We had our meeting this Tuesday, July 6. John Partridge, Steve Weiss, Sam Metz, Jim Scott , and Mike Huntington (by phone) were in attendance. Items:
1. New PNHP Website http://pnhporegon.org. Want to increase awareness of and access to our group (info about membership, info about speakers bureau, links to national site, collaborating groups like JwJ, MAHD, etc) without adding a maintenance burden we can’t keep up with. ACTION: Mike Huntington will contact national office about site management privileges, then we will use an email thread among the group to develop ideas for what to include.
2. League of Women Voters endorsement of single payer. Woo hoo! Agreed we need to maintain interest and offer our support or help. ACTION: Sam Metz will be in touch with LWV to offer our support and encouragement.
3. Jobs With Justice work on state single payer legislation. More discussion of exclusion of plans created under Taft-Hartley. Bottom line is that we support their efforts to advance the cause of single payer in Oregon, and we can work together toward that end. Caution (mine) that we not explicitly endorse something other than SP, but still can work together with JwJ because this legislation moves us in that direction and JwJ is such an important partner in that work. Caution (Mike Huntington’s) that we need to recognize the work of the Oregon Health Fund Board and to the extent we can coordinate with or take into account what they are doing, to maintain good will if nothing else. Request (John Partridge) for input to the subgroup actually writing the legislation. ACTION: Mike Huntington and Betty Johnson will continue to keep track of goings-on in Salem by the Health Fund Board, etc. John Partridge and Kris Alman will continue work with JwJ.
4. Speakers Bureau activity continues. Rotary and Kiwanis groups have been interested, there is also interest from the Oregon Association of Nurseries. We are collecting slidesets to store on our website to make available to speakers (Sam Metz leading). Mike Huntington met with someone who had useful pointers on public speaking and reaching your audience. Much discussion of need to tailor message to audience, modify slidesets as needed for this purpose. ACTION: Paul Gorman will send his “Top Ten Myths” slideset to Sam for distribution.
5. Top Ten Myths. I showed the group my “Top Ten Myths” slideset and discussed points I make with each slide. ACTION: I’ll share the slides with anyone who wants to use them to give a talk.
Next Meeting? Good question. I’ll be out of town the first Tuesday in August.
Thanks everyone for keeping the ball moving on single payer!
Paul Gorman