Category Archives: Politics & Elections

Who Decides 2016? Women Do. Really.

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By Nell Merlino, Chairwoman of the Personal BlackBox Trust

You may find it surprising that women have cast the deciding votes in presidential elections for nearly four decades. What may not be surprising is that female voices rarely dominate the discussions leading up to Election Day. Women are not always given their fair share-of-voice to shape the issues that matter most to us, like equal pay, greater access to business capital, health care, and so on. Issues that secure our financial and family futures.

Twenty years ago, I invited millions of you to Take Our Daughters to Work Day in order to provide girls insight and inspiration about work opportunities. This annual event has become an important part of American history and has made girls more visible, more valued and importantly more heard. But we still need to do more.

This year, I am inviting you to help shape our future with WE Decide 2016, an online campaign to amplify our voices to get what women want and deserve in the 2016 election and beyond. I urge you to sign up at WEDecide2016.org to begin participating in this monumental movement towards greater equality.

When you join WE Decide 2016, you receive a Personal Polling Station that will enable you to:

• Participate throughout the election process with your peers
• Take quick polls and surveys on topics that impact your life and business
• Invite your female employees, vendors, family members and customers to participate
• Continually help shape key issues and how candidates respond to our collective demands during debates and town halls.

Tech Crunch reports: “The majority of candidates reserve the right to sell or trade personal data to unaffiliated third parties…Voter data is the new currency, and candidates are reaping the rewards.”

I believe that it is critical for people to voice their opinions and engage freely in political discussions without exposing themselves to being identified, analyzed and targeted without consent or knowledge. Unlike other polling sites or campaign web sites, the information you share with WE Decide 2016 will never be sold to anyone without permission or benefit to you.

Personal BlackBox Trust, the organization that created WE Decide 2016 in partnership with Women Impacting Public Policy, secures your opinions and data in a personal trust account. The platform allows you to track and view how you have responded to polls and surveys throughout the entire election year–empowering you with valuable data and insights on what you and other women find most important in the 2016 election. With privacy protected polling data, WE Decide 2016 will take our collective wants, needs and opinions directly to the candidates.

Candidates are asking you for money. We are asking you for your opinions.

Girls today need to see us go this next mile and step into our full economic power by participating more fully in the election process. Doing so creates greater possibilities of gaining access to money in order to build more female-owned businesses creating an even playing field in the business world and beyond. Because WE Decide 2016…Really.

 

WIPP Works in Washington: Primary Thoughts on the 2016 Election

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By Ann Sullivan, WIPP Government Relations

Does anyone else think the 2016 Presidential election has been going for ages?  It sure seems like that to me, but admittedly, it has been one of the most entertaining primaries in recent history.  The 24-hour news cycle has kept us up to the minute with every speech, gaff, or barb traded by the candidates. We’ve seen our fair share of debates, roundtables and town halls while watching almost daily polls track the candidates as their support rises and falls. Luckily, today is when the rubber meets the road – at least in Iowa – where Iowans will caucus for their primary candidates. As the 2016 Presidential election ramps up, so too will WIPP’s advocacy efforts. Why? Because we are not cynical about democracy and the process necessary to achieve it. We believe engagement is the mechanism by which to change the trajectory of our country’s future.

WIPP has made addressing the needs of women entrepreneurs a top priority for elected officials and our advocacy has resulted in successes for women business owners. Just look to 2015 for proof that women business owners have a seat at the table. We worked for implementation of sole source authority for the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Procurement Program– a tremendous step forward for women-owned businesses seeking to win federal contracts.  The Senate Small Business Committee passed the first reauthorization for the Women’s Business Center (WBC) program in nearly a decade, which provides important business support to women entrepreneurs. These are just two of the many policy victories for women entrepreneurs last year.

To ensure that we keep up that momentum and women entrepreneurs remain a top priority for our elected officials, WIPP has launched WE Decide 2016. This collaboration with Personal BlackBox (PBB) will engage women entrepreneurs seeking to affect the issues candidates discuss throughout the 2016 Election.  Ten million woman business owners, if active, are in a position to influence the direction of economic policy positions.  According to the National Women’s Business Council (NWBC), women-owned businesses are an economic force, contributing nearly $1.6 trillion to the annually to the US economy. The WE Decide 2016 platform seeks to engage all women business owners and associations whose members are women entrepreneurs, not just WIPP members. When women come together to share their views about the future of this country, they don’t need to be caucusing in Iowa or attending town halls in New Hampshire.  The platform will be polling women business owners on economic issues, such as access to capital, access to federal markets, tax policy and providing healthcare to employees, to mention a few topics that affect us daily.

As the primary results come in and we move on to the New Hampshire primary next week and the South Carolina primary on February 20, know that through WE Decide 2016, we have a unique opportunity to engage the voices of ten million women business owners. We certainly don’t need to agree on every issue, but I, for one, think women business owners may not necessarily possess the same views on issues that the national polls indicate.  So, lean in and let’s see the results of our engagement.  I can’t wait to see the impact all of us together can have in November.

 

 

New Platform Gives Women in Business A New Voice in the 2016 Election

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Women Impacting Public Policy and Personal BlackBox Collaborate to Launch WE Decide 2016 to Give Women in Business a New Voice in the 2016 Election

 Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) is excited to announce the launch of WE Decide 2016, a new initiative in collaboration with our partner Personal BlackBox (PBB) which aims to engage women in business in the 2016 election. WE Decide 2016 provides women with an opportunity to privately share their opinions via an array of polls, issues surveys, and discussion questions on the issues that matter most to them, their families and their businesses through our unique online platform.

With female presidential contenders from both the Democrat and Republican parties, the 2016 election is shaping up to be another historic battle in pessimism vs. optimism. According to a national online survey of women in business, three-fourths (75%) of the respondents are dissatisfied with the job that Congress is doing to address issues that are impacting women and women business owners, yet 63 percent are hopeful for the future of our country. However, nearly half (48%) of respondents feel that if a male president is elected, they will not receive the same access to economic opportunities and climate for success as they would if a female president were elected.

WE Decide 2016, in partnership with leading business organizations, aims to educate the candidates, the media and voters on the concerns of women entrepreneurs. Our goal to galvanize more than 100,000 women to take part in the WE Decide 2016 platform to voice their needs, opinions and ideas. We need your help to reach this goal!

Women in business, like you, can visit the WE Decide 2016 website – www.WEDecide2016.org – to unlock your personal polling station and confidentially take quick polls on hot topics from the campaign trail, respond to in depth issue surveys, and participate in our “Tell Us!” section to express your unique perspective on the challenges you face. Participants control their personal data and unlike other polling and survey sites, the information you share with WE Decide 2016 will never be sold to anyone. With the anonymous polling data, WE Decide 2016 will take collective wants, needs and opinions directly to the candidates to influence future policies.

WE Decide 2016 participants can also learn about breaking election news, where the candidates stand on economic issues and get advice on how women can get involved in the political process and become an advocate for the issues impacting their businesses. The WE Decide 2016 Profiles highlight the personal story behind the issues, allowing visitors to hear directly from women in business.

Don’t forget to join us on social media! You can share the results of WE Decide 2016 surveys with candidates and spread the word to your network by utilizing the hashtag #WEDecide2016. Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Leveraging insight, secure poll data and user comments, WE Decide 2016 will publish a Women in Business Policy Priorities report prior to the national conventions to encourage political parties and their candidates to prioritize and discuss issues of significance to women entrepreneurs. Make sure your voice is included by participating in WE Decide 2016 today and signing up to receive alerts on new polls and engagement opportunities.

Together. WE Decide 2016.  To learn more and engage in WE Decide 2016, visit wedecide2016.org.

More Innovative Ideas to Come – Presidential Innovation Fellows Program Made Permanent

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pifPresident Obama signed an executive order this week making the Presidential Innovation Fellows Program permanent to keep attracting innovators and continue building modern, engaging and transparent government.

The main purpose of the program is to upgrade how Americans interact with government online and to encourage a culture of public service among tech entrepreneurs and innovators.

Since the program’s launch in 2012 it has recruited 96 innovative experts from all around the country and different industries. Greater access to electronic medical records, police departments making their data searchable online, and broader access to high-speed internet for students in their schools were the highlights of the program’s greatest achievements mentioned by President Obama in his speech introducing the executive order on Monday this week.

Fellows serve for 12 months as embedded entrepreneurs-in-residence teamed up with top federal employees on a variety of efforts from the three main portfolio projects – Good for Government (to overcome technology gaps across agencies), Presidential and Agency Priorities (to better serve citizens), and Technology Partnership (guidance to support technology changes).

All Americans with bold ideas are encouraged to apply here.