Maintain a passing familiarity with who's doing what. American Policy Center's local activist training tool kit and freedom pods.
Maintain a passing familiarity with who's doing what.
Maybe you don't have everything memorized, but you would be wise to maintain at least a nodding familiarity with some of the changes to boards, etc. around this state.
The two links below are an effort in that direction. The first link is to a Grand Junction Sentinel article about who Gov Polis appointed to to the Energy and Carbon Management Commission (the former Oil and Gas Commission before those became pejorative terms). The second details how Justice Monica M. Márquez rotated into the Chief Justice's chair on the Colorado Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice article is pretty short on details (save for a checklist of demographic categories we can all check off), so I won't linger there.
The article on energy commission appointees goes into a bit more detail and I think the backgrounds of the appointees are telling and worthing noting. Quoting the article:
"Polis reappointed Jeff Robbins of Durango as the commission’s chair. He also reappointed John Messner, now a Lakewood resident but previously a Gunnison County resident. Polis also appointed Trisha Oeth of Boulder as a voting member on the commission, serving as the commissioner with experience in public health. She previously had been serving as an ex-officio, nonvoting member as director of environmental health and protection for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment."
That'll bring some balance to the board. Oh wait ...
https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/polis-makes-three-energy-commission-appointments/article_d9aa5fa2-3594-11ef-89e3-5345aab557ad.html
https://kdvr.com/news/politics/colorado-politics-news/colorado-supreme-court-has-a-new-chief-justice/
A local activist training tool kit and freedom pods
If you’ve read this page for any appreciable length of time, you’ll know how much of an advocate I am of getting involved, particularly locally. I had a reader share some resources on that topic a while back. I’ve had time enough to process and wanted to share.
American Policy Center (APC, see their “About” page linked first below—they area right of center group that advocates on a variety of things, but makes private property a specialty) offers a series of free online training and some tool kits for people who are interested in getting involved locally.
Those tool kits and training are linked second and third below respectively.
Having poked around a little in the training, I would summarize them as a little more detailed and involved than, say, something like the Independence Institute’s local government training. Not better or worse, just different.
For instance, if you take the Independence Institute training, the focus there is, like for APC, getting involved and ways to do that. Unlike Independence Institute, however, where it’s a much more about general ideas with details left to the individual, APC’s trainings and guides seem more of a comprehensive plan with templates etc.
I should also add in that, and I admit this may reflect my own personal style preferences and legal ignorance, I’m not 100% sure of the legal strategies presented here. That is, for example, I’m not sure of how binding a Constitutional Sanctuary County Resolution would be (if you could get your county to enact one).
If you feel a pull to get involved, if you have a group of people who want to get involved, and you don’t know how to get started, I hope you don’t let my questioning above dissuade you from looking around in the resources and exploring them.
After all, whether it’s legally binding or no, you will find some useful information and it doesn’t cost more than time. That is, don’t wait for perfect to start learning.
https://americanpolicy.org/tools/
freecounties.com/free-trainings/
Related:
I wanted to single out a particular topic from the APC group’s advocacy and training relating to local activism: what APC terms “freedom pods”.
It is yet another way for you to get involved locally, building a network oflike-minded neighbors who share information and speak up.
The link below is toa quick explainer page with a video if you’re interested.
https://americanpolicy.org/2021/11/11/we-can-stop-them-we-just-need-the-right-plan-freedom-pods/