Effective Initiative Writing Course Outline

Instructor: David Spring M. Ed. Director, Washington Family Rights Coalition
4 week online class sessions: Tuesday evenings 6 to 8 pm,

plus between class reading assignments about 2 hours per week

Assignments to prepare for Class 1:
Read Legal Failings of Past Initiatives
Write at least one question on the readings to ask at our first class session

Class 1: Legal Failings of Past Initiatives
First Hour: Complying with Article 2, Section 19 The Single Subject Rule

Second Hour: Complying with Article 2, Section 37 The Full Text Rule
Assignments to prepare for Class 2:
Read How to Conduct an online legal search 
Write at least one question on the readings to ask at our next class session

Class 2: How to conduct an online legal search of state & federal court rulings
First Hour: Review of our state & federal court systems

Second Hour: How to search state & federal court rulings.
Assignments to prepare for Class 3:
Read How to write a Comprehensive Family Rights Initiative
Write at least one question on the readings to ask at our next class session

Class 3: How to write a Comprehensive Family Rights Initiative
First Hour: Why it is better to amend comprehensive bills drafted by the legislature rather than writing new comprehensive Initiatives.

Second Hour: Amending House Bill 1296
Assignments to prepare for Class 4:
Read Why we should submit Initiatives directly to the People

Write at least one question on the readings to ask at our next class session

Class 4: Why we should submit Initiatives directly to the People
First Hour: Drawbacks of writing Initiatives to the Legislature

Second Hour: Review of past and future effective versus ineffective Initiatives

Note: Graduates of this course will be eligible to participate on (but are not required to participate on) our committee to draft our comprehensive Washington Family Rights Initiative.
Questions? Feel free to email us!
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