After hitting the ground running last week with a voter registration table on the first day of classes, tabling at the student involvement fair, and posting flyers on campus, tonight was the first UK KFTC meeting of the 2010-2011 academic year.

Nearly all of the active UK KFTC leaders of last year have graduated, are taking a semester abroad, or have had to step back because of heavy school or work obligations, but new UK KFTC leader Callie Thomas has really stepped up to recruit new activists and to revive the organization on campus.  It's paid off with a dozen students coming out to this first meeting.

The group spent some time getting to know each other, learning about KFTC, and brainstorming ideas of things they might be able to accomplish this semester.  Ideas included film showings, voter registration activities, and campaigns to raise awareness of CSAs, locally created goods, and Farmers Markets.

We recruited three new KFTC members at the meeting and scheduled a campus Voter Registration tabling for next week on Thursday, September 9th from 11am to 3pm outside near the Journalism building.

"I hope to live in Kentucky for my whole life.  It's worth it to fight to make it the best possible place for all of us"     - Callie Thomas

UK KFTC meet every Wednesday at 7pm in UK Student Center room 111.  All UK students interested in our work are encouraged to attend!

On Saturday night, the folks at the Kentucky Theatre were nice enough to let us set up a table for their monthly showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. The showing coincided with a free movie night for University of Kentucky students, making it a great opportunity to register some voters. Central Kentucky members registered voters, collected voting rights postcards, and handed out invitations to KFTC meetings to folks dressed in all of their Rocky Horror glory. We invited a number of students out to the UK campus meetings and had a great conversation with a man who is working to get his voting rights back.

Later on in the week, we will be continuing this great work at the Transit Center on Thursday and at the North Lexington wedding of Tanya Ferguson and Christian Torp on Saturday. Hope to see y'all there! 

We're starting to get some responses from candidates sending in their answers to the the KFTC Candidate Survey, which we will publish in a few weeks in our Voter Guide (50,000 copies strong) and on www.KentuckyElection.org.

It's a key part of our voter education campaign - asking candidates to make statements on issues and to relay those answers word-for-word to KFTC members and friends and anyone else looking for the information to help inform their votes and to make the democratic process possible.

We'll then have a strong statewide phone bank to follow-up with all of these people to make sure they're all set to vote.

We've sent surveys to all federal-level Kentucky candidates (US Senate race and candidates for all six Congressional races), plus many local state legislative, county, or city government races (check with your local organizer to find out what races we're producing voter guides for in your community).

As always, it has proven to be very difficult to get candidates to respond to our non-partisan candidate questions, which is why we need YOUR help this week.

If you are at events where any of these candidates are, ask them if they've responded to the KFTC Candidate Survey yet - or even contact the campaigns by phone or email to tell them that responding to this questionnaire is important to you as a voter.

We'll continue to follow-up with "official" KFTC phone calls and emails to the campaigns to encourage them to respond, but KFTC's strength, as always, resides in our membership so any action you can take to help would be very valuable.

A North Lexington couple is using the grand occasion of their wedding next weekend to share good fortune, food, and a little voter empowerment with everyone in their community.

Christian Torp and Tanya Ferguson, both KFTC members, expect to feed about 800 people at their wedding, to which everyone in their neighborhood is invited.

KFTC will be there to register voters and to talk to people about our campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.

If you'd like to volunteer to help us table and canvass this unique community event, let us know.

Also, click here for the LEX18 news story about the wedding that they ran yesterday.

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8/30 Update - Merlene Davis also did a great story about Christian and Tayna.  Check out the link here

On Wednesday, University of Kentucky KFTC members were on campus tabling in honor of the first day of classes. We registered a total of 76 voters on their way to and from class! We invited folks out to the first meeting of the semester on September 1st. UK KFTC will meet every Wednesday at 7pm in the Student Center.

On Thursday, UK KFTC President Callie Thomas and volunteers tabled at the Student Involvement Fair. Alongside other campus organizations, we talked to students about what our organization does and handed information about our issue campaigns.

We're expecting a great turnout for the first meeting and a productive year for UK KFTC!

KFTC members Janet Tucker and Tayna Fogle took turns this past weekend visiting the East End Reunion in Lexington, registering voters and talking about restoration of voting rights for former felons. 

The day started out slow, but by 7 p.m., the event had attracted many hundreds of participants.

Tayna Fogle returned with over 100 postcards filled out, calling on our legislators to restore voting rights to all former felons who have served their debt to society.  She also took the opportunity to take the microphone and do a little mass education about the issue.

"It was so much fun," Tayna said.  "We met a lot of people who are really with us that night."

The US Census Bureau was kind enough to send this spiffy award to KFTC for playing a role in reaching awareness of the 2010 Census earlier in the year and encouraging our members and other people in our communities to respond and to be counted. 

Here are some videos that cover a part of the Georgetown Singing for Democracy event a few weeks ago. 

Thanks to Rick Traud, of the Northern KY KFTC Chapter for taking a crack at videotaping this even though he'd never used the video camera before.

We got a lot of good quotes and feedback from our KFTC delegation to Fancy Farm last week.  Here they are.

"It feels good to be down here with all these members of KFTC getting our issues out there at a wonderful event and a huge part of Kentucky politics. Everybody else should come down next year!" - Danny Cotton, Central KY KFTC

"There was a lot of tension and... it was so partisan.  To encounter people and say ‘we’re a non-partisan, grassroots organization. I think people from all kinds of backgrounds responded to that and seemed more open to what we had to say. That was really cool." - Meredith Wadlington, Bowling Green KFTC

"I think KFTC made a huge difference to the whole landscape of Fancy Farm" - Greg Capillo, Madison County KFTC

"I had a blast. This was my first time at Fancy Farm.  So many people came up and asked me about my sign and told me it was a good cause. I had long debate with someone who didn’t agree with us, but that felt really productive too." - Colton Jessie, Bowling Green KFTC

"The candidates were okay. The issues are more important, but that’s what we’re here for. It makes a pretty good weekend. First time down- probably going to come back."
David Hunter, Northern KY KFTC

"I was really pumped that KFTC was able to get so much info out there. Everywhere we went there were people carrying our stickers and fans and such. It’s really awesome to have a strong presence." - Kevin Smiley, Bowling Green KFTC

"The lack of people of color who attended the 130th annual Fancy Farm Picnic was very disappointing. With one person of color present on stage and very few in the crowd, it was as if non-white people have no place in the political arena.  I believe part of the picnic's problem is that it doesn't seem to really welcome people of color. I say this because of the experience my colleagues and I had at the hall of Knights of Columbus #1418, the main food vendor for this event.  We were seated in the only diverse section of the hall and we were watched over, harassed and I was asked to leave. It was so bad that one of the three white males at our table said, "Man, they just won't leave y'all alone."" - Toma Lynn Smith, Jefferson County KFTC

"I had so many people ask me what KFTC was. I had such a good time today spreading the message especially about felon disenfranchisement. I thought it was very valuable for us to be here and let people know that just as their minds were starting to turn toward the fall election season and voting that there are 186,000 plus Kentuckians who didn’t have that ability or that privilege to do that, because their rights had been stripped."  - Antonio Mazzaro, Northern KY KFTC

"Fancy Farm is this giant ruckus. This big crazy party where everyone screams and no one is sure what’s going on. It’s a bit like British parliament. I feel like I could show up in a straw hat and tweed suit and still be okay. Of course, George Washington and Abe Lincoln fought it out earlier, so. Then, there was a caveman. I’m not actually making any of this up. It was all here at Fancy Farm." - Nate Kinsman, Northern KY KFTC

"I talked to people who were wearing Rand Paul stickers and I talked to people that were wearing Jack Conway stickers. It seemed like a little glimmer of hope for Kentucky as far as being able to work between the parties. I’ll try to come back every year if I can." - Meredith Wadlington, Bowling Green KFTC

"I really enjoyed meeting and talking with some people, even though some of them were kind of ridiculous. And, I look forward to coming back next year." - Tony Zeller, Northern KY KFTC

KFTC is hiring 10-12 part time (20 hour/week) Electoral Organizers across the state to aid in our massive effort to have personal contact with 50,000 voters leading up to Election Day.

We will accept applications for people interested in working in Madison, Rowan, Floyd, Fayette, Jefferson, Warren, Scott, and/or Perry counties, and possibly other Eastern KY counties.

Most Electoral Organizers jobs will be tied to a particular geography with a wide range of activities (listed above), but specialized positions like Campus Electoral Organizers, Phone Bank Organizers, Data Entry Managers, or other specializations might be possible, if we find excellent applicants with skills that would lend themselves towards them. 

Visit Here to learn much more about the position and how to apply.

Note that KFTC will also be hiring data entry workers separately at the same rate ($12.79 / hr) based out of the Lexington KFTC office.  Hours per week will vary greatly and are flexible based on your availability.