BMAD: Legislative sessions lead to new date for Board Member Action Day
Go local June 8
Published: May 9, 2012
With floor sessions now scheduled in both houses of the state Legislature June 1, CSBA has shifted its Board Member Action Day to June 8.
Local educational agency governance team members participating in BMAD that day will speak with a united voice as they advocate for public schools in face-to-face meetings with legislators in the lawmakers’ district offices. Registration is still open for the new date for this innovative new approach to grassroots lobbying with a common voice.
“To ensure that the meetings occur with members of the Legislature and not just their staff, we need to move BMAD to June 8,” CSBA Assistant Executive Director for Governmental Affairs Dennis Meyers said after legislators’ newly scheduled June 1 floor sessions were announced.
“June 8 is one week before the legislative deadline to adopt a budget; it will be the perfect time to influence how the final budget is going to be shaped,” Meyers added. “We knew that changing the date would create difficulties for some of our school board members, but there was no chance that legislators would be in their district offices on June 1 with that being a floor session deadline. June 8 gives us much higher chance of legislators being home and able to meet with our people face-to-face.” “We will be focusing our [BMAD] discussions primarily around the budget, whether Proposition 98’s minimum education funding guarantee is being upheld, and the policy issues that are tied to those considerations, such as mandate reform and the weighted student formula,” Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to change how funds are allocated to individual LEAs, Meyers explained.
BMAD briefing materials will be published on CSBA’s website May 25, and Governmental Relations staff will present an informational advocacy training webcast at 10 a.m. May 30. The webcast is required for those participating in BMAD; in part, they will learn how to illustrate BMAD’s coordinated message with specifics from their own school districts and county offices of education, in the local communities the legislators are elected to represent.
The webcast and background materials will also be useful to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of state budget issues and sharper advocacy skills—background that can help increase school board members’ stature as local leaders in their communities.
Learn more about BMAD in this updated video on CSBA’s YouTube channel, and register here.