[Cprb] letter and some questions

[John Wason]

At 04:36 PM 09/23/03 -0500, Walling, Jennifer wrote:

>Hi CPRB,  

*smile*  Hi, Jen.


>So the Campus Greens are working on asking campus groups to be a part of
this >campaign.  I drafted a letter.  It is not very good.  I wasn't sure
if anyone had >drafted a co-sponsorship letter.  Please let me know if this
has been done so we >can ignore my letter.  Otherwise, please read the
attached letter and let me know >how I can make it more clear.  I stole the
CPRB definition from the brochure. 

I don't see a doggone thing wrong with your letter, Jen.  It's more
detailed and a bit more personal than the cover letter we drafted to send
out with our earlier petitions.  I've changed it just a bit below, and I
would offer the suggestion  that we should maybe send the organization
literature before actually sending someone to speak to them.  The wording
of the letter could specify the documents that are enclosed, as I've done
below.  Some organizations will endorse the concept of a CPRB on the
strength of the literature alone, but some will not, and I agree that
personal contact is more effective both in accomplishing our immediate
goals and in building a long-term sustainable progressive movement in general.

I was supposed to send people file attachments of various of our documents,
but I can't remember who wanted what.  Attached to this e-mail is the
original cover letter we sent out, slightly modified to be usable now if
need be, and the two petitions - a petition for organizations to sign and a
slightly different petition that individuals can sign.  I hope everyone on
our CPRB mailing list gets these documents.  I've changed the mailing
address on all the documents to the Prairie Green PO Box.  I'm still not
happy with the way our contact info (other than the PO Box) is set up, but
I'm not sure what to do about it.

In a separate e-mail I'll send attached files that consist of (1) our CPRB
proposal, (2) the draft ordinance we created, and (3) the list of web
sites.  Al has sent us his file of the brochure he created, and John Paul
sent us his sample complaint form.  That should pretty much cover all the
documents we've created.  The next step - and the step that I'm not
particularly good at, but people like Ken Urban and Jen and hopefully Ricky
Baldwin are - is to get the right documents into the hands of the people
who need to see 'em.

I will plan to address AWARE, probably sometime in October.  I'd be
delighted to have anyone else who wants to go with me.  Then we need to get
some more groups to let us address them in some fashion...


>I'm 90% sure the student government will be getting on this thing.  Thanks
very >much to John Wason's answering of my friend's questions. And I will
be willing to >go to meetings to help with the presentation of all of this.
I don't know that >much, so I'd probably just be backup or something. Can
we get a speaker on this?  >John had mentioned a Samuel Walker from the
ACLU.  Maybe we can contact him?  Or  >organizers with review boards from
other cities?  Campus Greens can get funding to >pay these people if we
need to...

Samuel Walker is a professor at some U.S. university; a google search
should turn up information about him.  He's THE authority on Citizen Police
Review Boards.  He'd probably come and address a crowd if we paid him
enough.  Who would the audience be?  I doubt that Samuel Walker is "sexy"
like Michael Moore.  I think he'd be more appropriate for something like a
MillerComm lecture.  But what do I know?

The only other "outside" speaker I can think of is John Watson, the chair
of the Iowa City CPRB.  He'd probably be willing to come for just his
expenses.  But again, who would be his audience?

Ideas and suggestions are welcome.


>Thanks 
>-Jen Walling  

Thank YOU, Jen.  Slightly edited version of your letter below.



Dear  ________  

	I am writing to ask your organization to be a part of a new social justice
campaign in the community and on campus.  Our group, Campus Greens, is part
of a grassroots community organization called the Coalition for Citizen
Police Review.  

	A Citizen Police Review Board is an impartial group of ordinary citizens,
independent of the police department, empowered to receive and investigate
complaints against police officers and to perform other oversight
functions.  Our goal is to pass legislation that would create Citizen
Police Review Boards for the campus, and the cities of Urbana and Champaign.  

	We would like to present more information to your organization about
Police Review Boards.  Enclosed you will find a brochure, our CPRB
proposal, and petitions for you to sign.  Your presence and support would
also be highly desirable when it comes time to present our proposal to the
appropriate authorities.  

	If you desire further information, we would be more than happy to send a
representative or representatives to address you at one of your meetings,
at your convenience.  In any event, we'd greatly appreciate it if your
organization would let us know if you're willing to join the Coalition for
Citizen Police Review and assist us in our efforts.  Thank you for your
time.  

Sincerely,  

CPRB Volunteer 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/rtf
Size: 3606 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/mailman/archive/cprb/attachments/20030924/2f502603/attachment.rtf
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/rtf
Size: 4337 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/mailman/archive/cprb/attachments/20030924/2f502603/attachment-0001.rtf
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/rtf
Size: 5988 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/mailman/archive/cprb/attachments/20030924/2f502603/attachment-0002.rtf