from
http://www.publicallies.org/site/c.liKUL3PNLvF/b.3960231/
Fact Sheet About Public Allies and the Obamas
Fact Sheet on Public Allies’ History with Senator Barack and Michelle Obama
Public Allies has received many media inquiries about our history with President-elect and Michelle Obama, and has been featured in many news stories about them. Following are some details and anecdotes about the Obamas’ history with Public Allies.
· President-elect Obama was a member of the founding advisory board of Public Allies. Michelle was the founding Executive Director of Public Allies Chicago from Spring, 1993 until Fall, 1996, and served on our national board of directors from 1997 until 2001. President-elect Obama was no longer on the board of Public Allies when Michelle was hired. Before joining Public Allies, she was an attorney at the law firm of Sidley & Austin and Deputy Director of Community Development for the City of Chicago.
· Under Michelle’s leadership, Public Allies Chicago pioneered many elements of Public Allies’ program model. To identify and develop the next generation of Chicago leaders, she recruited young people from housing projects and youth centers as well colleges and universities. Her emphasis on indigenous leadership and belief that all people have potential to lead became a core value of our leadership philosophy. When she left, Public Allies Chicago had a cash reserve, a committed board, a talented young staff, and a network of diverse, talented young leaders in Chicago who continue to serve the community today. Michelle was also a pioneer in the social entrepreneur movement – leaders who create new approaches and organizations to provide new solutions to social problems.
· At her subsequent jobs at the University of Chicago and University of Chicago Medical Center, Michelle hired more than a dozen Public Allies to work with her. In addition, she has continued to advise, coach, donate to, and champion Public Allies. President-elect Obama has also been an active volunteer and supporter. President-elect Obama has trained several classes of Allies in community organizing, spoken at Public Allies Chicago events, and helped Senator Durbin secure an appropriation from the Department of Justice that successfully helped us better recruit and retain young men of color for our Chicago program and learn practices we are applying nationally.
· Michelle Obama and Public Allies CEO Paul Schmitz were also original faculty members of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University, led by John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann. John McKnight worked with Barack Obama as an organizer and wrote his Harvard Law School recommendation (see Audacity of Hope, page 360). The Institute has a strategic alliance with Public Allies’ consulting group, The Leadership Practice, through which we provide training and consulting services on how to better identify and mobilize local community assets and participation to strengthen communities.
· Quote from Paul Schmitz, CEO of Public Allies, who worked with Michelle:
“Michelle was an amazing leader and role model for all of us. As a very young staff in the early years, we all emulated Michelle’s incredible combination of professionalism, compassion, critical thinking and commitment to her community. For all of her immense talents, she was also one of the most down-to-earth, inclusive, and authentic leaders I’ve ever worked with. She really did believe that everyone could contribute to their communities and that leaders come from all backgrounds and all parts of the community. The Chicago program she pioneered really created the template we all work from today. We are proud of our colleague and wish her well.”
· Public Allies is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse candidates for elected office. Public Allies has enjoyed support from leaders of both political parties. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush identified Public Allies as a model for national service and funded our pilot program. Under President Clinton, we grew from a pilot to a national program, and under President George W. Bush, we more than doubled in size and were contracted to provide training and technical assistance to other grantees of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
FROM:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/us/politics/18axelrod.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
....snip
past clients appeared in the press over the last year, including AT&T, Cablevision and the University of Chicago Medical Center. A fuller picture emerges from a review of public records, including an archived version of his Web site that contains an early list of companies and organizations his firm has worked with.
Among them were Household International, a subprime mortgage lender based in Illinois that faced accusations of predatory practices; Wisconsin Energy, which sought to counter opposition to its coal-fired power plants; and the Compete Coalition, a lobbying group in Washington that advocates deregulation of electricity markets.
snip...
Mr. Axelrod’s consulting business is divided between two companies. One, AKP&D Message and Media, focuses on political campaigns and is where Mr. Axelrod devotes most of his time. He is on leave from the other firm, ASK Public Strategies, which consults for companies and nonprofits, and is run primarily by his partner, Eric Sedler.
Beyond the different clientele, the two firms also have a different approach to transparency. While AKP&D identifies about 70 of its political clients on its Web site, ASK has a policy of nondisclosure.
...snip..
On at least two occasions, ASK has been involved in public-opinion campaigns that used front groups largely bankrolled by a single corporation. One such effort was the New York Association for Better Choices, created to help Cablevision, the owner of Madison Square Garden, defeat a proposal for a stadium on Manhattan’s West Side. Cablevision paid ASK more than $1 million in 2004 and 2005, according to state lobbying records.
In Illinois, ASK created advertisements for Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity — a group created by ComEd, a utility company that is a subsidiary of Exelon — that warned of possible blackouts if the state did not approve a rate increase. Exelon, a major contributor to Mr. Obama’s campaigns, also tapped ASK to help work on message strategy with the Compete Coalition, a lobbying organization made up of major electricity producers and consumers. A coalition membership list from earlier this year included ASK, although Mr. Sedler disputed that, adding that ASK’s dealings with the coalition were through Exelon and that it did not have a separate contract with the coalition.
Another Alinsky ‘community organizer’ and 0 mentor .. John McKnight ..wrote a letter of recommendation for BO for Harvard. He mentions Judith Snow as being important to this ‘movement.’
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buTGLg_c304
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Another John McKnight video (they’re community organizing in Canada, too .. “where there’s a much better vision for the future than the US!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSWkEBp6SrU&feature=related
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Judith Snow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TecLdFMHNEQ&feature=related
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BO Campaign - The meaning of community organizing ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NElvLp4Oyr0&feature=related