<div dir="ltr">Were we doing Victrola? Let me know if otherwise, or if we made other plans, but I'll plan on seeing you there soon!</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jan 22, 2020 at 9:41 PM Katie Wilson <<a href="mailto:katie@transitriders.org">katie@transitriders.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;">Hey all,<div><br></div><div><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/13OOhJ17MQEIXrSFT6eykcdtKhlE6oT-C2A3AW6jolbE/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">I drafted up a survey.</a> If you have a chance to take a look before we meet next Thursday (or if you’re unable to come to that meeting), please feel free to make comments & suggestions in the doc.</div><div><br></div><div>Katie</div><div><br></div><div><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jan 19, 2020, at 9:44 AM, Katie Wilson <<a href="mailto:katie@transitriders.org" target="_blank">katie@transitriders.org</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div>TRU is co-leading two workshops, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/622099341858814/" target="_blank">one on fare enforcement & orca for all</a> (but mostly fare enforcement) and other other as part of the homelessness conversations project, with a focus on native american homelessness. Both are 9:30am-10:50am at Garfield High School. We’ll find out our room assignments tomorrow morning.</div><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jan 18, 2020, at 11:37 AM, Jim Walseth <<a href="mailto:jim.walseth@gmail.com" target="_blank">jim.walseth@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div dir="ltr"><font face="Times" size="3">Thursday the 30th is on my calendar.</font><div><font face="Times" size="3">What's up with the workshop before MLK march on Monday? I'm not able to find any info beyond that they are happening, and there will be snacks :)</font></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Jan 17, 2020 at 5:29 PM Katie Wilson <<a href="mailto:katie@transitriders.org" target="_blank">katie@transitriders.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div><div dir="auto"><div>Ok, let’s lock this in for <b>Thursday the 30th at 6pm</b>. I think we’ll be a fairly small group (4-6), so anywhere with good table space and relatively quiet should work. Victrola on 15th is one option, though sometimes they’re pretty packed. Any location ideas or preferences?</div><div><br></div><div>Katie</div>
<div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jan 16, 2020, at 4:16 PM, Katie Wilson <<a href="mailto:katie@transitriders.org" target="_blank">katie@transitriders.org</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div>Hi All,<div><br></div><div>Just a reminder to fill out <a href="https://doodle.com/poll/cdvi9gp8shz4nprp" target="_blank">this poll</a> when you have a sec— before the end of the day tomorrow— so we can schedule a meeting.</div><div><br></div><div>Re Jim’s question, if anyone wants to try this, that’s cool. However, I think cold-calling employers to ask for this information may be a time-consuming and thankless task, possibly with little success. But I think there are other ways. I met with someone from the Downtown Seattle Association earlier this week, and he said they will try to help us get more information about what transit benefits their members (businesses mainly in the downtown area) offer. We’ll see where that goes.</div><div><br></div><div>Also, we’ve gotten a couple of form submissions in the past week from people telling us what transit benefits their employers do or do not offer. The most recent one is kind of interesting, so I’m pasting it below.</div><div><br></div><div>- Katie</div><div><br></div><div><p><b>Employer:</b> IBI Group</p><p><b>Transportation Benefits:</b> Offers pre-tax option: employees can purchase transit pass products with a payroll deduction</p><p><b>Anything else you want to tell us?:</b> Subsidized ORCA cards have been a source of contention in the office and has been discussed as long as I have been at the firm. There has been a variety of excuses for delaying and suboptimal proposals given (for example, giving a stored value credit, but many of us worked out it would still be cheaper to buy out of pocket the monthly pass). It's somewhat ironic that IBI Group was the firm was the one that ST and KCM hired to implement the ORCA card system and yet doesn't offer subsidized passes to their employees.</p><div>
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<div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jan 15, 2020, at 12:49 PM, Jim Walseth <<a href="mailto:jim.walseth@gmail.com" target="_blank">jim.walseth@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Katie <i>et al</i>,<br></div><div>On the topic of "
a survey specifically for businesses
", I think we would have more complete data on existing transit subsidies if we go to the employers directly. Like, just call them and ask. The data would go a long way to answering "
how many employees our legislation would impact
".</div><div> I wonder what it would cost to hire someone to do that. <br></div><div>Jim<br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 12:12 PM Katie Wilson <<a href="mailto:katie@transitriders.org" target="_blank">katie@transitriders.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div>Hey folks,<div><br></div><div>Happy new year! 2020 is the year we extend employer-subsidized transit passes to thousands more Seattle workers. Our goal is to pass legislation in the first half of the year.</div><div><br></div><div>TRU’s organizing team will be meeting later this month to develop our organizing plan. But we also need a research & data plan. I’m wondering if we can schedule a meeting soon to discuss what role this group might be play in the campaign. <a href="https://doodle.com/poll/cdvi9gp8shz4nprp" target="_blank">Here’s a doodle poll</a> for evenings the week starting Jan. 27. If you’re interested in this discussion, please fill out the poll by the end of this week. (I chose 5:30-7pm as the meeting time, but we could shift this earlier or later depending on people’s schedules— if you prefer a different start time, maybe make a note of that in the poll.)</div><div><br></div><div>My main idea so far is that we could design an online survey to collect input on the details of the legislation. Something like:</div><div><br></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:medium none;padding:0px"><div>Here’s our basic proposal: employers with over 500 employees worldwide have to offer a 50% transit subsidy. What do you think of it? (Hate it to love it, scale 1-10 or whatever)</div><div>Here’s ten ways the proposal could get more complicated, what do you think of each one?</div><div>- include an upper tier for employers with 1000+ or 5000+ employees in Seattle, require 75% or 90% or 100% transit subsidy</div><div>- exempt non-profits</div><div>- include v. exclude part-time, temporary/seasonal, and contract employees</div><div>- etc.</div><div>Any other thoughts or ideas? (open-ended)</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>And maybe we also do a survey specifically for businesses… not sure if that’s a good idea, but worth considering.</div><div><br></div><div>Maybe there are other projects we could work on too that would be helpful to the campaign at this point. For example, it would be great to get a better sense of how many employees our legislation would impact. It’s possible we could do some back-of-the-napkin calculations and be able to say “this would result in at least X workers being offered better transit benefits” or something like that.</div><div><br></div><div>Katie</div><div><br><div>
<div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Katie Wilson</span></div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font color="#666666">General Secretary</font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font color="#666666">Transit Riders Union</font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font color="#666666"><a href="https://transitriders.org/" target="_blank">https://transitriders.org</a></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span><font color="#666666">206-781-7204</font></span></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font color="#999999"><br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><i><font color="#999999">The Transit Riders Union is a democratic organization of working and poor </font></i><i><font color="#999999">people, including students, seniors, and people with disabilities, taking control over our own lives, and building up the power we </font></i><i><font color="#999999">need to change society for the good of humanity and of the planet. We will </font></i><i><font color="#999999">fight to preserve, expand, and improve the public transportation system in </font></i><i><font color="#999999">Seattle and beyond, so that every human being has access to safe, </font></i><i><font color="#999999">affordable, and reliable public transit.</font></i></div></div></div>
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