FEATURED IN THIS WEEK’S MVCAN BULLETIN:        

• DISTRICT ATTORNEY CANDIDATES’ FORUM - Sat. April 28, 12 pm

• CELEBRATE VOLUNTEERS DAY, MV COMMUNITY CENTER - Sun. April 29, 11 am - 2 pm

• MVCAN MAY MONTHLY MEETING - Sun. May 6, 4-5:30 pm, Mill Valley Community Center

• MVCAN PHONE AND TEXT BANKING - Multiple Dates!

• CANVASSING IN CD-10 WITH SWING LEFT MARIN - Many Dates Available!

• AFFORDABLE HOUSING EVENT - Sat. May 5, 10 - 4 pm

• SURJ (STANDING UP FOR RACIAL JUSTICE) EVENT - Sun. April 29 and more

• AN EVENING IN SONOMA - SPONSORED BY THE COURAGE CAMPAIGN - Sun. April 29

• SAVE THE DATE! MARCH WITH MVCAN IN THE MV MEMORIAL DAY PARADE - Mon. May 28

• MVCAN HELP WANTED

Look for the full MVCAN News next week, with reports and photos from Earth Day, and more. You can read about Earth Day and see photos from Earth Day.

Come hear from and question your Marin County District Attorney candidates. The powerful post of District Attorney is open for the first time in many years. The three candidates are:

A.J. Brady, Marin County Deputy District Attorney

Lori Frugoli, Marin County Deputy District Attorney

Anna Pletcher, former Federal Prosecutor

Come participate and find out about which candidates reflect our progressive values regarding justice, immigration, and incarceration.

This event is co-sponsored by MVCAN, and we would like to have a wonderful turnout. Please attend and show your support!

DISTRICT ATTORNEY CANDIDATES’ FORUM

Sat. April 28, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Marin City Recreation Center, 630 Drake Ave., Marin City

This event is sponsored by ISOJI Marin City, in partnership with MVCAN and Indivisible Sausalito, and support from the Marin City Community Services District. Thanks to our awesome Civil Rights/ Immigration Team for making this happen!

Ricardo Moncrief, Chair of ISOJI, and Lisa Bennett, Chair of Indivisible Sausalito.

MILL VALLEY VOLUNTEER CELEBRATION DAY

Come out and support and thank local volunteers, and receive recognition for your own work. Learn about local organizations and nonprofits.

MVCAN will have a table, hosted by our fearless Core Team member Bernard Catalinotto. Stop by!

Mill Valley Volunteer Celebration Day

Sun. April 29, 11:00am - 2:00pm

Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino Alto, Mill Valley

Learn more about this event.

MVCAN MONTHLY MEETING - Sun, May 6, 4:00 - 5:30pm

Participants at MVCAN's March monthly meeting hearing from Andrea Miller, President of the National Institute for Reproductive Health. Photo: Fabrice Florin.

Come to our MVCAN monthly meeting in May and learn about all of the activities and actions planned by MVCAN for the upcoming election season.

Guest Speaker: Lala Wu, National Director of Engagement and Partnerships for the Sister District Project

Lala will speak about having a strategic, targeted focus on critical down-ballot, state races that—if won—will make it easier to win national elections.

PHONE and TEXT BANKING

Less than 200 days until the 2018 Midterms!

We have work to do in CA, but we also want to take any opportunity we can to win Congressional seats in the run-up to the Midterms. In each of the Special Elections in the decidedly red districts and states our Electoral Team has worked on in the past 16 months, we have either won or narrowed the Republicans' margin to single-digits!

From now through June 5, we will focus on the California Primary. Because of CA's Top-Two "Jungle" Primary system (which is not a traditional primary but actually the first round of the general election) we need to ensure that at least one Democratic candidate emerges in every flippable CA Congressional District.

We need to increase Democratic voter turnout in the June 5 Primary. One of the best way to do that is to call/text and make sure every voter gets to the polls.

Leaders are always on hand to train. For more details about this and other upcoming phone/ text banks, please visit the MVCAN Electoral Team page or the MVCAN Phone/ Text Bank page.

Phone and Text Bank in Sausalito

Sat. April 28 - PHONE/TEXT BANK, 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm

WE ARE STILL IN OUR OFFICE IN SAUSALITO THIS WEEK!

Please click here to register and get more details/directions.

Important news: We will soon be changing the location of our Sausalito phone/text bank. Our generous hosts have to rent the office out, so we won't be able to use it anymore. We will keep you posted as to where we will be moving.

If you have any leads/contacts for an office in Southern Marin for Saturday phone banks, please contact Susan Bolle.

For more details about this and other upcoming phone/ text banks, please visit the MVCAN Electoral Team page or the MVCAN Phone/ Text Bank page.

That time Congressman Jared Huffman gave a pep talk to the MVCAN phone/text bankers. Photo: Marti Cermak.

There are lots of great opportunities coming up to canvass voters in CD10 (Tracy, Modesto, Turlock) to help flip Congress in the 2018 midterms. Volunteers will lay the groundwork for unseating Jeff Denham (R) by visiting Democratic voters as part of a locally-based effort to activate them prior to the election.  

We have already registered and identified an unprecedented number of voters who want to unseat the Republican Jeff Denham!

CA-10  now has two Republican candidates in the primary, and we face the possibility that they would move on to the general election in November.  We need you to help us get every Democrat to vote in CD10 on June 5th!  

The Tracy Dems. "GO Team", which coordinates activities with Swing Left Marin in Tracy, requires a monthly commitment for canvassing. (You can share the commitment with another person, for example, canvassing in alternating months).

You can come for an initial canvassing day and "test drive", whether or not you want to commit to canvassing one day a month going forward.

SAT. MAY 12 AND ALL 2ND SATURDAYS  - 11:00 AM TRACY

MOST OF THE VOLUNTEERS FOR SECOND SATURDAYS ARE MVCAN MEMBERS. Come with us and MVCANVASS!

To register and find out about carpooling, contact MVCAN member Larry Litvak.

Sponsored by Swing Left Marin/MVCAN

Also, check out these other options:

SAT. MAY 19 AND ALL 3RD SATURDAYS - 11:00 am Tracy

Email Bridget Gleason (Swing Left Marin lead) for info.

SUN. MAY 6 AND ALL 1st SUNDAYS - 1:00 pm Tracy

Email Bridget Gleason (Swing Left Marin lead) for info.

Help register voters with Swing Left Marin in Tracy before the primary election! Our next opportunity has just been made available:

TRACY VOTER REGISTRATION - SAT. APRIL 28, 9:30 AM - 2:00 PM

We all know that finding affordable housing is a huge issue in the Bay Area. Get informed about affordable housing and tell elected officials to keep our rents low and build more affordable housing in Marin.

Open House for Affordable Housing (drop in)

Saturday, May 5, 2018, 10 am - 4 pm

Maria B. Freitas Senior Community, 455 Freitas Pkwy., San Rafael, CA (map)

Meet Marin County housing residents, families, friends, and neighbors. You’ll have an opportunity to tell your story, and meet your neighbors!

Guest Speakers:

11 am: Linda M. Jackson, Program Director, Aging Action Initiative

2 pm: Ford Fish, board member, Mercy Housing California

Learn about affordable housing issues both at the federal and the local levels, and take action at our event by signing petitions and letters to Members of Congress

For more information, contact: MVCAN member Pat Soberanis, Resident Organizer.

RACE MATTERS: SPRING WORKSHOP SERIES

SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) is a national group that supports white people in becoming more effective allies in the multi-racial movement for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing and education, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for racial justice with passion and accountability.

This spring, a three-workshop series “Healing Into Action” will be sponsored by SURJ Marin and United Marin Rising. Workshop participants will participate in personal and collective healing that will build towards taking concrete action together in cross-racial alliances to address racial disparities and create change in the county.

“Healing into Action” Workshop

Sun, April 29, 1 - 5pm

San Rafael First United Methodist Church

199 Greenfield Ave, San Rafael

Please register here.

See more workshop dates and times below:

GRAB THEM BY THE MIDTERMS:

AN EVENING IN SONOMA

Please come for an evening exploring the critically important role that California will play in this election year.

This event is a fund-raiser for Courage Campaign as it celebrates the launch of #CaliforniaCounts, a digital storytelling campaign to take back the House by flipping the seven most winnable Congressional seats in California.

Come hear a roster of fabulous speakers:

Congressman Ted Lieu

Congressman Eric Swalwell

State Senator Holly Mitchell

Join in conversation with Michael Skolnik and Paola Mendoza, Artistic Director of the Women's March and co-founders of SOZE Agency.

Grab them by the Midterms: An Evening in Sonoma  

Sunday, April 29, 5-7pm

Bumpy Road Vineyard, Sonoma. (Address provided upon ticket purchase)

Tickets are limited. You can order your tickets now!

(Includes food, wine, beer, and a beautiful Sonoma sunset)  

Hosted by Minette Nelson and David Eckles, founders of the Filmmaker Fund

SAVE THE DATE! MARCH WITH MVCAN IN THE MEMORIAL DAY PARADE

MON. MAY 28

MVCAN Events Team Chair Fabrice Florin helms the Art Float for Social Change. Photo: Martha Ture.

March with MVCAN in one of Mill Valley's largest annual events. Our presence will feature MVCAN's handmade unique float, which was created to inspire more people to participate in democracy. Meet your fellow activists and neighbors at this community event. More information forthcoming.

MVCAN HELP WANTED

MVCAN needs your help. Do you have a few hours a month? You can make a difference by volunteering with MVCAN. Wanted:

Publicity and Promotions (2-3 hours per month)

Are you connected, or do you want to learn the inner workings of PR?

Lead or help with PR efforts for MVCAN: Develop media lists, send press releases to local media, work with the Events and issues teams to create a promotions schedule and promote events, activities and meetings; if desired, develop and train a volunteer PR team.

MVCAN Wag Team (2-4 hours per week, or every other week)

Be a connector! Help create the MVCAN Weekly News aka the WAG.

Support MVCAN by preparing the weekly MVCAN News, which connects 1,100 MVCAN members to vital information. Content is provided. Your help is needed to transfer content into MVCAN's email program. Some knowledge of HTML helpful, but not necessary. This job can be shared.

Website Maintenance (1-2 hours per week)

Help with a crucial communications tool.

Help keep the MVCAN web site up to date by inputting calendar items from the Wag and perhaps helping team members with their pages. No knowledge of HTML needed. The system is "drag-and-drop". Training offered, if needed.

Also needed:

MVCAN Photo Archivist (2 hours per month)

Greeters and Helpers at Meetings and Events (one-time or ongoing)

To volunteer for these important jobs, or to offer other skills/talents to MVCAN, contact Debra, our new Volunteer Coordinator, at volunteer@mvcan.org.

Thank you!

JOIN AN ACTION TEAM

WANT TO GET MORE INVOLVED in a specific issue? Much of MVCAN's work is done in one of our 10 awesome action teams. Click the team name to read their latest news and find their next meeting.

Civil Rights/Immigration battles for justice and fair treatment of women, immigrants, working people and followers of all faiths.

Communications works on strategy, branding, messaging and program development for MVCAN. They are looking for bright ideas and people who want to make them happen.

Dump Trump 's 25 active team members work on ways to remove Trump from power, with special focus on Russia collusion. This topic is hot!

Eco Warriors are engaged in change at the local, state and national levels, to impact the CA carbon tax, climate change, and community outreach and action.

The Economic Action team runs AIRLIFT, our first national project. AIRLIFT funnels money to grassroots groups in winnable 2018 districts. These are seriously vetted groups that work all year round in their communities–they get tangible results without blowing through millions of dollars. Read about it in the Huffington Post .

Electoral is focused on the 2018 Midterm Elections, when all 435 seats in the House plus 33 Senate seats are up for grabs. We intend to grab as many as possible. The Electoral team works to elect Democratic candidates for federal and state level elections using phone/text banks and travel to targeted districts to talk with voters through phone calls, texts, door-to-door canvassing, voter registration, and campaign volunteering.

The Events team creates special events to engage our friends and neighbors to take political action with MVCAN.

Health Care is forging ahead after their successful fight over the repeal/replace of ACA.

Tech supports MVCAN through technology.

Women's Rights fundraises and canvasses for NARAL and Planned Parenthood; supports women in public office(s); and engages in local, state and federal legislation for women's protection and rights.

NEW TO MVCAN?

Visit MVCAN.org to learn about the organization and strategies, join a team, read past MVCAN newsletters, and gain helpful Resistance tools.

Thank you for all you do!
– June, Bernard, Suz, Danny, Eileen, Rebecca, and everyone at MVCAN

MVCAN News brought to you by June, Annie and Suz