What Is A Grassroots Lobby?
A grassroots lobbying organization is a bit of an oxymoron. The real (rather than stated) purpose of most grassroots lobbies is to push the agenda of a few individuals (usually the Officers or Board) while claiming to represent hundreds, thousands, or even millions of individuals.
How can they do this? It’s simple. You sign up a large number of individuals as members. Try to keep contact between the real grassroots membership to a minimum, by only hosting the one required annual membership meeting. Have rules that are difficult for the membership to nominate officers or directors that were not put up by the nominating committee. Tell the membership about all of the great things that you are doing for them, while trying to hide the real agenda that the Board and / or Officers have been promoting.
The two largest grassroots lobbies in the country are AARP and the NRA. The NRA usually stays pretty close to its mission – protection of the Second Amendment. As the bulk of the NRA’s membership is pretty aware politically, on the few occasions where the NRA’s board has strayed the membership has spoken loud and clear. The AARP on the other hand, lobbies for many issues that are outside of their mission of looking out for seniors. However, like the NRA, the AARP keeps its membership list a secret so that members cannot pool their efforts to keep the board on mission. In addition, the goodies the AARP members are eligible for (insurance, discounts, etc.) help to keep the member dues flowing regardless of how far the board strays from their stated mission.
You might ask, “Why are you bothering us with this info?†The answer is simple. Mike Pretl, a member of the Wicomico Neighborhood Congress steering committee is advocating that the WNC incorporate as a 501c3 non-profit and become a grassroots lobby. He is proposing that the WNC restrict itself to annual meetings of the full membership, while a board and officers will take care of lobbying city, county and state government on behalf of “the membersâ€, raise money, hire staff, hold seminars, etc. Mike has a lot of experience in these matters. He’s involved with the Wicomico Environmental Trust, an organization that advocates positions that I doubt the majority of the membership approves of.
Mike is also an officer / board member of Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative Education Fund. Sounds pretty good; the stated mission was to lobby for healthcare for all Marylanders. The real purpose was to promote the “Wal-Mart Billâ€. Besides being anti-free market, that bill cost the lower shore approximately 700 jobs. Because the bill was ruled unconstitutional in court we may see those jobs yet, but who knows. Who funded this “grassroots lobbyâ€? Some foundation money, several labor unions and several mainline protestant denominations funded the organization. I wonder if the folks dropping their money into the collection plate knew where the Lord’s money was going.
Do we want a grassroots organization or do we want a lobby controlled by a relatively few people who claim to represent us?
Technorati Tags: Wicomico, politics, wicomicopolitics, WNC, wicomiconeighborhoodcongress, neighborhoods, lobby, grassroots, grassrootslobby
Sphere: Related Content
