By Bob Richard

Sunday, November 6, 2005

Our fourth monthly meeting on October 26 was attended by five members. Here is my (completely unofficial) understanding of what we accomplished.

We reviewed, revised and approved a letter to Senator Debra bowen endorsing SB 596. The letter (see attachment below) was mailed on October 28.

We also reviewed and revised a draft resolution endorsing SB 596 that could be used as a model by county Boards of Supervisors and city councils.

In the course of an open discussion of where we are and where we are going, we also touched on the following agenda items:

*** Senate Elections Committee informational hearing on ranked voting on October 25. Three members attended the hearing in Oakland, and one addressed the panel.

*** Contacts with members of the Board of Supervisors and their staff.

*** Educational presentations to local civic and political organizations. We worked on plans to co-sponsor an event with the Ruth Group.

*** Speaker training workshop provided by CfER. See this announcement.

*** Training/practice/role playing sessions. We agreed that we need to schedule some practice sessions of our own, regardless of when and whether the CfER training happens.

*** Email lists (listservs) for news and discussion. One person favors Yahoo Groups, two favor vehicles other than Yahoo, and one doesn't want any discussion list at all. A decision on having an email list for discussion was deferred.

An email list for news and announcements was created after the meeting, and you are on it. To subscribe, contact us and check the box for meeting reports and announcements. For more information in the list, visit the membership page.

Potential agenda items that were *not* touched on during the meeting included:

*** Literature and website pages with local content.

*** Marin's Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo), which has used IRV to fill two of the seven seats since 2001.

*** Promoting ranked voting for College of Marin (COM) and Dominican University student government elections.

*** Contacts with office holders and candidates who are known IRV supporters, to start a process of getting their input on strategy and tactics.

*** Branding (logo, artwork, letterhead).

*** Marin County Youth Commission and Youth Vote program in schools.

*** FairVote program to get election officials to observe ranked voting elections in San Francisco, November 5-9.

Bob Richard is Marin County Coordinator for Californians for Electoral Reform.