IMPORTANT NOTICE: WHO WE ARE

THIS WEBSITE http://18millionvoices.blogspot.com/
IS, AND WILL REMAIN, THE ONE AND ONLY SOURCE OF CORRECT INFORMATION ABOUT 18 MILLION VOICES CURRENT AND ONGOING ACTIVITIES.

18 MILLION VOICES PLANNED AND COORDINATED, THROUGH ITS RECOGNIZED STATE GROUPS, THE ACTIVITIES THAT TOOK PLACE IN DENVER ON AUGUST 25th and 26th, 2008 AND THAT ARE DETAILED ON OUR ONE AND ONLY "SISTER PAGE" LOCATED HERE: http://rhrdenver.blogspot.com/

NO OTHER GROUP OR ORGANIZATION IS WORKING IN AFFILIATION WITH 18 MILLION VOICES AND ANY INFORMATION TO THE CONTRARY IS FALSE.

18 MILLION VOICES HAS ABSOLUTELY NO AFFILIATION WITH ANY OF THE GROUPS IDENTIFIED AS "PUMA".


18 MILLION VOICES HAS ABSOLUTELY NO AFFILIATION WITH ANY EFFORTS BEING MISLEADINGLY DESCRIBED AS:

"18 MILLION VOICES PHASE II"
"18MVP2"
"18 MILLION VOICES PHASE 2"
THE WEBSITE "18MILLIONVOICES.NET "

IT IS OUR OPINION THAT THE ABOVE INDIVIDUALS/GROUPS ARE ATTEMPTING TO CAPITALIZE ON THE HARD WORK AND GOOD REPUTATION OF OUR GROUP BY USING THE "18 MILLION VOICES" NAME FOR THEIR OWN PURPOSES.

WE HAVE REPEATEDLY REQUESTED THAT THESE GROUPS CEASE USING THE "18 MILLION VOICES" NAME--THE GROUPS HAVE THUS FAR REFUSED TO DO SO.

WE AT 18 MILLION VOICES DENOUNCE THE DISPICABLE ACTIONS OF THESE GROUPS IN THEIR ATTEMPTS TO USE THE "18 MILLION VOICES" NAME FOR THEIR OWN PUPRPOSES AND BENEFIT.



WE ARE A GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION THAT DOES NOT FUNDRAISE

We are NOT engaged in any form of fundraising.
We are a grassrooots organization in the most literal sense.

If you are asked to contibute to any organization representing themselves as "18 Million Voices", please know that they IN NO WAY represent 18 Million Voices or our efforts coordinated through this website and we ask kindly that you please contact us immediately at risehillaryrise@gmail.com in the event you encounter such an activity so that we may take immediate, appropriate action.

The Founders of 18 Million Voices, who created this website, are two private citizens who have a background in grassroots political organizing and a strong commitment to advocating for women's rights. 18 Million Voices is not a non-profit, or a PAC. However, the "18 Million Voices" name is, indeed, legally protected and in use by our grassroots organization.

We do not authorize the use of the name "18 Million Voices" by any other group, and do not endorse, nor are we involved with, any efforts but those detailed on THIS website.

Home From Denver

We have returned from Denver, and from a wonderful celebration of Women's Equality Day and Senator Hillary Clinton.

We have created a "sister site" that contains photos, narrative, videos, and press coverage detailing our Denver efforts. Please visit this link http://rhrdenver.blogspot.com to read all about it! And please keep checking back to this site for new details of our ongoing advocacy for women's rights! More to come VERY soon...stay tuned!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

NAME CHANGE: WE HAVE HEARD YOUR VOICES

We have changed our name in response to the feedback we received from so many of you asking that the name be more inclusive. Thanks for all your responses and your great input. As it is our goal to include everyone, we have changed our name to 18 Million Voices and redirected our original Website to this page. Nothing else has changed, we are just that much stronger by including everyone's voice. We hope this change causes no confusion or inconvenience. In the future, please link directly to this site. Our email is the same RiseHillaryRise@gmail.com

Thanks,
RiseHillaryRise

Friday, June 13, 2008

Denver And Beyond: NATIONWIDE ACTIONS

We have had many responses suggesting the idea of holding coordinated rallies and marches in cities throught the nation at the same time as we march in Denver. We think this is a phenomenal idea, it will allow the voices of those people who cannot make it to Denver to be heard, without them having to travel too far away or take off time from work. It will also bring attention to the Denver action, and, allow us to distinguish ourselves from the many other protest groups who will be in Denver.

At present, we are coordinating State Organizers (thank you to all who have responded and volunteered!) who will be scheduling organizing meetings in their respective states. We will be posting state meeting information on the site as we receive it. The overall goal is to have groups of people on the ground in every state who can help get the word out about the march, coordinate travel to Denver from their states for those who want to go, as well as coordinate concurrent state actions for those who cannot travel.

If we can all come together and give just a little time and effort to this movement, we can stand united Nationwide during the convention, and we will not be easy to ignore!!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

UPDATE ON PERMIT INFO

Thank you to everyone who has emailed information regarding the very complex and seemingly illusive process of obtaining a permit to rally or march in Denver.

We have now devoted a significant amount of time researching this issue, reading the applicable statutes, and attempting to contact Denver officials. We think we have begun to understand the process, but, are keeping at our research and information gathering, so, may update this information at a later date. We are, however, relatively confident that at this point we have not missed any deadline to apply for a permit. Here's what we have ascertained thus far:

The Mayor of Denver has declared the time frame surrounding the convention dates an "Extraordinary Event" requiring an Extraordinary Event Permit. A special process has been established to apply for this Permit. The Permit application indicates that we have until August 11, 2008 to submit an Extraordinary Event Request Form--NOTE, this appears to be NOTHING MORE than a REQUEST to eventually be able to apply for specific rally or parade permits (what we will call, the "sub-permits"), but, here's where it gets REALLY fun in our opinion...

Once we have submitted an Extraordinary Event Request, we will supposedly be notified within 5 business days of the acceptance or denial of the Request. If accepted, we get to apply for the specific rally or parade sub-permits. If these sub-permit applications are approved-- again, supposedly we will be notified of acceptance or denial within 5 business days--then it appears our Extraordinary Event Permit will actually be issued. We are not completely sure this is the entire process as the application forms and the website contain a variety of seemingly conflicting and thoroughly confusing information.

Please fell free to check out the site here, maybe you'll have more luck unraveling this mysterious and convoluted process:

http://www.denvergov.org/Default.aspx?alias=www.denvergov.org/dnc2008permits

Once you have become thoroughly frustrated, as we are, with the information provided regarding the Permit process, you may want to check out the myriad of lawsuits filed by the ACLU in relation to these issues, here the link:

http://www.aclu-co.org/dnc/dnc.htm

The Permit issue is on the agenda for our New York City meeting this Sunday, and as we get more information and a better understanding of how best to proceed, we will post an update.

We hope this information is helpful in some way.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Another Update and A Request to Other Groups

The email volunteer interest responses are fast reaching into the hundreds in just the past 48 hours!! Thanks everyone for all the support, and the great effort to link to us from other sites! We are trying to respond to everyone's emails as quickly as possible, and to begin compiling a database and email list of interested volunteers, but we also have day jobs to worry about too, so please bear with us if we don't respond immediately!

By Sunday, June 15, 2008 we hope to be up and running as far as 1) information networks database 2) lists of state organizers 3) volunteer email lists 4) meetup locations/links posted for states where we have volunteer organizers and 5) a posted list of states where we need organizers.

We have set up a meet up in New York City (where we are blogging) so those in the New York City area, and anyone else who wishes to attend, can begin meeting in person, please see the above post for the meetup page link.

We will be contacting the ACLU and others in Denver to determine what must happen to obtain a permit. In the event that we cannot obtain a permit, we will brainstorm ideas for a soft action, possibly wearing t-shirts, taping mouths, and walking the streets of Denver in silence, but in vast numbers. As we get more information on the permits, we will post it here. We also have a lawyer helping us out on this issue, but could use all the help we can get on this one. If you want to help with the permit issue please email and include PERMIT ISSUE in the subject line.

We would like to form a core organizing committee, and welcome anyone to join. Please email us with your information and CORE ORGANIZER in the subject line if you are interested in joining the committee.

Also, we are requesting that if you are another organization/group that is also working to organize the march, please contact us so we can all coordinate efforts as oppposed to duplicating efforts and wasting valuable resources all around. Please include COLLABORATION GROUP in the subject line. We would love to set up a collaboration between a variety of like minded groups.

We have received emails from many of you wishing to create graphic designs, artwork, t-shirts, signs, posters, videos and the like. Once we have our grassroots network of organizers in place, we will reach out to all of you to start getting things moving on all the great ideas you have provided.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Update for all re: response so far...

Thank you for all of the input so far. We are trying to be responsive to all suggestions about content and even style of the site, but, have only so much time to devote, so, please bear with us as we try to address everyone's suggestions.

As far as permits go, it seems our best bet will be to find a co-sponsoring group that is already involved in the permit battle, as it appears the ACLU has already filed a lawsuit on behalf of groups seeking to hold events. We will try to reach out to groups in the coming week, and will post updates here.

In response to all who think Million Women's March is not an inclusive enough name, we are open to all ideas, but it will be difficult to re-name the blog, which is already millionwomenmarch, and our hope was that men would not be too put off to march for their wives', daughters' or mothers' rights. Suggestions are welcome for more inclusive names.

Thus far, we have received only a handful of interest emails, so, as the list grows we will try to put people in touch with one another. Please all be aware, we are not an organized group, but 2 concerned citizens and loyal Clinton supporters, who put up this blog to serve as an organizing mechanism for anyone who would like to see this event happen, as when we searched for information last week a lot of blogs were talking about this idea, but there was no central website for people to start doing anything about making it happen.

Please keep the ideas coming, and we will keep everyone posted about progress.