Mitchell Colbert
SSDP Board Application
The Basics
School: San Jose State University
Email: mitchellrcolbert@gmail.com
Major(s) / Minor(s) / Areas of study: Political Science
Current year in school: Graduate/SSDP Alumni, enrolled at community college
Expected graduation year: Spring, 2011
What are your tentative plans after college?
Getting my PHD in Government.
Leadership Experience
Describe your advocacy skills and experience. Include work outside of SSDP.
My first advocacy experience came from my two years organizing with Students for Quality Education (SQE), their major goal was to end the budget cuts to higher education. With SQE I received and utilized formal training as a citizen lobbyist; supported legislation through the state legislature; wrote and delivered speeches at rallies of over 1,000; planned marches, occupations, guerrilla theater, and other protest actions. I have significant door-to-door and phone canvassing experience with Grassroots Campaigns Inc and Working Partnerships USA, working on political campaigns for progressive causes, such as taxes on big corporations. Even before I joined SSDP I had written numerous essays supporting legalization and once appeared on CNN explaining how legalizing marijuana was the correct approach to end the cartel war; my honors thesis supported the same position in relation to the cartel issue. With Yes on 19 I got experience lobbying citizen groups for support, such as Americans for Safe Access and WAMM; I also once gave an hour long guest lecture for a sociology class on global drug legalization. As president of SSDP, I got experience soliciting funds from local supportive groups, in our case a local dispensary became our benefactor and helped our members get to the DC lobbying event.
How do you plan on balancing a busy schedule as a student, an SSDP activist, and a board member?
I currently am a student at Cabrillo College taking only two classes, it is an extremely light class load that would not conflict in any way with my duties as a board member. I will be working part time with a catering company, but that also should not be enough to get in the way of my duties as a board member. I have a lot of free time after graduation and the desire to become more politically involved with this movement again. As this is a two year term, I may be starting graduate school towards the end of my term, even that will not interfere with my responsibilities as a director.
SSDP Chapter Experience
What formal positions have you held in your SSDP chapter? When?
I was the chapter president of San Jose State University from the moment I stepped in until when I graduated, May 2010 until May 2011. I saw a flyer, came to a meeting and Alex Woon, the previous president, felt I would make a wonderful replacement for the chapter.
Describe your leadership style, particularly within your chapter.
I am prone to micromanaging people and my own life, which can be a good thing for being productive, such as when we were extremely busy with the Proposition 19 campaign. At the same time, people generally don't appreciate it when their “boss” is leering over their shoulder, so I try to keep these tendencies in check. I try to keep fully open communication with all members and get people's ideas and collaborate to a greater good, rather than enforce my view on the group tyrannically. I try to foster a culture of education and create new leaders for the movement, because I recognize that no one person can be a movement in themselves. I am a very erudite person when it comes to drug law; I am well-read on the law, politics, and science behind legalization. When it comes to my leadership, I have tried to pass on my knowledge to others for use after I am gone, similar to how Alex passed on much of his knowledge to me via books and other literature.
Describe one project that you led or are leading. What was/is your role? What has this project accomplished?
While I was at SJSU, we took on two major projects in SSDP, first was heading up the volunteer effort behind Proposition 19 in San Jose, and the second was our involvement in SJSU's Tunnel of Oppression 2011. The Tunnel of Oppression was an art project where we had to decorate a 10x10 room to tell the story of how the war on drugs was a war on us, which was the theme of the piece. I was the director of it, I did all the planning, logistics, and much of the art; other members and alumni helped with artwork as well. This project provided information about various components of the war on drugs, including the prison-industrial complex, the racial arrest disparity, drug cartels, and more. The room was so successful that some student-employees from the school asked to use our art for future presentations to students. It also was an avenue to increase SSDP's exposure on campus, as thousands of students see the Tunnel every year.
What fundraising or revenue building experience have you had in the past?
With SSDP, I once spoke to a local dispensary about SSDP and what we do; they mentioned a they were going to have a raffle and offered the profits to our chapter, which ended up being nearly $300. Over winter break, I wrote an article for SSDP's section in High Times, about my involvement with the Yes on 19 campaign, which got another $150 for our chapter. Through my involvement with SSDP, Students for Quality Education, and the political science honors society Pi Sigma Alpha, I have experience navigating school bureaucracies in search of funding. Pi Sigma Alpha is responsible for planning the political science convocation ceremony, which is a major event for fundraising for the organization via ticket sales; while with PSA I was instrumental in helping plan convocation in 2010. Additionally, I have experience going door-to-door soliciting funding from my time with Grassroots Campaigns Inc, working on behalf of the Democratic National Committee in 2008. On a more personal level, I have experience writing essays and filling out applications for scholarships/grants.
The Board
Why do you want to serve on the SSDP board?
I have a passion for drug policy and I have loved my time working with SSDP, being a Director would let me extend and deepen my involvement in this organization that I love. I am primarily interested in helping to create our national strategy and gaining a better understanding of the inner workings of a national non-profit. As a political science major who wants to go to graduate school, this position would be an excellent way to bolster my resume for graduate school. More importantly it would be a wonderful learning opportunity for me and a chance to share my own knowledge with others.
What do you believe are the board's most important functions?
The Board has several critically important functions, the most important being crafting a national strategy and selecting our executive director. Our executive director is our ultimate leadership, even the best funded organization in the world would fail with bad leadership. Our strategy is our means to accomplish our goals as an organization, it is our reason for being, if we have a bad strategy we will fail to achieve the massive successes we have in the past. The day to day functioning of the Board, collecting fees, approving and revoking charters, while slightly less important, is still crucial to keep us functioning smoothly as an organization. Another important, informal, function of Directors is supporting other members and chapters, like Alex Woon and others from SSDP National did for SJSU during the Proposition 19 campaign. Aside from our executive director, the Board is the other organ of SSDP that provides an example of leadership; every Director upholds the image of SSDP and is a public representative of our mission.
What are your goals for your board tenure (be as specific as possible)?
My goals will partially depend on which committees I am part of, and what those committees are working on. First, I would familiarize myself with all the projects the Board has been working on, so I can make educated decisions in regards to our national strategy and other issues. After becoming knowledgeable about the current state of affairs, depending on what I felt needed the most help, I would fill in what I saw as the gaps in our current Board. If, for example, I felt we didn't have enough people working on our national strategy or recruitment, I would feel more inclined to work on those issues rather than go where we already have enough talent. Specifically, I am very interested in helping craft our strategy, I also have a keen interest in budgeting so if possible I would like to work on budgetary matters as well.
If elected to the board, would you retain a leading role and/or formal position with your chapter?
As I do not have a current leading role nor formal position with any chapter, I have no role to retain. I currently am acting as an adviser to my old chapter as often as is needed, but that is it.
