St. Vrain Community Council

 “Call to Action” Protocol

Adopted: August 23, 2005

Introduction

At our February 22, 2005 meeting, the St. Vrain Community Council (SVCC) discussed ways to create and sustain a mechanism for identifying critical human service issues in our community and educating our community policy makers and leaders about these issues.  Phase 1 of our discussion, which took place during the February 22 meeting, focused on developing a set of policy statements and strategies that address major human services issues.  These statements will serve as a guide for our collective action on such matters that may come before our local, regional state and/or federal government officials.

Phase 2 of this effort, which we will discuss at our April 26 meeting, focuses on creating a mechanism for mobilizing SVCC members to proactively address significant human service issues that arise during the course of the year and are being considered at the local, regional state and/or federal government level.  For example, the SVCC could be “called to action” to help educate our federal legislators on the impact that our Community Development Block Grant funds have on meeting local housing and human service needs, and how significantly reducing those funds and/or transferring the administration of these funds from Housing and Urban Development to Commerce would have a devastating impact on our ability to provide emergency and transitional housing to our most vulnerable residents. 

Overview of Draft Protocol

The overall goals of the SVCC “Call to Action” Protocol are:

• To develop relationships with local, regional, state, and federal legislators for information and position recommendations.
• To advise the SVCC on pending public policy issues of importance to the community, state, and nation.
• To effectively influence policy in the St Vrain community, Boulder County, Colorado and federal government in a nonpartisan way.
• To support the SVCC members through information and training to encourage their own advocacy efforts, and encourage members to build relationships with legislators.
• To educate key legislators and policy makers on matters of importance to the SVCC.

Proposed “Call to Action” Procedures—When a member desires the support of the SVCC to make a public statement, address a legislator, write a letter to the editor, etc., or if an outside group/individual approaches the SVCC to support a position or legislation, the SVCC Executive Committee will:

• Write a summary of the request and clearly state a deadline when action must be taken.
• Email the summary out to all members of the SVCC and place it on the agenda of the next SVCC.
• A member of the Executive Committee will facilitate a discussion and conduct a vote on how to proceed with the request. 
• The Executive Committee will only proceed on the action with a two-thirds majority vote of those in attendance. 
• At the next SVCC, a member of the Executive Committee will report back how the process went and what actions were taken.

Should an issue arise that needs immediate action before the SVCC holds its next meeting, the Executive Committee will take the following steps:

• Determine what action, if any, the SVCC should take on the issue, based on the SVCC policy statements and strategies.  Prepare a summary of the request and the action that the Executive Committee has decided to take on behalf of the SVCC membership, and email the summary out to all members of the SVCC. 
• At the next SVCC, a member of the Executive Committee will report back how the process went and what actions were taken.

Official positions taken by the SVCC on issues of importance should be written on SVCC letterhead stationery that lists the SVCC executive committee members and the SVCC website.