Quote:
This was me when we started our fight. I was OK with the orginization part, but when the first hearing before the Hearings Examiner came, the board said I would be the one to speak. I said, "Oh No! I don't do that!" The board members said, "But you are the president. You have to speak!" Well, don't think it was a big thing to be president. I only took the job because no one else would. But, I gathered up all my courage, wrote out word for word what I wanted to say, and read it at the hearing. Although, I had important things to say, the delivery was seriously lacking.
The good news is that I learned to speak in public. I had passion for our cause. During the time I was president I spoke at many county hearings, at the Corps of Engineers hearings, Department of Ecology hearings, and legislative committee hearings. I really got quite good. Soon I learned that notes just distracted me. I would go up with only a few words on a piece of paper to keep me on track. I wrote volumes for all of the above and the courts. I testified in court and suffered through a 2 day deposition by one of the most obnoxious attorneys around. It was a real education.
As if that was not enough, it was the job of the board to educate and direct the citizens who were members of our orginization.
We had people who would go off the effective message (our clean water supply) and say things that left me speachless. And we had a number of
, and
, and
, and even a
or two. At several "community meetings" held by the council they brought police escorts! That was just for media attention. There was no one who would hurt anyone, but they wanted us to look like a bunch of militant radicals.
We kept membership in our group very loose. Some will be cautious about "joining" but will quietly support your cause. We included anyone with the same goals as supporters.
We made our group seem as large as possible. We helped people write letters. Sometimes we wrote a very simple letter that people could just sign and send in. We circulated petitions. We wrote letters to the editor. I wrote guest editorials.
I think the idea of forming this group partly for education is great. We did that too, and went to schools to speak to classes. For that we had to leave the politics out of it, just give information.
Well, I will get off my soap box now. Guess I have rambled on enough for one day. Good luck.
Edit to say: If you want some suggestions about approaching teachers, I have done that a lot. Not just for this group, but I used to go to schools and educate students on disabilities.
