January 24, 1998

For any who agree with most of our positions, we would like to enlist your active support by asking you to allow us to attach your name to a supportive petition. The petition will say:

"We have studied the position paper submitted by the Independent
Reassessment Group (IRG) on November 18, 1998, to the SGI-USA national leadership entitled Democratization. We support the opening of a dialogue based on the points presented in that document. We specifically request that the Central Executive Committee or its authorized representative(s) make a concerted effort to seek out input on these subjects from sources outside the CEC, including those members of the IRG, as soon as is possible, and to discuss their positions with the aim of instigating positive action based on them. We further request that the CEC publish this paper for distribution to the general membership, accompanied by a request for feedback from the membership.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter."

It will be followed by a list of names of the individuals who have given us permission to use them. We intend to present this petition to the Central Executive Committee in advance of their March meeting, in which they will discuss the IRG proposals.

If you would like to be on this list, please forward the following
information to us at IRG_central@yahoogroups.com:

Name:
City/State:
Leadership Position (if none, "member" is awesome!):
Year joined:

Please note that we will not use any person’s name without his or her permission.

In addition to this petition, we heartily encourage any and all to write to the leadership with your comments about our paper, pro or con, and to us as well. We hope to compile a list of all comments, in favor of and opposed to, each of our positions and submit them, unedited, to the national leadership.

Address any comments to Ian McIlraith, Organization Department e-mail: imcilraith@sgi-usa.org
606 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Finally, tell a friend.

Thanks. We look forward to hearing from you asap!