Change for Kentucky

Meet Up is Wednesday, April 6

The Fayette Co. Democracy for America/Change for Kentucky MeetUp is this Wednesday, April 6, 2005, at 7:00 at the Central Public Library in downtown Lexington.

There are other KY MeetUps in Louisville, Paducah, Ashland, Somerset, Ft. Thomas, and Hopkinsville, along with other meetings in March in Frankfort and Madisonville.  Please click the links to visit their MeetUp site or to send an email to the County Coordinator near you.

See you Wednesday at the MeetUp!

Change for Kentucky-Frankfort

The Frankfort chapter of Change for Kentucky began in March of 2004 with five of us meeting at our home in South Frankfort. Over the last year, we have grown to an e-mail list of 85. Meetings are usually at 7 pm on the first Thursday night of the month in the fourth floor community room of the downtown Farmers Bank. Our usual meeting attendance is 20 to 25. It has been a real treat to watch the group grow in size, energy and sophistication. Of course, we will never be all that sophisticated, but we are learning a lot as we grow.

From March to November of last year, our efforts centered around the 2004 election cycle. In April, we encouraged people to turn out to their precinct and county caucuses, thereby electing several members to the Franklin County Democratic Executive Committee. Our members were generally welcomed by the Executive Committee and we worked closely with them to organize and carry out a voter registration drive in August and September. Throughout the fall, CFK members worked for various campaigns, manning phones, distributing literature and talking with voters. Early in October, we sponsored a Yard Sale for Democrats, an event that actually generated more fun and attention than money. Throughout the campaign, we built our e-mail list and tried to keep people informed about candidates and campaign events, encouraging our members to work for progressive candidates.

Since the November elections, we have adopted a more strategic focus. We believe we are building a structure that will help us be much more effective in the future. Our first post-election task was to develop a mission statement. A small group worked over two months to develop a draft statement, which was then circulated to all members for comments. The statement was adopted at the February meeting, after considerable discussion and a few changes.

Click here to read the CFK-Frankfort Mission Statement

The statement describes our mission, values and goals. It tells what we are about. We believe that it will help us keep our efforts more focused in the future. In fact, our next step is to formulate an action plan that flows from our mission statement and can direct the committees we form and the action steps we take.

If you are interested in developing a mission statement, we would be happy to share ideas about the process. Other chapters are also welcome to borrow parts of our mission statement if they think it fits what they believe.

While we were working on the mission statement, we realized how important it is for a chapter to have its own steering group. It was easy to form. We simply added members to the group that had drafted the mission statement. We now have a steering group of nine or ten people who meet as needed, generally monthly. They help plan the agenda for the general meetings. They are also the ones who are drafting our action plan. It will be brought to the general membership for discussion and approval at the May meeting.

Since our CFK chapter is based in Frankfort, one of the roles that we would like to play is to become a kind of host that can help all CFK members and groups to communicate more effectively with their legislators. To that end, we hosted a “CFK Day at the Capitol” on February 17, 2005. The day turned out to be a lot of fun. Eighteen people showed up, including some folks from Lexington and Louisville. We met with our legislators. In addition, we were able to have a full hour meeting with Jonathan Miller, Crit Luallen and two Democratic senators. They seemed to have a real interest in CFK.

We are willing to host an event like this next year during the legislative session and we are also interested in developing a capacity to alert CFK members about key legislation. Please let us know what you think of these ideas. Perhaps you have suggestions about how to organize such an effort effectively. All ideas are welcome!

For more information on Change for Kentucky-Frankfort, please contact Jim & Sara Call at (502) 227-2566 or email: sjcall@fewpb.net