Some key points were made at our last Conference Call:
1. Oregon Citizen Lobby Training (War Room) on November 29th @ 7pm.
a. Webinar training on legislative bill reading. If interested in participating you must sign-up with Wayne Brady at [email protected].
b. There will likely be a second webinar training in January and don’t forget to attend the February 1st activities in Salem on the first day of the OR Legislature.
c. The official name of the group is Oregon Citizen Lobby.
Below is a letter from Wayne Brady regarding the Oregon Citizen Lobby Training to take place starting Nov. 29th.
Dear Oregon American For Prosperity Leaders,
I am looking for some help in making sure the conservative viewpoint is heard during the 2012 Legislative Session.
There are lots of opportunities to help stop bad legislation and help pass good legislation during the next Oregon Legislative Session. It doesn’t matter where you live in Oregon, you can help.
First, let me give you a little history. During the 2011 Legislative Session, Tom Stutzman of 912 Project Salem, sent emails out every Sunday with the committee agendas and analyses of important bills being heard by the committees for the upcoming week. These emails went to several thousand recipients including many tea party groups, Republican Central Committee members, and some of the legislative staff at the Capitol. The information from the emails was also posted on OregonCatalyst.com. The information in these emails allowed volunteers to testify at hearings, email, call, or visit their legislator with good information on the bills.
During the last 11 days of the Legislative Session, Jeff Kropf, Oregon State Director of Americans for Prosperity organized a War Room at the Capitol. We were in Room 350 in the middle of the Capitol. Jeff provided good information about how to lobby, where to get information, and a lot more. We analyzed bills, wrote up talking points, and in some cases printed flyers in support or opposition to certain bills. We visited legislators and their staff to either get some background on the bills or to voice our support or opposition to bills. We also attended hearings and works sessions. We got a lot of attention. Jeff provided us with buttons to wear so that people would know that we were part of the War Room.
We also did some brainstorming during the War Room and developed a grassroots plan for the 2012 Session. It is this plan I want to describe to you. The 2012 Session grassroots effort described below will be supported by Americans for Prosperity Oregon, now led by Karla Kay Edwards. Jeff Kropf will still be one of the leaders. Tom Stutzman and a number of other volunteers from the 2011 War Room will again be involved in this effort.
The job of reading and analyzing bills is too much for one person. We are in the process of recruiting volunteers to help us with that task. This is something you can do whether you live near the Capitol or you live hundreds of miles away. We are setting up 9 teams. Each team covers a specific set of topics such as land use, health care, or public safety (See the attached file). We will provide volunteers with instruction on how to read the bills, templates for their analysis, and a web site to which they can post their analyses.
Our web site will have a wealth of information and will be updated on an hourly basis. It will be a great resource for conservatives around the state.
There will, again be emails sent out that contain the committee agendas and the bill analyses.
The Legislature will meet three times before the 2012 Legislative Session. These are called interim sessions and each lasts for 3 days.
We will be looking for volunteers to attend and report on the committee work sessions that are held on September 21-23, November 16-18, and January 18-20. We should be able to learn a lot about what will be happening during the 2012 Legislative Session by attending these Interim Sessions. We will provide templates and instructions for reporting on these work sessions.
The 2012 Legislative Session begins on February 1 and ends on March 6.
The War Room will start early in the 2012 Session and we will need volunteers to help out. The War Room stays open most of the day. Individual volunteers do not have to stay for the whole time. We will have people coming in at different hours according to their schedule.
We will need volunteers to attend Committee hearings during the 2112 Legislative Session. Here again, instruction will be provided.
We are also encouraging visits to your legislator either at the Capitol or at the district office.
We will also need behind the scenes help to make this whole thing work. We will have to assign bills to the correct teams, help to assemble the emails, communicate with the volunteers, and much more.
This is a big job. The revenue forecasts are dropping. The reserve that Representative Richardson worked so hard to create could be swallowed up. There will be a lot of pressure to raise taxes, shorten sentences for criminals, and many other unpleasant things. We have to stop the bad stuff and try to get some of our good bills through.
There are a lot of opportunities to help. Please contact me if you have an interest in helping out or if you simply want to find out more about what we are doing.
I can be reached at (503) 585-6116 (Home), (503) 949-5430(Mobile), or by email at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.
Wayne Brady
"I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to give them effect must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard M. Johnson, 1808
Regards,
Rick Hoffine
AFP--Coos Co. Chapter