Salem Chapter Update 7/2014

Thanks to Byron Harmon for this update! The Salem Chapter has nearly finished collecting the first 1,000 signatures for our two initiatives. We should have that done by the end of the month at the latest. This means we will be ballot measures 1 and 2 for 2016. We then will have 2 years to collect 87,000+ signatures.

Further notes from Byron:

I have been contacting a number of like minded groups to see if we can get them on board. Tentatively, No KXL Portland has signed on, I will be meeting with Salem 350 on the 15th, Salem EcoFaith Recovery will review it at their steering committee meeting on the 11th. A woman from EcoFaith recovery in Portland has already been helping us collect signatures. I have a list so far of 5 unaffiliated people who have posited a direct interest in helping collect signatures. Chemeketa's Sustainability club and Willamette U's Ecos club have both offered their help.

I have sent emails to:

350 Portland (Met their rep./steering committee member at Sunday Parkways)

Sustainable Jobs council? of Portland

Salem SEIU

Vernon from the Green Party who is a member of No KXL and 350 in Corvallis

350 Eugene

And I have emailed the country fair about getting a booth for 2015.

As for the plausibility of passing/getting enough signatures. In a conservative place like Salem at the farmers market amongst people who stop roughly 50-60% are willing to sign (18 signatures an hour.) Warranted this is a biased data set. In other parts of Salem we get around 40-45% willing to sign. Canvassing in Portland is completely different, I get positive responses roughly 80-90% of the time. At the Sunday Parkways event I collected roughly 20 signatures/hour, again another biased location/ data set. But if we assume that the ratios will be a bit lower, say 40-45% in Salem and 65-75% in Portland come the election, it would still pass similar to Kitzhaber in 2010. So I am optimistic. Also, by starting early, it means it will be much easier to get the signatures. Right to know collected most of their signatures in the span of 2 months. With 200 volunteers that equates to less than 1 signature per volunteer per day.

Back of the envelope calculation, we reckon there are roughly 40,000 people in Salem who would be willing to sign the initiatives, reaching all of them will be difficult. Our goal for Salem is to collect 20,000 signatures, saturation beyond that would prove difficult. This means we will have to actively engage the rest of the Green Party and these other organizations to accomplish this outside of Salem

My goals for before I leave:

1. find SCC replacement

2. have a complete endorsement list of organizations for the initiatives

3. Have the official initiative language from the Attorney General and posted on the PGP site

4. I need to figure out financing for the initiatives, I don't want to volunteer the party Tresurer for more work, but at the same time I imagine we would like more revenue coming in. I am going to talk to the secretary of state and see if it would be possible to run the campaign's funding through the green party instead of having to create separate accounts as I imagine the laws pertaining to both are quite similar and since the Green Party is the officially listed backing organization.

5. Active volunteer network 200+ volunteers

6. I don't want groups to feel that we are just using them to collect signatures, and I would like to see the initiatives used as a tool to build up a larger environmental movement, which will me a lot of work and cooperation between the groups, networking and figurative back scratching. I think it would be good for the party, but I feel I should ask first, to post other organization's meetings, gatherings and activities on our website, which we already do.

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