Agenda:

Update from Bruce about national and state Indivisible

Update from Bill about the internship program and how we can support it

Update from Judy on Sheriff Ahern actions

Update from Naomi about political actions: 1) high-value postcarding, 2) activating texting (my adventures this week with Commit to Flip) and 3) low hanging fruit fundraising to support the Sister District campaigns–time for our auction? Also, short report on voting issues for upcoming election.

Analysis by Andy of how Sara Kendizor’s analysis and a few topflight media articles help us organize our political actions for maximal efficiency

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Grab a glass of wine and join us for a report from Andy about keeping up with important political developments in an age of Too Much News. Don’t drown—-pay close attention to the important shifts taking place around us since they will determine the playing field when we go out and get on it. We’ll go over what people are up to politically and generally cheer ourselves on for the major fight ahead. If you want, bring postcards to fill out as well.

Join Zoom Meeting

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Our next meeting will be next Sunday March 27, 4:30 via Zoom. Andy will post and send out Zoom link.

1. Don’t forget to circulate our donation link to support Dr. Tipirneni and Nurse Underwood. We are half way to our $1,000 goal. Last week to influence the Wisconsin election so get your Tony the Democrat postcards and votefwd.org letters in the mail.

2. Items from Berkeley Invisible Elections Team Meeting via Videoconference | Sunday, March 22nd, video opens at 6:30pm, meeting at 7pm. Click here to join. Indivisible Berkeley Action Hour via Videoconference | Monday, March 23rd from 12pm to 1pm | Jump into this videoconference, then tackle all any Actions in this newsletter (or others) you haven’t taken yet, together. Report out on results. Phonebank – Together via Videoconference | Wednesday, March 25th from 2pm to 4:30pm | Call to re-register voters who have been purged from the rolls in southern states through Reclaim Our Vote. Indivisible Berkeley Happy Hour via Videoconference | Thursday, March 26th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm | This is just a social time. Pour yourself a favorite glass of wine, mix a cocktail, or blend a green smoothie, and join this video gathering. Indivisible Berkeley Office Hours – How To Get Involved via Videoconference | Friday, March 27th from 5:30pm to 6:30pm | Pissed? Trying to figure out how to plug in on what you care about right now? Hop into this office hour session to talk things through. ACTIONS Call Each of Your Representatives and Be on Record Supporting the Priorities Outlined By the American Nurses Association, the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association. The joint letter with the full details, sent today — March 19th, 2020 — is here. If you don’t have the district offices saved in your phones, here’s the Capital Switchboard: (202) 224-3121.  National Indivisible: Demand Your Senators Ensure Safe, Secure Elections During the COVID-19 Outbreak. A few actions here: 1) Call your senators to demand they fight to include the Natural Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act in the next coronavirus relief package. We must act now to build alternatives to in-person voting across the country so that nothing will put the November presidential election at risk. Read the details here. Racism & Criminal Justice Reform Team: [from Restore Oakland] Urge Alameda County Sheriff and District Attorney to address the pandemic and adjust procedures at Santa Rita Jail. As the coronavirus sweeps the globe, Restore Oakland and our public health and community allies are calling for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) and Alameda County District Attorney’s Office to reduce the risk of this pandemic for those incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail, their families, and our community. We are only as safe and healthy as the most vulnerable and under-resourced among us. Support the following 4 demands by calling the Sheriff and DA today using the following call script. [Sheriff Gregory Ahern – (510) 272-6866 and District Attorney Nancy O’Malley – (510) 272-6222.] Call Script: “My name is ____, I am concerned about the safety and well being of everyone inside Santa Rita Jail. COVID-19 is rapidly spreading. Your agency has a legal & moral obligation to take bold action before it’s too late. I urge you to reduce the jail population by immediately releasing seniors and those who are immunocompromised, as well as anyone who is scheduled for release in 2020 or 2021. I urge you to halt all charges and jail bookings. I urge you to meet the immediate medical needs of people currently in custody at Santa Rita Jail. Thank you.”  Petition to Tech Companies to Stop Powering ICE during Coronavirus(from Mijente). Palantir, Amazon, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, RELX, and other tech companies are continuing to provide software and data to ICE during this time. These companies make millions selling software and information to ICE — and they’ve done nothing to stop this support during the coronavirus pandemic. We’re calling on every tech company that works with ICE to immediately halt its support for the agency at this time. The hundreds of contractors on which ICE relies can still put a halt to its operations. More here. Tell ICE: Release All Immigrants at Risk of Coronavirus (from RAICES). Tell ICE to release all immigrants in detention, because detention is no place for a family, and no place for a family to be during a pandemic. More here.Science & Environment Team: Urge Chase Bank to Drastically Reduce Fossil Fuel Financing. Sign your name to this letter to JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and co-Presidents Daniel Pinto and Gordon Smith, urging them to align the Bank’s financing plans for fossil fuels with the targets set by the IPPC for limiting global warming increase to 1.5°C. Click here for full letter text and more info!Visit Teams Page to learn more & subscribe to individual team lists

1. Join in a texting lesson this afternoon with National Indivisible: https://indivisible.org/payback-project-p2p
2. Send our donation link around to friends to help meet our goal (we are over $400 towards our $1000 goal.
3. Tony the Democrat has two important campaigns and we have lots of postcards on our porch for anyone who needs more.

1. We’ll start 4:00-4:30 with a texting lesson from Karen and Dan. Please bring your laptops.
2. The Agenda: Andy will bring us up to date on politics and races, Ann will present a new campaign for pro-voting posters for Telegraph Ave., Naomi will lead a discussion about what campaign to fundraise for next, Bill will update us on the Intern program and Bruce will report on Invisible. Followed by postcarding for a very important Wisconsin Supreme court election.
3. Want to prepare for the meeting? Let’s try to finish off our $2,000 for T.J. Cox by raising the last bit–$300. If you have not sent around a Giving Circle email, this is a great time. Or pass on our lovely QR code cards to nervous nellies and tell them donating calms the nerves. Then dust off your laptop and get out a good pen. Stamps always welcome.

1. Our fund-raising is on a roll! We flew past $1,000 for T.J. Cox, then past $1,500 and are hoping to reach $2,000 by our next meeting on Sunday March 1 when we will switch to a new campaign. Please continue to pass on the link–consider starting a Giving Circle as explained in the notes from the last meeting.
2. Tony the Democrat has a new important campaign for Harold Hayes in Pennsylvania. This is a special election on March 17th for a state House seat. If you need addresses, let me know. We’ll do some cards for Harold at our next meeting.
3. Indivisible webinar about texting: RSVP Wednesday, February 26 at 3:30pm Eastern/ 12:30pm Pacific 
4. Postcarding with Ann at the Cafe Roma this Wednesday 11:30-1:30.
5. NEXT MEETING Sunday March 1st, 4:30-5:45 at our house. Texting lesson from 4:00-4:30 for those interested.

1. We talked about Giving Circles and how they can help us meet our fund-raising goals. I shared the email Andy and I sent out to our Giving Circle (friends who are not part of Indivisible Elmwood). Here it is so that everyone can copy whatever parts are helpful. In the future we will probably only include the link the our fund-raising page but this first time we wanted to throw in the Pennsylvania race so included two links. If everyone in the group developed their own Giving Circle emails, we might be able to reach our goals without having to do laborious events.

Our email read:

Dear Friend,
Spend your funds carefully this year. Some Democratic candidates are swimming in cash they will have trouble spending and others are looking for much needed money. Once a month until the election we will be sending you a short email with information and links to the two campaigns we think are the most underfunded. You can donate to both, to one or just skip that month. You are of course welcome to send the link on to friends.
This month our two campaigns are
1) T.J. Cox in CA 21. He won by the thinnest margin of 600 votes and his Republican opponent out-raised him this quarter. He does not call us once a week asking for funds and he really needs them, both good reasons to support him. 
2)  Let’s help flip a key seat in the Pennsylvania House on March 17. Howie Hayes hopes to flip a district where the Republican resigned in January. With the election on March 17, even a small donation goes a long way.  
Please let us know if you have any questions and most of all, do not let yourselves get discouraged. Resistance begins with each one of us believing a better and democratic future is possible in the US.
Naomi and Andy

Indivisible Elmwood

2. We handed out some of our handy-dandy new Invisible Elmwood cards which include a QR code that links to our fund-raising page and one that links to the main webpage. We’ll be handing them out at the next meeting and printing more as per needed.

3. We finished with some intense postcarding and also welcome our newest member–welcome Sally.

Next meeting is Sunday March 1, starting with a texting lesson at 4:00 and then a general meeting at 4:30. Meanwhile, keep passing on the link for our TJCox fund-raiser–we are more than half way to our goal. Thanks everyone!

Andy will update us on the state of politics, we’ll have updates on our analysis of the various voter-support groups, we’ll hand out new cards with all sorts of high-tech images, we’ll discuss the first Sister District campaign, update on the Intern program, and brainstorm about getting people to the next level of involvement. Postcards for all.

MEANWHILE we are half way to our fund-raising goal for T.J. Cox. Great work!

1. Tony the Democrat has a campaign to encourage Florida voters to sign up for Vote by Mail: postcardstovoters.org. We have postcards on our porch if anyone needs more. I passed on a stack to my students this week and gave them the link for addresses. Everyone loves our postcards–and we gave our some of our buttons at the Reject the Coverup demonstration we went to.
2. A careful analysis of Democratic fundraising lists T.J. Cox as one of the few Dems who was out-raised by his Republican opponent (exactly as Andy described at our last meeting). How about getting your friends to throw some dollars his way via our Donate link on the home page? We are off and running with $255 but want to reach $1000. Organize a list of emails for your very own Giving Circle you can target with our link once a month and start with the Cox link.
3. We’ll have a texting lesson before our next meeting (next Sunday) at 4:00. Meanwhile, here is a link about one of the texting groups: Text Troop.
4. We need everyone on deck. Recruit a friend or neighbor by passing on our website or bringing them to the next meeting.
5. Next meeting Sunday Feb 16th 4:30-5:45. We’ll have new QR-code cards to hand out, a discussion about mobilizing support and Andy will discuss the New Hampshire results.

Ann O. will tell us about the East Bay Activist meeting, Lanny will share his investigation into voter suppression/outreach, Bruce will update us on National Invisible, Andy will debrief us on the Texas special election and the upcoming CA primary and I’ll up share what info we have on the Sister District decisions about elections to engage in. Then we’ll launch our new Five Action Paths for getting us and all our friends active between now and when we win in November.