[Indigsol] URGENT: OPIRG Friends and Lovers Needed to Fight Off Attack!

[Angela (OPIRG Carleton)]

OPIRG ALLIES ASSEMBLE!
Imminent Threat to OPIRG Carleton!
OPIRG Friends and Lovers Needed to Fight Off Attack!


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3:45pm-6:30pm
Monday, January 14th
Graduate Students Association Board Room
6th Floor Unicentre
Carleton University
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1) What's Going On?
2) What You Can Do
3) Background Info
4) Contact Info

======================
1) WHAT'S GOING ON?
======================

OPIRG Carleton has every reason to believe that a referendum question
calling for the complete elimination of OPIRG's levy will be announced
at a public meeting on Monday, January 14th.  If successful, this
referendum question would mean the complete destruction of OPIRG
Carleton.  As our only source of funding is from a student levy,
without it we would no longer be able to continue our work on social
and environmental justice issues on the Carleton campus and the wider
community. Furthermore the student body has continually showed its support
to OPIRG and a question to eliminate all OPIRG student funding is
one that would unnecessarily burden the referendum process.

Our earliest opportunity to defeat any potential any unnecessary referendum
questions will happen on Monday evening at the Constitution and Policy
Committee (CPC) meeting.  This Committee decides on Monday which
referendum questions will be accepted to be put to be put before CUSA
council and ultimately the student body.

With enough support, we may be able to prevent unnecessary referendum
question from being accepted by the CPC.  During the CPC's public meeting on

Monday, concerned individuals will be allowed to make submissions
either against or in favour of each possible referendum question.  A
strong showing in support of OPIRG will help demonstrate that a question
such of this one would be a waste of time and resources. *
*
We're asking for OPIRG's Friends and Lovers, everyone who has ever
attended an OPIRG workshop or event, been a volunteer or Working Group
member, received a Research Bursary or used our Resource Centre, to
come out and let the CPC know that you don't support any question
calling for the erasure of OPIRG Carleton.

If you are planning on coming, please contact us at
opirgadmin at gmail.com and let us know.

In Solidarity and Struggle,
OPIRG Carleton

======================
2) WHAT YOU CAN DO?
======================

Come out on Monday to support OPIRG Carleton!

It's vital that we show OPIRG has support from students and community
members, and the most immediate and concrete way to do that is to come
to the Constitution and Policy Committee Meeting on Monday, January,
14th.  We'll be meeting before hand to discuss our strategy, so please
meet us in the GSA Boardroom, on the 6th Floor of the UniCentre,
Carleton University, at 3:45pm.  If you can't make it to the 3:45pm
meeting, the actual Committee meeting begins at 4:30pm and you could
go directly there.  We don't know the specific room number, but if you
let us know you'd like to come, we can give you the details when
they're announced.

=============================
3) BACKGROUND INFORMATION
=============================

In general there are usually a few individuals that come to the OPIRG office
each September to ask
for their levy fees to be returned to them. This past September was no
different. The Board of Directors
created a policy, available online, explaining the opt-out procedure for
students who maintain strong
objections to OPIRG and the work done by the OPIRG on social, environmental
and economic
justice issues. This policy is also meant to explain why OPIRG continues to
offer refunds despite
having had the student body vote to make OPIRG's levy fee non-refundable.
This policy was created over several meetings and considered seriously by
the board of directors. It should be noted that OPIRG did not receive its
fall levy fees until November and at this time arrangements were made
immediately to announce an opt out period for students. Individuals who had
asked in the months proceeding this date to receive their levy fee refund
were given the option to be contacted directly with news of the policy and
opt out period. Those who chose to be contacted were.


Beginning in November of 2007, a small group on campus, under the name the
Reagan-Goldwater Society (RGS), launched a series of attacks on OPIRG
Carleton.  Mostly
confined to a few over-heated facebook debates, they also published an
article in the Charlatan and a few editorials on their website calling
for the canceling of OPIRG's levy.

During the Refund period, during which OPIRG Carleton offers a full
levy refund to any student with strong political objections to the
work of the organization, the Reagan-Goldwater Society handed out
flyers on campus telling people to go to OPIRG to "get their beer
money back" as part an official RGS campaign.

Of the more than 45 people who came to OPIRG as a result of the RGS
flyering, less than half got refunds.  The remainder, by and large,
felt misled by the RGS, signed up to get more involved with OPIRG, and
were quite happy to have their levy funds go to supporting the
excellent work we're doing.

We have every reason to believe that next Monday, members of the RGS
will bring forward a question that will directly attack OPIRG's levy.
As our levy is currently refundable, we believe the question will call
for the complete cancellation of the levy altogether.

=================
4) CONTACT INFO
=================

Contact OPIRG at:
613 520 2757
opirgadmin at gmail.com
www.opirg-carleton.org

-- 
angela mooney

Co-Coordinator
OPIRG Carleton
326 Unicentre
phone: 613 520 2757
email: vcopirg at gmail.com
fax: 613 520 3989
www.opirg-carleton.org

Sign up for OPIRG-Carleton's  wednesday weekly e-letter announcing upcoming
events, meeting times, actions, working group info and more! Email me with
the subject WW subscribe!



-- 
angela mooney

Co-Coordinator
OPIRG Carleton
326 Unicentre
phone: 613 520 2757
email: vcopirg at gmail.com
fax: 613 520 3989
www.opirg-carleton.org

Sign up for OPIRG-Carleton's  wednesday weekly e-letter announcing upcoming
events, meeting times, actions, working group info and more! Email me with
the subject WW subscribe!
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