CEA to change to Equal Citizens Project

[Bruce Skarin]

Greetings all,

I know it has been a bit quiet, but I'm hoping people are ready to jump back into action soon!

I've been working hard to build the support and collation needed to make this project happen and after numerous discussions, we've arrived at arrangement that will hopefully work for all parties involved.

Instead of one single act, we are now letting the existing expert communities draft the initial bills and shifting our crowdsourcing work to a process of reviewing, revising, and approving three independent bills. To that end we are in the midst of rebranding things to the equal citizens project (ECP), which will still focus on the same three key reforms proposed by Larry during his campaign.

I've also reached out to the organizer of Democracy Spring to time the equal citizens crowdsourcing kickoff conference to be held on the Saturday that it ends, so that we can roll the momentum from that into the additional concrete actions that come with the ECP.

You can read the new overview and plan on the revised site http://www.citizens4equality.org/, which will hopefully be moving to equalcitizens.us as soon as I get domain access from Larry.

Larry has also been kind enough to let us reuse his icon, which means we will also be taking over the store with shirts, mugs, and all things supporting equal citizens. For the artists out there, we're looking for additional designs and quotes that we can use, so start making suggestions now!

Lastly we'll be looking to shoot a new intro video. For those comfortable on camera and have a means to shoot HD video, we may need your help. Please let me know if you're interested.

Thanks,

-Bruce

[Elizabeth Lindquist]

First, I love the name Equal Citizens Project. I also like that the plan is three separate bills. 

What I still don't really get is why we need to crowdsource the voter suppression piece and the equal representation piece. Aren't we just going to take the Ranked Choice Voting Act, the Voter Empowerment Act of 2015, and the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 and use them? 

Making a final decision on the voter empowerment/public financing piece is going to be difficult enough without complicating the rest. Or are you maybe talking about just tweaking the first three? I suppose that would be necessary, but I don't think we have time to try to reinvent the wheel on the two complete components.

As far as the conference at the end of the Democracy Spring, I'm hoping that will be too late.

From the website, "When the march arrives in Washington on April 11th, we hope we will be able to rally to celebrate that Congress has come to its senses and passed at least one of the perfectly-viable reform bills now pending before it." Right? Not.

Is this conference going to be Saturday and Sunday in DC?

Also, mark me down for being willing to shoot a video.

-Elizabeth

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[Al Cannistraro]

Bruce,

Did the Cornell folks ever get back to you? They did not get back to me. Do we still want them to share their crowdsourcing expertise, given the scaled back project?

I can shoot HD video and am willing to appear on camera.

The new website looks good on my iPhone.

Al C.

[Bruce Skarin]

WRT the question on the existing bills, one of the reasons we are doing the RCVA first is because it is mostly written. We still need to crowdsource the process for how we explain, revise, and approve the bill. FairVote has agreed to make refinements based on our feedback, so it's a good way for us to work out the process, though we may only spend 3 weeks on it so that we can have more time for campaign finance.

The votings rights side might is still missing some of the provisions, but it will likely be much easier, so we may only spend three weeks on those as well.

Yeah I don't think democracy spring will have any chance of getting something passed by April 11th, but I'll hopefully know more once I connect with Kai.

The conference will at least be Saturday. It all depends on how big this ends up going.

Thanks,

-Bruce

[Elizabeth Lindquist]

That clarifies things. I must admit I had not even read "The Plan" on the site before asking anything. Now that I have, I'm wondering if non-delegates can attend the DC training. I'd love to help, but work full-time.

Also, what if we don't get 1000 in each state? 50,000 really active, contributing people is a pretty lofty goal, but considering the scope of the proposed legislation, it does seem doable.

 

Do you know about this?

_____

Jonah Minkoff-Zern <jz...@citizen.org>: Dec 09 09:40PM

Hi Democracy Leaders,
 
We are launching a large-scale campaign for 2016 that will encompass activities and campaigns on the local and state level, as well as a mass mobilization in DC in May. This year-long plan will join the demands for voting rights and money-in-politics reform, bringing together historically separate communities and reform proposals. Our plan ranges from mass education to mass mobilization, from creative civil disobedience to state reform campaigns.
 
I'd like to invite you to attend a special Democracy Leaders call next Wednesday, December 16 at 4 p.m. Eastern Time to learn more about the campaign and how you can be part of it. More information about the call will follow.
Dial in # (641)715-3645 the participant access code is 139527#.
 
I look forward to talking to you then.
 
Jonah Minkoff-Zern
Public Citizen's Democracy Is For People Campaign

_____

 

It came out on the Public Citizen listserv this morning.

 

-Elizabeth

 

 

 

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[bobby gonzales]

Hi, I am a busy student and working class citizen.  I heard that the plan was to hold crowd-sourced conventions months ago, and haven't heard anything since. Can anyone update me on the progress of the movement?  Where is this convention being held on the 1st?  How does who get selected, and how many people are participating?  What constitutional reforms are being proposed to make citizens equal?  Why don't we start out with jurisdictional conventions instead?  How does the convention and amendment process work?

Now that I have just finished finals, I am ready to being connecting a permanent network of organizers out of networks like this one, using the global resistance networks strategy.  The goal is essentially to finalize and forcibly implement federal citizenship law reforms, but we should not limit the movement to DC!  And because the Equal Citizens Project will not be the only civilian law initiative in history, we should take the standing opportunities to build the organization which will unite all those similar.  

Most people understand that the democratic law needs to be reformed to begin getting the money out of politics.  So instead of holding a main convention and interventionary event, we can collectively organize nationwide Civilian Intervention, and build the standing networks of ORGANIZERS we all know will be necessary for the future.  My friends and I have been thoroughly preparing to hold crowd-source conventions for the last two years, regarding our democratic law issue too.  We have a base in numerous California cities, and have connections in Nevada, Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland, and Massachusettes.  We are looking to partner with a nationwide network of Civilian Parties who are willing to use compulsory membership processes to finalize and forcibly implement the democratic law as the supreme law of the land, and any agenda required by an incentivized People.  So instead of simply holding conventions, we should all work together to build the civilian/support/political action networks of the future!

The framework to build these standing Civilian Parties already exists all over the internet!  If you would like to help us build this network through which you can mobilize almost any agenda, send an email to c...@californiamail.com regarding your interests and political agendas, your location, and your time availability.  We have have thorough and focused frameworks and strategies for inclusive outreach, keeping a standing support network consistently involved, and implementing the democratic reforms required for the future!  To give you a little to think about in regard to the democratic law, the Arizona legislature appoints a commission to redistrict the State.  We have designed a much more unique version of the Arizona redistricting commission, which gives the People veto power during the formation of their district.  Hope to hear soon about the progress of the Equal Citizens Project, and how we can begin preparing for nationwide conventions and intervention instead!