DA Austria Leadership:
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News
See all postsIn October —
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In This Issue —
Events:
- Experienced Dems Get Together
- Wine Tasting Fundraiser
- Halloween Happy Hour
- DAA Black Caucus Book Club
- Salzburg Meet Up
- Solidarity Sundays
- Save the Date — Thanksgiving
Message From the Chair
Issues and Actions:
- DAA sends flyers to Virginia voters
- Help us keep our member registration up to date!
- Open Volunteer Positions
Reviews:
- Solidarity Sundays: Democracy State of Mind
- Slovakia Meet & Greet
- 2021 EMEA Regional Meeting – Setting the gears in motion
Our Executive Committee meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month. Our next meeting will be held online on: Wednesday, October 13, 2021, at 7 p.m. Members are welcome to join us at the meetings. Please contact Richard at [email protected] to join.
DAA is making a strong effort to include in our monthly newsletter all the information you need to stay up to date. By sending you fewer emails, we hope you will read those you receive. Thanks for reading!
Events:
Experienced Dems Get Together
When: Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Time: 6 pm
Where: In-person. Cafe Museum, Operngasse 7, 1010 Vienna
Wine Tasting Fundraiser
When: Thursday, October 14, 2021
Time: 4 – 6 pm
Where: In-person. Private home (RSVP for address), 1070 Vienna
Halloween Happy Hour
When: Saturday, October 16, 2021
Time: 6 pm
Where: In-person. Pier 69, Hafenrestaurant Seestrasse 4, 6900 Bregenz
DAA Black Caucus Book Club
When: Sunday, October 17, 2021
Time: 4 pm
Where: ZOOM.
Salzburg Meet Up
When: Friday, October 22, 2021
Time: 5:30 pm
Where: In-person. Braugasthof Krimpelstätter, Müllner Hauptstraße 31, Salzburg 05020
Solidarity Sundays
When: Sunday, October 24, 2021
Time: 5:00 pm
Where: In-person. Stiftgasse 8, Vienna 1080 (RSVP for details)
Save the Date — Thanksgiving
When: Thursday, November 25, 2021
Time: 6:00 pm
Where: In-person. Melker Stiftskeller, Schottengasse 3, Vienna 1010
Message from DA Austria Chair
Time is flying by and soon 2022 will be here! But there are key elections this November in New Jersey and Virginia, and Democrats Abroad Austria has been active in getting out the vote for those statewide elections. Our phone bankers have been busy calling overseas voters from those states and we sent out postcards to voters as well. And let’s take a victory lap for the outcome of the recall election in California—DA was in the thick of that battle too. Thank you to our volunteers!
A big part of getting ready for 2022 is ensuring our database of DA Austria members is up to date. Without good email addresses and phone numbers, we cannot effectively support our members and get out the vote. We are looking for a new Database Manager (see more below) who can do valuable work such as welcoming new members when they join, ensuring our database is kept current, and reporting on results at our monthly meeting. If interested, please send an email to Richard at [email protected].
Issues & Actions:
DAA sends flyers to Virginia voters
Many thanks to Yvonne Richard, DAA Phone Bank Coordinator, for organizing flyers to be sent to nearly 70 Virginia voters living in Austria. Overseas voters from Virginia must return their ballot by post, so time is running short for the November 2 election. Democrats Abroad has proven itself to provide the margin of victory in close races, such as Georgia and Arizona in 2020. That’s why DA Global invested to ensure that Virginia voters living abroad received voting information by post, text, and online!
Help us keep our member registration up to date!
A clean database means our phone bank volunteers are able to reach more members to help them vote.
A clean database means your donations aren’t wasted on unnecessary postage.
A clean database means you’ve RSVP’d for an event sometime in the last four years!
Please take a look at the many exciting events and webinars happening throughout Democrats Abroad, such as the October 13 webinar with US Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida on women’s rights and winning in 2022 https://www.democratsabroad.org/da_speaks_with_rep_lois_frankel_on_women_s_rights_winning_in_florida_in_2022
Your RSVP lets us know you’re still in Austria!
Open Volunteer Positions
Database Manager
Do you have an extra hour or two per week to help DA Austria with vital backend administrative work? Are you computer savvy and personable? DAA is looking for a new Database Manager!
Time commitment:
- Variable, with more work during the end-of-the-year database cleanup phase and before the Annual General Meeting, Global Primary, and Presidential Elections
Requirements:
- Nationbuilder and GDPR trainings and certification (roughly 2 hours’ time investment each)
- Signed confidentiality agreement
- Comfortable cold-calling members
- Comfortable using a database
Tasks:
- Daily/Weekly: Login to Nationbuilder database to approve new members (check their files for missing information / spam / repeated members)
- Monthly: Report to DAA ExCom on membership growth
- Annually: Database cleanup to locate expiring members
This critical role helps DA Austria function at its best. There is so much important work to be done to get out the vote in 2022 in order to keep the House and Senate blue. Please add your skills to the team!
Contact: [email protected]
Reviews:
Solidarity Sundays: Democracy State of Mind
September 26, 2021
“Republicans are not fighting the Reconciliation bill. They’re fighting other things—critical race theory, vaccines. They’re not attacking this bill because it’s insanely popular.” -- Julie Bordeau-Alderman
Each month, Solidarity Sundays takes a deep dive into an issue confronting our Democracy and takes an action to help. This month, we looked at the states. Julie, a progressive activist and political researcher, surveyed the outlook for Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.
It will be challenging. Gerrymandered maps and new voter suppression laws have put Democrats’ slim House majority in danger. But stellar candidates in every race, together with a very popular agenda, offer substantial opportunities.
Julie pointed out two kinds of messaging that can cut through GOP disinformation—reasons to vote against and reasons to vote for something. Democrats need both. Negative arguments play up the dangers if the other side is in charge. “Don’t let us become Florida!” worked in the California Recall election and will resonate in other states, too. And the Texas abortion ban is animating the swing voters who delivered victories in 2018 and for Biden in 2020.
Positive messaging talks up the Administration’s accomplishments. Two achievements that poll well are money in wallets, with the Child Tax Credit, and vaccines delivered to every American who wanted one.
Solidarity Sundays explored Senate dysfunction in March. Yvonne Richard, DA Austria’s Phonebanking Coordinator, invites you to take action to expand our Senate majority to overcome legislative paralysis and help Biden’s agenda. The most impactful thing you can do? Help Americans living abroad to vote.
“Conversations translate to votes,” she said. Phonebanking is easy to learn and to fit into your schedule, is done from home, and costs you nothing. Contact Yvonne and be part of the movement to deliver the Senate for Democrats.
Slovakia Meet & Greet
DA members in Slovakia turned out for a Meet & Greet event in Bratislava on September 25. We enjoyed some Mexican food (and margaritas) at Los Mexicas, in honor of our organizer, Estela Landeros, who was born in Mexico. Estela has kindly agreed to be our point person for our GOTV efforts in Bratislava next year. We discussed ways to reach more Americans in Slovakia to boost our membership. Also, it was great to meet (in person) Aaron Fishbone, who did an amazing job leading DA’s global communications team in 2020. Thanks also to Victor and David for attending! We look forward to further events next year in Slovakia.
2021 EMEA Regional Meeting – Setting the gears in motion
DA members from across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa met online from Oct. 1 to 3 to help us gear up for getting out of the vote in 2022. We started to work on a regional strategy calendar so we have an overview of what needs to be done over the year in terms of GOTV, fundraising and member recruitment, etc. We also had a preview of our GOTV Rap, performed by your DA Austria chair. Some meeting highlights were talks by special guests DNC Executive Director Sam Cornale, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland’s 8th district, and Rep. Grace Meng of Queens, New York. Kudos to our own Jennifer Rakow-Stepper, EMEA Regional Vice Chair, for organizing a smooth and productive event! From the word cloud above, you see that we’re raring to go.
Thank you for reading the October Newsletter! We'll see you in November.
Upcoming Events
Biden-Harris Progress Report #7: Is It Now or Never?
As we asserted back in July: Infrastructure negotiations likely will lead to make or break legislation for climate change mitigation, millions who are skeptical about our two-party government, and Democrat prospects for the midterms. Since then, our Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate have been unable to deliver. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Build Back Better Act remain stuck in limbo, perhaps just two votes short of success. Join members of proDA to learn more about and discuss the status of the negotiations, the prospects for passage, and the consequences of further delay. We will advocate for action, urging all of us to intensify our efforts. Time is short and so, too, is the patience of those whose needs are not being met!
Please RSVP for the Zoom link.
CO-HOSTS: DA Austria, DA Canada, DA Guadalajara, proDA Austria, and proDA Germany
In other time zones: Thursday, October 28th, 2021, 1:00-2:30 pm Eastern Time, next morning at 1:00-2:30 am Beijing Time (Our next Progress Report will occur at a more Asia-Pacific-friendly time)
Saturday, November 06, 2021 at 10:00 AM Time · 2 rsvps
Monthly Members Meeting: November 6th
November 6th at 10-11am Eastern Time, 3-4pm CET, and 10-11pm Beijing TimeCo-hosts: DA Austria, DA Canada, DA Guadalajara, proDA Austria, and proDA Germany
Join us on Saturday, November 6th, for our next monthly members meeting! proDA leaders will report on progress with our terms of reference review, communications, issue advocacy, collaboration, team building, and more. We also will seek member input for our November/December plans, including events. Hear how you can take action on student loan justice, reparations justice, voting rights, Building Back Better, combating climate change, and more.
Please RSVP for the Zoom link below.
We have two action requests now:
- Which song would you like to open our November 6th meeting?
- And, by the way, what name do you propose for our monthly meetings?
Please send us your recommendations now at [email protected]
We will choose a song from your suggestions and use your proposals for a vote on our monthly meeting name on November 6th. The winning name will trigger a new design for our monthly members meetings, too!