It's up to us! President Obama left us with this message in his farewell address.
In addition to being involved with Democrats Abroad at the local chapter or national level, there are a number of ways to volunteer through the Democrats Abroad global working groups. Connect with Democrats around the world and make a difference. See the Google form at the end to sign up!
DA Action Team (DAAT)
Every day we hear of more big and small actions we could/should be taking to resist the destructive plans and actions of the Trump administration. Many of us are being asked daily by numerous groups to take action, many country committees are already developing responses, and on our website suggestions to call Congress are being regularly updated (at: http://www.democratsabroad.org/congressional_call_storm). Our members want to be able to help from wherever they live, want us to provide a place where they can participate and initiate action.
DA Caucuses
Our LGBT Caucus, Women’s Caucus and Young DA Caucus leaders are revved up since the election to ramp up Caucus efforts to protect and fight for equal rights and to expand their membership and effectiveness. They’re looking for a contact person in each country committee for each of these Caucuses, and to expand their “steering committees.”
We need to establish a process to determine which issues global DA will take up and/or defend, and what specific actions we can/should most effectively take. We want to make sure that we act efficiently on ideas that bubble up and across the DA globe, AND we want to use our worldwide reach judiciously and effectively. We need to review and expand our arsenal of tools and coordinate our advocacy actions.
We’d also like to know if anyone is interested to help forma Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, AAPI Caucus, Minority Caucus, Senior Caucus, Veterans & Military Families Caucus or another group.
Charter/Bylaws/Rules Committee
This committee will review and possibly offer amendments to a number of our guiding document, from the DA Charter to model Country Committee bylaws and Country Committee election guidelines to make sure that these important documents meet our needs and are in line with each other.
Voting Issues Group (VIG)
A number of DA leaders from the GOTV and IT teams have started developing a list of general and state-specific problems encountered by overseas voters in 2016. We will be sharing our findings with the State Dept, Congress, the FVAP (Federal Voting Assistance Program), the DNC, state parties, the Uniform Law Commission and local and state election officials to ask for help to resolve these issues.
2017 DPCA Global Meeting
The Democrats Abroad International AGM will be held in the U.S. (May 12-15 in Arlington, VA). The following events need to be planned: DPCA business meeting including reports, resolutions, Charter amendment discussions, trainings, feedback and “looking to the future” sessions, elections and social events. Holding the meeting in the DC area provides ample opportunities for super guest speakers.
2017 Door Knock
This volunteer activity is especially useful if you plan to be in DC for the Democrats Abroad International AGM. On May 16-17, after the DPCA Global Meeting, we will conduct our 2017 Democrats Abroad DC Door Knock. We’ll call on Congress (both Houses and perhaps again both sides of the aisle) and key staff, as well as officials from other relevant government agencies to advocate for issues of concern to overseas Americans. These Door Knock sessions have been extremely productive and fun and provide excellent opportunities for us to carry our message(s) to Washington. As we’ve organized increasingly large and small Door Knocks in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2014, twice in 2015 and in 2016, we’ve developed an effective model.
For this Door Knock, we’ll adapt the model to: determine 2017 advocacy topics, update or develop leave-behind-packs, set up appointments, set up morning meetings at DNC with guest speakers, establish and lightly train teams and team leaders.
LINK TO THE GOOGLE FORM
If you would like to work with any of these global teams, please let us know on this google form link provided below.
https://goo.gl/forms/ub5mgYnyF1E7y8Ey1