[statecom-discuss] Minutes: Common Local Ballot Question 2008, Somerville Meeting

[Ron Francis]

    Minutes of the Somerville Meeting of the Common Local Ballot Question 2008 (CLBQ) initiative (2 months ago) 

Prior to the meeting, 8 people sent in their votes for which issues they would like to subject to the Question Formulation process and Jen Yanco won the "door Prize" for getting closest to predicting the results.   At this point, about the same number of folks 8, seem interested in the idea at this point.. we'll see what happens at the next meeting.


  Minutes: 
The group (5 people if I remember) discussed some of the ideas behind the CLBQ:  1 person from Watertown, 1 person from Medford, 2 from Somerville and one from Weston.


    1) Local Organizing focus, 
  2) Enough lead time, 
  3) Economies of Scale on literature production, 
  4) Root Cause Language, 
  5) Party Signature on passionate issue, 
  6) Operationally feasible to get on ballot, 
  7) Multi-District for coherence
    We then went into the Question Formulation process picking the issue of reparations for this meeting.
   
  Reparations was defined as “A program that brings resources into Native American communities and descendents of African American slaves”
    Next we brainstormed on the questions that should be asked if one were to do a ballot Question on reparations.  Here were the questions (the Star * on a question indicates that the question made it to the next round... explained below)
    Precisely where will these resources go ?
  Who will get them ?
  Where will the resources come from ?
  Can the question be phrased to distinguish the GRP
  What about Hispanics who have historically have been subject to US imperialism ?
  How will you determine how an individual person qualifies
  Would it be a sate level program
  Would working class whites not support it
  What are the reasons why working class whites might not support it?
  Won’t working class whites vote against it
  Is it too complex an issue to put in one ballot question ?
  How could we phrase the question of an appropriate level of complexity ?
  Should the state of Massachusetts issue an official apology for its role in transatlantic slave trade ?
  How can it be phrased to distinguish the GRP ?
  Wouldn’t it be useful to take the temperature of the MA voting population on this issue
  Will this issue bring in new GRP members ?
  Will this issue turn off people ?
  What do potential “recipients” really want out of reparations ?
  How would the campaign relate to existing advocates ?
  How would reparations advocates phrase the question ?
  What do potential “recipients want out of reparations ?
  Will the recipients disagree about the issue ?
  Who can speak for these recipients ?
  What groups in MA are working on this issue ?
  What would be an acceptable fair process to formulating the ballot question ?
  Who would be involved in the process ?
  Is the reparation a one-time payment or an ongoing resource allocation ?
  When would recipients get it ?
  How would they get it ?
  How much would they get ?
  Who does the GRP need to consult to find the answer to these questions ?
  How much do the recipients deserve ?
  How do you get it from the right place ?
  Can formulating the question be an organizing process in and of itself ?
  How would recipients be involved in formulating the ballot question ?
   
  The group then voted to decide which three questions were the most important, with each person getting about three votes.
   
  The top 3 questions were
  1) What groups in MA are working on this issue ?
  2) What would be an acceptable and fair, just process for formulating the ballot question 3) Who does the GRP need to consult to find the answers to these questions ?
   
  The next step was to consider further questions / issues about each of the top three questions.  We did this for the next 10 or 15 minutes since we wanted time at the end to assess the process (which we did do).
   
  1) What groups in MA are working on this issue ?
  a) Call Chuck Turner, Tony Van Der Meer, Mel King, Gary Hick, United American Indians of NE, Mashpeee nation, Aquinah ?
  2) What would be an acceptable and fair, just process for formulating the ballot question 
  Survey African American members of the party, consider GRP key values, consider GRP consensus decision-making process
  3) Who does the GRP need to consult to find the answers to these questions ?
  Consult national groups, find language from existing groups, Caucasians United fro Reparations, AIM.
   
  We then decided to assess the process.  Here are the comments
   
  “really neat”
  “It took one the more complicated issues, and got to what we need to do in < 1 ½ hours” “instead of 5 or 6 hours”
  “Help prevent people from having their ‘own agenda’ ”
  “Promotes collective thinking”
  “Very scientific”
  “I felt like it fell apart at the end and had disappointing results”
  “I kept us on point”
  “I felt like I learned a lot & it’s an issue I feel passionate about”
  “Best meeting I have been to in weeks”
  “Delved deep into an issue which nobody does”
  “Explores plusses and minuses of an issue”
  “People are usually so emotional.. this makes it less so”
  “Helps to have someone who really understands / facilitates the process”
  “Got out 90% of the questions that are out there”
   
  And that was it.
   
  The next meeting was held in Northampton about 3 weeks later and was on IRV (minutes posted in a few days)
   
  Interestingly some of the questions that came up in that meeting (Northampton) were similar to the questions that came up for the first meeting (in Somerville)
   
  I hope to flag which questions were common to the Reparations discussion in Somerville and the IRV discussion in Northampton.
   
  Next meeting will be in a few weeks
 probably June 3rd (Sunday), June 4th, June 5th or June 6th.
   
  I will call the 6 to 8 people that have expresses an interest and plan the next meeting.  I think the meeting should be in the Worcester area or maybe Metro north on Route 2 Leominster area.
   
  The notes for the Northampton meeting will be forthcoming in a couple days.
    Ron Francis 617 230-2835