Thanks everyone for attending last night! It was great to hear thoughts and feedback for Be the Change. Your insights about tapping the potential of young people, including alums of the service movement, will be invaluable in helping to shape this new organization.
This new blog is an effort to continue the dialogue that began at Tent City. Feel free to invite anyone you think will be interested in helping develop this idea. It is our goal that together, as a community, we can build a citizen movement that will redefine our policies and politics, and create a government that is truly "by the people and for the people."
Some key themes that were brought up at the meeting:
Policy:
The idea of wiki policy process and how to flush that out
Trying to build consensus on a policy agenda in an age of individualism
Emphasizing structural change
Mobilization:
How do we engage people and demonstrate impact in the political realm?
Getting alums engaged by attaching this to existing networks (cultural, music, art, service, etc)
Looking at how local community orgs start (i.e. PTA) and try to replicate that model
What are we asking people to do?
Political Action:
A political accountability scorecard
supporting someone running for office
supporting existing politicians who align with the principles of Be the Change
**Ideally, we would love feedback and any other ideas/suggestions you have about building this organization. Especially on the three organizational areas of policy, citizen mobilization, and political action. And on our fundraising strategy, we were thinking of having a "founding member" with a goal of 10,000 members. We originally were thinking of have the founding members donate around $25-$50 annually. Any thoughts on this? Is the amount something you think people would donate to?
We definitely will have more questions and brainstorms that we will post asking for feedback, so keep checking in, regardless of whether you want to comment or just stay informed.
We really appreciate your contributions!
Sincerely,
Be the Change
3 comments:
Come on people let's leave some comments on this blog. I know we can do better!
I'd really love to see the results of the survey from a couple weeks ago posted here...
I read an article that made me think about this movement and how we might need to think about getting it started. It's a snipit from THE WEEK magazine (May 25, 2007; p.14). Enjoy the thought.
When one victim moves us more than thousands
Nicholas Kristof
The New York Times
The American public is largely indifferent to the genocide in Sudan, said Nicholas Kristof, and I've finally figured out why. Too many people are suffering and dying. Several recent studies have found that people often aren't moved by human suffering on a mass scale, while the plight of one sympathetic child or a big-eyed puppy in distress "causes our hearts to flutter." In one study, for example, people were willing to donate twice as much to help save one child than eight. Real-world examples support those conclusions: A story about a single stranded dog or child will elicit a huge public response, while the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur leave us numbed. So how can we generate the public support needed to get our leaders to intervene in the slaughter in Darfur? Our best hope may be to find a "Darfur puppy," preferably one "with big eyes and floppy ears."
Which "puppies" does BE THE CHANGE stand behind?
Keep up the good work.
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