July 2011 RESULTS Domestic Conference Call: Generate Media to Protect Head Start and Child Care Services in Budget Negotiations

The RESULTS July 2011 RESULTS Domestic national conference call started with a recap this year's RESULTS International Conference by RESULTS Executive Director Joanne Carter. As Joanne shared, there were 230 attendees from 29 states and 9 countries, we held over 230 meetings with Congressional offices, and we raised over $16,000 just from the generosity of those at the conference. Joanne recognized the tremendous sacrifice RESULTS activists make to come to DC – the cost, the time away from family and friends, using your limited vacation time to do so, and then gave an update on our strategic planning process -- see Joanne's remarks at this year's conference for details. RESULTS Houston volunteer leader Kathleen Duncan moderated a the Shares section, relaying her own experience of bringing videos of local Head Start families to Washington, and then we heard from Jim Chaput from our RESULTS Denver chapter about the thrill of hearing his senator acknowledge the CO volunteers by name at the lobby kickoff (and then lobbying him after in the hall on deficit reduction). RESULTS Columbus volunteer Cathy Werley shared the thrill of her first RESULTS conference and their two days of lobbying on Capitol Hill.

Jos Linn then gave a thorough update on the budget situation in Washington, urging people to call right after the end of the conference call to influence the weekend negotiations (our June Action). Jos then outlined the key talking points featured in our July 2011 Action: Generate Media to Protect Head Start and Child Care Services, urging volunteers to take action ASAP using our online LTE tool. After summer intern Taryn Peacock led the Roll Call section -- the 62 volunteer activists on the phone in total have generated at least 306 actions to protect low-income Americans in budget negotiations and will submit 100 media pieces to local newspapers, Meredith Dodson closed out the call with a few announcements, including the change in date for our August National Conference Call: Tuesday, August 9, 8-9 pm ET. This will be a special call which will include an update of the budget deal in DC and review of the great resources of the Half in Ten campaign.

Listen to the July 2011 RESULTS Domestic Conference Call: Generate Media to Protect Head Start and Child Care Services in Budget Negotiations for all the details!