Loomio
Sat 18 Mar 2017 12:08AM

Our group name and identity

SW Sara Wolf Public Seen by 27

We have all met each other and come a long way working under the name Ranked Choice Voting for Oregon, (RCV OR.)

This was a group that was started by Alan Zundel with the original intention of promoting IRV in Benton County. He has been following the emergence of SRV on the scene and likes it as well, possibly even more than IRV in some ways. We have his permission to keep on using the name RCV OR in solidarity with him and people working on RCV related reforms around the State.

As many of you know a small group of 4 splintered off March 2nd and started their own IRV only group using our local group's name, RCV-PDX. (We had been working as Ranked Choice Voting Portland/RCV Portland.) They did so without consent or feedback from the group after their plan was voted down. They are not open to changing their name so as to avoid confusion but their group is much smaller than ours. We have well over 300's on the RCV OR fb main page, 88 in the RCV OR Discussion Group and had 67 on our RCV Portland page which is now re-branded as Madeline's broader Election Reform PDX page. The splinter group, RCV-PDX on fb has 26 likes.

As a result we are open to the idea of a name change for our group as well as keeping our current name. If we do want to make a change a few points have already been decided. We are not going to limit our identity to being specific to IRV or SRV only. Groups like that already exist for both reforms. We are not going to expand our identity to include other types of election reforms even if we support them. If you have ideas about good names for this group moving forward we'd love to brainstorm and discuss! As this movement progresses subgroups will probably evolve to represent and work towards local reforms but this group is ultimately aimed at an Oregon wide voting reform initiative. Our name should include Oregon.

A few ideas from the Steering Committee to get the brainstorm started:

Oregon Voting Reform, Ranked Choice Voting OR, Vote Your Conscience OR...

CS

Clay Shentrup Sat 18 Mar 2017 2:01AM

"Vote your conscience" sounds provocative, despite being less precise or sciencey. Sounds more human and less dry.

AZ

Alan Zundel Sat 18 Mar 2017 5:59PM

A couple minor corrections.

First, on the history. I had an IRV Oregon website for several years which I converted to an RCV Oregon (or Ranked Choice Voting Oregon) blog over a year ago, before the Benton County initiative. After the BC initiative passed, with the help of a colleague I revamped the blog/website with Nationbuilder intending to keep building a network of interested people in support of a statewide initiative. (I live in Eugene, not Benton County.) We put up the Facebook page and discussion group as additional ways to network with interested people.

(The blog/website name was/is Ranked Choice Voting Oregon, or RCV Oregon. The "for" got stuck in accidentally when putting up the FaceBook page and discussion group and creating the PAC in anticipation of raising money.)

I do not know who organized the initial Portland meeting, nor do I remember how I learned of it. In my mind this was a Portland group also interested in a statewide initiative, not an RCV Oregon organizing meeting. I went to inform them of the RCV Oregon network and platforms and talk about working together. When the structure committee was formed my understanding was that they were organizing for a Portland group to either support a statewide initiative or do a local initiative, not organizing RCV Oregon as a statewide group.

Discussions in the RCV Oregon FB group took off and at some point the RCV Portland FB group was created. How these related to each other was never very clear; no one asked my permission to take a similar name nor did I make an issue of it because I believe we are all working toward the same goal.

All this is to say I've worked with that name for a long time and am not ready to give it up or change it at this time. I am considering a more inclusive name and will be happy to collaborate with others on this, but want to wait a bit before doing this. Neither am I ready to create a formal structure and determine voting rights, etc.. I don't see a need for it now as there is no statewide initiative under consideration. When there is, I would like to draw in many of the people around the state who I am in touch with but have not been involved in the recent discussions.

In sum, I am fine with all of us working together under the umbrella of "RCV Oregon/Ranked Choice Voting (for) Oregon" and keeping the discussions going here and in the RCV Oregon FB group until we all have a chance to sort out where we want to go from here. I will publicize whatever is happening in the state regarding IRV/SRV organizing and campaigns, whether local or statewide. The general mission is changing from the single-member plurality form of voting to something in which voter preferences between candidates are utilized.

If any of us gets a local initiative going, such as Mark's SRV campaign here in Lane County, they should organize their own structure and create a name for that campaign. Until time is ripe for something statewide, creating a structure is something to take our time with. A name change for RCV Oregon should wait until more people around the state have a chance to get familiar with SRV and determine if they will support that as well as IRV.

GHO

George Hayduke Oliver Sun 19 Mar 2017 2:45AM

I am all for moving cautiously forward with any changes as noted from Alan. I would give him the professional courtesy as this is a project that has had his direct involvement for a while now. I also like to hear other members opinion before I step into weighing in one way or another. To be frank, I am still sorting out what all the parties involved are doing and how it equates to direct synergistic cooperation or clear opposition. I am hearing conflicting reports.

SW

Sara Wolf Sun 19 Mar 2017 3:11AM

Are there any specific questions that we can ask to clear things up? Or is this more of an actions speak louder than words sentiment? For me at this stage just a stated intention to work together or support one another means a lot to me. I understand that most people are still gathering information and forming opinions. I think many people are somewhere in the middle of 100% in synergistic cooperation or clear opposition.

SW

Sara Wolf Tue 21 Mar 2017 8:34AM

And then there's UnFuckTheVote which is already a quicklink to the EqualVote website...

SW

Sara Wolf Tue 21 Mar 2017 8:39AM

@alanzundel Just to clarify I'm not saying that if we here were to change our name that you would have to get rid of your group RCV Oregon. There's no reason to not have both groups, especially if the groups have different missions. From what I understand our group here and Alan's original group are on the same page. That's why I'm still using the name. The goal is just to be clear about who we are and who we are speaking for as we make decisions and move forward.

SW

Sara Wolf Thu 6 Apr 2017 7:40AM

What do you guys think about the name Reclaim The Vote! ?

Before we can move forward with fundraising and forming a tax-structure (and/or tax exempt structure) we will need to have a clear name that is specific to us so that we will be able to make decisions about how spend the money we raise. The plan is to form a Campaign Committee with an associated bank account.

Currently we are the Portland Subgroup of Ranked Choice Voting Oregon but that name is a bit cumbersome. We are empowered to make decisions under the name RCV OR currently as long as we don't speak for all of Oregon and recognize that RCV OR has other members who haven't been involved with our Portland group. Also, the term Ranked Choice voting includes Score Runoff Voting but it does imply IRV.

Some top names ideas that I like are: Reclaim The Vote! The People's Vote! Unfuck the Vote!

If we wanted to fundraise as a subgroup of a larger group we could also make agreements and use the names Equal Vote or RCV OR. For me I don't want to limit ourselves to just spending money in Portland though since for me a Statewide Ballot measure and unified system is my goal. Mark has offered this option but I'm not sure what Alan would think.