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Christine posted this on July 6th, 2012. First of all, much thanks to Tony Trupiano for having me on.
 Next here are some resources:
http://www.spn.org/ – State Policy Network – Find your state, check the SPN websites in your state to see if they allow commenting
1. Wearing your message — Check out www.cafepress.com and spreadshirt.com, as resources to create your wearables. For custom graphics try guru.com, freelancer.com, or even fiverrr.com.
2. Social networking — Refer to your personal legislative agenda for sources of information that you can pass on to your followers.
3. Commenting on Internet articles — Don’t engage with trolls unless you want the entertainment value. Engage the AUTHOR of the piece.
4. Contacting elected representatives — Call a local office (rather than DC for your CongressCritter), know what you are talking about, and don’t abuse the person who answers the phone.
5. Talking to friends and colleagues — I’d like to hear more from other people as to how they approach politics with people who are either uninformed or unfriendly to progressives. I find that this is a very individual and personal situation. This HuffPo article has some tips.
If you have any tips, questions, etc., please drop us a comment.
If you’d like to get in touch with me, I’m at christinebarry@gmail.com, @christinebarry, and www.facebook.com/christinebarry.
Christine posted this on July 6th, 2012. I’ll be discussing this topic on The Ed Show with Tony Trupiano at about 12.20 today
This post was originally published on June 24 2012
“Yeah, I wish I could help you, but my life is nuts right now.”
Unless you’re one of those crazy (but lovable!) people who can’t say no, you’ve probably said that at one time or another. If you’re like me you keep on saying it because despite your best intentions, your life is never NOT nuts. You can’t commit to a meeting or an event because the kid has a play or you’ll be out of town or [insert something here]. And that can be disheartening if you want to have a greater impact on this world.
 The good news is that activism doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to be about meetings or events, and it doesn’t have to be focused on organizations or candidates. It can personalized and customized to fit your life. Smart campaigns have already figured out how to individualize campaigns; President Obama’s political dashboard is a good example of this. The Obama campaign gives you the information you need to engage in the campaign based on your own comfort zone and your own level of resources. But what if you don’t want to hook up with a campaign? What if you’ve got your own issue that no one else is talking about right now? What can you do in your limited time, with your limited resources?
I brainstormed this and in just a few minutes came up with 5 different types of activities that you could do with very little time and few resources. These should work for about any issue you can think of.
- Wearables, stickers, and lit drops. Head over to CafePress or SpreadShirt and make yourself some merchandise. If you aren’t good with graphics, just type up a slogan or a URL to your favorite website and set it up on some shirts, hats, buttons, bumper stickers, etc. The goal isn’t to sell the merchandise but to make it available for you to use. Wearing your message gives you the opportunity to share the message with people you wouldn’t otherwise meet. If you get lucky someone will ask you about it and show some interest in the issue. If you get really lucky, you’ll meet someone who agrees with you and wants to network.
I put lit drops in this category because it’s a creative process, similar to a t-shirt or a bumper sticker. Create a business card and hand them out, leave them in library books, drop them in the envelope when you pay the bills. Or create a flyer to hang on doorknobs. If your life is too crazy to go out on a lit drop, just do 5 copies a week. It would only take minutes to hand out 5 copies, and you never have to knock on a door unless you want to.
- Build a social network and use it to promote relevant material. I can’t emphasize enough how wonderful Twitter and Facebook are for this. If you do not want to interact on a personal level, you can set up a Twitter feed and Facebook page for the sole purpose of sharing news items and announcements. Using a tool such as Hootsuite will simplify the publishing process and provide you with advanced options such as scheduling messages to be published later.
The key to building this network and getting followers who pay attention to your messages is to find unique material to publish. This is a great time to refer to your personal legislative agenda; you must have found organizations or elected and appointed officials who are important to the issue. They probably have Communications Directors. Contact them and find out if you can get on their mailing list. This is the kind of source information that most people won’t have access to.
You can almost always get on a mailing list, but there are special circumstances for some. For example, to get on the mailing list for the Shiawassee County Commissioners meeting minutes, you have to submit a Freedom of Information Act request for all future Board minutes. (Don’t get me started) If you encounter any kind of hurdles in a process like this I would love to hear about them so that we can all learn from them. It took me a while to learn how to navigate the waters and I’m all for sharing the knowledge.
Once you get the info, publish it to your networks. For example:
Shiawassee Co Commissioners kill 4-H funding. Clerk says “4-H is fluff.” See board minutes for 6-23-12.
There’s no URL but you’ve given the source. That’s it.
(Aside: Everything except the date in that hypothetical tweet is true)
- Comment on Internet articles, like those on Mackinac Center, MLive, Detroit News, etc. Most sane people do not want to do this because the comments get so nasty and you’re not going to change the minds of the people you’re arguing with. However there are a few things to keep in mind here:
- Most of the skeezy and nasty right-wing people in those comments are PAID to be there. Really.
- The purpose of your participation is not to change the mind of anyone commenting, but to influence the lurkers and support your friends.
- Don’t take anything personally and stay on topic and you’ll be just fine.
I try to hit Mackinac Center, MLive, and Detroit News at least once a week. I don’t get into arguments too often and when I do I just stay awesome and then I win. You too can develop these powers; all you need is a Facebook account and some thick skin.
All kidding aside, it’s important to publish some “push back” on these articles. The worst thing we can do is leave disingenuous garbage out there unchallenged.
- Contact your elected representatives. This is probably the most important thing in the list and it’s so easy to do. Regardless of who your representative is, you can easily contact him by phone or email. A written letter might get more notice but will be slowed down by the security screening if you’re sending it to DC. Be sure to use a local office for that.
Some things to remember if you’re planning to call your representative:
- Be prepared to give your name and address
- If you’re nervous, prepare a short statement or talking points ahead of time
- You’ll be talking to a staff member or an intern.
Keep track of your contacts with your representative, and you can use this information if/when you need to call back. The worksheets from the PLA article can help with that.
- Talk to your friends and colleagues. This may be out of your comfort zone, and is not always appropriate, but there are times when it can work out. For example, a young co-worker of mine was able to decline medical coverage from our employer because he was able to stay on his parents’ health care. Ding ding ding! That’s an opening for a convo on the Affordable Care Act. I’m not one to fight with co-workers about politics (or sports or religion) but if I can have a conversation then I will. Anna Post on HuffPo has some good tips on how to do this:
- Stick to the facts, don’t get personal
- Have an exit strategy, have a plan to get out of an argument if necessary
- Know your goal; are you there to learn, vent, or influence the other person
- Know when to NOT talk politics, such as at weddings, holidays, or other events that people plan to remember forever
- Do not assume that you know what the other person thinks
That list can work for just about any issue. Here are some issue specific examples:
- Position: Union support. Action: Find a union to join. Writers (including bloggers) can join the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981
- Position: Healthy eating. Action: Pin healthy recipes to Pinterest and share them on Facebook
- Position: Financial literacy. Action: Creating a financial tracking spreadsheet and showing people how to use it
I’ll be talking about this with Tony tomorrow morning on Blog Role, at 8.35. Feel free to chime in on the comments here or call in to Tony’s show. You can listen in at 1310am or stream it live at www.thetonyshow.org.
Christine posted this on July 6th, 2012. This post was originally published on June 10, 2012
I’ll be discussing this topic on air with Tony Trupiano Monday morning at 8.35am
In writing this post it occurs to me that I don’t know enough about my fellow bloggers, activists, progressives, etc. I mean, I know pretty much what we all stand for and where we may differ in opinion, but I don’t your stories. How did you come to be a progressive? How did your values develop?
I grew up in a union family. And I mean UNION. My grandparents, great-grandparents, and great (grand?) uncles were active in the Flint Sit Down. Active to the point where they didn’t feel that they joined the union; they felt that the union joined them. Great grandpa and uncle Charlie were in the Hole, and my grandpa was on the outside because he wasn’t on shift when the guys went out. He stayed right outside the shops every day until the strike was over. My grandma stood with the Women’s Emergency Brigade, and later would refuse to talk about it because she said it was the most afraid she had ever been in her life and she didn’t want to relive it. Cruel irony since my grandfather could not stop talking about his great victory for labor. He was one of the few remaining active Sit Downers when he died in 2001.
And did I mention my dad was union, and his brothers and sisters were union? I grew up with a healthy appreciation for collective bargaining and organized labor. When I ran off to college at 18, there was no doubt that I’d end up in politics somewhere, and that I’d be fighting for labor. But short of becoming an elected politician or a union organizer, how would I do that?
That’s where the personal legislative agenda comes in.
Like I said, I don’t know your stories, but I’d bet that many of you come to political awareness through a cause. Like me it may be labor. It might be reproductive rights, voting rights, equality, urban renewal. Maybe a candidate brought you into it? Barack Obama, Jennifer Granholm, Howard Dean? But now that you’re here, what is your legislative agenda?
A legislative agenda is just like it sounds; a list of legislation that you care about. This could be,
- Legislation that you support
- Legislation that you oppose
- Legislation that you would like to see introduced
- Anything you want to keep an eye on
 Creating this agenda allows you to take a proactive approach toward public policy. The agenda will become the foundation for your activism.
So how do we go about creating our agenda? Let’s start with keywords, and assume that your issue is public education in Michigan. Start with the Michigan Legislative Website; this site allows you to track legislation, contact your representative, and see audio/video of the legislature in action. Click through to see all of the options available to you.
Once you’re at the site you see you can search for bills or compiled laws, by number or by keyword. At this point it’s like any other search. For education your keywords might be,
- Charter Schools
- Cyber Schools
- Public Schools
- Education
- Teacher
- Students
The keyword “teacher” brings up 99 bills from the 2011 – 2012 session.
Now it’s time for you to do some digging. Click on the link of the bill you would like to learn more about. You will find bill sponsor, bill summary, status, and the text of the bill in pdf or html format. It doesn’t get any sexier than that.
During the legislative research phase you should be tracking what you find. A great way to do this is to use the worksheets from The One Hour Activist by Christopher Kush. That’s the link to the book itself, but you can click here to download the worksheets for free. I recommend the Bill Analysis Worksheet for bill research. It helps you track your findings, and helps you train yourself so that you know what to look for when you research a bill. You can download this worksheet here (pdf).
Once you’ve performed the research you can put together your legislative agenda. The Personal Legislative Agenda worksheet makes this a little easier. (click here for the pdf) This worksheet helps you track the description, and status of the bill, as well as the action you took to address the bill.
As you can see, one issue can be a very large issue and the research can take up a lot of time. This agenda-setting process should help get organized so that you can plan your work and track your progress.
If you have any questions, suggestions, etc., drop ‘em in the comments or call in to First Shift during the Blog Role segment at 8.35am.
memiller posted this on July 3rd, 2012. Freep: http://www.freep.com/article/20120703/NEWS15/120703036
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed 11 election-related bills, most of them positive, though narrow, but made news by vetoing three of the most controversial bills that would have taken Michigan along the path towards voter suppression that other GOP-led states are traveling. In doing so, he has enraged part of his base, and earned the (grudging?) respect of Progressives who were only recently engaged in a doomed effort to recall him.
Former Democratic Secretary of State candidate Jocelyn Benson: “This is a victory for every voter in this state, and a great nod to tomorrow’s holiday. Congratulations to all who worked to amplify peoples’ voices and emphasize the negative impact the vetoed portions of this package would have on our citizens and elections officials. Happy 4th of July, everyone!”
Spokesman for Republican Speaker of the House Jase Bolger: “Speaker Bolger appreciates Gov. Snyder signing many election reforms today, but is deeply disappointed in the vetoes of other very reasonable reforms designed to protect the integrity of one of the most sacred rights in the United States, …”
I have fiercely opposed many of the initiatives Gov. Snyder has undertaken, but he has never struck me as a movement conservative. That is, he always has thoughtful reasons for what he does, and does not let himself be guided by an inflexible ideology. After these vetoes, I must give him due credit for not falling for the fake voter fraud stories, and seeing these bills for what they were. I may not agree with what he does next, but I respect him a lot more after today.
Gov’s office: http://www.michigan.gov/snyder/0,4668,7-277-57577_57657-281734–,00.html
Signed:
Senate Bill 751 streamlines the voter registration process. It enables courts to monitor the voter registration status of people who have surrendered their Michigan driver license and could be registered to vote in multiple states.
– This will have court oversight, and is a common-sense measure to prevent people from having multiple registrations in several states.
H.B. 5062 and S.B. 752 ensure proper handling of election materials by establishing election clerk education programs as well as a post-election review process. On-site ballots and absentee ballots must be printed using the same format to provide consistency for election officials responsible for reporting results.
— This is an important and much-needed measure which will tighten up and standardize practice among municipal clerks.
H.B. 5059 and S.B. 753 require any political party attempting to qualify as a new recognized party in Michigan to report on their spending. All independent committees must also file a quarterly spending report.
— More financial transparency — always a good thing. Although I wish we had it in other areas as well.
H.B. 5058 prohibits the use of campaign funds to pay for a candidate’s legal expenses in cases unrelated to running for office. Any unauthorized legal costs must be paid for using a separate fund. The bill ensures donors that their funds are used only for campaign-related expenses.
– There are precedents for pols using campaign funds to do this; good idea to forbid it.
S.B.s 823, 824 and 825 improve transparency of the election process. Any ballot or petition language must be submitted to the Secretary of State prior to circulation of the petition and the Secretary of State will post this language to its website for easy voter access. The bills also prohibit posing as an election official in a polling place on Election Day and move the deadline for a candidate to file nomination petitions to the 15th Tuesday before the primary rather than the 12th or 14th Tuesday.
– First two provisions are good. The third (earlier filing deadline) is going to make it tougher to qualify and make candidates decide earlier — may decrease participation. Don’t like this one.
H.B. 5297 allows members of the U.S. armed forces and overseas U.S. citizens to vote in state and local elections by absentee ballot. Military members and overseas citizens already have access to federal elections via the same means.
— About time! Can’t believe this was not already law.
H.B. 4656 prohibits the name of any elected official or any person running for official office to appear on any ballot related materials. It is already law that no candidate can display material within 100 feet of a polling place. With regard to an absentee ballot, the envelope and related materials is identified as a polling place, therefore no official names may appear on the envelope.
— Good catch of a loophole!
Vetoed
Senate Bill 754 sought training for people, companies and organizations participating in voter registration. While Snyder supports the concept of training individuals involved in voter registration, he said changes with the registration of third party voter registration organizations, and the timing and training of those entities, may cause confusion with ongoing voter registration efforts.
— This would have REQUIRED training of all people participating in voter registration drives, e.g. League of Women Voters, and increased penalties for any anomalies, such as to cripple these drives which increase minority and disadvantaged participation. Very pleased — and surprised — he vetoed this.
H.B. 5061 and S.B. 803 aimed to prevent voting fraud by requiring a voter to reaffirm U.S. citizenship before receiving a ballot and requiring photo ID when picking up an absentee ballot from a city office. Snyder said he appreciates the issue of ensuring voters are eligible and U.S. citizens, however this legislation could create voter confusion among absentee voters.
– The biggest proposed move towards suppression in Michigan — and an important veto by the Governor.
Christine posted this on July 2nd, 2012. 
A bit of a dry spell here at BFM and it’s going to last for a couple more days. I’m sorry about that but there’s no way around it right now. I do have a major announcement to make sometime after the 4th though, and I can’t wait to share the news. Admittedly I might be the only one who cares about it, but I care about it a whole bunch.
On with the show.
Susan Harrison Wolffis: We’re way too familiar with bullying
Former GOP Spokesman: ‘Is Armed Rebellion Now Justified?’ (Edited by Mackinac Center to provide context to remarks ..)
Ex-GOP spokesman apologizes after ‘armed rebellion’ e-mail
State Spending Up Despite Total GOP Control
Obamacare Decision Likely to ‘Rekindle’ the Tea Party Movement
Former MIGOP Spokesman Urges “Armed Rebellion” After SCOTUS Decision on Affordable Care Act MDP Calls on Snyder, Schostak, Schuette and GOP Leaders to Repudiate Remarks
Asian carp containment strategy for Great Lakes gets a boost from Congress
Lake Wind opponents: Wind farm fight taken to Mason County board elections as turbines are built
Bobby Jindal: Libraries? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Libraries!
New Tea Party Theory: Kindergarten Leads To Higher Crime Rates
Economic Growth or Income Inequality?
IMPEACH the Coward, Dread Justice Roberts! (“Dread” Justice Roberts? Classic!)
Maybe It Was A Frathouse Initiaton
Parents see impact of school cuts on kids
Police: Fireworks accident burns woman in southwest Michigan
Sparklers cause 5-year-old boy to suffer third degree burns
Snyder, Michigan legislators to put off decision whether to expand Medicaid by 500,000 people
Solidarity brothers & sisters, and lots of love going out to our First Responders!
Christine posted this on June 28th, 2012.
Projects!
This is a crazy 2 weeks for me; last week of the fiscal year, and then the first week of the next. I’ve been missing briefings simply because I don’t have the quiet time to ‘process’ them, if that makes sense. Tomorrow’s not looking either. Sorry about that. But here are some things that I’ve been wanting to post. Sans commentaire.
Democrats Say Voters Ready To Kick GOP Out Of Statehouses Snyder OKs jail for disrupting religious service Ann Curry leaving “Today” show Barracuda Networks to move Ann Arbor office into former Borders Group flagship store Prediction: Michigan will ultimately rescind the fireworks law Another Reason To Hate Citizens United Affordable Care Act’s Hidden Escape Hatch MDP Releases New Video: End Bolger’s Reign
Detroit, Michigan State look to establish global center of innovation in urban agriculture Michigan has ‘un-mined gold’ in abandoned oil wells, U.S. Department of Energy assistant secretary says in visit to WMU It’s state House race endorsement season In the Shadow of 12th Street: Detroit’s decline was a family affair Illegal teacher strike possible in Detroit Lighting bill gives Snyder three seats Obama Gay Marriage Nod Supported By Michigan Democrats Snyder eliminates MEGA, Next Energy Authority; transfers their roles to Michigan Strategic Fund Man charged with stealing from Bob Seger’s Orchard Lake home How wages suffer when unions decline
Solidarity forever, brothers and sisters!!!
bfealk posted this on June 26th, 2012. A new verse was sung today to Down At The Sing Along at the daily sing along that takes place in the Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin.
One of the songs sung most days is Down At The Sing Along. In solidarity with the people of Michigan speaking out for women’s rights and the right to a legal procedure in the state of Michigan, the Wisconsin Solidarity Singers sang for vaginas during today’s sing along.
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Follow up from my spot on The Ed Show & Instant Activism
Easy activism: Making a difference when you’re life is nuts
What do I do now? Creating a personal legislative agenda
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