[fvc-wat-disc] Meeting Notes from January 2017 [was: Strategy Meeting: Next Steps on Mon, 6 Feb 2017 at 7pm]

Mon Feb 6 16:47:24 EST 2017

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For anyone unable to attend January's 2017 New Year’s Strategy
Meeting the meeting notes are below, and also available online at

http://www.fairvotewrc.ca/meetings/2017-new-years-strategy-meeting/

- --Bob.

=====
Fair Vote Waterloo Strategy Meeting
11 January 2017

== Present ==
* Sharon Sommerville
* Dave Arthur
* Stu Chandler
* Bob Jonkman
* David Dirks
* Margaret Neigh
* Byron Weber Becker
* Shannon Adshade
* Jenn Ross
* Patty
* Mo Markham

== Welcome and Introductions ==

== Review ==
* Jam packed with events since the fall
** Media mentions in The Waterloo Record, interview on CBC, OpEd in
The Hamilton Spectator
** Christmas Card initiative
** 13 December 2016 rally at the Hon. Bardish Chagger's office: 50
people attended in the bitter cold; many regulars couldn't make it, so
it was an good turnout of new faces
** People have written to and met with their Members of Parliament
* Sharon met with the Hon. Bardish Chagger as the head of the Waterloo
Federal Liberal Association's policy committee
** A request to send a letter to "Keep The Promise" was met with some
resistance
* The ERRE Committee report was released on 1 December 2016
* The http://mydemocracy.ca website was started
* A new Minister of Democratic Institutions has been appointed
** The Hon. Karina Gould is the new minister
** ToDo:
*** Check for a new mandate letter to the minister
*** Send letter of congratulations to Minister Gould (David Dirks)
*** Send letter of thanks to former Minister Stephane Dion (Sharon
Sommerville)
*** Send letter of thanks to Minister Monsef (Bob Jonkman)

There was discussion on the value of the mydemocracy.ca survey
* Listen to the BBC "More or Less" episode entitled "How not to test
public opinion" Web: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04jz6sr Audio:
http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/5/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-low/proto/http/vpid/p04jz6sv.mp3

== New Actions ==
* Go visit your MP
** The house resumes sitting on 30 January
** There are 23 volunteers in Waterloo Region who will go to see their MPs
** MP for Kitchener-Centre, Raj Saini seems to prefer phone calls to
e-mail
** Sharon Sommerville has kits available to prepare for meetings with MPs
** To promote PR use the examples that minority governments have
implemented Canadian Values like universal health care
** Or use the counter-example that majority governments have
done/undone things like the closing of the gas plants and the sale of
HydroOne

* Delegation to Bardish Chagger
** Fair Vote volunteers who have responded to Anita Nickerson's letter

* Raj Saini is hosting a potluck on Sunday, 15 January 2017:
http://rsaini.liberal.ca/events/#64379

* Dave Arthur did some research: 36 of 184 Liberal MPs won their
riding by less than 2500 votes.
** Can we use this as leverage? Maybe not, the Liberals have likely
concluded that those votes don't count

* Google Adwords:
** Fair Vote Canada had some good results in purchasing Google AdWords
** This needs preparation before we can purchase this service:
*** We need a target "Information" page to direct people to
*** We have no baseline statistical information, so we won't know how
effective the AdWords campaign is
*** The geographic distribution of AdWords viewers is much greater
than Fair Vote Waterloo's user base
** The Liberals will have their own campaign (to promote a referendum)
*** Do we need to start our own campaign?
*** Will our campaign be effective to counter the (much better funded)
Liberal campaign?
*** Can we use the Liberal campaign to advance our own?
** Sharon Sommerville and Bob Jonkman will build an information page,
and we'll begin to gather stats
** We also need to document the statistics of mailing list signups and
petition signers at the various festival events
** There were several offers of funding for a Google AdWords campaign

* Kitchener Public Library Study Rooms (8-10 people)
** We can show the "Make Every Vote Count" presentation
** There is no cost to the rooms!

* Discussion Nights
** With all the other work we're doing, perhaps monthly Discussion
Nights is too often
*** We've already advertised the January Discussion Night, so it's on
*** The next Discussion Night will be in May, to be held as a potluck

* Justin Trudeau's London Town Hall
** we should go as citizens, not as a delegation of Fair Vote
** Friday, 13 January 2017 starting at 6:45pm
** Sharon Sommerville will put out a call for carpooling

* Global news clips
** Jenn Ross will send the links
***
http://globalnews.ca/news/3102270/justin-trudeau-liberals-electoral-reform-changing-promises/
*** Bob Jonkman will attempt to extract the video and repost them on
the Fair Vote Waterloo YouTube site

* Liberals have made their platform available online:
http://www.liberal.ca/realchange/
** People have ranked the policy items, Jenn Ross has a spreadsheet of
results: http://www.fairvotewrc.ca/liberal-ca-policies/

* High-school Civics classes?
** Our contacts who used to invite us are no longer available

* Campus groups?
** Young Liberals of WLU and UofW
*** These people may not be the best proponents of Electoral Reform,
as they're trying to become staffers in the Liberal organization
** Fair Vote Canada clubs on campus

- -- Notes taken by Bob Jonkman

=====

On 2017-02-05 08:52 PM, Bob Jonkman wrote:
> Hello everyone: Tomorrow night Sharon Sommerville is hosting 
> another Strategy meeting:
> 
> *What*: Fair Vote Waterloo Strategy Meeting: Next Steps *When*: 
> Monday, 6 February 2017 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm *Where*: Sharon 
> Sommerville's dining room *Location*: 85 Westmount Rd South, 
> Waterloo, *Map*: http://osm.org/go/ZXna8VEB--?m=
> 
> That's south west corner of Douglas and Westmount. Parking is on 
> Douglas, please feel free to use the back door off the driveway as 
> it is closer to Douglas.
> 
> Our agenda will be:
> 
> 1) Sharing our disappointment aka griping (not more than 10 
> minutes)
> 
> 2) Update – there is some hope!
> 
> 3) Objectives over next 19 months
> 
> 4) Possible Actions: March to Raj’s, Rally, Toque, Hats & Mitts 
> (with gummy rats), Banner, Petition, Postcards, Guerrilla tactics
> – business card with PM & WR MPs personal parliamentary email 
> address
> 
> 5) Working with other groups
> 
> 6) What else?
> 
> See everyone tomorrow night!
> 

- --
Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com>          Phone: +1-519-635-9413
SOBAC Microcomputer Services             http://sobac.com/sobac/
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