Dec 08

OFA Night School Organizing Boot Camp

One of the things we’ve heard from volunteers is that you’d like additional training opportunities. We’ve heard you, and we’re now proud to be able to unveil an 8-week long program beginning this Wednesday, December 7 at 6PM, with a Webinar/Conference Call which will kick start our 8 week long OFA Night School Organizing Boot Camp!

We begin this Wednesday with a training on “Introduction to OFA”, continuing next week with a training on Messaging for 2012, and in subsequent weeks on everything from Digital Strategies (using Facebook and Twitter to organize), Volunteer Recruitment and Making the Hard Ask, Planning Events, Data 101 and Data 201, as well as How to Use your Personal Story.

Night School Flyer

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Dec 08

State Bank – December Update

From Bob Hasegawa:

I know many of you have been calling and emailing to try to find out what is happening with the state bank proposal. Firstly, thank you for your enthusiasm and willingness to help make this a reality. Many of you have been working hard in your communities to help spread the word about our efforts.

The taskforce members and staff have been hard at work over the past few months in order to get a bill ready for the upcoming legislative session. While we are still working on the details and the specifics of how to best establish this legacy institution, the need for it is clear. While working on developing potential lending programs for the public bank the taskforce heard about unmet needs in a variety of areas. For example, there is an enormous amount of infrastructure funding needs in the state. Over the next ten years our K-12 school facilities alone will need approximately $5.7 billion for renovations, repairs, construction, etc. A drinking water infrastructure needs survey and assessment revealed that we will need to provide $9.756 billion over the next twenty years for water systems to provide safe drinking water to the public. Our vision is to build a bank that will leverage our taxpayer’s money to work for us so that we can provide adequate funding to projects like these, while at the same time creating jobs that will put people to work on making these projects a reality.

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Dec 08

How to Start Participatory Budgeting in Your City

From CommonDreams.org:

Have you noticed all the cuts being made to your city budget? To schools and libraries, fire fighters and social services, and other public spending? Think you could do a better job managing the budget? Soon, you may have that chance.

Through a process called “participatory budgeting”, residents of over 1,000 cities around the world are deciding how to spend taxpayer dollars. In October, four districts in New York City launched the second such process in the US. This article offers some initial tips for how you could start participatory budgeting in your city.

What is Participatory Budgeting?

In 1989, the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre developed a new model of democratic participation, which has become known internationally as “participatory budgeting” (PB). Through this process, community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. In other words, the people who pay taxes (all of us) decide how they get spent.

This sounds simple, but it is not. Budgets are complex creatures, and it takes a lot of time and support for ordinary people to make wise spending decisions. For this reason, PB generally involves a year-long cycle of public meetings. Community members discuss local needs and develop project proposals to meet these needs, then invite the public to vote on which projects get funded.

More here:  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/07-2

Dec 03

Tukwila School Levy Meeting

Next week there will be an organizational meeting for the 2012 School Operations & Maintenance Levy.

Your help is needed to help pass this critical levy. It is not a new tax; a yes vote will simply continue the school levy tax that is in place. The revenue received makes up over 25% of the general fund for the schools; without this income our schools operations and maintenance would be severely restricted.

Details are here:  https://www.11thlddems.org/blog/event/tukwila-school-levy-meeting/

Dec 02

Holiday Party 2011

Just a reminder that our holiday party is next Tuesday.  Details are here:  https://www.11thlddems.org/event/holiday-party-december-2011/

Nov 20

Washington State Redistricting Commission Conference Call

The Redistricting Commission will hold a Special Meeting next Tuesday, November 22 at 10:30 a.m. via teleconference. Staff will manage the call from the Cherberg Building, Hearing Room 3. The meeting is open to the public and will also be webcast. Anyone interested in attending in person is welcome to join us in the hearing room. Any members of the public may use the web to make comments, or dial into the conference call. If you are interested in participating in the conference call via telephone, you can register by calling Rachel Gay at 360-786-0770. There will be an opportunity for public comment at the end of the Commission’s business meeting. You can view the agenda for more details.

Nov 18

Larry Grubb Memorial

A memorial for Larry Grubb will be held in the back room at Mick Kelly’s on Saturday, November 19 from 12-3:30 PM. It will be a celebration of Larry’s life with family and friends.

Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub
435 SW 152nd St., Burien

Nov 15

Zack Hudgins Endorsement

Congrats to Zack Hudgins!  He just received the sole endorsement from the 11th LD Democrats for his run for Secretary of State in 2012.

Nov 15

Resolution on VoteBuilder Database Resources

Here is the resolution demanding investment of more resources into the VoteBuilder database by the Democratic National Committee:  2011-8 VoteBuilder resources

Nov 13

Events

Hi all, I just wanted to let you know that the site has undergone a minor overhaul to the component that handles event postings on the site.  The new version of the events plugin won’t cross-post events to the main blog page (you’ll only see events if you click on our events list on the right).

Also, the RSS feed url needed an update after the upgrade.  The RSS icon will take you to the feed for events, or you can plug the following URL into your RSS reader:  https://www.11thlddems.org/blog/events/?feed=rss

One last thing…  the plugin that updates our facebook page automatically doesn’t play well with the upgraded calendar plugin yet, so you might see some garbage on the facebook page when I post events, briefly, until I clean things up.  Thanks.

-Robert

Nov 10

November General Meeting update

The agenda has been posted.  You can view it here:  https://www.11thlddems.org/blog/event/general-membership-meeting-november-2011/

Nov 10

Newsletter – November 2011

The November 2011 newsletter can be found here:  2011_11_November

Nov 04

Remember to vote

Election day is just a few short days a way.  Remember to vote.  Your envelope must be postmarked by Tuesday, November 8th.  You can also drop your ballot off at a King County Ballot Return box.

Just as a reminder, the 11th LD Democrats endorsed candidates list is posted here:
https://www.11thlddems.org/blog/2011/06/2011-endorsements/

Nov 04

SeaTac elections

From Stefan Moritz (UniteHere Local 8):

The City of SeaTac is facing a defining city council election and the community needs your help in ensuring victory in the coming days. There is exactly one week left until election day on November 8!

Volunteer with us to GET OUT THE VOTE in SeaTac!

Join us to make phone calls or sign up for a canvassing shift (or two) to talk to voters about sending in their ballots before it’s too late. We are working every day until November 8, and any time you have will make a difference.

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Nov 04

Zack Hudgins for Secretary of State

Our 11th LD State Legislator, Zack Hudgins has announced that he’s running for Secretary of State:

http://zackhudgins.info/

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