Over 70 local citizens attended our BC election community conversation on January 30th, ready to take over this upcoming BC election. I know, I know, the US might be ruining politics for some, but for this crowd it was motivation. We can - and must - do so much better.
Now before I get too off topic, allow me to summarize the outcomes of our lively community discussion.
In small break out groups, we identified some barriers we’ve experienced ourselves or heard from others as reasons for not voting. These reasons were fairly consistent and fell under the following categories:
- lack of interest;
- feeling like it doesn’t matter;
- not knowing when, why or how to vote;
- feeling overwhelmed by the amount or conflicting information;
- having little trust in any of the candidates, the parties or the information being presented; or
- voting was not accessible.
Throughout this election we decided we will work to address each of these barriers.
Our plan is to:
- Be out in the community to let citizens know how, what they need and where & when to go vote.
- Talk to people about why voting matters. This includes listening! We will help connect local, everyday issues and challenges to provincial decisions.
- Offer clear, concise bite sized bits of information about the candidates and parties with the option to dig deeper where interested.
What really stood out overall is we need to be positive, honest, have fun and laugh!
This is where you come in. Now we need to turn our conversation into action!
We can do this by forming 2 teams:
Team Comms (communications team):
- Are you into research, brainstorming catchy campaign messaging, developing materials or web content and/or social media? This is your team come true!
- Tell me when you are best available for the first team comms meeting here.
The CA Team (community action team)
- Do you want to get the message out there by scheduling and tabling events, canvassing or managing data or mapping behind the scenes? I know you do… Then you're ready to join the Community Action team!
- Tell me when you can come to the first CA team meeting here.
(if you are reading this after Feb 17, 2017 and want to join, email Rosalie at [email protected] for meeting dates or tell us you’re in here)
As for the specific (and awesome) ideas we came up with, you’ll have to come out to hear more.
So… Let’s do this!
Election day is Tuesday, May 9, 2017. Let’s make this an informed election. Let's stand up, speak loudly, take action and VOTE!
Please remember: Collectively it’s been decided that we will remain non-partisan so if you're doing party work, we want you to give that your all. As for the rest of you, see you soon!
PS, does this sound good but you just can’t commit time? You can always invest in us here.