I’m fed up with the bad budget news coming from our state legislature! Are you with me?
I’m going to 23rd and Lincoln tomorrow for Let’s Fix This Capitol Day (Mar 22th)! (if you aren’t on Facebook, you can find the event at this link) I hope to see many of you there in person and/or following along online. I’ll post my schedule below and you can track me and your fellow advocates in the capitol_updates channel in TOK Slack.
But before we talk more about that I have a serious question to ask. How do you evaluate your legislators? As a team manager I’ve learned that evaluations are key to good management. Occasionally I’ve hired some kind, funny, sympathetic characters who, when it came down to it, didn’t get the job done.
It is extremely important that we don’t make the mistake of thinking that a legislator being friendly means that they are doing their whole job well. I think being nice to your constituents is ESSENTIAL but how nice is it if they are kind to us in person and they cut funding to all we hold dear when our backs are turned? There is only one way to know what kind of legislator you are working with and that is to track their actions.
Keeping track of the bills your legislator writes and how they vote isn’t all that fun if you do it all alone. That’s why I’ll remind you again that we are working as state legislative district teams. Let’s work together to simplify tracking bills and votes. We are in this together and I hope we’ll be together at the Capitol tomorrow or in Slack!
The plan for TOK members at the Capitol:
We have less than 10 weeks to get our legislators to look at these revenue options and keep from digging us deeper into this big ol’ budget hole! TOK is partnering with Let’s Fix This and other groups instead of planning our own Capitol days because it is a better use of everyone’s resources and it is also more fun! If you can’t be there during the day, join us for the Capitol Crawl Wednesday evening or at least follow along on the Together Oklahoma Facebook Page and @togetherok twitter and with the hash tag #LetsFixThisOK
Our three goals for the day (From the Capitol or where ever you are) :
- Ask legislators what they plan to do about the budget hole and what they think of the revenue options we are suggesting.
- Report legislators’ answers back to our fellow constituents via Together Oklahoma Slack.
- Support each other as we take action TOGETHER!
Here is my schedule for tomorrow:
- 9:00 am – Joining advocates in the Blue Room for a little Let’s Fix This orientation.
- 10:00 am – Assisting advocates in talking to their legislators and talking to some legislators myself
- 11:00 am – Meeting up at the Capitol Visitors Center with some TOK Members who are just arriving at the Capitol.
- 12:00 pm – If the weather is nice I’ll be taking my lunch outside for a picnic on the Capitol lawn. TOK members are welcome to bring their lunch and join me. Watch the hash tag #LetsFixThisOK on social media to see where we end up sitting down to eat or to let other folks know where they can find you to share a meal.
- 1:30 am – Meeting up at the Capitol Visitors Center with some TOK Members who are just arriving at the Capitol to do a little orientation before folks go visit their legislators.
- 6:00 pm – Joining Let’s Fix This folks on the Capitol Crawl.
You can find me at any of these spots or watch for my online updates. If you are as fed up as I am, let’s set a good example for our legislators and fellow Oklahomans. Truly your actions speak louder than your words!
KJ
