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."
Friday, July 11, 2014
Saturday, June 14, 2014
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.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.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
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 46th
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 46th
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 46th 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 46th Legislative District, or the 1st
Seattle School District, or the 5th 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]
…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.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Sue Peters For School Board Sign Waving - Fri. 18 Oct and Fri. 1 Nov
Teachers, Educators, Community Members !!
There will be sign waving in support of Sue on Fri. 18 Oct. and Fri. 1 Nov. from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the following 4 locations in Seattle:
The ballots for this election will go into the mail on Wed. 16 October. We'll be doing rah-rah for Sue to people heading home on Friday!! For those who ... delay ... voting, we'll be doing a reminder rah-rah on Friday the 1st of November, the last weekend the procrastinators have their ballots!
There will be sign waving in support of Sue on Fri. 18 Oct. and Fri. 1 Nov. from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the following 4 locations in Seattle:
- Northgate and 1st Ave. N.E. (Northeast Seattle)
- 15th Ave NW and NW Market St. (Ballard)
- Rainier Ave S. & MLK pedestrian bridge at Franklin High School (Southeast Seattle)
- Fauntleroy and 35th avenue SW (West Seattle)
Just Show Up! The signs will be there for you to wave!
As a teacher, I was happy this week Sue that was endorsed by the Seattle Education Association.
PLEASE visit Sue's website for a more complete list of endorsements and statements.
As a teacher, I find nothing encouraging about those funding Sue's opponent, Ms. Dale Estey. If you like charters, if you agree with the kinds of ideas dumped into our laps which were pushed by the puppet groups of the Bill and Melinda Gate$ Foundation, if you really believe Bill Gate$ and Ms. Dale Estey when they say they aren't blaming teachers (while pushing the same blame-the-teachers policies) - good luck!!
FINAL NOTE: Those of you who'd like to do different things in support of Sue should contact her campaign, I already have a full time job and I've got my hands full with this little event!!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Sue Peters Sign Waving - Seattle Teachers - Fri. 18 Oct and Fri. 1 Nov. 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
+++++
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.) Directions: WHO, WHEN, WHERE, WHAT, HOW
II.) The Candidates.
III.) General Commentary.
+++++
I.) Directions: WHO, WHEN, WHERE, WHAT, HOW
I need corner 'captains'. I'll get signs to the corner captains. Corner captains make sure the signs are to the intersection on time, and make sure that someone collects the signs up at the end of the rah-rah for reuse.
WHEN:
Friday the 18th of October, 4:00 to 6:00 is 2 days after ballots have gone out in the mail, lots of people vote early!
Friday 1 Nov. 4:00 - 6:00 is the weekend before the ballots are due - remind people going home to vote!
WHERE:
Some of us live close to where we work, some don't.
+++++
III.) General Commentary.
A. WHY this activity, at these times, and these locations?
Whether you've worked on campaigns or not, there are a variety of campaign activities to do (Sign Waving Rah Rah in public / at public events, helping mail stuff, phone banking, door belling, leafleting, writing letters to the editor in legacy media, commenting on blogs or in online articles about the candidate..), there are good times and bad times to do any of the campaign activities (Sign Wave at midnight? doorbell at 02:00 a.m. ?? uh...), and there are a lot of places where the things can happen.
When you consider the math of Campaign Activities (Multiplied By) the Times To Do The Things (Multiplied By) The places to do the Things = a lot of possibilities.
When you consider that organizing each activity requires answering WHO,WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW - there is a lot to do for even 1 activity.
I already have a full time ++++ job. IF you want to do something else somewhere else at some different time(s)., YOU organize it! IF you want to use this blog etc to organize your thing - ping me at wabat42 at google's mail.
B. Some background.
Over 4 decades, I've been a lowly know nobody on dozens of campaigns, and over that time I've done just about all the different grunt work jobs. On every campaign, I've seen the following sets of contributors:
1. Some Super People who do incredible feats, such as doorbell 10 precincts or phone bank for 5 hours a week or ...
2. For each Super People, there are 4 or 40 Regular People who contribute some effort several times during the campaign.
3. There are also 4 to 40 Know-Everything-Do-Nothing People for each Super People. They know every strategy and tactic and idea ... and they deliver either nothing or next to nothing. Spare me.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.) Directions: WHO, WHEN, WHERE, WHAT, HOW
II.) The Candidates.
III.) General Commentary.
+++++
I.) Directions: WHO, WHEN, WHERE, WHAT, HOW
WHO:
WE the teachers of Seattle need YOU the teachers of Seattle ...!! Parents, retired teachers, regular old citizens - welcome! I need corner 'captains'. I'll get signs to the corner captains. Corner captains make sure the signs are to the intersection on time, and make sure that someone collects the signs up at the end of the rah-rah for reuse.
WHEN:
Friday the 18th of October, 4:00 to 6:00 is 2 days after ballots have gone out in the mail, lots of people vote early!
Friday 1 Nov. 4:00 - 6:00 is the weekend before the ballots are due - remind people going home to vote!
WHERE:
Some of us live close to where we work, some don't.
I'd rather rah-rah with people who live close to me so that on future issues affecting my neck of the woods I have local allies. Some would rather rah-rah with work mates. Whatever works for you!
The following locations are places for which I have confirmed corner 'captains' as of 28 Aug. I'll add more locations as I get more 'captains'.
- Northgate and 1st Ave. N.E.
- 15th Ave NW and NW Market St. (Ballard)
- Rainier Ave S. & MLK pedestrian bridge at Franklin High School
- Fauntleroy and 35th avenue SW
Come for either day or for both days!
WHAT:
Wave Signs for Sue Peters
(NOTE: as of the sending of this email, I am going to buy 100 signs myself and staple them to sticks, myself - please forward complaints to roundfile@junkmail.com)
HOW:
Hold the sign, don't block traffic, wave the sign. Smile? Wave? Drink hot chocolate?
+++++
II.) The Candidates.
A.) Who is Sue Peters?
Sue is on the side of PUBLIC education.
She has blogged at http://seattleducation2010.
B.) Ms. Estey is backed by all the local Gate$ luminarie$ who backed Maria Goodloe-Johnson to the hilt, such as school board members Maier and Debell, as well as the electeds who dump garbage like student test scores into our evaluations - take a bow Sen. Ed Murray & Rep. Carlyle!
WARNING for those of you who get the vapors from comments purposely larded with sarcasm, contempt and disdain - CLOSE YOUR EYES BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING!!!
III.) General Commentary.
A. WHY this activity, at these times, and these locations?
Whether you've worked on campaigns or not, there are a variety of campaign activities to do (Sign Waving Rah Rah in public / at public events, helping mail stuff, phone banking, door belling, leafleting, writing letters to the editor in legacy media, commenting on blogs or in online articles about the candidate..), there are good times and bad times to do any of the campaign activities (Sign Wave at midnight? doorbell at 02:00 a.m. ?? uh...), and there are a lot of places where the things can happen.
When you consider the math of Campaign Activities (Multiplied By) the Times To Do The Things (Multiplied By) The places to do the Things = a lot of possibilities.
When you consider that organizing each activity requires answering WHO,WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW - there is a lot to do for even 1 activity.
I already have a full time ++++ job. IF you want to do something else somewhere else at some different time(s)., YOU organize it! IF you want to use this blog etc to organize your thing - ping me at wabat42 at google's mail.
B. Some background.
Over 4 decades, I've been a lowly know nobody on dozens of campaigns, and over that time I've done just about all the different grunt work jobs. On every campaign, I've seen the following sets of contributors:
1. Some Super People who do incredible feats, such as doorbell 10 precincts or phone bank for 5 hours a week or ...
2. For each Super People, there are 4 or 40 Regular People who contribute some effort several times during the campaign.
3. There are also 4 to 40 Know-Everything-Do-Nothing People for each Super People. They know every strategy and tactic and idea ... and they deliver either nothing or next to nothing. Spare me.
Friday, August 2, 2013
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:
1.) WHAT are we going to do? Doorbelling, phone bank, public sign waving rah rah, mailings, leafleting, informational tabling at community events, letters to editor / blog writing, contacting legislators, other?
2.) WHERE is the WHAT going to happen? At the corner of Main and 6th? At the Law Office of SaveEm & SueEm? At the statue of the pig ? Other?
3.) WHO is involved with WHAT? WHO is the coordinator making sure the details are going to happen?
4.) WHEN are we doing WHAT? Every Friday night, Just Sat the 6th, Other?
5.) HOW are we going to do WHAT? Here are the details for the WHAT.
Post as many details on the web as possible, so volunteers are less dependent on any coordinator. The fewer the steps + the fewer the contacts to make + the fewer people to rely on will equal the more likely it is for the event to run smoothly.
EXAMPLE:
1.) WHAT: Sign Waving for Sue Peters for Seattle Public Schools.
2.) WHERE: At the following (proposed) intersections in Seattle:
A. Dravus and 15th Ave NW
B. 5th Ave. North and Northgate Way
C. Franklin High School Walkway over Rainier Ave.
D. Other key intersections in Seattle
3.) WHO: a sign waving coordinator for each intersection will make sure someone is there on time with the signs and someone takes the signs when the sign waving is over. The comment section will have pertinent details for each intersection so that we don't have any information black holes.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: people contacting each other ... I'm still chewing on the details for this... maybe a google group so people can contact each other / be on the same page? As a full time teacher, I haven't the time to monitor and direct 30 or 300 volunteers, and, having 1 or a few people as coordinators, instead of doing it online, is 1 of the critical failings of the lame "organizing" we already suffer with.]
4.) WHEN:
I.) Fri. 18 October and Fri. 1 November, from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. Note - you do NOT have to be there the entire time!! High School, Middle School and Elementary teachers work different times, and we're exhausted at different times!
II.) Sat. 19 October and Sat. 2 November, from 2:00 to 4:00 while people are out doing errands.
5.) HOW: Hold the signs on the sticks, wave the signs around, drink hot chocolate, smile and wave if you feel like it. Don't block pedestrians, don't distract drivers, don't get in screaming matches or fist fights with people from different campaigns, or, our campaign.
Organizing Calendar
1.) WHAT are we going to do? Doorbelling, phone bank, public sign waving rah rah, mailings, leafleting, informational tabling at community events, letters to editor / blog writing, contacting legislators, other?
2.) WHERE is the WHAT going to happen? At the corner of Main and 6th? At the Law Office of SaveEm & SueEm? At the statue of the pig ? Other?
3.) WHO is involved with WHAT? WHO is the coordinator making sure the details are going to happen?
4.) WHEN are we doing WHAT? Every Friday night, Just Sat the 6th, Other?
5.) HOW are we going to do WHAT? Here are the details for the WHAT.
Post as many details on the web as possible, so volunteers are less dependent on any coordinator. The fewer the steps + the fewer the contacts to make + the fewer people to rely on will equal the more likely it is for the event to run smoothly.
EXAMPLE:
1.) WHAT: Sign Waving for Sue Peters for Seattle Public Schools.
2.) WHERE: At the following (proposed) intersections in Seattle:
A. Dravus and 15th Ave NW
B. 5th Ave. North and Northgate Way
C. Franklin High School Walkway over Rainier Ave.
D. Other key intersections in Seattle
3.) WHO: a sign waving coordinator for each intersection will make sure someone is there on time with the signs and someone takes the signs when the sign waving is over. The comment section will have pertinent details for each intersection so that we don't have any information black holes.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: people contacting each other ... I'm still chewing on the details for this... maybe a google group so people can contact each other / be on the same page? As a full time teacher, I haven't the time to monitor and direct 30 or 300 volunteers, and, having 1 or a few people as coordinators, instead of doing it online, is 1 of the critical failings of the lame "organizing" we already suffer with.]
4.) WHEN:
I.) Fri. 18 October and Fri. 1 November, from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. Note - you do NOT have to be there the entire time!! High School, Middle School and Elementary teachers work different times, and we're exhausted at different times!
II.) Sat. 19 October and Sat. 2 November, from 2:00 to 4:00 while people are out doing errands.
5.) HOW: Hold the signs on the sticks, wave the signs around, drink hot chocolate, smile and wave if you feel like it. Don't block pedestrians, don't distract drivers, don't get in screaming matches or fist fights with people from different campaigns, or, our campaign.
Organizing Calendar
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