Consultant’s
Report from Ruth Benn
November 2006 - May 2007
I note that it is the end of Year Four as NWTRCC Coordinator, and I am quite amazed that it has already been that long. Time flies faster and faster. I still do other freelance work so NWTRCC is still part-time, but even if it was fulltime I’d probably never accomplish half the ideas I come up with. I try to get the main things done (newsletter, appeal mailings, network tasks, finance management, counseling/technical info, literature, support), and then get to the other projects as I can. That might be the most frustrating part of the job – how to get done all the things that could be done, but I am happy being the NWTRCC coordinator (which I’ve started to call Consultant for the media to be less bulky). It fits well into my life and hopefully others see it as a good fit also. I think the key thing is to get more volunteer help or to raise more money for some hourly help. I get busy and don’t put enough time into this.
Tax Day
It was a busier year than last year, especially in terms of media, although there were a good number of general “I can’t pay anymore” calls and emails. The action list did not grow in particular, but as always many groups were out on tax day or during the weekend before. This year the media seemed to contact us earlier, quite a few before our press release went out. List at the end of this report.
• Sent out the postcard mailing at end of Jan. to create the action list for our press release.
• Wrote press release and emailed it to hundreds of media outlets the week before tax day.
• Emailed out a short release to lefty media about our video contest winners April 16 but don’t think that got picked up anywhere.
• Stocked lit and filled lit orders for tax day. Although the finance report doesn’t seem to reflect it, there were more orders from Jan to tax day (42) this year than last year (27). Some bills haven’t been paid yet, but seems there were more small orders, meaning people buying books or info. Fewer larger orders from affiliates last year and this than in the past though.
Standard tasks and organizational administration.
• The day usually starts with email. Easy to spend the morning responding to messages or sending out messages – either counseling stuff or announcements or whatever.
• Keeping up the finance records, entering income and expenses in QuickBooks.
• Sent out the minutes from the Nov. meeting to our network either by mail or email.
• Dec., Feb., April newsletters - usually takes the better part of a week from start to finish, depending on how much is written by others. After each newsletter is posed on the web I send an email to a growing list of email-only folks.
• David Gross completed editing the update for Practical #5. I read a few versions of it, helped get some of the photos, and saw that it got printed.
• The readings on Money just needs to get set up; talked with Peg Morton on that. Likewise with the student financial aid sheet. May be at the May meeting. Get regular calls on that.
Video
• I set up the system for conference calls and am on this committee, trying to help keep things moving. Put quite a bit of time into advertising the video contest, being in touch with entrants, contacting the winners. Steev Hise posted them on the internet for us. With Daniel wrote a proposal to NACC and got $600 funding that paid for the prizes and we used about the same format to send to No. CA WTR and received $500 from them (special grant). We all felt it was successful and has potential for next year with a longer timeline.
The long video is a harder project as we need money to get it going. I researched some foundations and wrote proposals to the Fund for a Just Society (Unitarian) in Boston and the AJ Muste Memorial Institute. Have a couple ideas for individuals funders, and talked with Jef Schultz in CA about helping with that.
Steev Hise outlined a proposal from Pan Left, which is presented to this May meeting.
Fundraising –
* I applied to RESIST for support for outreach and general funding, and we received $1,000 from them. Requests to So. CA WTR and No CA WTR also brought us grants of $600 and $1,000 respectively for general NWTRCC work (these are more or less annual).
* Sent out the November fund appeal and planning to get the May one out right after the meeting. I will write that one and send copies of one or more articles – maybe San Francisco.
* Efforts by Eszter and I to make the Fundraising clerk workable have faltered. We had some ideas and discussions in the late fall/early winter and then it kind of got lost in the shuffle, at least at my end.
Outreach
• In early January sent ads to various newsletters and publications; some positive responses, including getting a short article on WTR in the Catholic Peace Fellowship newsletter. Ads ran in the Burlington, VT, newsletter; Albuquerque Catholic Worker; Peacework (AFSC in Cambridge); Nuclear Resister
• Helped get things set up for the table Jan. 27 in DC, and tabled at the UFPJ march in NYC March 18 (not a great success); through Robert Mary Ann Holtz in Florida had a war tax table at the Florida Coalition for P & J conference March 24;
• Website could be a fulltime job, just trying to add new stuff, keep it updated, etc. We added some short video clips from the conference interviews, a download page for some publications, the sign-on form (just getting an online sign-on set up). Peter Smith set up a blog at www.nwtrcc.org/wordpress.
• media outreach around tax day and general outreach connected to the video contest.
Special Activities
• Memorial service for Marian Franz, Feb. 17 – in DC. Met Alan Gamble, Peace Tax Fund, plus many of our other DC and Philly friends were there.
• Dan Jenkins’ day (morning) in court Feb. 22 in NYC. The hearing was interesting but the results were unfortunately not new.
• Attended a day of the conference on potential legal actions
related to CO to military taxes organized by New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM)
folks, inspired by Daniel Jenkins’ efforts. Held at Purchase
Meeting. Good to see Rosa Packard there, along with many new faces. Glad to meet
and hear from Robin Brookes of the Peace Tax Seven in
• Watched a lot of “Freedom to Fascism,” a film by libertarian-type Allen Russo that many people call or email about, and it was also popping up on our listserve from many folks in our network who were encouraging others to see it. His argument is basically that the income tax was never ratified by the 16th Amendment and the control of the Federal Reserve and such. Spent a little time reading Wikipedia’s info on the 16th amendment and some of the other arguments. I tell people who call that our focus is on war taxes and helping people who feel they can’t pay for war now, and that they should do their own research on this because the film is very much Russo’s perspective, edited tightly to serve his arguments.
• Help organize some workshops and WTR meetings in NYC also. We have some good new people but haven’t figured out how to get them more active in terms of organizing.
Ruth, 4/29/07
Some Tax Season Media Coverage, 2007
Ruth’s note: I don’t know what appeared or happened with all of these contacts to the NWTRCC office. When I refer them out I don’t know for sure about follow up, but I think in most cases these outlets carried something. Susan Quinlan and No. CA WTR did a rush of media stuff this year around tax day; she was on 2 or 3 one- hour programs. And there was probably a lot more that folks haven’t told me about.
Wesleyan (CT) radio station (2/20, Ruth)
Ashland, Oregon, radio show (2/22, Ruth)
Columbia (University) News Service (2/27, Ed, Peter G, Robin Harper, Karl Meyer)
SmartMoney.com (3/21, Ruth, Larry Rosenwald, David Gross, Peter G) this article appeared again around tax day in some newspapers around the country; got copies from Colorado Springs and a Texas paper but I forget which one.
“Justice Talking,” NPR show (Paul Sheldon from PA)
San Francisco Chronicle article (Dorothy Hansen, Elizabeth Boardman, David Gross, Steve Leeds)
New Haven Register
Portland, OR
Eugene, OR
St. Petersburg Times, FL
KPFA in Berkeley interview folks out there on at least 2 different shows
(Susan Quinlan, David Gross, Doug Mackenzie, and others)
Democracy Now (4/14, Ruth)
WPFW in DC (Carol Moore)
Business Week online (Ruth)
New Hampshire radio show (Larry Dansinger)
WBAI (NYC) morning show (4/16, Ruth)
morning show in
KUFP in Santa Cruz (4/17, Ruth, Scott Kennedy)
WORT in Madison (Jerry Chernow, Ruth, others on phone tax)
Vermont Guardian Weekly
Home News Tribune, NJ (4/8, Bryan Nelson)
Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger -- also on CommonDreams -- (4/16, Bryan Nelson, Ed, Peter G)
Radio4All in Berkeley (Internet radio, Susan Q)
Newstalk 870 in Ithaca, NY (Mary Loehr)
WMNF talk show in Florida (4/12, Ed H)
Brooklyn Daily Eagle (front page on 4/20, Ed, Peter G, Robin Harper, Karl Meyer)
Sirius Satellite Network, “Jay Thomas Show” (4/25, Ed)