Vote With It: The Movement has sent out several post and many tweets letting people know of SignOn petitions that are in line with the Vote With It ideals. It seems appropriate that we should spend the time to talk about this service. SingOn.org is a service provided by MoveOn.org. It allows anyone to set up an online petition. Users can then communicate with people who have signed their petition. However, with this open forum MoveOn.org does not endorse the content put on these petitions. They are only providing the ability for others to become more active in their community and make a difference.
MoveOn was created as a way to give every American a voice in politics and not just those with lots of money or a team of lobbyists. They are composed of different pieces, each with a different focus in order to achieve this goal. Civic Action is a 501(c) nonprofit organization and deals with education and advocacy. The Political Action branch is a federal PAC and actively participates in Congress’s lawmaking and the election of politicians. Both of these areas are funded by small contributions from individuals. They do not accept money from corporations or large donations from CEOs. They wish to remain an organization dedicated to giving voice to the people not businesses.
SignOn was created as a way to help people on the individual level make a difference on issues they are passionate about. It gives you the tools to start a petition and run a campaign. While giving you the resources to mount a campaign, making it successful is up to you. If your petition has a fast growing number of people signing it, they might feature it on their homepage. If your petition is in line with the beliefs of MoveOn they will occasionally promote petitions by sending e-mail alerts to members in the local area.
SignOn will not remove petitions they don’t agree with. If a petition is found to violate the terms of use they will. These are standard agreements that are common sense. You cannot have a petition that expresses hate based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexuality. It can’t be used for commercial content or contain any kind of Obscenities. You also can’t claim to have the support of MoveOn.org. Just because you are using their site does not mean they support your movement. What they are supporting is your ability to create a movement. While they scan their site for violations, they also encourage the community to flag petitions that may be in violation.
Although you should deliver your petition in person for the most effect, SignOn will deliver constituent signatures by email to the President, governors, Congress, and state legislators if auto-delivery is set to “on.” They also deliver signatures to targets you enter manually if a valid email address is provided. These targets can be CEOs, local officials, or those who your petition is attempting to motivate.
SignOn does their communication through e-mails. When people sign a petition you can receive e-mails from the petition creator. These e-mails are sent through an online system and your address is kept private. It will not be shown to the person who created the petition. This adds a much needed level of security for people who believe in a cause but are wary of giving out their information. MoveOn and SignOn sponsors will also send updates to the e-mail address provided but you can unsubscribe from any of these lists whenever you want. Your e-mails will never be sold or shared with outside parties.
If there is a cause you are passionate about you might want to check out SignOn.org and see how you can help inspire change. Don’t be afraid to support others.
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