No on Issue 2, or how I stopped worrying and learned to love Facebook

Today's guest post comes from Becky Brown, former PACE president, veteran of nearly every building the PCSD, and a passionate supporter of the NO on Issue 2 campaign.
 

(Apologies to “Dr. Strangelove” purists...)

On a Saturday morning in late August I attending a “No on Issue 2” training session.  Not much time was spent on “the why.”  We all know the why this has to go away.

• Issue 2 is Unsafe (Do you really want to leave safety measures to management   entirely when those who actually do the work have the best understanding of what the job entails?)
• Issue 2 is Unfair (Are you okay with sacrificing to get the state budget under control when those in charge of the state are willing and happy to give raises to their employees?) 
• Issue 2 Hurts the Middle Class (And why should public employees take the blame for the Wall Street Fat Cat’s taking big pay increases and bonuses?  Just how many millions does one person need?)

Lots of time was spent on “the how.”   The how entails contacting everyone you know, at least 40.  And contacting them more than once.  Research has shown that seven personal contacts will result in getting the desired results. 

Wow.  That was pretty overwhelming.  And then it hit me.  The “thing” I’ve been avoiding - avoiding because I’d heard from my association, “Be careful.  Don’t have contact with students.  Anything you post can be seen by anyone.”  So I’ve avoided this tool.

Former students have encouraged me to take the leap.  And I’ve always said, “maybe.”

And now.  Here it was staring me in the face.  Yes.  I did it.  I opened a FACEBOOK page.

My first attempt was to post a “Vote NO on Issue 2” sign instead of my picture.  Well, that didn’t work, but I was able to get the picture on my wall.  And I managed to post the “Three Reasons:  Issue 2 is Unsafe, Unfair, and Hurts the Middle Class.” 

The hits were great!  I received many likes.  While finding friends I found other educators who have used the No on 2 sign either as their picture or on their wall.  

I found many fellow educators at Princeton and at OEA and even NEA.  I found many former students:  some of them scattered to the winds, but many of them still in Ohio (yes!  voters to vote NO!!!).  I also found relatives.  Unfortunately one on them (not blood, thank you, an outlaw) was quoting Newt (Good grief! I have some work to do...after all, her daughter - in - law is a math professor at an Ohio college).

So,  I was able to get over the first hurdle.  Now.  My new goal as I continue to find more friends is to continue to post information about Issue 2 being a bad thing - even more important as the opposition in a most benevolent voice talks about the glories of Issue 2 and how we need to give up even more to help the state budget.

It was a big step for me to do the FACEBOOK thing.  And I will continue to stretch my comfort level as I work to defeat Issue 2.

What are you willing to do to help defeat Issue 2?   Remember, this is the fight for our lives and the lives of our families.  Those of us who are still working and those of us who  are retired must do everything in our power to make sure that the legacy of Collective Bargaining that was left to us by others will be there for those who come after us.

Together we can!

You gotta talk to them...

Today's post is a guest post from Rebecca Heckman , science teacher at Princeton High School, 22 year veteran teacher and OEA member, 13 year member of PACE and daughter of the types of conservatives we need to vote NO on Issue 2 this November...

My entire life I’ve voted Republican. My dad ran for public office in St. Bernard, and politics were always part of our family life. My parents talked about elections and how to vote and considered straight ticket voting the only responsible way to go. You side with a platform, and you follow that. The candidates would follow the party line, you could be sure of that.

My parents continue to be straight ticket, conservative Republican voters. We had a bit of a falling out during the original SB5 discussion of the past spring. After SB5 passed and the initiative began to get the signatures to place a repeal on the November ballot, I couldn’t bring myself to talk to them about the issue and ask them to sign the petition.

Recently, however, I decided to bring up Issue 2 to them to see if I could talk them into voting with us to repeal Issue 2 this November. I was nervous, but it had to be done. My parents have two daughters who are public school teachers, and they needed to understand what SB5 would mean to their daughters…and they needed to hear it before November.

When I approached them, it was a casual setting and I felt comfortable. I stuck to the following points:

· Teachers won’t be able to negotiate working conditions if SB5 stands

o I stuck with this point for a while.

o I mentioned class size and how difficult it makes my job.

o I discussed lack of in school planning time and how difficult that makes my job.

· I talked about the fact that when we wanted to discuss SB5 with the senate, teachers, fire fighters and policemen were locked out and denied that right

o I mentioned this point when it was pointed out that the governor had asked the unions to meet, and we had said NO to him

· I talked about what SB5 would mean to their grandchildren - 9 of the 11 attend public schools

o I stressed that safety would be an issue in crowded classrooms.

· Finally, I mentioned that while I understood the state’s financial issues, I didn’t feel it was the duty of the middle class to shoulder the entire burden of their budget shortfalls.

o If the middle class loses money due to this bill, it will harm the economy.

o I’d have less money to spend and so would many people like me.

o This is not how to end a recession.

In the end, I was able to convince my mom and dad to vote no on Issue 2 this November. It was a difficult discussion to initiate with them, but our future as educators depends on conversations like this being held at family dinners and with people like my parents. We cannot be afraid to address the people close to us. This is the time to confront and educate them. If we don’t take this initiative, no one will, and we can’t afford to do that.

Commercial: Loophole

The second No on Issue 2 commercial is now showing. It focuses on the Unfair part of the message...

You can view it below or on YouTube.

Get & STAY connected

Photo by Erica Marshall - muddyboots.org

Today is where the rubber meets the road, folks.

Today is the day when we start asking you to actually do something rather than just add a few page views to the blog stats.

You need to go to the We Are Ohio Friends website. It's www.waofriends.com.

You can click the link directly and follow the steps, or you can right-click and open the link in another window so you can keep this page open, too.

On that page you're going to be asked to create an account and login. It's easy if you already have a Facebook account because you can just use that as your login info. From there, they'll check to see whether you're already on the voter rolls for this year (like if you've voted early - it's public record that you voted not how you voted, no worries.)

Then the important part. You'll be asked to commit to making weekly contact with up to 8, 25, or 40 friends and family.

See, the thing is that we kicked major backside in getting petition signatures. We turned in more signatures than any petition in Ohio history. We rock.

But that's passed and gone.

And we're gonna need way more NO on Issue 2 votes than our 1.3 million signatures. We need more NO on Issue 2 votes than one for every union member in Ohio. We need like five or ten or twenty votes for every union member, and we can't just count on those lining up for our cause unless we're proactive about going out and recruiting those NO votes.

We need to get to the recruiting, to the convincing, to the talking to friends and family and neighbors and soccer moms and fellow Jungle Jim's shoppers and everybody else.

Once you create an account, you'll be asked to search for friends and family members by name and city. The site'll check out to make sure they're registered voters, and then you get to give a little info and commit to contacting that person once a week from now until the November election.

You won't be giving We Are Ohio any contact info about that person other than what city they're in, so they won't be getting emails from We Are Ohio or the OEA. All you'll be doing is committing to do what you can to remind that person weekly that they need to vote NO on Issue 2 because it's Unfair, Unsafe, and Hurts the Middle Class.

That's all.

Sign up...pledge a few names...and then talk to them once a week.

Your talking can be in person or by Facebook or by email or by sending them a link to this blog because at least once a week we'll be posting something that you can share with your friends and family (or the girl at Starbucks who makes your carmel macchiato every Sunday morning or your church's pastor).

For today, though, go ahead and get registered and start pledging.

(If you still have some more questions, we've embedded the two-page instructions below. They're from the We Are Ohio training.)
We Are Ohio - Friends, Family, Neighbors
And here's the video to Stereo MC's doing "Connected" because it's been going through my head since I started writing this blog post... 

The training PowerPoint

In case you couldn't make it to one of the training times (sorry for the short notice, by the way), here's the PowerPoint training presentation. It's a bit long (44 pages), but it has some good stuff to remember.

Issue 2 Member Training PPT

Stay on target

In spite of the hackneyed Star Wars reference in the title, today's post is all about staying on message.

One of the major pushes that We Are Ohio is encouraging us to stay with is maintaining a clear, concise message throughout this campaign. To that end, there are three major tenants of that message that each of us needs to learn, remember, and repeat ad nauseum.

Say it with me...Issue 2 is Unfair, Unsafe, and Hurts the Middle Class.

Breaking that down a little further.

• Issue 2 is Unfair - We need to ask people to stop pro-SB5 politicians who only want to look out for themselves and their special interest friends - not the people that they were elected to serve. Politicians make special exceptions for themselves and upper management while stripping the rights of middle class Ohioans. It's not Ohio values to let firefighters, police, and teachers lose their rights and see their wages and benefits gutted while insiders and people at the top get big pay increases and bonuses.
• Issue 2 is Unsafe - We need to ask people to stop the politicians who are willing to put our safety at risk. SB5 puts the safety of all our families at risk by making it illegal for nurses,teachers,and emergency responders to fight for safer staffing levels, critical safety equipment and training that protects them and our communities.
• Issue 2 Hurts the Middle Class - We need to make politicians start serving us - the people - and stop blaming us. SB5 hurts Ohio families and blames public employees for a mess caused by Wall Street's greed. Instead of serving We the People and working to create jobs, some politicians work harder for big corporate donors by offering them tax breaks and selling off our parks, prisons, and turnpikes. That doesn't create anything but a bigger hole in the budget.

When we're discussing Issue 2 with people (and remember, the push now is to get people to Vote NO on Issue 2...we're sticking with NO on Issue 2, not SB5 anymore.), we have to remember a few do's and don'ts of our message:

• DO maintain message discipline.
• DO stay proactive and aggressive in pushing our message.
• DO talk about the broader impact on the public and Ohio communities.
• DO make this a fight about protecting the middle class families of Ohio.
• DO make the call to action to turn out and vote every time.
• DO use all three components to layer our message - exemption for those at the top, protecting the safety of families, protecting the middle class.
• DO stay focused on the proactive message about protecting families.
• DO stay focused on the proactive message about protecting the middle class.
• DO say public employees or frontline public employees.

• DON'T waste time responding directly to opponent attacks and giving their message any airtime. Re-focus to our message.
• DON'T talk about the impact on unions.
• DON'T make this fight about protecting unions.
• DON'T state the problem without also giving the solution - turn out to vote.
• DON'T use one component alone because it doesn't make the most effective case.
• DON'T go on the attack against Kasich directly. Instead, lump him in with politicians.
• DON'T make your tone too angry or partisan.
• DON'T say government employees,public service unions, or labor unions.

There are even some phrases that We Are Ohio is suggesting that you practice using:

• "Makes a special exception for upper management and politicians"
• "Takes away the rights of middle class Ohioans"
• "Our friends and neighbors who are teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public employees"
• "Hurts the middle class"
• "The wrong thing to do"
• "Safe staffing levels for nurses"
• "Flawed"
• "Unintended consequences"
• "We the People"
• "Corporate special interests and their high-paid lobbyists"
• "School safety"
• "Turns our backs on the people who watch ours - like teachers, nurses, and firefighters"
• "Hold Wall Street and CEOs accountable"
• "Unfair"
• "Unsafe"
• "Politicians should keep their promises to Ohio's public employees"
• "Tax breaks for big corporations"
• "Critical safety equipment for firefighters"

It seems almost Machiavellian to think in these terms, but one of the things that is most convincing is a disciplined, consistent argument.

Say it with me again and say it every chance you get...Issue 2 is Unfair, Unsafe, and Hurts the Middle Class.

No on Issue 2 training sites

There are a few opportunities to attend in-person trainings for the No on Issue 2 campaign.

If you are interested in attending any of these trainings, please contact the OEA representative (in the right-hand column) to make sure a spot is reserved for you.

Date	Time	Location	OEA contact
9/13	4:30	Lakota West HS 8940 Union Centre Blvd West Chester, OH 45069	Rod Bird (513) 539-3131 (800) 487-6266
9/13	4:00	Alpha Service Council Glen Este HS Touch of Class Restaurant 4342 Glen Este-Withamsville Rd Cincinnati, OH	Robin Busby (513) 984-3679 (866) 287-3373
9/14	2:30	Lakota West HS 8940 Union Centre Blvd West Chester, OH 45069	Rod Bird (513) 539-3131 (800) 487-6266
9/21	5:00 w/ meal @5:30 RSVP please	SWOEA Office CMC Springdale Office Center 270 Northland Blvd Suite 224 Cincinnati, OH 45246	(513) 771-3319

Signs and buttons

At Wednesday's PACE meeting, a question was asked about getting/making buttons and yard signs for the No on Issue 2 campaign. Coincidentally, a direct answer to that question was offered up via email that afternoon.

Directly from Mike Mahoney, OEA Director of Communications...

Please avoid creating your own Issue 2 campaign materials.
Authorized materials are soon to be on the way!

Many of our local association leaders and our OEA staff are ready to move forward to support the campaign to Vote No on Issue 2. A few of you have called or emailed to ask OEA for the newest signs, buttons, yard signs and other materials to support the campaign.

Help is on the way soon for all of us looking for these campaign promotional materials. The We Are Ohio campaign is just about ready to do two things:

• We Are Ohio will revamp its bumper stickers, t-shirts, shirt stickers and buttons with a new logo that emphasizes the basic call to action:  Vote No on Issue 2 to Repeal SB 5.

• We Are Ohio will provide coalition member organizations, including OEA, a channel to order some of these campaign materials so that we can in turn distribute them to you.

But in the meantime, please don’t create stickers, signs and logos at the local level. Message discipline is crucial to this campaign, down to the stickers.

We will also provide you with an approval process – in line with what the coalition decides – for your local and district campaign materials. Until then, please email me with any questions or problems you might have in this regard.

Thanks, and please remember our message:  Vote No on Issue 2 – It’s Unfair, It’s Unsafe and It Hurts Us All.

Mike

[ ]

Mike Mahoney
Director of Communications & Marketing
Ohio Education Association
www.ohea.org
614-227-3015 office
614-284-7288 cell

Signs, buttons, bumper stickers, and shirts with the new No on Issue 2 branding do appear to be available on the We Are Ohio store page.

No on 2 commercial

The first commercial from We Are Ohio's No on Issue 2 campaign began broadcasting this week.

Check out the commercial titled simply "Firefighters."

Coming back...not giving in

Just got training today from OEA folks on what this fall's "No on Issue 2" campaign will be like. Info will start rolling back onto the blog and into your mailboxes in the next couple of weeks.

For now, hold yourself over with this video...

An intriguing but not unexpected development

Look like we just might have some competition...

Pro SB5 group will become official on Tuesday


The group that will lead the effort to save Senate Bill 5 from a November referendum effort is expected to officially file with the secretary of state’s office on Tuesday.


The group is expected to file as a nonprofit 501c4, with an affiliated political action committee. Such a setup could allow the group to hide the sources of its contributions, but those familiar with the effort say the plan is to voluntarily disclose all contributors to the secretary of state.


The group will battle head-to-head with We Are Ohio, the coalition of union supporters that is currently collecting the 231,000 signatures needed to place the collective-bargaining-slashing law on the ballot in an attempt to overturn it. One month into signature gathering, We Are Ohio was well on its way to getting enough names.


Vaughn Flasher, a veteran lobbyist and Republican political consultant who since 2006 has run the Senate GOP’s campaign committee, will lead the pro-Senate Bill 5 team.

A good first step

Nice headline today: Wisconson judge strikes down collective bargaining restrictions.

Not quite perfect because it was only struck down on a technicality, but it's a good start.

Now we just need the ones in Tennessee, Indiana, New York, and especially Ohio struck down / overturned / repealed, too.

By the way, thanks to Rachelle Williams, Linda Pope, and Pat Walden for turning in their petitions.

A favor to ask

We're supposed to be collecting signatures before tonight's middle school band concert at PHS (from 6:15-7:15 at the corner of Sharon and Chester Roads). If you have any sort of magical weather-controlling powers, do what you can to get us some good weather, would ya?

Another petition signing opportunity

From Michelle Turner...

I will be collecting signatures outside of the Sharonville Public library Thursday, May 26^th, from 4:15-4:45 (for Hamilton and Butler County residents only). A Sharonville parent is sending it to their distribution list.

Outstanding, Michelle. Thanks for the notice.

Spread the word, folks.

Circulators, any of you have any other signing opportunities coming up?

Standing out on the corner

Just wrapped up two outstanding nights hanging out on the corner of Chester and Sharon visiting with the parents of our middle school music students. Well, maybe not visiting with them exactly but at least speaking with them and watching a number of them support our cause by signing our petitions. A few passed us by with a congenial 'no thank you', but a lot more passed us by with an 'already signed'. We didn't mind that second comment nearly so much.

Hopefully we'll get a lot more signatures before Thursday's PCMS band concert, when we'll be back out working the corner...

...with our petitions, c'mon, folks.

By the by, big thanks to Maggie Jones of Lincoln Heights for being the first to turn in her petition. Remember, all circulators, we need your petitions turned in post haste so the OEA can begin verifying the signatures.

PS - For those of you who might've been around PCSD for a year or two, Gretchen Tash passed along this photo of a certain past PCSD superintendent <cough Richard Denoyer cough> signing our petition with his wife Saturday at Washington Park. For those of you who are newer to PCSD, ask somebody around who remembers Dr Denoyer.

Evening signing times

If Saturday afternoon didn't work for you - and a big thanks to those of you who did come join us at Washington Park this weekend - see if you can convince a spouse, a neighbor, a friend, a relative, a recent grad to come out and sign the petitions at any of this week's evening concerts at PHS.We'll be at the corner of Sharon and Chester Rds from about 6:15 - 7:15 on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

Or, if you're up Mason or West Chester way, the Lakota Education Association will be at Voice of America Park Wednesday afternoon from 2:30-5pm to rally their signatures as well.

As a fellow PACE member today said, "240 thousand isn't that many...as long as everyone doesn't say 'oh, I'm sure they'll get that. I don't need to sign'."

We need your signature, and we need those of everyone that you can muster.

In happy news, it looks like we may need to do this all again next year, anyway...

C'mon out to the park

The weather looks to be absolutely gorgeous,so why don't you come on out to Washington Park with us this afternoon?

We'll be there from 12-5 offering petitions to sign.

Calling in the troops...and the drinks

Got an email from Ann Bayou today. She's our local OEA rep.

Her bosses are calling in all the petitions, so we're going to need to give petitions to Ann by Monday at the latest. She'll give us more petitions for each one we turn in, but she needs to get our petitions by Monday.

So, we're calling in all the petitions - whether you have ten signatures or fifty. They have to come in.

The best way would be to bring them to Saturday's community event (12-5 at Washington Park, have we mentioned?) so we can check off what's come in and make sure the back page is filled in correctly. If you can't make it to Saturday's event (and that's going to have to be something pretty big for us to understand that), then give an email to the PACEForKids@gmail.com address so we can arrange an in-person pickup. These can't go through the Pony service at PCSD.

And separately, thanks to Kevin Lawhon for being the first donor to get a 12pk to the high school for Saturday's event. We got a few through the day, but we're still in need. Bring 'em on, folks.

Drinks anybody?

Three things today...

One...

So, PACE has been kind enough to donate some money to buy snacks for Saturday's event, but we're hoping we can get some of our members to donate drinks for the festivities. We're looking to go with bottles and cans to keep things a little more portable in case people want to stop by and take off.

So, we're asking you to donate a 12pk (or more if you're feeling generous) of your favorite soda. Feel free to swing by the high school and drop off the drinks by the end of the day Friday (if you're at the elementary school, remember that we're in session before you guys are, so you can just roll up front and give the case to the front desk to deliver to Lonnie Dusch if you want to). We'll take Coke or Pepsi, bottled tea or water, orange or grape, diet or regular (no adult beverages, we'll save those for once we get this thing on the ballot). We're not proud. We'll get things cooled down and ready to serve on Saturday then. If you are willing to donate,  please email PACEForKids@gmail.com so we know what to expect.

Two...

We had a signer at Heritage Hill ask if we had a Montgomery County petition available. Initially we didn't, but we do now. So, if you're from Montgomery County and weren't able to sign earlier, give Becky Brown a holler (or just email PACEForKids@gmail.com), and we'll get you all hooked up.

Third...

A few folks passed along today that they saw/heard in the news that a recent survey suggested that fifty-four percent of those surveyed are in favor of repealing Senate Bill 5. That's obviously not the same as saying fifty-four percent are willing to come out to the ballot box in November, but it's at least encouraging news. Now we just need to get all those people to sign our petitions.

Stewart, here we come. We'll see you folks Thursday afternoon. We're hoping to roll to Evendale on Friday before we go food shopping.

PS - Just heard that Lisa McDaniel will be at the Back Porch Saloon on Thursday (5/19) afternoon from 3:30-5ish with her Hamilton County petition. She'll be there with some of the PCMS staff who are saying goodbye to some of their departing colleagues. Stop by if you haven't had a chance to see us at any of our other events.

Where else can I sign?

Yes, we desperately want you at this Saturday's event at Washington Park. I think we've mentioned that.

Heck, we want you at Stewart Elementary School this Thursday afternoon after 4pm when we'll be there with petitions.

But, we desperately need you to sign, and if you're going to give your signature to a different organization, we'll put up with that, too. So where else could you sign other than at our events?

Well, there's the Lakota Education Association's couple of upcoming events...

• West Chester Public Library - 10am-2pm on Saturday, 5/21 (yes, opposite our big community event)
• Voice of America Park - 2:30-5pm on Wednesday, 5/25

We Are Ohio's website has tons of resources for the campaign, and their Facebook wall has a great and constantly-updating list of upcoming signings (including a mention of our Saturday Community Event.) Their twitter feed is also pretty quickly and constantly updated, but c'mon, who uses Twitter anymore?

We can't quite figure out where the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers is taking their petitions, but they're still offering a lot of training opportunities. (Speaking of which, you can still get your own petition by emailing us. We have a few still to give out.)

The Hamilton County Democratic Party has a community canvasing planned for this weekend (seriously, May 21 is apparently popular) and has petitions available seven days a week at their office on Tennessee Ave.

The Butler County Democratic Party also has a bunch of events - in Oxford, Hamilton, West Chester, Middletown, and Monroe. They're busy all over the place.

Heck, if you're a Montgomery County voter, the Democratic Party of Montgomery County has a website and Facebook page, but it mostly sounds like they have petitions at their offices from 10am-5pm (not necessarily all that convenient if you're driving home from room 520 of Princeton High School (or from Heritage Hill as we learned on Monday afternoon). Luckily, we have a Montgomery County petition now.

The Warren County Democratic Party doesn't have much posted online, but the Clermont County Democratic Party will be in Old Milford this weekend (10am-12pm).

The Wyoming Education Association doesn't have anything posted on their site. The Northwest Association of Educators hasn't apparently been updated online since 2007.

Honestly, it looks like we're doing a pretty good job of keeping you folks updated. Wanna reward us? Bring lots of people out this weekend.

Where's Washington Park?

In starting to spread the word about this Saturday's community signing event at Washington Park in Glendale, the most common response we've gotten has almost without fail had three parts...

• Great!
• I'll be there!
• Wait, where is it?

So we thought it might be a good idea to give a few hints as to just where Washington Park is in the world.

Let's start with a couple of maps from Google...

The best way to describe its location is a block north and a block or two west of the PCSD Central Office. (Central office is directly behind Friendly Stop Cafe on the lower of those two maps.)

Here's an aerial view from Bing...

We'll be at the shelter house next to the basketball court. There's a playground for the kids, space to set up a few games of cornhole, and - most importantly - a place to spread out our petitions to get 'em signed.

If anybody needs directions, here's what we suggest you offer up.

From the north...

• Drive south on 747.
• From the intersection of Kemper (right by Tri-County Mall), go about 1 mile.
• Turn right on Washington Ave (at a stop light by Glendale Florist & Gaslight Cafe)
• Go about 1/2 mile on Washington Ave.
• Park is on the right, head into the driveway for best access.

From the south...

• Drive north on 747 (Congress Ave in Glendale)
• From the intersection of Sharon Rd & 747, turn left at the next stoplight.
• Go about 1/2 mile on Washington Ave.
• Park is on the right, head into the driveway for best access.

From the east or west, get to Tri-County Mall and head south or get to the Sharon/747 intersection and head north.

It's actually really easy to get to, and we're looking forward to Saturday.

Major congrats to Becky Heckman at PHS who already has 18 registered voter grads pledging to come and bring their friends.

What are you doing to bring folks?

It's Washington Park

Just spoke to Paige with Glendale Youth Sports, and we are set for Saturday at Washington Park.

The event will run from 12-5, and like we wrote yesterday, we need you to be there.

Today's task

Today, there's one task for each of you, one simple task.

Put next Saturday's community event on your Facebook page. Make it an event. Tell people we'll have food and games and petitions. Direct 'em to either Summit Park or Washington Park (We promise that we'll know which by the end of the day Monday). Tell everybody you know that you're going to be there.

That last part is key. We want your friends there. We want your family there. We want your neighbors there. But we need you there, because if those people know you're going to be there, they're a lot more likely to actually show.

We'll be at the park from 12-5 next Saturday (5/21), so work around your kid's baseball games, your aunt's birthday, your lawn cutting, your whatever else you have planned for the what'll hopefully be a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, because when it comes right down to it, there isn't much that you could have planned that is more important than the future of your job, your retirement, the middle class, Ohio's kids, Ohio's economy, Ohio's future.

Because, in the end, Senate Bill 5 is an attack on every one of those.

If you want to take the soft sell route, then tell people about coming out and spending a beautiful afternoon with the Princeton community. (Though we'll be there rain or shine...)

If you want the hard sell, then tell 'em about the ruination of Ohio's schools, Ohio's unions, Ohio's economy, Ohio's future if theirs - if yours - is the one signature that we don't get and that we needed.

Either way, be there on Saturday.

Things are heating up...literally...

This afternoon was magnificent.

We got most of the Glendale staff signed on the petition and handed out three blank petitions to Glendale staffers, all of whom promised us at least fifty signatures by taking it around their neighborhoods, to their local police force, through the stands at soccer and baseball games, and generally finding anybody and everybody who wants Senate Bill 5 repealed. That's the kind of excitement and dedication that we're looking for.

Then, after a brief break in the air conditioning (and we use the term loosely) of PHS, we headed out into the swelter of the warmest day of the year so far to receive a bountiful blessing from the Princeton community on their way into for the final choir concert of the year (and of Jamie Holdren's PHS tenure, congrats, Jamie). We saw parents, aunts, uncles, retired staffers, alumni, current teachers, and lots of our union brothers and sisters signing for us. We saw wives telling their husbands to sign, parents bringing back their graduated children as they'd promised us from Monday night. We saw seniors filling out their voter registration forms just so they could sign and support their schools.

We've filled two petitions entirely and have nearly full Butler and Warren county petitions. Those'll be turned in to Ann Bayou on Friday so we can get new petitions and hand those out as well.

Our Glendale connection came through, so now we just have to get Glendale to give the okay to us using the park (we don't think it'll be a problem, but the form has to filed). Hopefully May 21st will work out just fine.

Heritage's signing has been moved to Monday of next week, and we're still on to see the Sharonville staff at the Blue Goose on Friday. Let's make this one a three-way signing by bringing out Evendale and Stewart, too. Anybody on either of those staffs willing to do the organizing work to get people excited? Heck, I'll promise to buy a drink for the first Stewart and first Evendale person who stops in at the Goose. Just to make it fair, I'll buy one for the first Sharonville staffer, too.

Princeton in the news

From the WCPO news team, presented without comment.

A day's respite...back to the grind

The weather at the Ice Cream Social last night was gorgeous, and we want to give a shout out to the jazz band parents who stopped by our table to voice their opposition to Senate Bill 5 as well as Pat Walden who manned the table and brought in parents by the bucketload. Also nice to hear from a fellow union man who stopped by to cheer us on and mentioned that he'd gotten 120 signatures by taking a petition to his kid's track meet the past weekend (speaking of which, read on to see how you can get your very own petition - yes, a teaser, take that.)

Tuesday was a bit of a day off from collecting signatures, but Wednesday is right back at things as we'll see the Glendale crowd at O'Charley's and hopefully see the choir parents outside Matthews at PHS for the choir concert (apparently we should show up a little sooner as the students' call time is 6:30 meaning that there are a lot of parents who are there before that 6:30 time - lesson learned). If the weather's dry, we'll be at the corner of Matthews to catch 'em as they cross over to the school. If it's raining, though, we'll be inside keeping our petitions dry.

Thursday, then we're trying to get over to Heritage Hill to do a quick signing on the sidewalk.

Friday, then we'll be at the Blue Goose to hang with the Sharonville (and maybe Stewart and Evendale) folks.

We're still working toward a district-wide event at Summit Park on May 21. We're looking for a Glendale resident who's friendly to the campaign and would be willing to talk to the park board about making that reservation for us, though. If you know of a such a person, can you make the initial contact and then pass their info along to your humble webmaster, Lonnie Dusch, at the paceforkids@gmail.com email? I have a contact or two, but I'd take a more solid one.

We also have - big news - enough petitions that we can start handing those out to anyone who's a trained circulator (or who wants to be one and is willing to listen to one of us talk to you for about ten minutes) and is willing to pledge to get fifty signatures. We're including that last part to make sure we get our good union money's worth out of the petitions that we've had printed up. You can take the petitions to your kid's baseball game, your bunko night (does anybody play bunko anymore?), your pilates class, your family reunion, or just around your neighborhood like I am this weekend.

Give a holler in the comments or to the paceforkids@gmail.com email if you're interested in having your very own petition to help the campaign.

Where from here?

First, off, thanks to the staff of Lincoln Heights for hosting a fun happy hour/signing event at The Pike on 747. Never been there before. Think I'll be going back.

Second, coming up this week we have our first public event - Monday night on the sidewalk (we can't be on school grounds but the public sidewalk at the school is fair game) at the PHS Jazz Band Ice Cream Social. To see what the event is like, check out these photos from a couple of years ago. Hopefully it'll give some of our more active/involved parents a chance to get their names on the petition.

Third, Wednesday afternoon we'll be at O'Charley's in Tri-County to see the Glendale folks. It'd be a great chance for any staffers from the other schools - whether they're ones we've already visited or ones we haven't visited yet - to stop by and help us out.

Fourth, turns out that Sharon Woods is all booked for the 21st, but Glendale has a couple of nice parks - Summit and Washington - that would be perfect for our purposes. We'll need a resident of Glendale to get the actual reservation, but I'm thinking that's do-able. PACE had already agreed to foot the bill for the shelter house at Sharon Woods, and the Glendale reservations are even cheaper (free with a deposit) so we should be able to have some food to grill out there. Plus there's space for cornhole and nice playgrounds around. Bring the kids out...have some fun.

What we need from you...

• Talk to everybody in your building to make sure everyone has signed the petitions. If they haven't send 'em our way on Wednesday at O'Charley's.
• If you're at Heritage Hill, Evendale, Stewart, or Woodlawn, we need to know when and where you want us to have the petitions to get your staff signed up. Feel free to make Wednesday's O'Charley's visit a multiple-school event, but if you want one of your own, we need to know soon.
• Start talking up the May 21st event with parents and staffers. We're going to want to get friends, family, EVERYBODY out to sign on that afternoon.

It's been great to get out and see folks from schools that we don't get to visit often. Thanks for everybody at PCMS, PHS, Springdale, and Lincoln Heights especially for getting on board early.

The regulations...why we have to pay attention

Yup, coming down to The Pike on Friday afternoon. Looking forward to meeting the folks from Woodlawn and Lincoln Heights.

Thought I'd take a moment to provide a glimpse into the sort of panicked world that this petition signing drive leads to. In our petition circulation training, Ann Bayou, our local OEA rep, conveyed a number of things that we have to be careful of...

• can't sign at school unless we rent the room (if one political side gets free access to school, the other side has to get the same free access)
• can't use school email to discuss the petition drive in any way
• can't spill anything on the petition or scribble a pen anywhere or tear the petition apart in any way at all
• have to keep every petition purely one county (all Hamilton, all Butler, all whatever)
• opponents trying to sabotage the process

The last one echoed particularly strongly to me when I got this email from Ann Bayou (our OEA local rep) today on my personal email. I'll admit to having some skepticism what with the total lack of location, specifics, or anything else, but I thought I'd point out that these are the thoughts that are floating around with the campaign. (Just to be clear, this didn't happen to me but supposedly did happen to another petition circulator here in Ohio.)

These are the reasons we have to be careful and follow the absolute letter of the law when it comes to these petitions.

Hello, everyone,

We all knew it was just a matter of time, but the shenangins have already started with regard to the OEA members' petitions and when / where  they are being signed.

The following information was sent to me as the OEA staff reassigned to the We Are Ohio campaign in Southwest Ohio by another LRC.  I am forwarding it to all OEA Professional Staff so that you are able to share this information with members as you deem appropriate.  The We Are Ohio campaign has indicated that they expect legal challenges to the petition signature effort, and we are hopeful that those challenges will be unsuccessful.  At the same time, however, I think we can all agree that it's imperative for our members to be reminded of the important points made in this email from a local leader:

Sincerely,
Diana

As past and current officers, you need to be aware of a potential issue.  I am suspicious of a series of phone calls I have received...

Last week on Wednesday I got a message here at school from someone named Steve Osborn who claimed to be a Union Arm Worker.  He asked if I had a petition to repeal SB 5 that he and his family could sign.  He left his phone number.

I called back and said that I did not have a petition and that I was not sure where  he could sign one yet, but I would find out and call him back.

Later that day I spoke with a friend who is very involved in the referendum efforts and she indicated that this was suspicious for a few reasons:

• If he was a union worker, his union would be who he would turn to for signing.
• The opposition is looking for illegal activity among the union groups and taking signatures during the school day is not permissible.
• It is possible that he was trying to get me to allow him to do just that...sign or admit to letting others sign during the school day.

Now suspicious myself, I never called him back.

I got a call from him just this morning.  The audio sounded funny...was I being recorded?  He asked how the signature collection was going here and asked if we had petitions in the building.  He offered to bring me a petition so I could collect signatures.  I told him we had petitions and did not need him to bring one.  He asked for clarification and said, "So you have petitions at school now for people to sign?"  And I said no..."not at school during the school day.  Some people have petitions and people can sign after school hours."  Then I told him I needed to get back to my students and he should contact the Warren Co. Democratic Office for any questions he might have and I hung up.

I FELT THAT HE WAS TRYING TO GET ME TO SAY THAT THE PETITIONS WERE BEING CIRCULATED DURING SCHOOL HOURS OR THAT I WOULD INVITE HIM TO SCHOOL TO OBTAIN HIS SIGNATURE.

I'll admit that I'm a little bit of all freaked out with the awesome weight of responsibility that comes with circulating these petitions sometimes. Thankfully it's easy to remember that this issue matters.

If we fail, we lose a lot, but the students of Princeton and the students of Ohio lose even more in the long run.

I promise to be a little more light-hearted in tomorrow's update, folks.

Let's make a Friendly Stop

Glendale is now on the calendar for a petition signing at The Friendly Stop on May 11 from 4:15-5:00.

Anybody wanna ask the CO folks to stop in and sign on their way out from work?

Success: Day 2

Good turnout today from the staff at PCMS as well as a few community folks and PHS teachers who stopped by as well.

Nothing big planned for signing on Thursday, but we'll be back at things on Friday at The Pike in Woodlawn. We'll get started around 4:00 when school lets out, and we'll be welcoming in any community members who want to join us in giving the people of Ohio a chance to make their voices heard about Senate Bill 5.

After Friday, we'll be available next at the PHS Jazz Band Ice Cream Social on Monday evening. Technically, we'll be on the sidewalk encouraging friends and family of Princeton's kids to sign our petitions.

We're still looking for somewhere to hold a community-wide event on May 21st. Sharon Woods has been proposed. Can anybody think of a better place, or should we start looking into a shelter house in Sharon Woods?

Wherever we end up, I'm thinking cornhole, snacks, maybe jarts to keep things interesting?

PS - We noticed today that a surprising number of people didn't know the city for their voter registration. It seems like it should be easy - you have a mailing address, and that's easy enough to remember. It turns out that in a lot of cases, though, your mailing address and voter registration don't always match. One specific example saw a PCMS staffer check online because his mailing address is Symmes Township, but he lives in Sycamore Township. When he checked online, he found that his voter registration is actually listed as being in Loveland.

Take a second and check your voter registration by clicking on the Voter Registration tab at the top before you join us on Friday. It's easy to do and will save you a lot of consternation when you come to sign.