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WDN Members who attended an advocacy workshop in Washington D.C. in 2011 co-sponsored by WDN's Progressive Political Infrastructure and Reproductive Rights circles.

Join us for the second year of our successful training and lobby days in Washington, D.C. We will repeat some of what worked well, and are adding a series of new trainings and focusing on a range of different issue areas (see below). Of course we will once again hold lobby visits on Capitol Hill and with the Administration. Come to practice and hone new methods for empowering your voice and delivering your message.

Joel Silberman

Renowned progressive media trainer Joel Silberman ^[2], who did an overview media training session with WDN members at our Annual Conference in November 2011, will be joining us to do a set of smaller, deeper sessions with members to help them build their public speaking and communication skills.

We will also be working with social media trainer Beth Becker ^[3] of Progressive PST to teach members skills in new media, according to level of proficiency, from beginner to advanced.

In addition, the training will include a salon discussion event with leading progressive and political thinkers to be hosted in Cathy Carlson’s home in Washington.

Beth Becker

RSVP now for this interactive, multi-day training event, where you will learn critical skills and get hands-on experience to more effectively use your voice and access to make progress on the issues you care about. You can find all of the pricing details and register on the WDN private website. ^[4] If you are not a WDN member and are interested in attending this event as a prospective member, please contact the office at (415) 814-1333.

Logistics: Plan to arrive on Sunday, March 18th, as we’ll begin bright and early on  Monday, March 19th.  We strongly suggest you stay at our recommended hotel, the Hotel Liaison, as we’ll be meeting nearby, and traveling together to optional meetings and lobby visits (see link above for all the details!).

Issue areas: Below are the five issue areas we have selected to focus on for our 2012 training and lobbying. Attendees will be able to choose one or two areas in which to focus for learning in the weeks leading up to the trip, and for visits in Washington.

ENVIRONMENT — We will continue to build on our work from the 2011 DC training around hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and Tar Sands development. Our focus will likely be on the Obama Administration around requirements and regulations that could lessen the impact of fracking on the water supply and on communities, including pipeline safety. We may also push on the issue of eliminating oil and gas subsidies, which can have a direct impact on the heavily subsidized natural gas industry.

CURBING CORPORATE POWER — As donors, we can be powerful spokespeople to lawmakers that “We are the 1%, who support the 99%.” Carrying forward the momentum from our conference, we will frame a number of issues under the banner of curbing corporate power, including potentially some of the 40 solutions Joan Claybrook raised in her talk at the conference. These include the full implementation of the consumer protections in the Dodd-Frank Act, the Volker Rule also part of Dodd Frank, designed to prohibit risky short-term behavior by banks, reigning in out-of-control executive pay that incentivizes risk and pushing for a speculation tax on financial transactions. We may also look at the Merkley-Udall bill to overturn Citizens United as a potential issue for us to take on.

HUMAN SECURITY & THE MILITARY BUDGET –This group aims to shift the current debate around security from the traditional militarism frame and the never-ending arms race to “human security” or meeting the basic human needs of individuals and communities, especially women and girls, to fully thrive. We will focus on US military spending and how to cut funding for arms and war and increase funding for economic equity, peace, diplomacy and meeting actual human needs.

MEDIA DEMOCRACY — In working on this issue, we will have an opportunity to speak with regulators and legislators about ways to promote freedom of information and diverse voices through traditional media as well as the Internet. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be reviewing its media ownership rules and has the authority to make rules that promote ownership of TV and radio stations by women and people of color. In Congress, we can be helpful in fighting against legislation (called SOPA in the House and PIPA in the Senate) that would allow censorship of important sites like YouTube that allow members of the public to circumvent Big Media and share information democratically online.

WOMEN’S HEALTH CARE — The Affordable Care Act is under attack by conservatives, and its ultimate fate may be in the hands of the Supreme Court. But many of the preventative services benefiting women that are part of the legislation must be protected. We will talk with Democratic lawmakers to thank them for their support and educate them about what we’ve learned from our own work in women’s reproductive health. We will also meet with potential Republican allies in an effort to educate them about the critical impact these preventative services would have on women’s lives.