14. The Direction of the Club
What do we want to do this year? This is where we talk about our priorities for this year: What battles do we want to wage? How winnable are they? What resources are required? How do we measure if we're sucessful or not? Who's in charge of overseeing what initiative?
posted by Umass Democrats at 5:34 PM
2 Comments:
It's time to start having a real in-depth discussion about where we want to take the club this year. The forum to do this, while everyone's still on vacation, is the UMass Dems Strategic Planning Forum, located at umassdems.blogspot.com. Please take a look at it and add to the discussion.
In terms of initiatives, there are a few that are obviously underway, like the conference. Some are less obviously underway, like building infrastructure via new website, new constitution, new exec board positions with underclassmen understudies who work closely with exec board members and learn the ropes, and new ties to western mass political activists. Here are some thoughts as to some other initiatives I'd like to undertake and I think we can win fairly easliy.
1. Morris Singer has his own PAC to try to get UMass Amherst its own voting precinct in Amherst. Can you imagine a poling place in the basement of the campus center, with all day events, musical guests, phone banking, etc?!?! We'd convince the entire campus to register to vote on campus, and therefore it would be so simple to get out the vote right on campus. A massive voter turnout effort on campus for the 2006 election is a prerequisite. What can we do now to be prepared for this next year?
2. Get Pat Duffy elected in in Holyoke in September 2005. She's part of the progressive movement, and this represents a real world opportunity for members to get their hands dirty and do the hard work to get people elected. This is where the freshmen and sophomores can learn the ropes. We need to appoint a Campaign Director to the Exec board, and for that person to work with the Duffy Campaign and figure out event logistics, direct phone banking and get out the vote activities.
3. Get Peter Vickery elected in 2006. He is pretty much the most important person in the progressive movement in the entire state. He needs to be returned to office using all the standard campaign tactics we've learned.
4. Voters should choose candidates, not vice-versa. the state needs a system of non partisan redistricting, and that's something that Leo Maley and his Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts organization has been working on. We're talking about trying to win a ballot question here. Leo has secured office space in downtown Amherst as an office, as well as secured funding.
5. In a family, you wouldn't have the kids paying the bills. The parents provide for their children until they can get a firm grounding. Same with society. Students should not have to pay to go to school. A free higher Ed campaign is a very long term project but a worthy one, as long as we work very closely with other organizations from whom we take the lead. Take Back UMass is thinking about taking up this cause. Our club should, after all, be an advocacy group for students, and the club should fight the battles that need to be fought to help our fellow students.
WHAT ELSE, GUYS? step up and post your response at umassdems.blogspot.com.
Thanks, homies.
-Chris
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