Fun_People Archive
13 May
CPSR assistance sought. (oops! This might not be funny...)

Date: Thu, 13 May 93 14:11:03 PDT
To: ca_folks
Subject: CPSR assistance sought. (oops!  This might not be funny...)

 From: Keith Bostic <bostic@vangogh.CS.Berkeley.EDU>
 From: Al Whaley <Al.Whaley@sunnyside.com>

To CPSRers in California:

CPSR's assistance has been requested by Mary Winkler, legislative aide
to Assemblywoman Debra Bowen.  Bowen is the main sponsor of California
Assembly bill 1624 which would provide electronic access to the
legislative process.

Winkler is asking us to each call our state Assemblyperson's office
and our state Senator's office and request a copy of bill 1624.  After
doing this, keep track of how many days it takes to get a copy or,
just write back after a while if one never comes.  Also report if
it seems difficult to get a copy.  If you email me back, I will summarize
to her.

This activity will serve two purposes:
1- It helps illustrate to the legislature that non-electronic methods
impose a delay and probably other roadblocks.  Documenting these
with the names of real citizens will seem convincing.

2- It will test whether CPSR is willing to do anything.  Jim Warren
has been telling the California legislature that if California cannot
afford money to put out free versions of the California legislative 
process electronically, that volunteers around the state (computer
professionals) will jump up and take up the slack and help out.  A
number of organizations have volunteered to help archive information,
like Cygnus, CPSR, etc.  But the legislators are not used to selfless
volunteers coming forward, and they're having trouble believing.

Helping this bill or a flavor of it pass will open up the legislative
process in California, and dialog between the citizens and the State.
Many things could follow from it, and an improvement in law making
could result.

Please help out this process with a few phone calls and an email message
with the results.  Things are moving quickly, so please do this as
soon as you're able.  If you don't know who your rep is, write to
listserv@cpsr.org, subject ignored, message body containing:

GET CPSR/STATES/CALIFORNIA  ASBLY_ROSTER
GET CPSR/STATES/CALIFORNIA  SENATE_ROSTER

This will provide the phone number at the state capitol.  Your local
phone book probably has the local number too.

Thanks!

Al
Fun_People Archive 13 MayCPSR assistance sought. (oops! This might not be funny...)

Fun_People Archive
13 May
CPSR assistance sought. (oops! This might not be funny...)
