Lobby the government for indefinite life e...
brokenportal 20 Mar 2009
If you want to get involved with this then Tom will be happy to hook you up with some information and resources to run a local office for the lobby effort in your area. Tom was intereviewed on the Sunday Evening Update.
They have a petition but it seems outdated, needs to be revised. If you have ideas then let us know. We havent been able to get a hold of Tom for a while. If we cant get a hold of him to update it then we can make our own. We have members that are already enthusiastic about helping manage it.
Tom has worked in government for a long time. In his interview he mentions how if a few people write a letter on certain issues that suddenly its a big deal. So lets get these petitions running and then we can add that to the list of recommendations of things to write about at our matching goverment representative contact drive here at imminst.
Edited by brokenportal, 21 March 2009 - 01:01 AM.
DJS 13 Apr 2009
I've come to the conclusion that it is fine for ImmInst to have the name it does (because we're hardcore and cater to our base), but we really do need an 'ImmInst ultra-light' when it comes to lobbying efforts in Washington.
The C.E.L. looks promising, but someone should definitely talk to its founder about changing his marketing approach.
Edited by DJS, 13 April 2009 - 11:35 PM.
DJS 14 Apr 2009
On a positive note, I listened to the Immortality Update with Tom Mooney and he left a good first impression with me.
DJS 14 Apr 2009
If you want to be involved as a local coordinator or assist in any other way please contact us at once. The 2006 Federal Election for Congress is just around the corner. C.E.L. will be involved; supporting our friends and opposing our enemies. People matter in politics and You can make a difference!
This doesn't instill confidence in me that this is a functional organization.
brokenportal 14 Apr 2009
Tom is busy writing a book right now, its about the politics of life extension. That should have some awesome insight into helping us all get through to more politicians, maybe inspire more life extensionists to become politicians, etc..
If a couple of people want to set up a meeting for this, maybe weekly or bi weekly, then we can go over this stuff, make a list, bring it to Tom and get this stuff all moving again. From what I gather, Tom has some influence, and hes constantly busy working on the cause. A little spark from some of us might help him become a much larger fire. Theres a wide open space for collaboration and opportunity here.
DJS 14 Apr 2009
Exactly, Ive been telling him about the Immortality thing, about not using it. I think he agrees. The site just needs to be updated. If some of us get together and meet with him Im sure we can get this all spruced up. Im really looking forward to seeing if we can get some people together and spruce that petition up a bit and get that moving. Im thinking a general petition to all governments would work.
Tom is busy writing a book right now, its about the politics of life extension. That should have some awesome insight into helping us all get through to more politicians, maybe inspire more life extensionists to become politicians, etc..
If a couple of people want to set up a meeting for this, maybe weekly or bi weekly, then we can go over this stuff, make a list, bring it to Tom and get this stuff all moving again. From what I gather, Tom has some influence, and hes constantly busy working on the cause. A little spark from some of us might help him become a much larger fire. Theres a wide open space for collaboration and opportunity here.
I think it would be wise if we made an effort in getting to know Tom better. That being said, I think this relationship could have potential, especially if Tom is comfortable with receiving outside help from allies.
BTW, I love the name 'CeL - The Coalition to Extend Life".
DJS 14 Apr 2009
If a couple of people want to set up a meeting for this, maybe weekly or bi weekly, then we can go over this stuff, make a list, bring it to Tom and get this stuff all moving again. From what I gather, Tom has some influence, and hes constantly busy working on the cause. A little spark from some of us might help him become a much larger fire. Theres a wide open space for collaboration and opportunity here.
Count me in.
brokenportal 14 Apr 2009
DJS 15 Apr 2009
Alright, great, and do you know anybody else who may be interested in such a meeting? In the mean time if you want, if you go to CEL and email him, he usually will call you back with in a day or two, or you could just call him directly. I think his number is there. Hes a networking machine like that, at least he used to be. I think a major reason for the lull in some activity is him having been busy with the elections and now this book.
I did email him and his reply was cogent.
I don't think this sort of project will need many participants to get the ball rolling. I'm definitely interested in helping out because I see this as possibly having a big payoff for a small amount of effort, however I may need to delay for a week or two as I have exams coming up.
brokenportal 15 Apr 2009
One thing Im really hoping to get out of CEL as soon as possible is an updated functional petition. One thing Im doing is that Im in the process of working out a packet of promotional material that I put out and get other people to put out. Im going to want to be able to spread that petition along with this outreach too. I would hate to have hundreds of thousands of peices of literatures distributed around the world and not have promotion of the petition in there with it.
brokenportal 25 Apr 2009
Figure out what it would cost to buy cel.org from whoever is using it right now, and find some funding for it.
Ask Tom if he supports having a sub forum for cel in the "teams" forum here at imminst and then put it to a quick vote for inclusion.
DJS 25 Apr 2009
For starters, what are we hoping to accomplish via CeL? I'm hoping that we can use the name, a spruced up version of the website and its DC mailing address to pursue life extension lobbying and PR efforts.
Whether or not this can be a successful collaboration depends a great deal on Tom, the owner/founder of CeL. Is he cool with handing off some of the creative/strategic control of CeL? Is he willing to allow his address to be used for mailing purposes? What are his long term plans for the site? etc etc.... These are the sorts of preliminary things I'd like to know before moving forward. I suppose the best way to find these things out is by phone. However, first we should put together a comprehensive list of what our objectives are, plus run this by the Recorders for suggestions and approval.
DJS 27 Apr 2009
1) create teams subforum for CeL collaboration
2) Craft a broad vision of CeL's political philosophy/platform
3) Revise/recreate petition
4) assess content and functionality of cel website
5) find volunteer web designer/programmer who might potentially help with some minor site adjustments
6) touch base with Tom
7) Proposal to Tom
a) present with new petition and propose that it be widely distributed.
b) seek permission for web site admin access - revise content and fix functionality
c) seek permission to use DC address
8) If proposal is accepted, initiate 7 a&b
Longer term
8) recruit regional contacts
9) compile a "target list" of local/state/national political reps (perhaps also offices at government agencies)
10) identify issues worth pushing
11) create mailing materials
.....................more to come....
DJS 27 Apr 2009
Ask Tom if he supports having a sub forum for cel in the "teams" forum here at imminst and then put it to a quick vote for inclusion.
BP, one suggestion I would make is that we not go to Tom until we have prepared adequately.
DJS 27 Apr 2009
http://www.lifestari...ame=initiatives
caliban 28 Apr 2009
Firstly, I don't think we should move whole threads into this area unless the first post is edited to clearly display the proposal that is being made. Otherwise its too much gesswork.
So the proposal here is to co-operate with CEL?
CEL comes across as very much a one-man band at the moment. And Mr Mooney does not seem to have the time or the inclination to do much with the idea at the moment. So the proposal encompasses to liase with Mooney if ImmInst can take the CEL initiative off his hands.
What I think needs to be more clearly defined is why we should try to appropriate CEL. In personal communication, Don has pointed out that he'd like to leverage the name and the Washington DC adress. It could also me that we'd like to benefit from the experience of Mr. Mooney or diversiify our contacts database but these and other considerations need to be more clearly written up for board approval.
I did email him and his reply was cogent.
Well, one would hope he is cogent - but what does he say? This idea will not get anywehere unless there is at least the potential for interest.
Proposal: Join with CELS
Team Leaders: 1
Leader workload: 3h/week
Team Members: 1+
Members workload: 1h/week
Members only? - Yes
Legal/financial risk: some, small
Reputational risk: some, moderate
ED Oversight: 1/h week +
Board Oversight: some
Funding Required? - No
Mind 28 Apr 2009
DJS 28 Apr 2009
My 2 cents as Recorder
Firstly, I don't think we should move whole threads into this area unless the first post is edited to clearly display the proposal that is being made. Otherwise its too much gesswork.
Um yeah, my bad. Didn't think it would be an issue, but I can always move it back to...
In personal communication, Don has pointed out that he'd like to leverage the name and the Washington DC adress. It could also me that we'd like to benefit from the experience of Mr. Mooney or diversiify our contacts database but these and other considerations need to be more clearly written up for board approval.
This idea will not get anywehere unless there is at least the potential for interest.
Mind: I am dismayed by Tom's disappearance. Would be nice to have someone who is a little more available and reliable. I'll give him a second chance though (after he is finished with his book). Maybe he just needs a little extra help (and social pressure) from others who are in the life extension fight.
Two points here.
First, I agree with both of you that we need to access Mr. Mooney's (a) position on cooperative efforts, (b) his level of interest and © his flake factor. However in the mean time there are certain things that we can move ahead on regardless of the eventualities. For example, the petition can be put together with or without a relationship between imminst and cel.
Second, if [a,b and c] are favorable it will not be necessary (or realistic) to come up with a comprehensive plan for how this arrangement will be utilized. Instead, the ImmInst-CeL affiliation should be looked at as a potentially useful tool that we can utilize as things come along.
DJS 28 Apr 2009
Second, if [a,b and c] are favorable it will not be necessary (or realistic) to come up with a comprehensive plan for how this arrangement will be utilized. Instead, the ImmInst-CeL affiliation should be looked at as a potentially useful tool that we can utilize as things come along.
IOW, let say a political issue arises (stem cell, NIH funding, whatever) and we wish to put together a mailing campaign. Would we rather the materials are tagged with "The Immortality Institute" and a Wisconsin address, or with "The Coalition to Extend Life" and a DC address?
(Note: and of course this is assuming a new and improved CeL website/platform)
caliban 29 Apr 2009
It seems like DJS is a project champion, cost at this stage are nil and risks minimal.
I support bringing this project to the board to approve that DJS may act as ImmInst spokesperson in negotiations with CEL.
brokenportal 30 Apr 2009
If we continue to build interest in a cel sub forum here at imminst like this then we should be able to help cel start hitting on all cylinders.
We could prepare a lot of this stuff and touch base with Tom, but it may be better to chat with him about the details first. For example, he may know of somebody much more qualified and experienced in writing petitions than we do and or maybe he could direct us to one. If you want to see if you can get one made before you go to him though that could work too.
I think there is a ton of potential for forming teams to stay on top of writing representatives through the imminst forums. A section for every state seems like to much. Is there another way we can break it down?
I can see a new updated petition going far with imminst help.
Mind 30 Apr 2009
DJS 05 May 2009
After 5/22 I will have significantly more free time to move things forward.
Edited by DJS, 05 May 2009 - 10:05 PM.
AgeVivo 03 Jun 2009
It shouldn't cost much because everything is already set up; it would provide very meaningful knowledge in this period of late-life focus, including life-extending compounds.
Edited by AgeVivo, 03 June 2009 - 11:21 AM.
bacopa 06 Jun 2009
So does anyone want to help me with this effort? First I should probably contact Mr. Olshansky again and see if he has a better method of influencing Congress.
bacopa 11 Jun 2009
As for the site it seemed sparse to me and not enough, or any information, except the petition. But nothign on how or who we should be focusing our efforts on, besides Congress.
Perhaps Tom, or one of us, should look into other people to lobby besides Congress, as I have said before. I'm also may be helping SENSF with their future lobbying efforts.
Does anyone here have any recommendations on who to lobby? I was told, again, researchers, EU, and public health officials and maybe Congress. If we do Congress we should not mention immortality of course.
Edited by dfowler, 11 June 2009 - 10:28 PM.
bacopa 12 Jun 2009
I think ImmInst, like Humanity+ and IEET, should focus on educating
people about existing policies and policy debates, without direct
lobbying. Educating your audience and activists is a prerequisite for
their lobbying anyway. There is nothing more counterproductive than
walking into a legislator's office and saying "We demand X" when that
was just voted down, or voted in, or never a matter of discussion. So
you should be writing about the Longevity Dividend idea at the ImmInst
site, reviewing the research programs of the National Institute of
Aging, and distributing key documents like this:
http://www.kronosins...ts/sos_2009.cfm
When there is direct lobbying to do the Alliance for Aging Research will
give us the lead.
Another reason to focus on political education instead of lobbying is
that we are all international organizations. Lobbying and mobilizing
your base to write letters and contact their congresscritters doesn't
work very well when you are scattered all over the world. So we should
be promoting the general political/policy arguments that are useful
anywhere.
I also mentioned C.E.L. but he never said anything about it. I think he thought I was suggesting lobbying through only imminst and was not aware C.E.L was a group made up specifically for lobbying.
But perhaps imminst could set up a political education tab, or whatever they're called, on our home page, perhaps next to the take action tab. James also warned that non-profits "are not supposed" to engage in direct lobbying for a specific legislation or endorse any one candidate. But C.E.L. is not a non-profit. So I would imagine it's fine.
He still did not answer my question directly, but I don't want to keep bothering him; maybe he just doesn't know.
rhodeder 13 Jun 2009
http://derekrhode.com/Resume.doc
bacopa 13 Jun 2009
This group:
I
http://www.coalitiontoextendlife.org
is either a well-meaning but unprofessional attempt by an individual, or a scam.
It indicates no staff names, no board members, no organizational allies, and the membership link doesn't even work.
It also doesn't indicate whether it is a 501c3 or a registered political lobby or whether they are registered at all.
Nor do they appear to have a tax ID number or be registered with Guidestar, the central site for nonprofit accountability and fundraising.
So I would basically tell them to grow up, and for you to focus on ImmInst education.
> congress could be a target for lobbying?
I don't understand what you want to know. Yes Congress is a place to lobby. But lobbying is a variety of activities that starts with grassroots mobilization, political education, the preparation of arguments and documents and websites, the building of coalitions and ties with financial and political and academic supporters, and then, only when the right opportuinities present themselves, results in visits to Washington D.C., or letters to Congressmen. As I said, this isn't the time for that. Focus on educating yourself and ImmInst about the Longevity Dividend arguments. You can use this curriculum I developed (You see the full curriculum once you sign in):
http://ieet.org/inde...IEET/lifecourse
Edited by dfowler, 13 June 2009 - 01:51 AM.