Will More Regular Updates from Core make You Contribute More?

[svn]

All,
The object of this thread is straightforward - it is to understand if you as a donor member will contribute more $ (or start contributing!) if you get more regular information updates (weekly?) from Core? I know there was a funding drive in March which led to us meeting the goal of $10,000 (and then some). However, while there has been a new goal of $10,000 created for April, we have made little progress towards that. As someone who contributed $100 the first time round in March, but haven't yet made a contribution towards the April funding drive, I can admit that one of the primary reasons for this is because there has been very limited information shared since then. While I COMPLETELY trust in the fact that the Core team is making every effort humanly possible to further our cause, I am also a member of the human race that by nature seeks information and looks for leadership to be more sharing about progress. I personally believe transparency is a key enabler not just to gaining participation and building momentum, but also to creating innovative solutions to problems by engaging more individuals in the process (borrowing this "leaf" from President's Obama's playbook will be highly beneficial to our casuse)

Let me clarify this is NOT an indication of lack of trust in Core NOR do I believe that there isn't a sincere effort being put in by a whole bunch of dedicated individuals. However, my suggestion is simply an idea to further the cause - would definitely like to hear how the rest of this immigration community feels!

Thanks for your participation in this poll.

Cheers

P.S: Just to be clear, I am referring to Regular Updates to DONORS i.e CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS

[lahiribaba]

All,
The object of this thread is straightforward - it is to understand if you as a donor member will contribute more $ (or start contributing!) if you get more regular information updates (weekly?) from Core? I know there was a funding drive in March which led to us meeting the goal of $10,000 (and then some). However, while there has been a new goal of $10,000 created for April, we have made little progress towards that. As someone who contributed $100 the first time round in March, but haven't yet made a contribution towards the April funding drive, I can admit that one of the primary reasons for this is because there has been very limited information shared since then. While I COMPLETELY trust in the fact that the Core team is making every effort humanly possible to further our cause, I am also a member of the human race that by nature seeks information and looks for leadership to be more sharing about progress. I personally believe transparency is a key enabler not just to gaining participation and building momentum, but also to creating innovative solutions to problems by engaging more individuals in the process (borrowing this "leaf" from President's Obama's playbook will be highly beneficial to our casuse)

Let me clarify this is NOT an indication of lack of trust in Core NOR do I believe that there isn't a sincere effort being put in by a whole bunch of dedicated individuals. However, my suggestion is simply an idea to further the cause - would definitely like to hear how the rest of this immigration community feels!

Thanks for your participation in this poll.

Cheers

P.S: Just to be clear, I am referring to Regular Updates to DONORS i.e CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS


kuch to problem hai mere bhai

[zen]

actually more meaningful campaigns spearheaded by core will make people donate more.
right now some members are saying that the donations being made is for lobbying.
how much does that cost ? how much is needed ..more information is needed.
say if lobbying costs half million and every month we are able to raise 10K ..then it will take 5 - 7 years just to raise that amount

[meetpravee]

Other than the trust that the core members are doing the right thing, I have no information/idea about the issues that IV core is focusing currently.

I think FOIA was a great success because the members knew exactly what IV was upto and everybody wanted to be a part of it. I believe that if IV could define several small goals like FOIA, post regular updates about the progress on the goals, a lot of people would be willing to support it.

[chanukya]

Yes
yes

[dilbert_cal]

P.S: Just to be clear, I am referring to Regular Updates to DONORS i.e CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS

Cant help but chuckle on your choice of words - DONORS = CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS.

So, others who volunteer their time, ideas ... are not CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS if they haven't paid 25 dollars in March ( since DONOR status started from March and 25 dollars is what is required to be a DONOR )

From a person who is in senior management position I'd expected better choices of words.

Now on to your point of more regular updates -- let me ask you this - do you give weekly updates to your subordinates every week ? Do you share your strategy plans every week ? I believe whenever their is a material update to be shared, IV core will share it - predicting the frequency of it OR assuming that you will get an update every X days and see a progress is not a good practical idea.

My apologies to you for my reply here and given your PD and the wait you had been through I can understand sometimes its hard to have any more patience but asking for more regular updates or calling DONORS as the Contributing Members is not going to help us in achieving our objectives.

[GCKaMaara]

All,
The object of this thread is straightforward - it is to understand if you as a donor member will contribute more $ (or start contributing!) if you get more regular information updates (weekly?) from Core? I know there was a funding drive in March which led to us meeting the goal of $10,000 (and then some). However, while there has been a new goal of $10,000 created for April, we have made little progress towards that. As someone who contributed $100 the first time round in March, but haven't yet made a contribution towards the April funding drive, I can admit that one of the primary reasons for this is because there has been very limited information shared since then. While I COMPLETELY trust in the fact that the Core team is making every effort humanly possible to further our cause, I am also a member of the human race that by nature seeks information and looks for leadership to be more sharing about progress. I personally believe transparency is a key enabler not just to gaining participation and building momentum, but also to creating innovative solutions to problems by engaging more individuals in the process (borrowing this "leaf" from President's Obama's playbook will be highly beneficial to our casuse)

Let me clarify this is NOT an indication of lack of trust in Core NOR do I believe that there isn't a sincere effort being put in by a whole bunch of dedicated individuals. However, my suggestion is simply an idea to further the cause - would definitely like to hear how the rest of this immigration community feels!

Thanks for your participation in this poll.

Cheers

P.S: Just to be clear, I am referring to Regular Updates to DONORS i.e CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS

Answer to your question: Yes.

Few questions roaming in my mind:

1. I am not clear what is core? All I know is Pappu so far. Who are the other members? What do they do? What is distribution of responsibilities? Hows core team formed? Do we or "donors" elect core every year?

[svn]

All those who have voted - thanks for your response so far and agree with the sentiments expressed. For those who have not voted yet, please take the time to log in and vote - YOUR OPINION COUNTS!


Cant help but chuckle on your choice of words - DONORS = CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS.

So, others who volunteer their time, ideas ... are not CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS if they haven't paid 25 dollars in March ( since DONOR status started from March and 25 dollars is what is required to be a DONOR )


I am afraid, you are missing the point here - I did not intend to start a discussion on who counts as a "Donor". There have been several discussions on that topic and IV Core has laid out guidelines (if I am not mistaken, they have made attempts to go back and include folks who have contributed money in the past as well). Instead my focus is on how to increase "dollar contributions" towards our cause since as IV Core has clearly identified, nothing moves in Washington unless you have a strong lobby working for you, and as we all know, lobbying takes a significant amount of money. What I am interested in is simply - will you contribute dollars if, in exchange, you receive regular updates?


From a person who is in senior management position I'd expected better choices of words. Now on to your point of more regular updates -- let me ask you this - do you give weekly updates to your subordinates every week ? Do you share your strategy plans every week ? I believe whenever their is a material update to be shared, IV core will share it - predicting the frequency of it OR assuming that you will get an update every X days and see a progress is not a good practical idea.

Since you ask - the answer is YES. Not sure if you have heard of the "Servant Leadeship" but that is a management philosophy that believes an organization makes the most progress when the "leaders" at the top take the attitude of being "Servants" to those below them. The idea is based on the simple premise that people are more engaged and motivated to work when their boss listens to them and takes the trouble to keep them updated on what is going on. Instead, "Leaders" can always take the "high and mighty" road where they look down upon those below them (for various reasons - lack of trust being just one of them) but that is never going to be as effective or efficient as the former model I just mentioned. Don't take it from me though - feel free to do your own research on this topic and you will find that an increasing number of companies are starting to adopt this philosophy in order to achieve superior results and you don't have to look far to see how this is being practised in the world of politics today (President Obama).

Finally, IV has clearly positioned itself as a grassroots organization, but by articulating a philosophy of "we will share updates when we feel like it and think its appropriate for you to know about it", it is essentially operating in a somewhat "elitist" manner (though I believe, this is a purely a side-effect of it's loose structure, rather than intentional in any way). This also explains some of the questions coming up on the poll on "who constitutes the Core?" - while the website has a listing of the "Core" members, I believe some of that has morphed over time leading to the loose structure of today.

All I am really advocating is more transparency ...which should lead to more involvement as well. Thanks for your time.

[zen]

actually more meaningful campaigns spearheaded by core will make people donate more.
right now some members are saying that the donations being made is for lobbying.
how much does that cost ? how much is needed ..more information is needed.
say if lobbying costs half million and every month we are able to raise 10K ..then it will take 5 - 7 years just to raise that amount
any new campaigns like removal of country limits, campaign for recapture, campaign to make EAD similar to temporary GC will make members donate more and attract new members !! Period.

[ganguteli]

Since you ask - the answer is YES. Not sure if you have heard of the "Servant Leadeship" but that is a management philosophy that believes an organization makes the most progress when the "leaders" at the top take the attitude of being "Servants" to those below them. The idea is based on the simple premise that people are more engaged and motivated to work when their boss listens to them and takes the trouble to keep them updated on what is going on. Instead, "Leaders" can always take the "high and mighty" road where they look down upon those below them (for various reasons - lack of trust being just one of them) but that is never going to be as effective or efficient as the former model I just mentioned. Don't take it from me though - feel free to do your own research on this topic and you will find that an increasing number of companies are starting to adopt this philosophy in order to achieve superior results and you don't have to look far to see how this is being practised in the world of politics today (President Obama)..

I have one question for you:
Are you willing to copy paste what you have written above and send it to your VP and CEO of the company and ask them to behave like your servants because this is the best philosophy for a company to progress? :D:D

Please also ask them to be transparent and keep all employees informed of all discussions because you contribute your sweat and blood for the company?

Can you do that?

Likewise can you write this to your lawyer and ask him to behave like a servant because you pay him lot of money? :D:D

Come on. Just because we have this open forum where we can hide our identity does not mean we can write anything. On this thread I see 2 anti-immigrant, anti-IV posters. They pose as regular members and whenever anyone posts such thread they do not lose any opportunity to attack.

Let me share my experience with IV. Initially I did not know much about IV and when my friends said lot of good things about it, I always dismissed them and never came to the site. Then one day I decided to check myself and contacted IV and a core member was nice enough to explain everything. My senior member friends from my town were also helpful in explaining. So I will let them do the good work they are doing. I know I cannot spend so much time on social service that they do. I would rather spend my time on the beach playing beach ball.

[praveenuppaluri]

SVN,

this poll is a good idea to understand what most of the members expect from CORE. I for one am looking for any updates about (1) new bills being proposed that we can support - calls, faxes etc and (2) any infomation that can help to "predict" whats happening with USCIS efforts to use all visa # (yeah, sorry.. had to use predict and USCIS in same sentence) (3) updates on efforts towards FOIA, country caps remoal, capture of unused #s, .... and anything and everything you can throw at me about immigration...

but I also understand that most of these lobbying efforts are done in the back ground and its not good idea to share anything in these times. who knows, may be there is an anti-immigrant lurking around (ofcourse paying $$ to become Donor, become senior member whatever) to get inside information. I would rather trust the CORE to do their work and give me directions when they see fit.. like meeting local senators etc..

transparancy is good as long as it doesn't hurt the cause. I agree with the fact that we pooled $10K in March for FOIA and core gave the game plan and now everyone who contributed wants to know. fine. but you can't expect core to have a goal a month just to get contributions, this is a grass-roots organization and any highly skilled legal immigrant should be able to donate $25 without waiting for updates every week.. I don't think asking updates every week because you contributed $25 or $50 is fair.. just my thoughts..

[thomachan72]

If I could hire IV by paying some money and then forget about it, i would do that. However, as far as I know, IV core is composed of regular folks who are also on visas and therefore can only work during their spare time/vaccation time. I know every one of us is impatient with this EB process, but the reality is our movment is not big/strong enough. Most of us once we get hold of the Green card (is it really green color??) completely forget that we were once part of an everlasting que with so many desperate people.
This is the main difference between EB community and the ilegals. Ilegals are united by a lot of factors and even their legal relatives dont think twice before struggling/fighting for them. How many of our dear Indian/chinese friends (who are citizens of this nation) will stand up for us??? Even though many came here and strugled to obtain the EB green card, now we are alien to them!!!
Consider the ilegal people:-
theoratically, they are not supposed to have any voice in this nation simply because they are ilegals and hiding from the law. How come then that they are able to have such a huge protest march?? because most of the people who protested for them and stand up for them are legals
We will be 100 times more successful if the major indian associations/chinese associations or other country associations raise the voice for us. They should "BECOME HUMAN BEINGS ONCE AGAIN" and feel for us. We should remind them once again of the strange and long path many of them went through to get the GC.
HOW COME THEY IGNORE US???? IF THEY IGNORE US, WHO WILL CONSIDER US???
IV??? my friends IV core member is a person of leadership quality for sure, but he/she is just in the same unstable boat as me and you.
WE DESPERATELY NEED FOLKS IN THE MAIN LAND TO REACH OUT TO US.

[zen]

what you say above is true. but the fact is that we are what we are ..and we are at cross roads ..and that is where we are.
the main question is how do we increase membership .. the answer to that has to be in meaningful and visible campaigns.
forcing people to pay money when their jobs are at risk will not increase membership.

[dilbert_cal]

I do appreciate your detailed reply - especially on these forums where civilized discussion is a thing of the past.

My apologies for nitpicking on the DONOR definition and Congratulations on the new management philosophy you are going with. I hope you succeed in your endeavour.

Still I've some open issues. If you look at the poll, there isnt a single person who voted NO. We should expect to see a healthy mix of Yes,No and Dont Care. But the way the poll has been put and partly the wording, partly the current IV environment, people are sceptical of putting their real thoughts publicly. This excercise is futile if you have minimal 'NO's --- hope you are getting my point here. The only thing you might end up with is x number of YES and hope to translate the YES into more dollar value for IV and there will be some YES who are already contributing monetarily.

You are right in saying that we need to increase dollar contributions but tying it to frequent updates is not a practical thing. There are reasons IV Core cannot share their strategical plans with the masses and this is true in most places. By saying donate more and get more updates, we are setting us up for failures esp. if we expect 'real' updates. Even in an ideal situation, you will not have real changes every week and certainly not regularly.

And once again thanks for the healthy discussion.

All those who have voted - thanks for your response so far and agree with the sentiments expressed. For those who have not voted yet, please take the time to log in and vote - YOUR OPINION COUNTS!
...
All I am really advocating is more transparency ...which should lead to more involvement as well. Thanks for your time.

[praveenuppaluri]

Dilbert_cal: thanks for giving me a green. I got so many reds for this post :D

I just don't care about reds.. I guess its just one way for some people to let their frustations out..

SVN,

this poll is a good idea to understand what most of the members expect from CORE. ...I don't think asking updates every week because you contributed $25 or $50 is fair.. just my thoughts..

[sayantan76]

If I could hire IV by paying some money and then forget about it, i would do that. However, as far as I know, IV core is composed of regular folks who are also on visas and therefore can only work during their spare time/vaccation time. I know every one of us is impatient with this EB process, but the reality is our movment is not big/strong enough. Most of us once we get hold of the Green card (is it really green color??) completely forget that we were once part of an everlasting que with so many desperate people.
This is the main difference between EB community and the ilegals. Ilegals are united by a lot of factors and even their legal relatives dont think twice before struggling/fighting for them. How many of our dear Indian/chinese friends (who are citizens of this nation) will stand up for us??? Even though many came here and strugled to obtain the EB green card, now we are alien to them!!!
Consider the ilegal people:-
theoratically, they are not supposed to have any voice in this nation simply because they are ilegals and hiding from the law. How come then that they are able to have such a huge protest march?? because most of the people who protested for them and stand up for them are legals
We will be 100 times more successful if the major indian associations/chinese associations or other country associations raise the voice for us. They should "BECOME HUMAN BEINGS ONCE AGAIN" and feel for us. We should remind them once again of the strange and long path many of them went through to get the GC.
HOW COME THEY IGNORE US???? IF THEY IGNORE US, WHO WILL CONSIDER US???
IV??? my friends IV core member is a person of leadership quality for sure, but he/she is just in the same unstable boat as me and you.
WE DESPERATELY NEED FOLKS IN THE MAIN LAND TO REACH OUT TO US.
you have answered your own question.......the way the demographics are today - there are many families which are part legal and part illegal in terms of their immigration status - the motivation there is to bring close relatives (and even immediate family members) over to the legal side.......

in case of EB - typically (barring some technical exceptions) the immediate family gets the GC at the same time - so the immediate family situation is not critical. If these people want to bring in their families - then thats FB immigration and not EB.

Besides, FB immigration and to a large extent "illegal to legal" (whenever that happens) is a template driven process (if you meeting certain basic guidelines and do not have any criminal background etc - you are in - it is not upto the discretion of an immigration officer to reject a citizen's wife or father or mother on a case by case basis) - whereas EB is a fairly case by case evaluation process........hence its simpler to coin a message that resonates with the vast majority of the interested population on the non-EB side vs on the EB side (whats good for Indians may not be good for RoW and whats good for EB2 may not be good for EB3, direct employees vs consultants, 3 year degrees vs 4 year degrees, foreign degrees vs US degreess, STEM vs non STEM etc)........

You tend to think like a group and root for the group when you suffer as a group........as much as many people on this forum would like to highlight otherwise - i think every EB story is different, every situation is different, even the extent of suffering and inconvenience is different and hence there is no "group feeling" - we are not a "herd" and hence do not act like an "herd".......

To be brutally honest, I have had my GC for two years now, have not really had to wait for a long time either nor is the IV agenda really relevant for me (IV does not really focus on EB1) - i continue to visit the site to keep myself updated because I am concerned (as a well wisher not as an activist) and would like my friends to get their GCs asap! But, among the 100 other "human being like activies" that keep me busy (keeping my job, paying my bills, cleaning the house on weekends, not gaining any more weight with middle age approaching etc.) - do i have time to actually do something (beyond the faxes etc that we sometimes send to senators) - NOT REALLY.

If you poll most people with GCs and new Citizens who came through the EB route - i have a feeling that a large number would give the above answer in their truthful moments.

[svn]

this poll is a good idea to understand what most of the members expect from CORE....


....this is a grass-roots organization and any highly skilled legal immigrant should be able to donate $25



Great point praveenuppaluri. But let's face reality for a moment - as several senior members routinely point out, inspite of our organization having several thousand "highly paid" members, the "donor" base is very limited. As Zen says in a truly Zen manner "we are where we are"...and we have to figure out where to go from here. Unquestionably, I am really thankful to our highly dedicated Core team for sacrificing their personal time and making all of the efforts that have led to substantial progress over the last few years for the immigration community. However,, that with a new government in place, we now have a truly unique window of opportunity to make some progress and the question before us is how do we maximize our potential to take advantage of this? The real beauty of my proposal is that we could leverage the enormous dedication of the core team and multiply it several fold, if we could build a strong donor base that provides us the funding required to engage effective lobbyists. Needless to say the more the funding, the stronger can be our lobbying.


but I also understand that most of these lobbying efforts are done in the back ground and its not good idea to share anything in these times. who knows, may be there is an anti-immigrant lurking around (ofcourse paying $$ to become Donor, become senior member whatever) to get inside information.

.....transparancy is good as long as it doesn't hurt the cause.



It is definitely not a good idea to broadcast confidential information on strategies/plans. However, what you are referring to is the merchanics of the process of sharing updates- there are several ways in which we could implement the update process so that information is only shared to a predefined "pool" and that "donors" are first vetted before being brought into the "pool", so to speak. The way IV has currently implemented this process, of course, is through the local chapters. However, their current process is subject to lack of consistency (depending very heavily on the availability of the local chapter coordinators) and more importantly, does not take advantage of the tool that really enables us to all come together i.e. the internet. It is a paradox that an organization founded on the net and is still subjecting itself to the constraints of "physical communication" via the local chapters. I thought they were taking a step in right direction with the creation of the "Donor Forum", however, for some reason, we still seem stuck in the previous mode of operation. We can find a middle ground here that would not compromise confidentiality or our goals - one alternative (certainly not the only one I am sure) is quite simply, email updates compiled by one person (for consistency and uniform direction) that go out a distribution group, where the "donors" on the distribution list, have been vetted by the local chapter coordinators. I know this takes work, but if the Core is looking for a person to pull together a Conference Call to compile this update and send it out, I would be glad to volunteer my services.



Still I've some open issues. If you look at the poll, there isnt a single person who voted NO. We should expect to see a healthy mix of Yes,No and Dont Care. But the way the poll has been put and partly the wording, partly the current IV environment, people are sceptical of putting their real thoughts publicly. This excercise is futile if you have minimal 'NO's --- hope you are getting my point here. The only thing you might end up with is x number of YES and hope to translate the YES into more dollar value for IV and there will be some YES who are already contributing monetarily.


You are correct dilbert_cal - not a single person has explicity voted "No". In reality though, everyone who has viewed this thread (1563 views when I last checked - even if you assume each person has checked this thread at least 10 times, that's about 156 individuals out of whom only about 35 have voted so far!) and not bothered to vote is essentially voting "No"! However, again as you point out, I am not really looking for the "No"s since these people have clearly decided they don't want to part with their money at this stage (not ascribing any reasons or motives here - just stating the facts). Instead, my focus is on coalescing a group around those who voted "Yes" since they, like me, agree that they would contribute more if they received more regular updates of what is going on. Our organization just needs a little more "organization" (pun, intended :p) to make it more effective! Again, just reality but that is also the usual natural evolution of most organizations that start out as pure grassroots organizations.

I really do believe there are substantial number of folks out there who can be engaged more effectively in this process and I invite the Core Leadership team to put more thought in figuring out how to achieve this - I hope you take my suggestion constructively!


Cheers

[GCKaMaara]

SVN,

One irrelevant question: Why did you wait till Aug 15th, 2007 to file your 485 when your date was current in June and you could file in June 2007?

[dilbert_cal]

not a single person has explicity voted "No". In reality though, everyone who has viewed this thread (1563 views when I last checked - even if you assume each person has checked this thread at least 10 times, that's about 156 individuals out of whom only about 35 have voted so far!) and not bothered to vote is essentially voting "No"! However, again as you point out, I am not really looking for the "No"s since these people have clearly decided they don't want to part with their money at this stage (not ascribing any reasons or motives here - just stating the facts). .....Cheers

Its a wrong fallacy to assume that NOs = people who dont want to part with their money at this stage. Let me put it this way for you with an example :-

Poll
1. Yes I want e-bill to save tree.
2. No I dont want ebill and I care a damn about the trees
3. Dont Care

The above poll is a loaded poll favoring one option only. Is the only reason someone may not want ebill is that they dont care a damn about the trees. NOPE. It can be a lot of other reasons - they may feel not so good about internet security or may not be internet savvy. And of course, paper bills can be on recycled paper and whole lot of other arguments are not covered.

Similarly your poll is very much loaded.

And again, you havent defined "more". Currently, I believe the contribution limit is 25 dollars per month. When you say more - what number are you thinking of. And now look at the folks who said YES. What numbers are they looking at. If you had put in a number and said "are you willing to pay x dollars per month .." - then you can be assured of that the members who say YES are on the same page as you. Right now, what you have is a number of folks but they may not be on same page.

And what is the definition of "updates" ? We are not working here on a fixed time project where the deliverable is due at the end of period 'x'. For quite a lot of period, the updates will be generic and on the lines of "we are working on getting to our goals and we are making progress". You will not get any more details than this. Turn around and check with the folks who said YES -- is this what they are expecting. Or they are expecting something different.


25 dollars per month equates to 0.6 % of annual salary for someone making 50k and only 0.3% of someone making 100k. Is this a big amount - Yes and No. It clearly depends on the individual. For lobbying you agree that the amount required is way more than what we currently are able to raise.

IV has probably 25k+ registered users. This is a good number to look at. Practically, how many of them have logged in and used this system for the last six months and three months and last month. I dont know the exact number but have a strong feeling that this number will probably in the 10-15 percentile only. And guests is not equal to an unregistered IV member. Not every person posts on this site. There are a lot of people who just browse the forums and dont post - they dont need to login everytime they come on to this site - therefore you will see a good chunk of visitors but they necessarily are not unregistered members.

Your intentions are good - but the approach you took needs to be refined further. None of what I wrote above is personally against you - I appreciate your efforts but feel that we need to approach it differently - probably equating updates with money is not a good approach given that once someone gives money , they may start having a feeling of entitlement and we may not be ready to handle it.

[GCKaMaara]

Its a wrong fallacy to assume that NOs = people who dont want to part with their money at this stage. Let me put it this way for you with an example :-
...

is not a good approach given that once someone gives money , they may start having a feeling of entitlement and we may not be ready to handle it.

I second this.

[svn]

Your intentions are good - but the approach you took needs to be refined further. None of what I wrote above is personally against you - I appreciate your efforts but feel that we need to approach it differently - probably equating updates with money is not a good approach given that once someone gives money , they may start having a feeling of entitlement and we may not be ready to handle it.

Thanks for the appreciation. Without a doubt, the poll I have posted is clearly focused on a single dimension i.e. whether receiving more regular updates will help people get more involved and contribute more (whatever be that amount, it would be in addition to current status). While there could be several other ideas to increase participation level, this is what I felt was important to me and was looking to gauge if others felt similalry. However, I clearly don't have a patent on ideas - if you have a different approach or idea I would assume you wouldn't hesitate to pursue that to achieve our goals.

As far as as the notion that someone who gives money feels entitled to receive information - so, what's wrong with that? After all no one gives without any expectations and based on this poll, there are at least some of us for whom being informed along the process is one of those expectations, especially since none of our goals will be achieved overnight. I do not mean generic updates of the nature you have cited, but more specific status reports of who is/has been doing what and what action, if any, is expected of the rest of us in order to support. If the organization is not prepared to handle that, I think it needs our help to be able to achieve that goal! Being ready to provide these updates will only improve our organization's efficiency and effectiveness.

[svn]

SVN,

One irrelevant question: Why did you wait till Aug 15th, 2007 to file your 485 when your date was current in June and you could file in June 2007?

Just noticed your question - I was actually one of those stuck in the notorious BEC. As luck would have it, my Labor cert which had been stuck in local office processing first and finally made it to the second stage of labor was stuck there as well for months until it seemed like they finally were processing applications that had been received at the same time as mine. Then it happened - all labor processing centers were scrapped and everything was shipped in boxes to the blackhole called BEC. Little did I know then the upfront delay of months would be insignificant compared to the delay of almost 4 years at the BEC. In fact, my labor cert hadn't been processed by BEC even when the Jun 07 window opened up. As luck would have it though, in the month when everything was rolled back, my labor was finally cleared (thank god for small mercies!) and I was able to apply for both I-140 and I-485 when the window opened back up temporarily between July 30th and Aug 17th. Of course, I am still last in the line since USCIS processes based on application received data and not priority date! However, as I mentioned earlier, I am thankful to all of the efforts of IV that led to the window opening back up, which actually enabled me to file my I-485 and eventually receive an EAD (if not, would have still bee completely dependant on H-1, 11th year, now)

[ganguteli]

See

http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=24331&page=2

and you want to jeopardise the hard work just so that you get $25 worth. I think core team is wise not to get influenced by annonymous rants, management preachings and demands for transparency and management ethics.
You need to first preach to your employer that is exploiting you and the lawyer who is charging you so much and yet you do not have a green card.
Core, please do not listen to these people and do what is the right thing in the interest of everyone. Do not try to satisfy a few nuts who do not know what they are saying.

[Openarms]

I am not sure about voting part of it but sure more open informative discussion always right and can draw more folks into conversation and subsequently donations for the cause.... The secretiveness does not help for our community at all, remember we are fighting for "LEGAL" immigration.

[praveenuppaluri]

cool down brother.. no one is demanding anything from CORE ... we are just discussing different ways to be closer to CORE and do the necessary work to be a part of the inner circle to get updates..



...and you want to jeopardise the hard work just so that you get $25 worth. .... Do not try to satisfy a few nuts who do not know what they are saying.

[praveenuppaluri]

What is anyone willing to do to get the updates ??

...we could leverage the enormous dedication of the core team and multiply it several fold, ....

Completly agree with this point.. no questions there.. we need to have more people who can help multiply the efforts of CORE..

...
there are several ways in which we could implement the update process so that information is only shared to a predefined "pool" ... I know this takes work, but if the Core is looking for a person to pull together a Conference Call to compile this update and send it out, I would be glad to volunteer my services.


lets wait to hear how CORE wants to have that pool generated.

my thoughts, people can contriute, (a) money only (b) money and some personal time (to gather data and compile them) (c) money and personal time to organize state chapter meetings and meet with local autorities or senstors (this is state chapter leaders today) and (d) money + lot if time + lobbying (CORE)...

I have seen some emails in GA chapter for some meetings.. Working actively in those state chapters and contributing should be a good "pool" who can get these updates... also, this will encourage genuine people to participate proactively in state chapters and grow IV, which is the main goal for any grass-roots org.

[svn]

With the May 09 Visa bulletin out, it should now be even more clearer to everyone that there will no progress without coordinated action. This poll shows there are at least 40 people who are interested in doing something to make a difference (thanks to those who have participated so far). Of course, I cannot believe there are not more people out there who want to step forward and make a commitment towards achieving their goal!

At the same time, I am really surprised by the lack of response by Core as well! Maybe there are not enough people in Core to be going around posting in these threads, but isn't that a problem?? I am even more convinced we need to meaningfully expand the Leadership organization and involve more people in order to move forward. It's not realistic to have the same people running around trying to do everything but it doesn't have to be that way.

Core team, would appreciate a response.

[svn]

<bump>

[pappu]

Folks, IV is a platform to come and work on the common goal. Come join us and help out. Be an active volunteer and work on daily basis with us to solve the problem and make IV better. We need more real workers on the ground than strategy advisers, critics and Management consultants.

Enough said. Actions will speak louder than words and you need to get involved to tell us your ideas. If you are interested to actively participate send us an email (info at immigrationvoice.org) with your valid email address with your name, phone number and what you would like to do to help IV. We will welcome your active participation and assign you leadership roles if you want.

The thread is closed.