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From the diaries -- kos)
My cousin who is a senior sales rep for Scholastic says that the pressure we have been putting on his company for the past couple of days is starting to work.
But it's clear to me that we need to keep it up.
My cousin says that the best way to force Scholastic to withdraw from the ABC partnership is to contact school districts, especially big public districts in major cities, promising to oppose all Scholastic textbook purchases for years if the company does not agree to pull out of the ABC deal immediately, and to tell Scholastic what we are doing during this process.
Here are the details.
Update by kos: Firedoglake has more info on Scholastic:
Just got off the phone with Ms. Kyle Good, VP of Corporate Communications at Scholastic. They have pulled the material and are meeting shortly to discuss what to do. They know there are many materials already out there and are discussing what to do or how to deal with it.
Please call their offices right now (10:55 AM - Eastern Time).
Contact Us
For comments or questions concerning Scholastic products or services, please contact:
Investor Relations
212-343-6741
Corporate Communications
(Kyle Good’s office)
212-343-4563
Remember, be nice, friendly, and polite. If you piss them off, they'll want to dig in their heels.
My cousin is a senior sales rep at Scholastic in a major state in the northeast. He's been with the company for about 10 years, and like all Scholastic sales reps he makes a big part of his income in the form of bonuses for selling (and re-selling) text books and related materials to school districts for use in particular subjects in particular grade levels. A typical sale is of all reading materials for all eighth graders for three years to a school district in some particular town. These sales are big--often in the millions of dollars--and making just a few of them per year is what provides my relative an income. But the sales can be hard to earn, in part because--in the view of my cousin--it isn't just consideration of the textbooks themselves that determines what a school district will buy. Personality comes into play a lot of the time and, yes, even politics, and so sales reps must do everything in their power to make sure that sales go through.
My cousin indicated that a few sales people already have started to get a whiff that their incomes may be in jeopardy because people like us are contacting school districts telling them not to buy Scholastic books--and they are VERY concerned.
But my cousin says that the arrangement with ABC to distribute 9/11 materials also probably was expected to produce money for the company one way or another, so company higher-ups may be hestitant to drop it completely without a fight.
My cousin says that the best way to force Scholastic to withdraw from the ABC partnership is to contact school districts, especially big public districts in major cities, promising to oppose all Scholastic purchases for years if the company does not agree to pull out of the ABC deal, and to tell Scholastic what we are doing.
For the record, my cousin himself is not doing this--he is a Republican and is very upset by all of this controversy.
UPDATE 9/7/06 9:35 EST: I just got off a phone call with my cousin, who says he has spoken to 3 other sales reps this morning, all of whom are very concerned to hear about this controversy. It's clear that the specific thing that has grabbed all of their attentions is the notion of thousands of people urging school boards and school districts not to buy Scholastic books. Phone calls and emails to Scholastic directly are probably useful, but to emphasize: what the Scholastic people themselves fear right now are calls and emails to their customers. I suggest that we contact the school districts and copy Scholastic higher-ups.
UPDATE 9/7/06 11:07 EST: About an hour ago, I sent an email to lots of my friends urging them to take action on this issue. Since then, several of them have written me back telling me that they had done one thing or another--all young moms with kids in school. It occurs to me, based on their responses, that ABC and Scholastic may have just upset more than some generic class of liberals or Democrats. They may have upset mothers, concerned about right-wing propaganda being delivered to our kids to support a war-mongering, deceiptful administration that sends (mostly poor) kids off to war at the drop of a hat. Is another name that people sometimes use to describe this group of mothers "soccer moms"? If so, this controversy could turn out to have major negative repercussions for Bush and other Republicans, not just ABC and Scholastic.