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There are lots of questions of what kinds of general procedures and practices there should be. There is something to be said for having the thing function a little bit without a set of rules to develop a sense of what kinds of rules and procedures are needed. Remember that the founding fathers were not writing on a clean slate, and those who have, have not fared as well. Even the state constitutions from which the federal borrowed heavily (eg First Amendment) were built upon extensive experience going way back, including some interesting first second and third Constitutions under the colonies in given states. Some of them are amusing other provisions are sad or outraging.
Anyway, here's a few suggestions: (1) Although it might be seen as diminishing our impact, it should be suggested that letter writers identify themselves as being from DU. That would be more honest, and would get our name known. When you try to pretend to be 1000 separate spontaneous letters, you risk becoming like the troll/copperhead ideology of 'staged spontaneity' that I so detest. People will notice that we are from a corps, sooner or later.
(2) There should be, as I have suggested, certain regular topics that always have actions listed, like Amnesty International Cases or Abuses (both omission and commission) in and by the Mainstream Media, with, if possible a special emphasis on TV and radio, with someone sophisticated posting a clip. Newspaper articles are easier, but I think 1000 people pointing out some BS on TV and also sending that info to newspapers can have a big impact (but it takes skills that I for one, don't have, to get those videos to this site for general viewing both by members of the corps and DUers generally). This kind of general publicity should draw more people. MSM, AI would say, have a minimum of one action per every two weeks at the outset, and maybe one a week as more actions are recommended.
(3) I suspect they have a set of rules for corps members that the Administrators have, and that should be made public and transparent
(4) There should be a general sense of how many, once this thing gets rolling, actions will be presented for action in any given week. One a day would be a good goal. And you wouldn't necessarily have to have done it EVERY day. But of the 6 minimum actions available each week, some should be prioritized, eg possibly a 'point' system or something, and you have to have a certain number of points EVERY MONTH as your MONTHLY "RENT" or something. There needs to be a regular system for how many actions are expected.
(5) Recommending an action -- there could be a special board for Corps members or Administrators to Recommend an Action. They would need to be reviewed at least every week by each corps member, if they want to participate in the decisionmaking (which many would perhaps not). If you got, say, five votes, it would be voted upon automatically by the board, which board would have some members elected after the first, say three months or so of operation(interim until serious elections after 6 months), by members of the corps in good standing for at least a certain period (eg three months). E-stuff needs more frequent accountability than once a year, but once every 6 months should be OK, once we get going.
(6) I think that to have DU Administrators make up or choose half the board, and Corps members the other half after 6 months would be a good start. It is conceivable that after a while, since we really don't know each other, we could evolve into a more democratic structure. After three months there would be only maybe one quarter or one third. The other model is by the administrators picking who they want from the Corps to be decisionmakers with them. It is difficult to have a democracy without real face-to-face community at some level. But we could introduce some elements of it and see how it works, step by step.
(7) There is also the issue of specifics -- do we have certain talking points in common? What is the common denominator? We must all be working from at least common parameters of a script on every action, instead of some saying we should have no litmus test and others saying support for Roe v Wade is a litmus etc.
So those are some issues: (1) Should we identify ourselves as corps members? (2) Should there be regular topics, like supporting Amnesty International cases, that appear at least one case every two weeks, also MSM and Iraq -- perennial issues, perennially addressed (3)What rules/guidelines/policies have Administrators decided on already? (4)Prioritization of actions and specific minimum criteria of participation for Corps members (5)how actions get recommended, and if general idea is proposed, how the actions parameters worked out (6)How leadership and administration of corps is selected and what are their powers and duties (7) Precise issues of parameters mentioned in (5), and how those parameters are set and how monitored, how defined etc. With issue, say SCOTUS nomination, we could draw up eg (a) list of who should be contacted at minimum, (b) general position on nomination that should be included in every communication, (c)suggested talking points, and (d) some don'ts possibly as well That's about it, in summary, for this discussion to start!!!!!! --- pardon my verbosity CLOUDY
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