[fvc-wat-announce] Fw: Turning Point Update - Finding Events & Agenda

Fri Sep 16 22:44:06 EDT 2011

Hello CAPP and Fair Vote supporters. I just came home from a great discussion at our Democracy Cafe, and want to offer all of us another fabulous opportunity to connect with others who want to see change in both the policies and process of our democracy. Lead Now is initiating gatherings all across the country, between September 27 and October 2,  to bring us together. Anyone can offer to host one, anywhere. There are already 3 happpening in our area. You can use their look-up by postal code to find one. I will be attending the one on Saturday Oct 1 in Waterloo. I hope many of you will be inteested in attending, too!

Anita

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Jamie Biggar - Leadnow.ca 
To: lanickerson at b2b2c.ca 
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 5:52 PM
Subject: Turning Point Update - Finding Events & Agenda

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                              Dear friends,

                              Only have a minute to spare right now? Click here to search for a Turning Point event near you and RSVP.

                              Thank you for your patience with us. Since we last wrote you about Turning Point, we have reached out to facilitators, organizers and strategists - working through possibilities for the agenda, and strategic options for your consideration during the gatherings.

                              Your response to this cross-country event has been overwhelming - as of the time of writing there are now 76 gatherings and almost 1,200 registered participants. We've received a huge amount of diverse feedback. We've been slow to follow-up with the agenda because we wanted to make it perfect - but, then, finally, we realized we were missing the obvious: instead of waiting for perfection, we should ask you for help.

                              Now, we have a fair bit to catch up on. This is the first of two emails that we're going to send you within the next few days, and it focuses on helping you to find an event, introducing the agenda outline so that we can get your feedback, and describing the Turning Point Day of Action that will follow the gatherings.

                              The second email will provide materials for outreach, ways that - if you like - you can get more engaged to help make this cross-country event a success, and more logistical information.

                              Here are the key parts of this note:

                              1. Find an event and RSVP, or host one if there is not one near you (just do this for now if you only have a few moments)
                              2. Re-affirming our purpose
                              3. Draft agenda outline for Turning Point gatherings, with a link to questions for your feedback (takes about five to ten minutes)
                              4. Description of the Turning Point Day of Action

                              One last thing before we get into it - We really appreciate you using the tool to find an event and RSVP because it will allow us to tell the hosts approximately how many people are coming. And, we deeply appreciate your feedback on the agenda - we will be able to accept feedback through till midnight PST on Monday, September 19.

                              1. Find an event and RSVP

                              We’ve built a new tool that allows you to use your postal code to find the gatherings that are closest to you. We’d really appreciate it if you would find a gathering you'd like to attend and RSVP so that we can give the hosts a sense of how many people to expect. If you don’t find a gathering near you, we’d love it if you would consider hosting one yourself (you can sign up to host on the same page). A gathering can be you and two friends, and we’ll provide host packages and support videos by early next week.

                              Search for a gathering near you here: http://www.leadnow.ca/en/turning-point

                              2. Re-affirming our purpose

                              We are coming together to organize for change in Canada. Our current government is taking our country in the wrong direction on a range of issues - from weakening our democracy to damaging our environment and allowing rising inequality. Millions of Canadians want our country to rise to the challenges of our times.

                              We want to create a turning point for our country by organizing together, both on-line and on-the-ground. It’s going to take time and creativity, but by working together on a broad range of issues and by working together across party lines - we will strengthen each other's voices so that we can hold our government accountable, and we will reach out to more and more Canadians to build support for constructive alternatives. What kind of alternatives? The community-created Declaration for Change provides a starting point for our work.

                              Let’s use our imaginations. By taking action together on a range of issues over the next four years we could build a community of half a million Canadians. With that community we could, for example, partner with organizations working on electoral reform on a massive outreach and engagement campaign to change our electoral system. From online actions to creative videos, from attending dialogue sessions to writing letters to the editor, and from talking to our neighbours to talking to our representatives, our community could become a vibrant force that engages Canadians to shape our shared future together.

                              In all of this, we are inspired to place love, optimism and hope at the core of our work. 

                              3. Agenda for a Gathering (September 27 to October 2nd)

                              We expect that this agenda can be completed within two hours, while the discussion can be extended as long as you like. We are trying to strike a balance between achieving focused outcomes about organizing together through Leadnow, and creating space for you to connect around other projects and ideas - particularly in a way that allows us to give everyone a better sense of the big picture of all of our efforts to organize for change.

                              You’ll need the following materials: some large sheets of paper for making banners, markers for writing on the banners, a Turning Point personal worksheet for each participant (we will provide these in Word and .pdf document form so that you can print them off), a Turning Point plan for each participant (this will be a 1 page document, in Word and .pdf document form), and a lap-top for a note taker to record key parts of the discussion and allow people to sign-up for next step actions. 

                              1.Welcome - the host, or their chosen facilitator, will welcome everyone, introduce the agenda and hand out the Turning Point personal worksheet and plan (we will also email these to all registered participants in advance).

                              2. The following are the three core questions that we will work through as a group:

                              2.a) Why are we here?

                              First, invite your group to fill out all but the final question on the personal worksheets. The worksheets will introduce Leadnow and then ask everyone why they have come today: why do we want to organize for change? The questions will be affirming: focused on what you love about the country, and what you hope to be able to change by taking action. After answering those questions in the worksheet invite everyone to break into groups of two to three to share their answers. Finally, invite everyone to come back into the larger group and share one-sentence answers to the question: "why do I want to organize for change?", and then write down your answers onto the large sheets of paper to create Turning Point banners. 

                              2.b) What can we accomplish together?

                              This section of the agenda has been the most difficult for us to create because we want to both: 

                              a) Present you with a specific strategy from Leadnow to get your feedback, find out what campaigns you would like to be part of, and learn more about how we can collaborate across organizations and political affiliations.

                              b)  Create space for you to talk with one another about the bigger picture of organizing for change in Canada - the ideas, the organizations, and the projects that excite you.

                              … and we want to do that in a way that leads to specific outcomes about how we can begin to create a turning point for Canada.

                              Here’s the best we’ve come up with so far: first, invite everyone to refer to their Turning Point plans. The plan will describe our proposed strategy for creating a large community that can strengthen each other’s voices through multi-issue campaigns that connect on-line and on-the-ground actions at key moments and in support of partner organizations (where applicable). The plan will also include options for long-term campaigns that will focus on collaborations and outreach to on major challenges like inequality, health, climate change and electoral reform.

                              Invite everyone to break into groups of two to six to give feedback on the plan and discuss which long-term campaigns they would be interested in becoming involved in. Next, invite the participants to talk about the ideas, organizations and projects that can or should be part of the big picture of organizing for change in Canada. Once they are done, invite everyone back into the larger group and share key points from the small groups.

                              We will take the feedback from this conversation and the dialogue about big picture ideas for creating a turning point for Canada and turn it into a turning point plan and big picture visuals to help all of us get a better sense of the broader movement that we are a part of.

                              2.c) What's next?

                              Invite everyone to go back to the personal worksheets to answer the final question: what actions do we want to take next? Your answers can be about anything - personal steps that you want to take in your life, work with other organizations, and actions you want to take with Leadnow. We will provide a list of specific options for ways that you can continue to take action with Leadnow - from participating in local actions to online outreach to creative work and building relationships with politicians. We will then follow-up with you after Turning Point with opportunities for us to take action together, and opportunities for training and support. (For example - we are currently planning a major training website to help our community with skills like facilitation, media relations, event organizing, etc.)

                              3) Wrap-up and networking 

                              Invite everyone to close the session by first sharing something that we have appreciated from the meeting. Then, invite anyone who would like to discuss a project or idea to invite people who are interested to stay for a while longer to discuss it with them, or schedule another time to meet about it. Finally, all of the participants will thank the host for generously offering their space.

                              What do you think of the agenda? We’d love your feedback - you can click on this link to find a form with a few quick questions and we will be able to accept feedback through Monday at midnight, PST: http://www.tfaforms.com/217838

                              4. Turning Point Day of Action (October 3rd)

                              Purpose: Make a visual statement that more and more Canadians are stepping up and working together to shape our shared future.

                              We will go to our local Member of Parliament’s constituency office and post notes about why we are organizing for change, including the Turning Point banners we created during the gatherings, onto the walls and windows of their building.

                              Imagine how our politicians, and all other Canadians will feel to see so many of us turning out with a shared message about our desire to work for change that is positive, honest and powerful.

                              With hope and respect,
                              Jamie, Tria, Matthew, Adam, Emma and Ryan on behalf of the Leadnow.ca team

                              Leadnow.ca is an independent community that brings generations of Canadians together for progress through democracy. Our community launched before the federal election by facilitating a process that brought thousands of Canadians together to create the Declaration for Change. Then we helped turn the vote mobs into a national movement to rally the youth vote and tell politicians they needed to sit up and listen. After the election, over 8,000 Canadians joined us to tell Prime Minister Harper that he won a majority of seats, but he does not have a majority of support. We told him that we would build a movement to hold him accountable, build support for democratic reform, and achieve progress on the major challenges facing our society at all levels of government. Now it’s time to step up, get organized, and act.

                              Support the Leadnow.ca community! You can donate online at: http://www.leadnow.ca/en/donate 

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