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905 days ago
After the fact I just want to note that Paid Family Leave passed in Washington State! There was a lot of last-minute lobbying - including our whole family trekking down to Olympia to deliver bags of home-made cookies to legistators. The lawmakers make some cuts and changes but in the end, Governor Gregoire signed the bill into Washington State law and we got to change into something besides Moms-rising t-shirts. First of all I have to say that this happend much faster than I expected. I was prepared to wear the shirts for at least a year - if not longer. I am very pleased to be able to vary my wardrobe now but even more so that there was enough support in Washington state to get Paid Family Leave passed into law. Second I was a bit disappointed in myself for not being more diligent about adding blog updates, posting photos or being more active in the many events on the way. The gap between intention and capacity can be wide. After thinking about it for awhile ...
980 days ago
Today is a big day for MomsRising in Washington state. The PFL initiative made it through the senate and is in front of the house. A bunch of MomsRising supporters have headed down to Olympia for a press conference to answer questions and demonstrate the support paid-family leave has in Washington state. Problem is that the event occurs during working hours and many of the folks who support the bill have to work. Problem: How do you show the scope of support for an issue when people can't make the time to travel to the state capitol in the middle of the work week? Solution: Get supporters to donate onsies with messages of support to take to Olympia in their stead. This has been by far my favorite project since getting involved with Momsrising this year. One week ago in a planning meeting, the problem above was posed to the Momsrising community. The idea of taking messages on Onsies was concieved and a week later strings of over 300 messaged onsies are hanging in ...
1001 days ago
Part of the life that was happening over the past month was our participation in a town-hall style presentation to the Washington State speaker of the house - Frank Chopp. Yvonne and I were recruited to tell our story along with a list of other speakers who are passionate about the prospect of passing Paid Family Leave in Washington state. Despite hand writing our notes on the ferry on the way to the meeting due to a move-enforced technology drought, our presentation went well with Yvonne giving her reasons for supporting paid family leave while I held our toddler then us traded notes for boy so I could say my piece. I'd include the transcript of our presentation but the notes are packed in a box somewhere. I'll add the content of our presentation once that particular box is unearthed. Speaker Chopp appeared to recieve the presentation well and he had some good advice about posiitoning our message and who else would need convincing in the Washington state political arena. ...
1001 days ago
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2027979,00.html Got a mention in the UK Guardian yesterday which inspired me to realize how long it has been since I have updated this blog. The authors didn't include this URL in the article but it's pretty clear they read through much of my previous posts. It feels odd to to see proof of an audience halfway around the world - especially when the act of writing an entry feels so intimate. For the record, enthusiasm for Paid Family Leave, our projects or this blog have not dwindled. They merely were overshadowed for a bit by *life* happening. I have a backlog of topics and expect to post some more soon. Stay tuned.
1029 days ago
In all the excitement I plumb forgot to mention: Yvonne and I were featured wearing MomsRising t-shirts in a CNN Money story about paid family leave. Best part is that the picture was taken by our 12-year old - his first photo credit! Link to story: http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/11/pf/moms_rising/index.htm For those who just want to see the picture....
