ROAR for HR3149!

ROAR (Reach Out And Recruit) for HR3149!

Yes, there are more than 30 groups and organizations supporting HR3149, but quite frankly some of them are doing absolutely NOTHING to help the cause. As of July 4, we currently have 3658 members. We’re fighting 20 employer groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (the biggest lobby in Washington) and the big three credit bureaus. While these groups and their money are formidable adversaries, which our all up hill climb to date demonstrates, we have several advantages. 1) Even though, quite frankly, our so called democracy is corrupt to the gills with PAC money paying off Congress to block HR3149, it’s an election year. Now that the primaries are over in most states, we will soon turn out attention to making HR3149 and election year issue. “We the people” now have power at our fingertips that we won’t have again for two years after November. 2) Upwards of 100 million Americans are directly impacted by “bad credit” and will benefit from passage of HR3149 when passed. 3) Upwards of 90 percent of all Americans support passage of HR3149 once they know the legislation exists. 4) The economy is so damaged and the plight of working America is so poor at present, that even someone in Congress might develop a conscience. Clearly the numbers and timing are both on our side even if Congress has no conscience. Corporations can pay off Congress via PAC money, but what they can’t do is put them into office or keep them in office. Only we the people have that power, but only if we mobilize the numbers can we deliver the force to make HR3149 happen.

While 3668 group members is worthwhile and to be commended, it’s realistically just not enough – even through we’re not fighting this battle alone. We simply have to have a huge spike in growth and we have to have it now because November is fast approaching. After November, our chances of passage dim significantly . . . that’s just the political reality. On this end, we know why we don’t have a million members and so do the credit bureaus . . . “social stigma.”

While having “bad credit” is not a prerequisite for membership in our group, most of our real fighters and passionate activists are directly impacted by the issue. While we have had success with media coverage via our membership and getting our members to contact Washington, the one hurdle that remains is getting our membership to recruit. If only half of our members would just recruit their friends inside and outside of Facebook, we’d double our membership numbers in a week.

Being a member of this group means you have a soul and a conscience, not that you have bad credit, but even if you do have bad credit, so what! Join the crowd . . . 86 percent of Americans live beyond their means and 100 million have bad credit. There is no longer any stigma! The economy is wrecked, 30 million people are un or under-employed, homes are being foreclosed on by the thousands and credit reports all across America are in flames. Nonetheless, many of our members and most of the 100 million Americans with bad credit sit and suffer in silence as their entire lives go down the drain because of employment credit checks. Please pardon the term, but that’s just STUPID!

We have the power, the timing and the means to bring this discrimination practice to an end once and for all. Not just for us or our generations, but for all generations that follow. During the week of the 4th of July of all weeks, isn’t time to recruit? There is no America and there is no freedom without the basic right to work and make a living. Without the numbers we’re just not going to win this battle. You can suffer in silence because of stupid pride, or you can step out from the shadows and realize that virtually every American is either in the same boat you’re in or will be very soon the way things are heading. The choice is up to YOU 100%! It’s right there in your Facebook account and in your e-mail lists . . . they are called friends, relatives, business colleagues, neighbors, church members, union members, civil rights groups, etc. As hard as we work on this end, the one thing we simply cannot do is recruit for you . . . it’s your job and your job alone and if you don’t do it . . . we’re going to fail in our mission. The window is open, the clock is ticking and time is getting short very fast. Reach into your thousands of contacts throughout America and bring us warriors now, or live with employment credit checks forever. The choice is up to YOU . . .

So let's get started . . . here's how you can do your small part:

Inside FB:

Membership Growth Techniques for YOU

1) IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY, INVITE ALL YOUR FB FRIENDS
Option A) Simply click the “Invite People to Join” button on our group’s home page, add all your FB friends to the mailing (limited to 20 ea. max. per mailing), add a quick note to encourage them to join and hit send. Fast and easy . . . or if you wish to provide more information use Option B below.

Option B) Review the following links, statistics and material, copy and paste our group FB URL along with the information you choose into your recruitment messages and then personalize for best results. For this method you’ll need to use your “Inbox, Compose New Message” function because the “Invite People to Join” button limits the amount of information you can provide.
Recruiting Package:

Our FB Membership Group URL: http://groups.to/h.r.3149/

The Basic Bill: http://hr3149.blogspot.com/2009/11/basics-of-bill-now-pending-in-house.html

The Logic and Basis for the Bill: http://hr3149.blogspot.com/2009/11/basis-of-platform-for-passage.html

A Solid Case for What Passage Means for Every American: http://hr3149.blogspot.com/2009/11/hr3149-not-your-cause-think-again.html

At a time when we are in the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression, it is unfair, unjust and discriminatory to require well qualified job applicants and employees to submit a credit report just to be able to find or hold a job and work. While the top 1% of Americans has only gotten richer and financial institutions have received billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts - the 'working class' has been pummeled to a point where we are losing our jobs, our homes and our retirement savings. On top of all that, to be essentially locked out of the workforce, denied promotion or disallowed to change to a higher paying position because of a credit report is the last straw and “we the people” are NOT going to lay down for this horrible injustice!

Some Captivating Statistics for Use:

60% of “blue collar” and more than 80% of “white collar” job applicants are being forced to submit a credit report to apply for or keep a job

17.5% unemployment representing 16+ M Americans

1 in 4 children and 50 M Americans starving

14% of homeowners behind or in default on their mortgage

36% of the unemployed are without a job for at least 6 months

This percentage for discrimination is much higher for minorities (48% blacks and 34% Hispanics)

Please reach out to your entire FB network and don’t be shy. The right to work, the pursuit of happiness, the right to privacy and the rule of law against discrimination are all part of the Constitution, Bill of Rights and civil rights legislation. “We the people” are simply demanding that the American workforce be protected under the law.

2) RECRUIT AT-LARGE
JUST TRY IT, IT’S EASY AND PAINLESS . . . WE’LL GUARANTEE 4 NEW MEMBERS FOR EVERY 10 CONTACTS YOU MAKE AND WE MUST HAVE YOUR NUMBERS!

Option A) Again, as we stated earlier, THERE ARE NO RULES when it comes to recruiting. According to the most strict interpetation of FB's "anti-spam" guidlines, RANDOM pitching or recruiting new friends to later convert to members of our HR3149 group is "spam," however, contacting individuals whom you can logically assume (more than likely) will be interested in our cause (based upon your interest in a group they belong to, or mutual friends) does NOT constitute RANDOM pitching/recruiting or "spam." Common interest is what "friends" and FB is all about, so don't be shy about recruiting.

THAT DOESN'T MEAN, DON'T USE YOUR BRAIN . . . we have no intentions whatsoever of breaking any rules, circumventing FBs preferences or drawing undue attention to you or our group by FB. JUST KEEP IT UNDER 30 CONTACTS PER DAY and you and we as a group will be fine. If you receive a FB warning, simply STOP recruiting for 24 hours (it's actually a shorter period, but use 24 just to be extra safe) to ensure "we" keep FB happy.

Use your political judgment to pick groups to recruit within, or friends of friends to select for recruitment. We’ve been doing it for weeks and no one yet has complained - at worst they simply will not respond which is no big deal. Our methods are tried and true - that’s how we found most of you, right? Every time you get 20 new friends or less (20 max.), go to our HR3149 group page and invite that list (create mailing lists 1, 2, 3, etc.). Then once you have invited them, in a week or so, you can simply “un-friend” or “de-friend” them and access to your FB pages goes back to “normal,” no FB rules violated and no harm done.

When you invite them to join, you’re limited as to how many characters you can use. We’ve been using the following pitch that fits and seems to work, try it or create one of your own, here’s the pitch: “STOP Workplace Lockout! Join our FB PAG to pass HR3149 to make it illegal for employers to use YOUR credit report to hire and fire. It’s un-American, discrimination and a gross invasion of YOUR privacy. Join NOW!” (or something like that ;-) Then hit “send” and we’ll have at least 4 new members! It’s just that easy, no hard sell required.

Option B, which we haven’t tried because it’s too slow for us, but will work and keep you from having to allow strangers into your FB pages - simply create a short message that includes our FB URL http://groups.to/h.r.3149/ and click on “friends” of “friends” or strangers pages then click on “send blank a message,” then paste and send your message.

Both Inside and Outside FB

3) JOIN LIKE MINDED FB POLITICAL GROUPS AND NETWORK
Pretty self explanatory . . . simply join the group and post information and our HR3149 URL http://groups.to/h.r.3149/ either as a new “Discussion” topic and or comment on someone else’s existing discussion and plug our group and URL.

Outside FB

4) E-MAIL ONLY MEMBERS
While we’re primarily FB based, we have e-mail only members. In general, everything that our FB members get each week via messages goes to our e-mail only members as well. You can bring your fellow Americans not on FB to the cause by sending out recruitment information and having them send an e-mail to hr3149@hotmail.com with a subject line of “Sign Me Up” and they’ll be added to our mailing list.