Today marks the kickoff of the Residency Based Taxation (RBT) Call Storm. Read up on RBT and then make some calls, send a letter or share the news on Facebook or Twitter so your friends can get involved too. The hashtag for the campaign is #DAforRBT  

We're always working on making it easier for you to find the information you're looking for on the site. Thanks to one of our super volunteers, we now have search functionality added. Located right beside the login, the search icon will take you to a search page where you can drill down until you find just the right article. 

We've also added a section to the news area called "DNC Updates". We'll be featuring the Dems Live videos and other news from the DNC there to help you find out more about what the DNC is working on back in the States.  

In GOTV news, there are only a few more days until the GA special election in congressional district 6 and the special election in SC congressional district 5.  Check out DA Ireland Chair Greg Johnson’s interview about his experience voting in the GA election, and consider phone banking for the SC election – we still have people to call and time to get those ballots in to SC!

Are you holding a Comey watch party today? If you’re looking for a way to watch, check out this Wired article for a range of options. Some of our country committee chairs aren’t just watching, they are also being interviewed by the press. Check out your country committee's web or facebook page to see if your country leaders were interviewed!

DA saw lots of actions happening last week, with countries from Peru to Belgium organizing and participating in the March for Truth. We also ran a global initiative on the Paris Accord, asking you to reach out to your mayors and governors to demand that they support the agreement. Our contact lines buzzed after that email, and we received dozens of messages back supporting the action and were able to track almost a thousand resulting actions.

What’s next? Residency Based Taxation! We’re rolling out a massive campaign in support of RBT, and asking every member to participate in some way over the summer. The kick off date for the campaign is June 15 and if you haven’t heard about the Congressional Call Storm and other events happening that day, check out the Taxation page and expect an email on the subject really soon!

Are you interested in making phone calls to special election voters living abroad? We still have Georgia voters to reach out to and the Get Out the Vote (GOTV) and IT teams have almost finished preparing SC member calls, helping out Archie Parnell’s race in Congressional District 5. Get in touch with the GOTV team at [email protected] for more information.

In other global business news, International Counsel Tom Schmid has appointed co-deputy Counsels for EMEA – Rebekah Rollo (Germany) and Yasmin Mang (Germany) and deputy Counsel for the Americas – Sam Stone (Mexico) to serve on the counsel team around the world. Many thanks to these dedicated volunteers! 

As you know, it’s Pride month, and we’re proudly flying the rainbow flag on the DA website. Do check out the recent article from the LGBT caucus about their activity and consider volunteering with the caucus.

June 1st marks the first day of Resistance Summer and Pride Month! Kick starting Resistance Summer, several country committees are taking part in the global March for Truth on June 3rd. Find a march near you, or join us on social media with a picture of you and your protest poster (don’t forget to add #DAMarchForTruth to your post so we can find you!).  

We’re also urging members to call or email the White House about Trump’s Paris Accord decision. We’ll be sending out a global email shortly about this initiative.

On Thursday, June 15 country committees around the world are planning on participating in the Residency Based Taxation Call Storm. The Taxation team has set up a handy page here to help explain the campaign. This week we’ll be sending out additional supplements to help make the action even easier. Please consider adding it to your schedule for this month!   

The Get Out the Vote (GOTV) team are starting a last push for the GA 06 runoff election, sending out emails and asking phone banking volunteers to call our GA 06 members one more time to make sure that they have either mailed in their ballot or (if they haven’t received it yet) sent in their FWAB. If you would like to help out on phone banking, get in touch with the GOTV team at [email protected]. More soon on the SC 05 race and Archie Parnell.  

Our Regional Vice Chairs (RVCs) are in the process of calling all country committees about summer actions and getting their teams ramped up. In the Americas Kathy Rothschild (Costa Rica) has agreed to act as deputy RVC for Jody Quinnell, in Asia Pacific Kat Allikian (New Zealand) and Kari Hiepko-Odermann (India) are helping out Shaun Barnes as his deputies and in EMEA Bob Vallier (France), Michelle Taube (Denmark) and Quaide Williams (Germany) have agreed to help Will Bakker as deputies.

Until next week! 

What a whirlwind of a week we just had. Thank you to so many leaders from around the world for attending the DA Global Meeting either in person or on webex, and then to all the great door knockers who let Congress know that Americans abroad have a voice we know how to use! For more details on the meetings and door knocks, check out the day by day accounts for meeting days 1, 2, 3, and 4 plus our two days of doorknocks. 

While our teams were working their way through the halls of the Capitol, Alex Montgomery (our newly elected International Vice Chair) and I were getting to know and meeting with DNC staff. Many of them are as new in their positions as we are, and it was a pleasure to be able to introduce Democrats Abroad to them as we made our rounds, and meet others who had already heard about DA (thanks to our former International Chair Katie Solon and our DNC members!). We were also delighted to be able to be on Dems Live with Keith Ellison and Congresswoman Maloney and so many DA leaders.  

I'm back in Prague now and Alex is back in Hong Kong. We're working on rolling out Resistance Summer plans which we'll be writing more about shortly. Thank you for your continued work and enthusiasm as we move towards 2018 - it is much appreciated! 

If you have any questions in the meantime, let me know at [email protected]. I am looking forward to working with you all.

Julia Bryan
International Chair
Democrats Abroad