Lobbying

ProSpace responds regarding March Storm

After the Space Frontier Foundation announced yesterday that it planned to revive the citizen space lobbying effort March Storm in 2010, I was curious what the response of ProSpace, who had run the event for most of its history, might be. I got the following press release earlier today from ProSpace executive director Winn Phillips (who I see has also commented on the previous post on this topic):

After a premature announcement of his demise, Mark Twain famously observed that “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

This past week, The Space Frontier Foundation committed a similar mistake, releasing a statement that erroneously contended our annual March Storm event was allowed to “fade away”.

Nothing could be further from the truth. ProSpace is an organization that is moving forward with strength and vision. And our trademark event, March Storm, remains the single most respected space activist event in Washington.

ProSpace did make an operational decision not to hold the event in 2009. In consultation with members of the House and Senate, the Obama administration and our membership, we determined that the singular focus on the dire state of the economy would obscure our message. Other organizations made other determinations, but the leadership of ProSpace stands by our decision and knows it to be the right one.

The success of our fourteen previous March Storm events is evident and a source of pride for our members. The leading indicator of that success is the fact that a number of other organizations decided to follow our lead and hold similar events in the same time frame as ProSpace.

We have always encouraged those other space groups to come to Washington to advance their organizational agendas and likewise applaud the proposed efforts of the Space Frontier Foundation. Our singular requirement is that they create an original name and identity for their event that does not imply the endorsement of ProSpace.

March Storm will remain the trademark event for ProSpace. We will be announcing our plan for 2010 shortly. It is an exciting time and we promise an exciting March Storm. Join us!

6 comments to ProSpace responds regarding March Storm

  • Mark R. Whittington

    This illustrates how dysfunctional space activism has become. The SFF people could have made a few phone calls to the ProSpace people before poaching on the March Storm idea. One hopes that things can be smoothed over and the campaign can be made a joint one.

  • Hilda

    The number one mistake you can make in doing congressional advocacy is stepping on the toes of others doing the same thing, or being unaware of the work of others doing the same thing. Message sent is that these guys don’t talk to those guys. Your own message is buried by that message.

    As if a note to this forum isn’t enough. ProSpace has now used a press release to whack SFF. “This past week, The Space Frontier Foundation committed a similar mistake, releasing a statement that erroneously contended our annual March Storm event was allowed to ‘fade away’.” You would have thought that hte proper response would be a phone call. But …

    Now, what was that message?

  • Robert G. Oler

    The success of our fourteen previous March Storm events is evident and a source of pride for our members..

    “success”…really

    Robert G. Oler

  • Anon

    And you wonder why no one in Washington takes New Space groups seriously…

  • […] ProSpace has also set a date for its March Storm 2010: February 28-March 2. Preliminary agenda items will be posted in the near future. No word, though, on the state of the controversy between ProSpace and the Space Frontier Foundation, which announced plans last week for its own March Storm event. […]

  • […] casualty: the Space Frontier Foundation’s “Take Back Space 2010″ lobbying effort (originally, and controversially, known as “March Storm” and later renamed “First Flight”). The Foundation’s Michael Heney notes via […]

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