2019 Year in Review
NWSOFA-Indivisible's Most Amazing Year Ever!!
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WHAT IS NWSOFA-INDIVISIBLE?
If you have been affiliated with our group for any length of time you will have noticed that we have changed. We began as Organizing for Obama in the presidential campaigns of 2008 then 2012. but we evolved and are continuing to evolve. Way back then we were pretty small and we relied on a National organization to guide us. Now-a-days we are much larger - more like an organization- and we our goals are determined by the issues that our organization members want to address. We have recently joined other progressive groups which has helped us grow and make more of an impact on the political challenges we face today.
So, what is NWSOFA? We asked our Group Leads and participating members to describe their activities and elaborate on their goals.
“Northwest Suburban veterans of the Obama campaigns formed Northwest Suburbs Organizing for Action in early 2013. NWSOFA embraced the multi-issue advocacy model of Organizing for Action and became one of the most robust and effective chapters of OFA. When OFA changed its model in 2019, NWSOFA chose to become an independent organization affiliated with Indivisible, which shares our commitment to multi-issue volunteer organizing and advocacy. The ability of NWSOFA to survive and thrive despite the disappearance of its parent organization is a tribute to the leadership team of NWSOFA. NWSOFA-Indivisible is helping to transform the northwest suburbs from their conservative past to a diverse and progressive future.” -
Matt Flamm, founding member & Chairman Emeritus of NWSOFA-Indivisible.
NWSOFA-Indivisible is ACTION .. with over 5,000 members in our 5 townships we held & Co-sponsored 81 events for the chapter events and 10 Issue teams, sent out over 1.5 million emails, maintained our NWSOFA.org website, two (2) FB pages and tweeted up a storm on Progressive issues and campaigns.. a recent tweet received 30,000 likes and 1,000 shares .. We are Action & We are Information. -
Bill Davis & Sara Horan - NWSOFA-Indivisible Chapter Co-Leads
Join NWSOFA-Indivisible at our next event
Continue down the page to see our scheduled events for January.
See more contributions below from our Issue groups:
- Climate Change - Environmental Issues
- Gun Violence Prevention,
- Restoring our Democracy - Combating gerrymandering,
- Stand With Women - Women's Rights,
- Voter's Rights,
- Complete Count - Fair 2020 Census
- Affordable Health Care,
- Social Justice,
- Immigration and Refugee Reform,
- Fiscal & Economics - Fiscal issues and more!
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NWSOFA-Indivisible Issue Leads 2020
Leading our Communications and Issue teams
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE NEWSLETTER
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The NWSOFA-Indivisible-All on the Line Newsletter is a monthly email publication that is sent to our 5,000+ list. Whether it's a regular group meeting - like our Gun Violence Prevention Meeting - or a special flash activity like last month's "No one is above the law" demonstration - our goal is to clearly and accurately convey the WHAT, WHERE, WHY AND WHEN of each of our activities so you can find out more and RSVP to attend or volunteer, quickly and easily. W send at least two timely reminders of each activity that hopefully serve to jog everyone's memory.
This last year we sent out over
1.5 million email newsletters, event flyers and information to keep you informed.
Chris Kious .. NWSOFA-Indivisible Newsletter Lead
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE Social Media
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The NWSOFA Indivisible Social Media Team manages the complex and continuing ever morphing ways that our members receive their information. The SM team drives all information, photos, calendars, issue team events using our NWSOFA.org website and two (2) Facebook pages (both private and public) and other SM tools.
NWSOFA-Indivisibles goals for 2020 are to continue to build our presence on Instagram, while also increasing our views on Twitter and Facebook. At a recent Impeachment Rally Kathy's tweet had 28,600 views, 489 retweets and 971 likes ..
Impeachment Rally Tweet Link:
We
invite everyone to learn and engage:
Kathy Carter .. NWSOFA-Indivisible
Social Media Lead
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE Political Outreach - Electioneering
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The NWSOFA Indivisible Political Outreach / Electioneering Team during this
past year has been growing resources and engagement with the candidate in anticipation of a "wild ride" during the 2020 elections .
National and Local Elections 2020 will be a high level of activity .. phone banking, canvasing (door knocking), postcards, & Candidate Events. Escalating from the modest work we did in 2019 involving canvasing and getting our candidates on the ballets, 2020 will take a ton of VOLUNTEERS, we will all be volunteering a LOT, BUT we will need MORE VOLUNTEERS .. Winning Elections involves a lot of Volunteers willing to invest their time and energy into "Sweat Equity". We will be sending notices out through NWSOFA newsletters and posts.
Kathy Feingold .. NWSOFA-Indivisible
Political Outreach Lead
To Volunteer for canvasing, phone banking or helping with events:
Click this link
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE Chapter Events
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The NWSOFA-Indivisible Chapter Event Planning Team
is the invisible hand that drives several yearly major events for NWSOFA-Indivisible ... while helping various teams and representing the chapter providing "Tabling" at Partner events, local universities and colleges and Libraries..
Key among the Chapter Events is the "Taste of NWSOFA" held yearly allowing all Issue teams to promote their Issues and then have informal discussions with attendees.. this year 10 tables were manned by 27 volunteers ..The Palatine Street Fest "We are all Immigrants, Plus the NWSOFA Picnic .. Also important is the NWSOFA co-hosting of Rallies, Rapid Response Actions and for the last 6 months holding Debate Parties.
Renee Gladstone, Joyce Slavic & Natalie Warren .. NWSOFA-Indivisible Chapter Promotions
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE Gun Violence Prevention - GVP
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE Gun Violence Prevention - GVP
Highlights of the NWSOFA Gun Violence Prevention (GVP) Team work in 2019
Many of our successful efforts over the past year were focused on gun violence prevention at the local level. Our members worked with other groups to stop plans to bring armed resource officers into District 15 elementary schools and also to encourage local school boards to vote against an Illinois Association of School Boards resolution calling for school employees to be allowed carry guns in schools. Our members also met with local police departments (including Barrington, Inverness, and Palatine) to discuss the new the Firearm Restraining Order law as well as the Childsafe free gun locks program which all of these police departments are now offering.
In August we participated in the Palatine Street Fest collecting petition signatures for the BIO Bill (Illinois SB 1966) and also building community engagement. Our programs in 2019 included: working with the League of Women - Voters Palatine area on a Firearm Restraining Order informational presentation in Barrington in November, a presentation by Sara Knizhnik, recently the head of the ICHV, about major GVP issues in Illinois at our November meeting, and hosting our
Seventh Annual Newtown Vigil
in honor of all victims of gun violence at the First United Methodist Church in Arlington Heights in December. Many, many thanks to everyone who volunteered for and supported this work!
Natalie Warren & Cathy Risberg .. NWSOFA-Indivisible GVP Co-Leads
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE Restore our Democracy - ROD
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE Restore our Democract - ROD
NWSOFA
Restore our Democracy
project kicked off a series of public awareness presentations in March of 2019. To date we have given this presentation on the corrupting influence of unlimited political money on our democracy 10 times and it has been well-received by folks on both sides of the aisle. Going forward, we will continue this effort, seeking additional presentation opportunities, and adding a second-round presentation looking at additional problems in our democracy, perhaps focusing on gerrymandering and the resulting polarization of our politics.
We also are working towards building coalition partners that can enable future legislative action to begin passing local and state legislation towards the end of resolving the problems we see in our democracy. We are already planning on supporting IL Senate bill SB2314,
to prevent state employees and elected officials from working as a lobbyist for 2 years
. Further, we are looking to partner initially with Change IL on supporting “Fair Maps” to end gerrymandering in our state, thereby gaining experience and coalition-building for promoting state-level legislation.
Ed Spire & Jim McGrath .. NWSOFA-Indivisible ROD Co-Leads
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE -
Climate Change - CC
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE Climate Change - CC
2019 was a pivotal year as the nation became aware of Climate Change .. At NWSOFA-Indivisible Climate Change meetings: A documentary film Chasing Ice was shown by Peter Gorr at Harper. We invited meteorologist Rick DiMaio to present as the Palatine Library and had Mike Zanillo of CCL do a presentation.. We attended the Blue Wave film with partner groups at the Catlow Theater in Barrington. We attended group climate events in Elk Grove Village and Hoffman Estates. We invited Sara Moscowitz from Citizen's Utility Board to speak and GRNE Solar to present. We attended candidate town halls and debate parties and engaged candidates and attendees on Climate Issues and attended a forum on Oil Trains as a hazard presented by a concerned citizen's group in Deerfield.
We meet Monthly and are working on meetings and events for 2020: a planning meeting on January 28th at GPAD. We are waiting for confirmation from Chicago Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to speak, and /or from Openlands, or floodplain management, etc.
Mark T. Lundholm
.. NWSOFA-Indivisible Climate Change Lead
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE -
Stand With Women
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE Stand with Women - SWW
Stand With Women is an issue team that focuses on supporting women in our community, state, nation and world. Stand With Women is a strong and passionate group that works together on issues including the
Equal Rights Amendment, women’s reproductive rights, pay equality, and ending violence against women.
Our group participates in various rallies, postcard writing, movies, supporting candidates, phone banking, poster making and more. January is a busy month with poster making and the Women's March Chicago 2020. Please join our group and meet others who have similar concerns. Together we make our voices heard.
Every Month, We have a full agenda planned for the attendees, that includes the current status of the ERA and action steps we can take to ensure women are an equal part of the US constitution. Our meeting often have speakers and updates on State and National bills.. typically they will start at 6:30 and last up to 8:30 pm.
Right now we have 2 planned events for January 2020. On Monday, 1/13, we will Ring in the New Year with a
Women’s March Poster Making Party
then we will participate as part of the Women’s March 1/18.
Remember to dress warm, bring your posters, and wear your pink hat if you have one. Click on the link below to learn more about the exciting 2020 kickoff to the new year!
Terri Klowden & Cathy Felix .. NWSOFA-Indivisible SWW Co-Leads
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE -
Fiscal & Economics
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE Fiscal and Economics
The mission of the Fiscal and Economic issues group is to help participants understand the economic and budgetary facts at the federal and state level, to help them sharpen their arguments and communicate to their audience, directly or via social media.
The co-leads prepare a comprehensive presentation monthly using data from definitive sources, and the presentation and discussion is often filmed and shared on social media. Topics typically include trends in key economic variables, budget deficits, income inequality, healthcare, and key topics in the news.
Guest speakers are invited to cover issue legislation, such as the Fair Tax Amendment on the ballot in November. The next meeting is January 16 at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library.
Karl Faulstich & Dave Doney .. NWSOFA-Indivisible Fiscal & Economics Co-Leads
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE -
Immigration and Refugee Reform
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE
Immigration and Refugee Reform
The mission of the
Immigration and Refugee Reform
iss
ues group is to help communities understand the positive Impact that Immigration and Refugee Reform has at the federal and state level
During this last year the current Administration has: embraced Zero Tolerance, the Travel Ban , the MPP (Migrant Protection Protocols aka Remain in Mexico), Family Separation with indefinite detentions of families, expanded the Public Charge Rule, and ended Temporary Protected Status .. (all in one way or another still on Judicial hold)... All the while building the WALL..
Our Goal is to Rally and Resist .. let our Neighbors know of these Anti-immigrant and Anti-Refugee policies.
Please contact Patrick Watson to get involved in this initiative that will protect and strengthen the
Immigration and Refugee Reform Team.
:
Click this link:
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE - AOTL - All On The Line
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE
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AOTL - All On The Line
The NWSOFA Indivisible All On The Line (AOTL) Team's focus is to provide support in the efforts seeking
national redistricting and fair maps.
During 2020, we will be participating in
AOTL Adopt A State
. The work we will do will primarily be to remotely help the state directors in Wisconsin, our most local target state. As we receive more direction during the new year, we will be seeking volunteers to support our Adopt A State efforts.
All On The Line was born out of Organizing For Action through the National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF), an affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), which is chaired by Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States.
Although the fight for fair maps is a nationwide initiative, our key targets are 10 priority states where we can have a unique impact on fair representation for the next decade. They are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin (
allontheline.org/#faqs
).
Kathy Carter Kym Garnett.. NWSOFA-Indivisible AOTL Co-Leads
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE -
Health Care - ACA
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NWSOFA - INDIVISIBLE Health Care - ACA
The ACA (Affordable Care Act) team works to protect the ACA and to promote enrollment into health insurance plans. Despite repeated attempts by the current administration to dismantle the ACA, it is still providing health insurance to millions of people that would not be otherwise covered for healthcare.
Our main goal right now is to protect and strengthen the ACA against further attempts to repeal the law. Usually, this involves a
rapid response to oppose
ongoing efforts by the current administration to undermine the ACA. Also, we collaborate with our congressmen and local groups to strengthen the provisions of the ACA.
Keith Moens
.. NWSOFA-Indivisible Health Care Lead
Please contact Keith Moens to get involved in this initiative that will protect and strengthen the
ACA.
:
Click this link:
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NWSOFA-INDIVISIBLE -
Climate Partner - Palatine Cool Cities
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NWSOFA - Climate Partner - Palatine Cool Cities
The biggest win for the Palatine Cool Cities Team in the past year was getting the Village of
Palatine city council to endorse the Greenest Region Compact 2
, the sustainability framework for the Chicago area created by the Metropolitan Mayors’ Caucus. We also had great discussions with the Village about adding textile recycling to current recycling capabilities.
Solar energy was also a focus, with educational meetings held in coordination with Citizens Utility Board and GRNE Solar of Palatine. We also elevated environmental issues in coordination with one of our partner groups, the League of Women Voters, whose volunteers met with the Village of Palatine and Harper College to monitor environmental goals and action.
Key goals for the coming year for Palatine Cool Cities include: expanding membership, following up with the Village about the above issues, and building stronger coordination with other environmental and civic groups in the area.
Jeff Kressman
.. NWSOFA-Indivisible Climate Partner - Palatine Cool Cities
Please contact Jeff Kressman to get involved in this local Palatine initiative that will protect and strengthen the
our Climate.
:
Click this link:
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INDIVISIBLE National 2019 "What Comes Next"
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Indivisible recap of 2019 and “what comes next”
We wanted to reflect on everything we
Indivisibles have accomplished in 2019, and what 2020 will have in store.
This year has been A LOT. Here’s 2019 in a few illustrative bullets:
- January: Indivisible starts the year on offense, with the (then) single largest national day of action in our history to support the pro-democracy For the People Act (HR 1).
- March: Mueller report completed, and Indivisible starts ramping up pressure on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings.
- See link below for full message ....
What’s coming in 2020
. We know where we want to be in one year. We’ll be headed into 2021 with a Democratic trifecta in the House, Senate, and presidency -- and momentum to make a big democracy reform the first legislation of the new Congress. That’s the plan.
So how do we do it? We don’t do it by waiting for the wave to come -- we do it by spending the next 11 months building that wave. We can’t wait for the primary to be over to start preparing to win the general. This means:
- We give Indivisible groups the Voter File for canvassing, phonebanking, and text banking.
- We put additional organizing and communications resources in action on the ground in electoral college and Senate swing states.
- We leverage the power of the movement to reach out to more than 10 million voters to get them out to vote.
- See link below for full message ....
Ezra Levin.. Indivisible Co-founder and Co-Executive Director
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NWSOFA-INDIVISIBLE - Progressive News Clippings
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NWSOFA Indivisible - 10 Issue Magazines
(below find links to the NWSOFA-Indivisible Magazines)
Please contact Bill Davis if you would like to contribute articles for the NWSOFA magazine
:
Click this link:
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Notice: These are public meeting(s) / event(s)
NWSOFA is a 501(c)4, non-partisan organization.
All opinions are solely those of NWSOFA
NWSOFA ORGANIZATION CHART NWSOFA Issue Leads 2020
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