Please share this with your WILPF members and friends

1. ONE WILPF CALL, Thursday, March 9, 4pm pacific / 7pm eastern 
2. Social Media and Facebook Training Call,
   Saturday, March 11, 11am pacific / 2pm eastern
3. Building a National Legislative Presence for WILPF US,
   Saturday, March 11, noon pacific / 3pm eastern
4. What's Being Planned for June?
5. What About the WILPF US Congress? July 27-30 in Chicago! 
   Pencil it in now!

 

CONNECT - INSPIRE - LEAD!   ONE WILPF!

You don't have to be a branch leader or contact to engage with WILPF US members from across the country in lively discussions and work closely on projects or plans to strengthen and improve WILPF.

Every month the opportunity is available through ONE WILPF CALLs to reach out, connect and guide WILPF forward in activism and strategy. An average of 30 members join the calls representing some 16 branches and several at-large members too.

Pre-Registration Required

It's easy! Pre-registration for the calls is necessary and you can register here.  

Ray will discuss her plan to ask WILPF branches to participate in planning Solidarity Marches to coincide with the Women's March to Ban the Bomb activities RCW is planning in New York City on Sunday, June 18th  , to gain awareness about the historic negotiations for a Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty coming up at the United Nations in March and June. The call starts at 4pm pacific / 7pm eastern.  

 

•  April 22 Solidarity Event reports
•  Sharing resources - next steps
•  Sustaining activism after Trump

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2. Sign Up for Social Media and Facebook Training

Saturday, March 11, 11am pacific / 2pm eastern  

Without affordable or responsive media, today the only way to get your message out to the public is through social media. Movements are organizing around Facebook and Twitter, and important communications are increasingly being relegated to these communication platforms. These are techniques that you NEED TO KNOW as an activist and organizer. And now WILPF is making these instructions very accessible.

 

Learn to Use Facebook, for your activism, your branch, your community! Valuable skills will be taught by a professional educator who is proficient at Facebook. Michael Ippolito is known to many of you as our backdoor engineer, making the ONE WILPF Calls possible with the Maestro technology. Michael is a patient and very clear instructor. He will use SCREEN SHARING so you can SEE how he LIKES, SHARES, POSTS and CREATES & PROMOTES Events on Facebook.

 

This FREE training is a benefit of WILPF Membership! Pre-register for this call here.

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WILPF Fresno has been working within their Legislative Committee to develop a presence and voice for WILPF with their local, state and federal elected officials.  Their legislative committee meets to select a theme for the month, they research it thoroughly and draft talking points for their members.  Then TOGETHER they flood the offices with in-person visits, phone calls and emails, all on ONE subject, all with the face of WILPF.  
 
This is a model that many of our branches USED to have.  Each branch had its own Legislative campaign, usually with one person who did the research and advocated for a branch response.  But with smaller branches and legislatively informed people less available, one resource we could develop nationally is a NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE within WILPF US who would meet regularly, come up with a monthly THEME for legislative visits and contacts, and who would distribute talking points to branches, so we could engage with our local, state and federal officials AS ONE WILPF, speaking with one voice across the US.   
 
Fresno WILPF proposed making this a pilot program in California at their recent cluster meeting, but there was not enough time to work on the details and next steps.  

On the second hour of our March 11th Maestro call, following our Facebook training, we'll provide the space for branches and members to meet to talk, plan and act... to help rebuild a legislative presence within WILPF US. 

If you are interested, plan to get on the call by noon pacific / 3pm eastern.
Pre-register here.
 

4. What's Being Planned for June?

As the world becomes environmentally and politically less stable, the threat of nuclear war looms and the Doomsday Clock has advanced half a minute. So nothing could be more timely or urgent than these Women's March to Ban the Bomb marches scheduled for June 18. Organizing sister marches in cities across the US is a task WILPF can do, and it is well within our mission to do so.  

 

"We can take the solidarity skills we are learning for our April 22 Earth Day event and fine tune them to be ready to organize marches in June. There is so much potential here for making this issue more visible and amplifying the voice of WILPF US members!".  

                          -- WILPF US President Mary Hanson Harrison

 

This is not just the task of DISARM Committee members

WILPF has been pointing out the interconnectedness of climate justice, women and peace. Each of these issues and many more will be engaged if we organize marches against nuclear weapons and use those marches to raise awareness about the imminent threat of nuclear weapons to the planet and all life forms.

DISARM Committee Chairs Robin Lloyd, Barbara Nielsen and Ellen Thomas are encouraging WILPF members to start NOW to organize these June marches.

 

Ellen will be continuing the Nuclear Free Future speaking tour that began last year, when she and Carol Urner traveled the east and west coasts. Between April and June 2017, Ellen plans to travel west to Missouri and Kansas City, north to Iowa and Minnesota and east to Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, DC and north to New York. She hopes Odile Hugonot Haber and other WILPF members who have information to share about any part of the nuclear chain, from uranium mining, power plants to weapons and radioactive toxic waste transportation and disposal will be able to join her for a while on her two-month journey. If you or your branch would like to host her, please contact Ellen as soon as possible at et@prop1.org or 202-210-3886 (cell and text).

 

There can be no more important or urgent cause for WILPF women than this Women's March to Ban the Bomb. It speaks to the very roots of our organization and our primary mission of peace.

 

5. What About WILPF US Congress

Plan to attend this WILPF US Congress, July 27-30, in Chicago, in the shadow of Hull House, on the campus of University of Illinois.