DISCUSSION of ACTIVIST CORPS general policies and procedures

[cloudythescribbler]

There are lots of questions of what kinds of general procedures and practices there should be. There is something to be said for having the thing function a little bit without a set of rules to develop a sense of what kinds of rules and procedures are needed. Remember that the founding fathers were not writing on a clean slate, and those who have, have not fared as well. Even the state constitutions from which the federal borrowed heavily (eg First Amendment) were built upon extensive experience going way back, including some interesting first second and third Constitutions under the colonies in given states. Some of them are amusing other provisions are sad or outraging.

Anyway, here's a few suggestions:
(1) Although it might be seen as diminishing our impact, it should be suggested that letter writers identify themselves as being from DU. That would be more honest, and would get our name known. When you try to pretend to be 1000 separate spontaneous letters, you risk becoming like the troll/copperhead ideology of 'staged spontaneity' that I so detest. People will notice that we are from a corps, sooner or later.

(2) There should be, as I have suggested, certain regular topics that always have actions listed, like Amnesty International Cases or Abuses (both omission and commission) in and by the Mainstream Media, with, if possible a special emphasis on TV and radio, with someone sophisticated posting a clip. Newspaper articles are easier, but I think 1000 people pointing out some BS on TV and also sending that info to newspapers can have a big impact (but it takes skills that I for one, don't have, to get those videos to this site for general viewing both by members of the corps and DUers generally). This kind of general publicity should draw more people.
MSM, AI would say, have a minimum of one action per every two weeks at the outset, and maybe one a week as more actions are recommended.

(3) I suspect they have a set of rules for corps members that the Administrators have, and that should be made public and transparent

(4) There should be a general sense of how many, once this thing gets rolling, actions will be presented for action in any given week. One a day would be a good goal. And you wouldn't necessarily have to have done it EVERY day. But of the 6 minimum actions available each week, some should be prioritized, eg possibly a 'point' system or something, and you have to have a certain number of points EVERY MONTH as your MONTHLY "RENT" or something. There needs to be a regular system for how many actions are expected.

(5) Recommending an action -- there could be a special board for Corps members or Administrators to Recommend an Action. They would need to be reviewed at least every week by each corps member, if they want to participate in the decisionmaking (which many would perhaps not). If you got, say, five votes, it would be voted upon automatically by the board, which board would have some members elected after the first, say three months or so of operation(interim until serious elections after 6 months), by members of the corps in good standing for at least a certain period (eg three months). E-stuff needs more frequent accountability than once a year, but once every 6 months should be OK, once we get going.

(6) I think that to have DU Administrators make up or choose half the board, and Corps members the other half after 6 months would be a good start. It is conceivable that after a while, since we really don't know each other, we could evolve into a more democratic structure. After three months there would be only maybe one quarter or one third. The other model is by the administrators picking who they want from the Corps to be decisionmakers with them. It is difficult to have a democracy without real face-to-face community at some level. But we could introduce some elements of it and see how it works, step by step.

(7) There is also the issue of specifics -- do we have certain talking points in common? What is the common denominator? We must all be working from at least common parameters of a script on every action, instead of some saying we should have no litmus test and others saying support for Roe v Wade is a litmus etc.

So those are some issues:
(1) Should we identify ourselves as corps members?
(2) Should there be regular topics, like supporting Amnesty International cases, that appear at least one case every two weeks, also MSM and Iraq -- perennial issues, perennially addressed
(3)What rules/guidelines/policies have Administrators decided on already?
(4)Prioritization of actions and specific minimum criteria of participation for Corps members
(5)how actions get recommended, and if general idea is proposed, how the actions parameters worked out
(6)How leadership and administration of corps is selected and what are their powers and duties
(7) Precise issues of parameters mentioned in (5), and how those parameters are set and how monitored, how defined etc. With issue, say SCOTUS nomination, we could draw up eg (a) list of who should be contacted at minimum, (b) general position on nomination that should be included in every communication, (c)suggested talking points, and (d) some don'ts possibly as well
That's about it, in summary, for this discussion to start!!!!!!
--- pardon my verbosity CLOUDY

[havocmom]

1. I was a citizen long before I was a memeber of DU and will be long

after Skinner tosses my ass outta here. I will not identify myself as a member of DU in letters. I do not even like have 'activist' mentioned in my profile and because of that notation, considering turning off my porfile, which, sadly, makes me a suspected freeper by some here.

Some of us have sensitive positions and being outed in certain areas is NOT a grand idea. Also, our efforts will be dismissed out of hand by some talking heads as 'just some trouble maker from that DU place'.

Will chew over your other suggestions when I have a bit more time.

[noamnety]

4. I'm with you

I won't identify myself as a DU member either. I'd be more likely to identify myself as a veteran, or as a member of Veterans for Peace.

I prefer not to have my letter dismissed summarily as part of an organized partisan letter writing campaign. If I saw a letter signed as a freeper, or one of those Dobson/Phelps fundie organizations, I'd discount it. I'd rather the reader just took my words at face value, rather than bringing their preconceptions about the website into it.

[auburngrad82]

9. I agree.

It should be enough that we are concerned citizens and registered voters. If you are not a constituent your letter won't even be considered, in most cases.

[oldtime dfl_er]

2. Regarding #2 - the media

I happen to have cable and get most incensed by the likes of Wolf Blitzer and Chris Matthews, but I think cable news ratings are dwarfed by the regular networks,in terms of where Amurkins "get their news". I hope we see an emphasis on the Big 3 -- I guess I could even swallow my hatred long enough to watch a half hour a week of Bob Schiefer or whoever is doing the nightly half-hour -news-o-tainment on the networks.


http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/654252

[cloudythescribbler]

5. re: addressing to news channels

First, it is not necessary for DUers to change our lifestyles. SOME people watch the mainstream TV news. I try to avoid it, quite successfully, (getting my mainstream news from the NY Times and sometimes CNN, which is at least lively) and will continue to do so. The point is that SOME people DO watch the news and are in a position to betamax it or do whatever people do that gets them clips of it, which progressives have sometimes put up on the web. If just one clip like that a month managed to get into our hands of some of the vile things that are done it would be great. ALL DUers would need to review is that ONE clip of a few sound bytes for what was awful and write the letter. GOSH the approach you thought I was requesting would be sadistic!

I remember one program where Prof. Harry Edwards of UC Berkeley Sociology was being interviewed. A voice over came on in a break of airing the interview, which portion had run over and was pre-empting Johnny Carson (11:30 pm). The picture on the TV showed to babies crawling each in diapers, one white and one black as a voice-over voice-of-God was telling viewers that "studies show" that motor development in black infants is faster than in whites. The biological implications might sound positive for blacks for a moment until you think about it -- that kind of promotion of essentialist stereotypes, as people are dozing off, is what goes on on TV when "no one is watching" for it as millions are watching it.


I feel the need to nail these types of things so bad (my letter was ignored by all) I can taste it. I am confident that just a few instances caught could really shock the MSM, as well as make DU well known and respected. But the documentation is essential.

[Joy Anne]

3. duplication of efforts?

To me this sounds like what DFA RapidResponse already does.

[cloudythescribbler]

6. which sounds like what, could you explain more?

[Joy Anne]

7. Sure

It sounds like the DU Activist Corps will be periodically called on to write to newspapers, TV shows, and elected officials.

DFA RapidResponse has been doing that for maybe a year and a half now.

We are organized by state; I'm a Pennsylvania coordinator. Most days, we get from the national organization a list of action items, largely URLs for newspaper articles and columns we want to applaud or rebut, as well as reports of good and bad sections of TV news shows, politicians' speeches, and the like. Often, we also get analysis and data on why a statement is wrong to help us respond more persuasively, and occasionally we're cautioned against being strident. Members write about these topics and about others we find; they're asked to blind cc the state list to inspire their listmates and the national list. When we're published, we pass on that information to our listmates and to the national group.

If you'd like more specifics, let me know what.

[cloudythescribbler]

8. Yes, more specifics -- THIS IS EXTREMELY RELEVANT

first, what does DFA stand for? It clearly overlaps with media work we would be doing. Are there specific actions they are doing now that DUers should be interested in?

How effective has it been and how big is it? Do they get 1000 people writing letters to the same targets?
I would think that the whole mass letter writing campaign, other than in tandem with Amnesty International, might require special thought. It would have more impact if the group publicly endorsed some specific proposal and had a press conference in real time and space, and then we wrote stuff to various people and media in support of what the group had endorsed, rather than merely reacting to stuff already in the media, although that too is apparently worthwhile.

Maybe you should start a thread -- in which you explain what D F A is and what you are doing.

[adarling]

10. i think we shouldn't focus on just letters and such

those are very good ideas, but we need something more powerful. We need something to set us apart from the rest of the democratic groups out there. We need more of a grassroots lobbying area. Since hopefully all of us represent one state in the union, we should start coordinating efforts to undermine the corrupt government powers in our own state and the country. Letters there and also meetings and protests should help. I wish i could come up with something more bombastic but i am at school right now getting the life sucked out of me and i am tired :rant:

[cloudythescribbler]

11. well, first of all, actions should be accompanied by DU press releases