11.30
Dear ENDA activists,
Tomorrow’s community-wide call on ENDA strategy and action is still open to registration at: http://tinyurl.com/voteendanow –
Already 69 participants are registered from a cross section of our country and movement from local to national to spiritual. It’s very exciting.
The call format and latest suggestions from Dr. Weiss are contained in the Bilerico.com posting today at:
http://www.bilerico.com/2009/11/how_to_get_enda_moving_again.php
The call highlights include a briefing intro by Dr. Weiss, an open session for proposing fast action ideas, followed by a quick poll and creation of a short list, then breakout sessions on the top 4 for discussion and quick organizing, followed by debriefings on the breakout sessions to the whole group, and closing.
For advance consideration, here are a few ideas percolating for a “Vote ENDA Now” effort:
1. Push the Committee: Targeted phone bank to the Committee Chair Rep. Miller, and members, with particularly emphasis on certain members (highlighted in the bilerico posting above). The idea is to get very supportive committee members actively engaged in calling the vote.
2. Whip-the-Vote: Push the Sponsors. There are 186 co-sponsors listed on the ActOnPrinciples.org Public Whip Count (http://www.actonprinciples.org/enda-house/ ). The idea is to orchestrate a coordinated outreach to all of them, thank them for their support, and ask them to call the Committee to get a vote scheduled and to identify colleagues to contact for support.
3. Whip-the-Vote: Secure the Vote. There are 63 house members “leaning yes” on the Public Whip Count (http://www.actonprinciples.org/enda-house/ ). The idea is to get them to “yes”. This is a broader part of the ENDA campaign. The idea is to have a team organize a focused campaign around this and to stir up momentum.
4. Creative ideas? Flood Congress with Holiday ENDA cards? Others?
The hope for the call is to grow this list and prioritize them based on group sentiment..
Please note that this call is somewhat of an experiment in open, community-wide communication for federal legislative strategy and organizing. To enable this, the MaestroConference features allow us to poll the callers on their interests, separate callers into sub groups based on those interests for more in-depth discussion, and to relate that group’s contact information (name, email, phone) to a point person after the call.
The breakout sessions will be facilitated, but open mic in the sense that all callers can be heard. We’ll be asking for volunteer timekeepers and note-keepers, and that those groups identify their post-call point people during that 15 minute portion of the call, and someone to report for 1.5 minutes to the plenary after the breakout. The hope is that a few callers interested in specific actions will take an organizing lead post-call for those inclined to coordinate, and that individuals or groups will take action on items as they choose.
The call registration is still open and everyone is welcome at: http://tinyurl.com/voteendanow