Sunday, August 31, 2014

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.

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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

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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

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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

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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