I’m very pleased to share with all of you, as members of the coalition to protect natural gas as an energy resource choice in Washington, that today, we cleared the final process hurdle with a very favorable decision regarding the initiative title and summary (see attached). 

Signature gatherers will be out collecting signatures starting tomorrow on Initiative 2066, the ballot measure to “Protect Energy Choice.”

Here is what you can expect – and how you can help – in the coming days and weeks:

1. Signature Collection. Over the next couple of days, 50,000 copies of Initiative 2066 will be printed – in both Western and Eastern Washington. Starting tomorrow, BIAW will also be distributing copies of the initiative through our association to begin actively collecting signatures through our membership.  

We will also have plenty of copies to provide to your organizations to assist in signature collection through your respective members. Please contact Jan Himebaugh (janh@biaw.org or 425-577-1518) and she will coordinate getting you copies of the initiative for signatures.  In all, we have 7.5 weeks to collect the required 405,000 signatures. However, we are extremely confident that goal will be met.

2. Fundraising. Most of you received an email from Jan about beginning to collect contributions from your respective companies and organizations to fund the signature-gathering efforts.  Either Jan or I will be in contact with all of you about those details, including the options of where to make contributions.  We very much appreciate how receptive you’ve been to the idea of an initiative on this critical issue. While we are confident we will meet the fundraising goals, we still need to expand those involved in this effort and will continue reaching out to potential new contributors.

3. External Communications. A public announcement of Initiative 2066 will take place tomorrow, including the launch of a website. This is being coordinated by BIAW and the WA Hospitality Association. However, a key strategy in the announcement is to communicate how broad-based the coalition of support for the initiative is. As such, we’d like to list as many organizations, associations and companies as possible in the announcement. Of course, we also don’t want to list anyone who would prefer not to be included. As such, please contact Janelle Guthrie at BIAW (janelleg@biaw.com) to let her know if you would like to be listed in the announcement news release and on the website.

4. Progress Updates. Either Jan or I will send out regular updates to this group on where we are both with signature collection and fundraising. However, if you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact either of us. Jan’s contact information is listed above and mine is below.

Thanks again to everyone for your efforts on this issue.

Working together, I have no doubt we’ll get this done!

Washington Denturist Association

5727 Baker Way, NW Suite 200 | Gig Harbor, WA 98332

253-579-817

wadenturist.com