1/14 Call Notes

[rj...@cornell.edu]

Hi all,

This is one part conference call notes, and one part attempt to clear
up confusion for the group as a whole, so I'm also posting a similar
message in the general group. If I forgot anything about the call,
please add it.

The lobbying committee had a conference call last week, and three
people were on it, including myself. The people on that call felt
that having a lobby day on February 12 wasn't going to go very well,
because we didn't feel we would having the student support, money,
appropriate legislation with a chance of being passed anytime soon,
organization, etc., in place in time based on the current rate of
progress. We didn't discuss what we were going to do about this
opinion. A couple of days after this call, there was a general
announcement that lobby day had been cancelled, even though the matter
hadn't really been discussed with anybody else. This really surprised
me; I had been planning on at least discussing this with the steering
committee. A decision as important as this shouldn't be made with so
little input, but it's been accepted regardless. The steering
committee is working on finalizing bylaws for future decision making.

On to what was discussed on yesterday's lobbying committee call. Even
though we won't be meeting with representatives in Albany, we still
want to do something for Valentine's Day. The Valentine's card idea
is a good one, and we can still mail cards Albany. I spoke with a
member of Carl Marcellino's staff. Marcellino is the Chair of the
Senate Environmental Committee. The staffer I talked to said that
sending a memo would be a good way to encourage bills to get out of
committee and get passed. This goes well with the card idea, and we
can send a more formal memo with the cards. We may also want to
organize phone calls that day. Getting the cards ready will require a
template from the PR committee.

Even though we won't be going to Albany in February, there is still a
lot that everyone can do. Making and sending cards is something that
can and should be done at each campus involved. Also, the outreach
committee seems to be nonexistent, so if you have contacts at others
schools who you think would be interested NYSSC, let them know about
it. The regional coordinators have assumed outreach responsibilities
in the meantime, but this isn't foolproof. It would be a good idea to
try to check if anyone else has previously contacted someone at a
particular school. There isn't a well-defined way to do this yet. I
was just thinking about it now. If in doubt, posting to the general
Google Group is a safe bet. We may be more successful if we go to
Albany later in the semester, so consider that possibility in future
plans.

Robert