Citizens for Transportation Mobility Referendum Campaign

Gwen — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:25:22 +0000

UPDATE

(April 24, 2012)

The Citizens for Transportation Mobility Campaign for Metro Atlanta has entered a far more active phase in the effort to pass the regional TSPLOST. There are ads on radio and TV. Mailings are going to voters. The theme of these messages is "Untie Atlanta". These are the up-front and public advocacy pieces.

There is another phase which is more back office and which is a vital part of the strategy to win the referendum. The Campaign is urgently seeking volunteers to make Voter Identification calls. The volunteers are given call lists and training on what to say. The goal is to contact 175,000 likely votes by May 16. This can only be done if we have hundreds of folks volunteer to spend an evenings or two (and/or part of a Saturday) making calls. After the first one or two calls, this task will feel easy and comfortable.

Here is a link to an Introduction on what specifically is involved for a volunteer. In addition, there are 11 specific locations & times where a phone bank will be available for these calls. The idea is to utilize a phone location that is most convenient to you. As noted in the Introduction, you may also want to set up a phone bank at your company and make calls after the work day. You can contact one of the people mentioned in the links to arrange this.

Would you please volunteer to make calls for at least one evening (or a Saturday) over the next 5 weeks? There are less than 100 days until we vote.

Don't delay getting involved in a very direct way.

26 Days until July 31 - What to Do Now?

Gwen — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:49:46 +0000

(March 27, 2012)

The regional TSPLOST referenda are big deals all over Georgia. Folks that support these important votes are asking, “What to do?” and “When to do it?” There could be numerous answers, but here are a very few simple answers to do right now.

At a recent meeting, Jim Stephenson of Yancey Brothers (a Caterpillar Co. dealer in Atlanta) provided these simple, straightforward suggestions:

1. Give money to the campaigns. The campaigns in each of the 12 regions are trying to educate voters about the importance of the referenda, theLists of projects, the details of how the lists were prepared, the flow of money to projects, and the consequences of a “yes” and “no” vote. You may speak to me on how to give, or contact the campaigns directly (for Metro Atlanta, go tohttp://transformmetroatlanta.com and for the 11 regions outside Atlanta, go tohttp://www.connectgeorgia2012.com)

2. Talk to employees in your company. Hold a Lunch ‘n Learn in your company and discuss in an open fashion the details of the referenda. Many firms are holding these internal events and many more are scheduling them for the coming months. Another strategy is to receive e-mail updates from the Campaigns and simply pass them along to employees. The professionals in these campaigns say that an educated voter tends to be a supporter because of the logic of the referenda and the compelling case to mitigate congestion, create jobs, and increase economic competitiveness of the regions and the state.

3. Talk to friends, neighbors, and family. This is basically the same message as above, but the audience is difference. Communications within an engineering related company may be more technical than, say, to a civic group, but not necessarily so because companies employ a variety of non-technical people that also will vote. The friends/neighbors/family audience is simply broadening the circle of people that you communicate with beyond the work experience.

Each suggestion leads to additional actions that are useful. Or to questions that need to be addressed. If we may be of assistance, please contact the Georgia Engineering Alliance.

Thomas C. Leslie, Director of External Affairs

Georgia Engineering Alliance : Blog

Citizens for Transportation Mobility Referendum Campaign

26 Days until July 31 - What to Do Now?