to get calendar information and to get the following details for whatever they're going to do:

http://organizingteacherswa.blogspot.com/2013/08/unions-must-do-organizing-online.html

+++++

ORGANIZING WORKING EDUCATOR COMMUNITIES
1. BY LOCATION, 2. BY ACTIVITY, 3. BY CANDIDATE / ISSUE

IF we the little working people are going to have sustainable influence on the decisions juggling the trade offs which are made in our communities, we need to organize ourselves differently.

http://organizingteacherswa.blogspot.com/2014/06/organizing-working-educator-communities.html

+++++

4-3-2 IS NEEDED FROM YOU.
IF our unions are going to matter to the decision makers, the decision makers are going to have to be scared of us. When they're scared of us, they'll work with us. When they work us, they'll stop pulling the kind of garbage they've pulled on Washington State educators over the last 5+ years: denial of citizen approved cost of living raises, denial of citizen approved smaller classes sizes, a multi billion dollar Boeing give away in the fall of 2013 in an emergency 3 day session.

They'll be scared of us when 4 times a year, during 1 of the 3 important political seasons of the year, each of us does something political for at least 2 hours.

http://organizingteacherswa.blogspot.com/2014/08/4-3-2-is-needed-from-you.html

4-3-2 IS NEEDED FROM YOU.

IF our unions are going to matter to the decision makers, the decision makers are going to have to be scared of us. When they're scared of us, they'll work with us. When they work us, they'll stop pulling the kind of garbage they've pulled on Washington State educators over the last 5+ years: denial of citizen approved cost of living raises, denial of citizen approved smaller classes sizes, a multi billion dollar Boeing give away in the fall of 2013 in an emergency 3 day session.

They'll be scared of us when 4 times a year, during 1 of the 3 important political seasons of the year, each of us does something political for at least 2 hours.

The something political can be: leaflet for an issue or candidate, write letters to the editor or comment on media stories or blog stories, doorbell, literature drop, phonebank ...

The 3 important political seasons are: 1. while the legislature is in session. 2. the primary and general election season, 3. the rest of the year.

As of Labor Day 2014, in the Washington Education Association (WEA) there are appx. 83,000 members. In the Seattle Education Association there are appx. 5000 members.  5000 members times 2 hours times 4 times a year = 40,000 hours of something political. 83,000 times 2 hours times 4 times a year = 332,000 hours of people doorbelling, rah rah sign waving, phone banking, writing letters to editors and legislators and comments to news and blog stories, ... It equals legislators listening to and acting on our concerns because they're terrified that too many of those hours and too much of the political something will be used against them.

+++++
UNIONS MUST DO ORGANIZING ONLINE
Campaign volunteers need to be able to self-organize on the web because it is too hard to participate. It is too hard to participate because campaign volunteers spend too much time searching for the details to the questions of WHAT, WHERE, WHO, WHEN, HOW when volunteers want to help a campaign.  Volunteers should just be able to go to 1 or 2 connected websites to get calendar information and to get the following details for whatever they're going to do:

http://organizingteacherswa.blogspot.com/2013/08/unions-must-do-organizing-online.html

+++++
ORGANIZING WORKING EDUCATOR COMMUNITIES
1. BY LOCATION, 2. BY ACTIVITY, 3. BY CANDIDATE / ISSUE

IF we the little working people are going to have sustainable influence on the decisions juggling the trade offs which are made in our communities, we need to organize ourselves differently.

http://organizingteacherswa.blogspot.com/2014/06/organizing-working-educator-communities.html

+++++
MEETINGS, AGENDAS, ABBREVIATED ROBERT'S RULES - ONLINE AND OPEN
We working stiffs need a different structure to meetings, agendas, proposals (new business items) and Robert's Rules. Structures and processes from legislative bodies who are paid and who work full time at legislating don't work for people who participate on a part time basis.

http://organizingteacherswa.blogspot.com/2014/06/meetings-agendas-abbreviated-roberts.html

+++++
UNION ENDORSEMENTS - ONLINE VOTING & SKIN IN THE GAME
Union endorsement processes should be online voting. They should be open to all members who are contributing financially and who will commit at least 2 hours of work to each candidate or issue they vote to endorse.

http://organizingteacherswa.blogspot.com/2014/09/union-endorsements-online-voting-skin.html

Educator Rah-Rah For Jess Spear, Sat. 2 Aug, Sun. 3 Aug, Mon. 4 Aug

WHAT:
Educator Rah-Rah For Jess Spear, Candidate WA. House, Position 2, 43rd Legislative District

http://www.votespear.org/

WHEN:
Sat. 2 Aug. - 11:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.
Sun. 3 Aug. - 4:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M.
Mon. 4 Aug. - 4:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M.

WHERE:
South end of University Bridge - if there are enough of us, let's cover both sides of the bridge into the U-District?

http://43rddemocrats.org/about-us/district-map

Note - there are a lot of major intersections in the 43rd LD - If you and others have different preferences, go for it! Let everyone know in the comments!

HOW: 
Make a sign*, hang out on the street corner, wave at fellow citizens & chat with fellow educator rah-rah peeps!

*Mine will be ... "High School Math Teacher For Jess Spear" - a friend was thinking "Elementary Counselor For Jess Spear". I'm a math teacher, not a marketing, communications, art, copy writer, graphic design... guru. Express yourself!

WHO:
Washington Educators & Citizens!!
Contact rm  sea mur&&&phy at gma  il.com  -- minus the spaces and the 3 &.
or, leave a comment in this diary.

WHY:
1. Ms. Spear's opponent Frank Chopp is Speaker of the House, has been in the legislature for several decades, and just isn't able to do more than lose against the 1% onslaughts orchestrated from the likes of Tim Eyman, Rodney Tom, and Whoever Is The 1% Master Manipulator Du Jour.
If working people are going to continue supporting people who can't beat the Rodney Toms, the Rodney Toms are going to continue beating us working people.

2. Consider what Barbara Madeloni, the new President of the Massachusetts Teacher's Association (MTA), said about the out going MTA President, Paul Toner. Mr. Toner is a lot like Frank Chopp and many in Washington State Democratic leadership - always telling us working stiffs we'd better accept some garbage 'compromise' or things will be worse.

Standing Up to Superman: An Interview with Barbara Madeloni
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/07/standing-up-to-superman-an-interview-with-barbara-madeloni/

"At that hearing, the current president of the MTA, Paul Toner, testified that in spite of what had been said, that the committee must move forward with the bill. His message to the membership was, once again, “If we don’t agree to this bad thing, a worse thing will happen.”

That positions members in a narrative about themselves that says that we are powerless, subject to forces that we can’t control. It’s painful for me to think that this is a narrative that people accept. It makes me sad to hear people talk about themselves that way. It’s such a small vision of life.

What our campaign offered was a broader, powerful vision of ourselves in community. We didn’t offer a simple militancy, but a deeper power to create our world, which is something that we as educators should feel when we head out into the day."

MEETINGS, AGENDAS, ABBREVIATED ROBERT'S RULES - ONLINE AND OPEN

We working stiffs need a different structure to meetings, agendas, proposals (new business items) and Robert's Rules. Structures and processes from legislative bodies who are paid and who work full time at legislating don't work for people who participate on a part time basis.

I.A.) Proposals need to be posted to the internet 1 week before the monthly meeting, and they'll be debated ONLY for 10 mins., at the end of of the meeting in order of submission by timestamp. 
B.) These newly posted proposals can NOT be voted on until the next meeting. 
C.) After all newly posted proposals have had their 10 mins. the floor is ... open?
 
II.) Proposals which were debated at the last monthly meeting will be voted on at the start of business at the next meeting. 3 for, 3 against, 2 mins. each. NO amendments blah blah blah. Vote yes, no, or abstain. 

III.) We need an abbreviated Robert's Rules ... like 2 index cards.

+++++MY ACERBIC COMMENTARY+++++

I've participated as a fly on the wall lowly grunt for decades in scores of campaigns. 

In the last few years I've figured out that the current methods of meeting & proposing are kind of stuck in the 30's, when lots of us didn't live too far from work and meeting before or after work wasn't that hard. When our methods aren't stuck in the 1930's, our processes are stuck in the 1950's, when millions of Americans had family wage jobs and the 40 hour work week meant something. 

Meetings for us busy peee-ons take too much time, have too many last minute shoved-down-our-throats proposals, and are too frequently sidelined by Robert's Rules of Shenanigans. Robert's Rules are for legislatures, where people are paid to piddle around and ... do cruddy things to each other with the rules.

In the last 2 years, I've suffered through meetings of the Seattle Education Association, Washington Education Association, the 46th Legislative District Democrats, the 36th L.D., some Socialist Alternative thing a few weeks ago over $15 Now. I experience the same stuff, over and over and over: Last minute agendas + last minute proposals + last minute editing and last minute amending + last minute procedural shenanigans = fewer and fewer people participating.

ORGANIZING WORKING EDUCATOR COMMUNITIES

1. BY LOCATION, 2. BY ACTIVITY, 3. BY CANDIDATE / ISSUE

IF we the little working people are going to have sustainable influence on the decisions juggling the trade offs which are made in our communities, we need to organize ourselves differently.

1. ORGANIZE BY LOCATION.

How many fellow working educator citizens does each of us know in our neighborhood, our local precinct, our local city council, school board and legislative districts? How many fellow educators do we know within 5 or 15 blocks (or miles) of where we live? How many of us are ready to work with them?

In 2012 WA. primary I was helping a candidate for state representative in the 46^th Legislative District, Gerry Pollet. His opponent was backed by the local Arne Duncan branch of the Democratic Party, and had lots of money from local admirers of Gates Foundation teacher bashing policies. Part of the 46^th is in Seattle, and the Seattle Education Association has appx. 5000 members living all over the region.  At a campaign event a Washington Education Association person mentioned there were 1,000 of 83,000 WEA members in the 46^th L.D.  I helped the campaign randomly, keeping an eye open for educator oriented events, and there were only a few times that 10 or 20 of us showed up to help Gerry.

Had the SEA / WEA / NEA / AFT members been more self organized by location, how much easier would it have been to help a genuine backer of public education without waiting for some far away union head quarters organizers?

2. ORGANIZE BY CAMPAIGN ACTIVITY.

The best way to kill long term volunteer participation is to persuade volunteers to do things they don’t like.

Community member volunteers should participate in campaign activities according to what they like the most, or what they hate the least. Campaigns are messy, and there are a lot of campaign activities which need to be done: phone banking, leafleting at public events, sign waving rah-rah on street corners, doorbelling, literature distribution, writing letters and diaries and comments on blogs and on op-eds, helping with get out the vote efforts, signature gathering, mailings …

Over 4 decades of being a little know nobody grunt on scores of campaigns, I’ve done just about every campaign activity. Some campaign activities I hate - phone banking, doorbelling. Some I really enjoy - leafleting, rah-rah.

Shouldn’t the educators who like to do rah-rah, or phone bank or …in the 46^th  Legislative District, or the 1^st Seattle School District, or the 5^th Seattle City Council District, or … kind of know each other ?! Wouldn’t it be easier for us leafletter peeps who live relatively close to one and other to self organize?

Remember - the best way to kill long term volunteer participation is to persuade volunteers to do things they don’t like. If you get people running all over some geographic region to do things they don’t like, it is a safe bet they won’t be back for the next election.

3. ORGANIZE BY CANDIDATE / ISSUE.

In 2014 Gerry Pollet (46th LD, House) is unopposed. Does that mean those of us who live in the 46th and who leaflet or phone bank or … should stay home? There are 98 state representative elections happening, there are 24 state senator elections happening … there aren’t some candidates who need help?

In 2013 in Seattle there was a school board race in which 1 of the candidates had almost $250,000 donated from Microsoft millionaires and Arne Duncan Democrats. Fortunately her opponent Sue Peters, with about $40,000, won. Unfortunately, there weren’t scores of readily available educator phone bankers and rah-rah peeps, by neighborhood, to help Sue out. In 2015 4 of 7 Seattle School Board Directors are up for re-election, and, there are municipal elections.

IF SEA / WEA / MTA / NEA members were organized by location and by activity, instead of “organized” by last minute crises determined by some far away union head quarters strategist, wouldn’t that help volunteers participate? Wouldn’t that make elected officials more responsive to the concerns of working educators?

If elected officials don’t want to help working educators or act on our concerns, surely they’d be persuaded by the fear that we’d be working to get them unemployed … by neighborhood, by precinct, by activity, by candidate?

 FOURTH – THESE FIGHTS ARE NOT ANYTHING NEW.

The Federalist No. 10

The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (continued)

Daily Advertiser

Thursday, November 22, 1787

[James Madison]

http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa10.htm

…The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts. But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government.

… Shall domestic manufactures be encouraged, and in what degree, by restrictions on foreign manufactures? are questions which would be differently decided by the landed and the manufacturing classes, and probably by neither with a sole regard to justice and the public good. The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets.