Outreach & Engagement Action Team–Diversifying & Expanding Our Base

Outreach and Engagement Action Team

Purpose of Outreach and Engagement. Our movement needs to become more diverse, younger, and infused with individuals from under-represented parts of our communities. And we need to help individuals in other parts of the state and in places outside NM where supporters are asking for help getting organized. Their voices need to join with ours. But a variety of barriers impede many people from getting involved: their lack of time, lack of information, uncertainty as to what to do and in many isolated communities how to get started. The Outreach and Engagement Team will identify barriers and develop strategies to address them. You can sign up to get involved in this team by clicking here and signing up.

Outreach Coordinators. We would like to identify two Outreach Coordinators who will:

Manage member outreach assignments and deadlines;
Convene meetings of Action Team members, as needed;
Review lists of new volunteers and engage them according to interests;
Check in with Action Team members to support and encourage their outreach efforts and verify progress in the goals of each activity; and
Participate in alternate week Coordinating Team meetings with other Coordinators to collaborate across Teams.

Outreach Team Members. Among the possible strategies that Team members could implement:

Outreach to grassroots groups, interfaith organizations, and other community groups (meet-ups, Facebook ‘Cause’ Pages, etc.) :

Compile a list of the key grassroots organizations in our community.
Speak with their leadership and gather information on what they do, who their constituency is and the issues they focus upon.
Find ways for Retake Our Democracy to support the issues important to these organizations;
Find ways for spokespeople from Retake Our Democracy to come to one of their meetings, to share what we do and to explore where common ground exists; and
Explore ways in which leadership from each organization might share information with their membership about the work of Retake Our Democracy.

Develop a ‘speakers’ team. Speakers could speak at faith groups, community groups, and Meet-ups or other gatherings to share information on the work of Retake Our Democracy and encourage those present to get involved.

Outreach to other communities. Starting with communities in New Mexico that have shown some level of interest, call/email, connect with individuals to establish communication. Possibly assign responsibility to individual Outreach Action Team members for cultivating activity in specific small counties/areas and perhaps a team to larger ones like Bernalillo. Members would reach out to those who have signed up for Retake Our Democracy and:

Send them info on what we are doing;
Send them info to help them organize a hub (calls to friends, emails, setting up a FB page, house parties, Town Hall Conversation, Action Team Meetings, letters to the editor, etc.)
Help them develop a monthly meeting strategy starting with a Town Hall to create conversation: What is keeping you up at night? How did you feel about the election process? Do you feel your voice is heard? Identify things that meeting participants would want to see happen at the local and state level to address their concerns;
Follow up with an Action Meeting where participants break into groups to discuss a range of ‘actions’ each member can do between meetings and a reporting strategy for reporting on activities.

Community Conversations. The mainstream media has eliminated intelligent discussion of policy alternatives and meaningful events. The media is largely purchased by the corporatocracy. Community conversations are intended to create contexts in which civil conversation can occur, conversation informed by facts, research, and the needs of common folk. Community conversations take many forms:

Door-to-door discussions that start with listening to our neighbors’ understanding of their needs and aspirations
Follow up conversations to present policy and legislative options that respond to those needs;
Meet-ups where small groups can share views and explore options that address those needs;
House parties where friends, neighbors, and relatives can converse, be introduced to new ideas, new alternatives, and a new path;
Citywide and regional conferences or convenings designed to share collective experience and form populist visions of how local and state government can better meet the needs of common folk, us.

Community Conversations Coordinators. Initially, we will have two coordinators to:

Coordinate the activity of team members;
Form sub-teams focused on specific kinds of conversations (door-to-door conversations, meet-ups, house parties, conferences, etc.)
Participate in Coordinator Team meetings alternate weeks, to ensure coordination across teams.

Community Conversations Team Members will participate and drive the activities that advance the conversations: