>[AL]
>There have also been a couple of messages offering to help get things
>going in NSW and we had lots of contacts from there in 1996.
>
>Perhaps it's time to get down to tin tacks for at least a NSW branch to
>startup immediately in response to whatever happens there while we are
>figuring out what else to do nationally?
I'm interested in working with others in NSW for a branch.
[AL]
My suggestion is that you and the other(s) that have already expressed
interest in
this proceed as follows:
1) Start a subject thread on "NSW" in this public-list specifically to
invite people
interested in helping to organize in NSW (this may turn out to involve
agreement
on a single NSW branch or on separate local groups in Sydney or parts of
Sydney and
other areas, or both - should not be prejudged). (This can easily be
moved to separate
list when necessary but meanwhile would be better here to encourage
others to setup
local groups too and ensure national liasion in the absence of a
functioning national
organization at the moment).
2) Agree among yourselves on somebody(s) to be in charge of a NSW
section of the
Neither web site which would have a URL of
http://www.neither.org/local/NSW/
(which could be the subject header for your thread even though it
doesn't exist
yet, so that people joining the public-list will immediately know where
to look
for more info when they see messages on that subject without having
followed the
thread from the beginning). If there is any delay on that, start by
opening your
own personal page(s) devoted to this and reach agreement on a common one
with
an official link as /local/NSW/ later. I believe this is very important
so that
there is something more "definate" about the people organizing Neither
in NSW
than individual email messages.
3) Expect a short delay while arrangements are made at this end for you
to be able
to independently edit that section (and for a prominent link to it to be
made from
the main Neither pages). But don't wait, start preparing documents to
put there in
the meantime - and if the delay isn't short enough, start it up on
somebody's personal
web site in the meantime - it can be easily moved later).
4) Agree among yourselves on somebody(s) to co-ordinate an initial open
meeting
of local Neither supporters and aim to call such a meeting and proceed
from there
as soon as you are confident of having say a dozen supporters turn up
and say 3-4
core activists willing to make organizing Neither in NSW a major
priority and accept
responsibility for taking on various tasks. Exchange phone numbers and
snail mail
addresses with the agreed on coordinator(s) for further coordination off
the list as well.
5) The co-ordinators agreed on should give high priority to extracting a
NSW section
of the Neither snail mailing list, email list and phone number lists
from the central
group. This should be a major help in reaching the targets I suggest in
item 4 for
convening an initial meeting. There would probably be a couple of
hundred people
from NSW who got in touch since 1996 and at least a dozen who offered to
help or took
some local initiative of their own during the 1996 campaign who should
be followed up
by both mailout and telephone tree.
6) Also follow up your own contacts (not just the coordinators' contacts
but those of
everyone who expresses an interest in organizing in NSW) to get others
to join this list
and to come to the initial meeting. Collect lists of other NSW
organizations and publications etc that you should get in touch with.
7) Take an activive interest in working out an appropriate national
structure for Neither
so that we really become one national organization rather than just
separate local groups
working independently and/or at cross purposes.
8) Take an active interest in how to make national policy that will be
followed by
local groups - as you are already doing with respect to compulsory or
optional
preferential voting discussed below - every issue Neither is involved in
as such
really is primarily national and questions like the NSW
optional/compulsory voting system
should be viewed as a local implementation of a national policy. e.g. If
you are right
that we should have a policy in favor of optional preferential voting in
NSW then we should
have the same policy in Victoria and elsewhere.
9) If you disagree with points 1-8 I still think you should start with
point 1 and
discuss an alternative approach in that subject thread - i.e. it isn't
necessary
to reach agreement with people outside NSW on how to go about starting
up a NSW
branch and/or NSW local groups - it will only be necessary to reach
wider agreement
on items 7 and 8 as to how various local groups come to be recognized as
"official"
local organizations of "Neither" as a national organization, which
depends on agreeing
on a framework for a national organization. Efforts on getting NSW
people together
will not be wasted whatever the outcome nationally, since if we fail to
work out
