PA - Convention of States
Action Plan
PA COS Team –
As many of you know, starting about two years ago the national COS organization began rolling out a series of initiatives designed to dramatically increase the numbers of, and involvement by, supporters in all states. The most recent examples are the “2 Million to 10 Million by 12/31/17” supporter count increase effort and “Operation Steady State”.
While most of the initiatives have taken place sequentially, the cumulative effect is that the district captain (DC) role is now very different than it was 2-3 years ago. Originally, the primary purpose of a district captain was to gain support for the COS resolution from their local state senator and representative. Currently, the primary goal of a district captain is to build as large a grassroots base as possible in their district. The other significant change is that as COS has shifted away from a state-led model to a more top-down approach, more time must be spent by DCs on understanding national goals and programs. Here are some specific examples of what this means in terms of goals and expectations:
Original: Recruit 100 active volunteers in your district who would help gain the support of COS by district legislators
Current: In addition to the above, maximize the number of supporters/petition signers in your district via use of social media, email, etc.; ensure COS has a presence at gun shows, community events, etc.
Original: Maintain regular communication with your state director, state DCs and local volunteers.
Current: In addition to the above, participate in weekly national conference calls, Slack channels, email, social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and utilize other tools developed by COS for collaboration and communication.
Original: Report local progress to state director.
Current: Utilize national COS database to track local progress.
Original: Approximate commitment level: 8 hours per month
Current: While there has been no "official" change in the commitment hours of a DC, in order to achieve the various outcomes, DCs should anticipate a commitment level of 4-6 hours per week.
Consequently, all of us need to consider these changes and our willingness to continue to serve as DCs going forward. To give COS as clear a view as possible of where we stand in PA, I ask for your help in taking the following actions:
- · Over the next week or so, I need to verify the commitment of our district captain team. Please review the above information and, if you wish to stay on as a DC, send me an email indicating same.
- · Anyone that I do not hear from by July 31 will be updated in the database to "volunteer" rather than DC. This does not mean you should change anything you are currently doing, especially with respect to legislator contact. We still need volunteers filling the "old DC" role in every district, I just need to update the status in the COS database. If you want to remain as a DC after July 31, just let me know. This deadline is so I can let COS know where we stand as soon as possible, and shouldn't discourage anyone from volunteering.
- · Any DC I have not heard from at all in the last 6 months will be moved to "inactive”. This, again, is simply so that the COS database can be used by the national office to more accurately set PA's goals. At any time, just let us know if you are able to become more active and we can update the database.
- · Everyone reading this email who is not moved to “inactive” status will still receive my emails, and still have access to all the same support our state team gave you before these changes.
I deeply appreciate all the help you’ve been for me and COS over the past several years. Pennsylvania has some very big differences compared to the COS passed states. Nonetheless, I think PA will ultimately pass the resolution, but we must increase the pressure on legislators. Please call me if you want to talk more about this one-on-one. If there is interest, I’m happy to hold a conference call as well.
Thanks, Steve
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