Legislative Action Meeting - Check Spam/Junk Email box for details !!!

WHO: Anyone in the Houston or surrounding areas.

WHAT: Ask the City Council of Houston to consider enacting legislation requiring various changes to how the city interacts with persons coming forward experiencing ‘Havana Syndrome’-like complaints, as well as a city-wide ban on electronic/directed energy weapons - not including stun gun types equipment held in plain sight, given that there is no appropriate and constitutional use for such technologies only used for nefarious purposes (potentially to blackmail city officials or others in important positions).

Sample of recent Houston City Council agenda: http://www.southhoustontx.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_02082022-98

The 5th agenda item is for “Residents wishing to address City Council on Non-Agenda Items. Allowing residents to speak at city council meetings is fairly standard practice across the country.

WHERE:
Although it would be helpful if you live in southern Houston, it is not required. The city council conducts business with other areas (e.g. Harris County). Any legislation passed related to this issue that one part of Houston does will affect all of Houston, as well as have snowball effects likely across the state and maybe even other cities in the country.

Here is the information on the meeting location (note this could change closer to the meeting date): https://www.houstontx.gov/council/meetingsinfo.html

WHY: The primary goal of this initial contact is education. We want them and the community watching to think about this topic. Additional action may be required.

Speaking at the city council will not only reach your city councilmembers, but many others in the community. Meetings are broadcast on HTV, the City of Houston’s municipal channel, and streamed on the City’s website at https://www.houstontx.gov/htv/index.html and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pg/HoustonTelevision/videos/.

Note: this is NOT a protest – attendees are NOT there to disrupt the meeting in any way. This action is purely educational and legislative in nature. ** It is strongly advised that you do not identify yourself as a victim or talk about any of your personal experiences during this initial encounter. **

HOW:
Prior to Action
You will be supported prior to this event with at least one practice session, as well as outreach materials, including various speech material.
Each participant should watch the citizen speaking portion of a meeting prior to the action, to get a feel for how it all works.

Review current city guidelines: https://www.houstontx.gov/council/meetingsinfo.html
Afraid of speaking?? Most people are !! You may never have spoken before an audience before, but truly it is not as scary as you think, because typically you are at a podium or microphone facing only the council and you can have notes or read your speech if you forget what you want to say. Toastmasters is an experiential speaking skills training group within an emotionally safe and encouraging environment that offers an inexpensive option to practice speaking skills. Effective speaking skills will make you more effective in activist activities but also other areas of your life.

During the Action
For the best impact, several individuals will be needed to provide short speeches (each with different pieces of information). A person who feels most confident will be the first speaker (make sure first to sign up from our group to speak). That person would also be responsible for providing backup information on a thumb drive to the court recorder, who would then pass that on to each city council person; or, even better, provide enough thumb drives for all city council members, to make sure they actually get the information.

After the Action
Follow-up call day: About 3-5 days after the meeting, the team will divide up the city council member list and call to each city council member to ask if they have had a chance to review the backup information provided yet and to see if they have any questions, want to meet in person, or willing to move forward with the idea of forming an action committee to review recommendations.

If there is resistance to this topic, it will be necessary for the group to go back to another meeting and mention that the city council seems somewhat resistant, but you feel this issue is of great concern to the community and hope they will still consider the proposed ideas. Obviously the city council will not want people bringing this up over and over at multiple meetings, but that is a technique often used by activist groups to gain compliance to support an issue.

WHEN:
The date posted for this event is a pre-action conference call to answer questions and see what date best fits everyone's schedules. We want to give everyone time to prepare and get comfortable with the material they will be presenting. Call in details will be provided closer to the date.