ONLINE FAX PETITION FOR CHERYL/EMERALD SINK ACCESS

[Genesis]

Its up folks.

Go to the following URL to sign it:

http://www.politics-fax.org/petition...a-1-online.htm

This petition is based on a draft by Johnny Richards, and embodies the essence of both his sample letters and a draft petition to the Governor that he forwarded to me.

If you sign it online, the system will aggregate your signatures and forward them by FAX (at my expense) to both the Governor and Sandra Cook.

I may also, depending on exactly how many signatures we get and if there is any response, print a copy of all the signatures and attempt to HAND DELIVER them to both parties (plus some folks at the legislature and senate, if the appropriate 'targets' can be identified) at some point down the road.

Folks, if you don't want to write your own letter, or don't want to spend 37 cents, this is your opportunity for ME to pick up YOUR costs in signing this important initiative and MAKING YOUR VOICE HEARD.

This URL may be posted freely, and I would love it if it becomes a link on the desktop of machines at places like Rennakers, where open internet access for checking email is available.

Also, PLEASE pass this around on other forums, boards, and to your friends.

The key to response here is volume folks. I've just done all the hard work for you. Now it just takes a few keystrokes and a couple of mouse-clicks, plus a valid email adderss, for your to get your desires heard at the State Capital.

[Widiver_Paul]

Good job on this one, actually taking action against something that should offend divers all over the world. It's a shame to go to Wakulla and see padlocks on the gates in front of the water.

Many caves all over have "scientific studies" and divers honor them and don't disturb the experiments. If one particular study is especially crucial, the mainline or arrangement of lines can and often does get moved or temporarily rearranged. That's why you don't see lines illustrated on maps or surveys.

When we're talking about the organization, read the "studies" and "research papers" that are published on their website and you will quickly realize they could have been written about ANY system. Many systems have anthropological features including artifacts like points and flint. Many systems also have unique biological features like cave crayfish and fossils. The research doesn't justify the end result we have currently.

As far as suitability to dive the systems in question, there may have been a time when there were very few individuals that would have been qualified to dive safely in the areas. Ironically deep and technical dive training has become mainstream due in part to this organization. There are thousands of divers now (instead of dozens) that are qualified, experienced and trained by organizations with proven and refined standards in place. The need for the closure may have almost been legitimate in the 1990's. Ten years later this looks more like personal favoritism and misconduct by Park management. Could you imagine if Peacock were off-limits to diving because a private group were conducting "scientific study' in this area?

Act now and change this. It's about time.
I forwarded this to Wiscuba and MNscuba boards for about 700 more pair of eyes.

[Rich]

Its up folks.

Go to the following URL to sign it:

http://www.politics-fax.org/petition...a-1-online.htm

This petition is based on a draft by Johnny Richards, and embodies the essence of both his sample letters and a draft petition to the Governor that he forwarded to me.

If you sign it online, the system will aggregate your signatures and forward them by FAX (at my expense) to both the Governor and Sandra Cook.

I may also, depending on exactly how many signatures we get and if there is any response, print a copy of all the signatures and attempt to HAND DELIVER them to both parties (plus some folks at the legislature and senate, if the appropriate 'targets' can be identified) at some point down the road.

Folks, if you don't want to write your own letter, or don't want to spend 37 cents, this is your opportunity for ME to pick up YOUR costs in signing this important initiative and MAKING YOUR VOICE HEARD.

This URL may be posted freely, and I would love it if it becomes a link on the desktop of machines at places like Rennakers, where open internet access for checking email is available.

Also, PLEASE pass this around on other forums, boards, and to your friends.

The key to response here is volume folks. I've just done all the hard work for you. Now it just takes a few keystrokes and a couple of mouse-clicks, plus a valid email adderss, for your to get your desires heard at the State Capital.

Karl, just posted the link over onto TDS, hope that was okay ....and I have one of the "physical" petitions at CEE for the time being !!

Safe diving,

Rich

[Genesis]

'Ya need to go fix the link at TDS... don't know if their "editing" was intentional or part of their code, but the link's broke (its working on the OTHER thread though - strange!)

BTW, 39 online signatures so far, 25 have confirmed and will be sent (the others will likely do so as soon as they check their email!)

We need to add a couple of zeros to that number....

[Dwain]

Karl,

You did it, great job on setting up the wedsite petition.

I'm getting emails from those who don't even use the forum. It's getting around. So, it seems to be working.

Great job

[Genesis]

Heh, this is something I have a LOT of experience with - its pretty much what I do since retiring (when not diving, raising my kid, or just being a bum!)

That is, political activism and petition work....

BTW, the petition page now displays the number of signatures and views; I put the counter up there (its a real-time query to the database) so that I didn't have to keep querying the database by hand. The result of this is that anyone can go look at it any time you'd like to see how we're doing...

Currently: 70 signatures from 210 views (if you hit "reload" it counts as a new view, so there typically are a lot more views than signatures on most petitions.) I'm not displaying the confirmed count online, but its running pretty close to averages from my past efforts (it takes a while for some folks to get to their email and confirm, so that number is always lower than the signatures recorded. If some sigs are not confirmed, the "sig" count will go down a bit when the unconfirmed ones expire - that happens 3 days from the signing if you don't confirm.)

Not bad for a half-day..... let's hope that sort of pace keeps up! At this rate the first batch of "surprises" should hit Jebbie's and Sandra's fax machine within the next day or two.....

[DeWayne]

Email it to everyone on your list, including those who don't dive. I have had 3 of my friends confirm that they have signed it now just because they believed in what it was about, although none of them dive.

[Genesis]

The first 109 confirmed signatures are going out by fax right now as I type this - the queue hit "critical mass" and was sent just a few minutes ago.

There are 40 more in the queue awaiting confirmation....

Let's keep the heat on!

[Genesis]

BTW, if you got a couple of "reconfirm" requests today, they're legit, and no, the software hasn't gone insane.

It came to my attention that there are certain email programs that are mangling the headers on the confirmation email (from examining the wide variety of system logs over the last couple of days).

Some of this appears new.

Anyway, I made a couple of adjustments, sent out a batch of "confirmation warnings", and a couple of THOSE came back with errors, so a further adjustement was made.

The one with the "this is the last one" message in it really is - provided you reply to it.

If you confirmed right away on the first try, then you won't see any of this. If you didn't reply to the confirmation email though, then you'll see it if more than 24 hours have past.

The issue has been corrected and hopefully I won't see any more of the problem....

Sorry for the inconvenience if you got the multiple warnings.... it won't be happening again.