Occupy Your Precinct

Four Responsibilities for Caring Citizens to Occupy Their Precincts

Building American character is a relational activity that focuses on building a strong sense of responsibility, both personal and social, that is empathic in nature: Caring citizens protect and empower each other. Caring Citizens Chapters are small communities of practice of persons of any political party membership, or no affiliation, who want to practice our four responsibilities of caring citizenship. Participants must acknowledge core values for public governance of empathy, responsibility – both personal and shared – and want to exercise strength to act on these values. It takes 15 partners to charter your first two Caring Citizens Chapters through the Empathy Surplus Project:

  1. Inwardly digest the political implications and usage of the latest brain research; and use our core freedom values in daily conversations about government and its moral mission to protect and empower us. (personal responsibility)
  2. Invest our time, talents, and treasures in our 1st Amendment freedom to gather weekly for conversations that matter and identify caring policy directions that expand our liberties. (personal and shared responsibility)
  3. Invite others to join our freedom partnership and lobby our fellow citizens, respective party representatives and public servants for our caring policy directions. (personal and shared responsibility)
  4. Implement our caring policy directions by consulting / supervising / replacing (1) all elected and appointed party representatives at the county and state levels, and (2) all elected public workers around our caring policy directions. (personal and social responsibility)
The Pilot Caring Citizens Chapter
.
Chuck Watts

Chuck Watts, Co-Founder

Gary Evans

Gary Evans, Co-Founder

This unchartered group has five caring citizen pilot partners, four associate partners, six explorers, and lots of photo petitioners. It meets Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. for a meal, and its 1st Amendment gather is from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. The venue currently alternates between somewhere in Clinton or Greene County. Contact one of the pilot partners for more information. It’s normal one hour agenda is (1) Discuss one chapter per week of Thinking

Anita Dobrzelecki

Anita Dobrzelecki, Pilot Caring Citizen Partner

Millie Mooney

Millie Mooney, Pilot Caring Citizen Partner

Points, and (2) Discuss next steps in identifying policy directions, inviting others to join us and implementing our moral world view.

What are Pilot Caring Citizen Partners?

A registered voter who believes in the vision, values, and principles the Empathy Surplus Project as spelled out in the Model Caring Citizens Chapter Constitution, and seeks to

Kathryn Palmer

Kathryn Palmer, Pilot Caring Citizen Partner

affiliate and join / create a chapter of caring citizens by investing $65 / year is a partner. Partners in the first ten “pilot” chapters chartered are pilot partners. It takes 15 partners to charter two chapters of 7 & 8.

.
What are Associate Partners?
Associate partners are friends of the Empathy Surplus Project and have either donated money or other in-kind items to facilitate the chartering process, and who are not able to be a pilot partners at this time.
.
What are Exploring Partners?
Exploring partners are friends of the Empathy Surplus Project and visit the Caring Citizens group meetings from time to time.
.
  • Anita Dobrzelecki, Bellbrook, caring citizen pilot partner, anita.dobrzelecki@empathysurplus.com
  • Chuck Watts, Co-Founder, Wilmington, chuck.watts@empathysurplus.com
  • Cliff Fahrer, Wilmington, caring citizen pilot partner, cfahrer@cinci.rr.com
  • Elaine Musick, Bellbrook, associate partner, emusick@woh.rr.com
  • Gary Evans, New Vienna, co-founder, gary.evans@empathysurplus.com
  • John Paddock, Dayton, associate partner, johnpaddock@mac.com (John is the pastor of the church and allows the group to meet in the library on the second floor.)
  • Kathryn Palmer, Wilmington, caring citizen pilot partner, kathryn.palmer@empathysurplus.com
  • Millie Mooney, Dayton, caring citizen pilot partner, mmooney003@woh.rr.com

Start Your Own Group At Church or In Your Neighborhood
.
The first phase of the launch of the Empathy Surplus Project is to pilot TEN chartered Caring Citizens Chapters. Ideally there is a chapter in every precinct. But to get started we suggest you start with your closest friends, who more than likely live in multiple precincts. Meet in your home, or a church, or a sympathetic business once a week for one hour. Perhaps you meet around a meal. Whatever. Just reach out to a friend of any party and get started. Try and reach across party lines.
Start by studying Thinking Points. Here’s an “Invitation Process” you could use for the first set of eight meetings:
  • Choose a facilitator and change facilitators each meeting.
  • Start with icebreakers and introductions, where you’re from, and why you’re there.
  • The facilitator starts the discussion of the preface/introduction or chapter by sharing ONE word or phrase that comes to mind when s/he thinks about the assigned reading. For example, “freedom,” or “Caring citizens are the solution.” Then s/he invites some to do the same. (It’s okay to pass.) That person does the same until everyone has had a chance to share and then invite someone to share.
  • The facilitator then shares his/her feeling about the material. For example, anxious. Confused. Angry. Energized. Then s/he invites some to do the same. (It’s okay to pass.) That person does the same until everyone has had a chance to share and then invite someone to share.
  • The facilitator then tells everyone what s/he thinks about the material. For example, perhaps it’s a critique, or it inspires someone to describe future action, or one has an idea about a policy direction the group ought to launch. THERE IS NO INTERRUPTION. This is not a discussion – - – yet. Then s/he invites some to do the same. (It’s okay to pass.) That person does the same until everyone has had a chance to share and then invite someone to share.
  • After everyone has had a chance to share their (1) word or phrase, (2) feeling, and (3) their thoughts, the facilitator opens it up for discussion.
  • Before adjourning the group picks a facilitator for the next meeting who will do the same process.
.
At some point in your gatherings, when you reach 15 investing caring citizen partners affiliating with the Empathy Surplus Project, charters are granted to two separate Caring Citizens Chapters, of 7 and 8 partners. These two new chapters continue to grow to 15 and split again, and so forth. Each chapter has it’s own governing process and one representative to sit on the Empathy Surplus Project board.
.
.
The Empathy Surplus Project has a board of eleven members that include the co-founders. The co-founders and invested partners are currently recruiting the 9 remaining board members by chartering Caring Citizens Chapters. Each chapter has it’s own board plus one representative to the Empathy Surplus Project board. The first pilot project of the ESP is to recruit its board. Once ten chapters have been chartered, the ESP will have its board and will identify phase two of its growth.