FEATURED IN THIS WEEK’S MVCAN BULLETIN:        

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

2. CANVASSING IN CD-10 WITH SWING LEFT MARIN - Multiple Dates!

3. MVCAN PHONE AND TEXT BANKING - Multiple Dates!

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

5. MARCH IN THE MV MEMORIAL DAY PARADE - Mon. May 28 - also opportunities to help build the Art Float!

6. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW RALLY

7. WOMEN'S HEALTH FUNDRAISER

8. REPORT AND PHOTOS FROM DISTRICT ATTORNEY CANDIDATES’ FORUM and Civil Rights/ Immigration Team meeting Sun., May 6
   

9. REPORT AND PHOTOS FROM EARTH DAY CELEBRATION

10. MVCAN HELP WANTED

1

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

MILL VALLEY COMMUNITY CENTER

Photo: Fabrice Florin.

Come to our MVCAN monthly meeting this Sunday and learn about about 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.

2

CANVASSING IN CD10 WITH SWING LEFT MARIN:

JOIN MVCAN MEMBERS ON SECOND SATURDAYS!

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. MAY 5, 9:30 AM - 2:00 PM

Register and learn more here

3

PHONE and TEXT BANKING

Only 6 Months until the 2018 Midterms!

If you haven't gotten to work yet, please make this the week you join us to Vote Them Out.

We have regular phone/text banks on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and some Mondays. Our experienced leaders are always on hand to help guide you through the process and if you're new to calling or texting voters, we'll teach you step-by-step.

We also will help you get involved canvassing door-to-door. If you'd like to join our group traveling to Tracy, in our neighboring flippable district CD-10, please contact Susan Bolle.

Phone and Text Bank in San Rafael - Special Day of Action

MVCAN is co-hosting this phone/text bank at Marin Democrats' new headquarters on 4th St. in San Rafael! The office is at 1344 4th St. (at D) in San Rafael.

Join us for a special Cinco de Mayo Day of Action. We will by joining with Marin Dems and Swing Left Marin to help the Day of Action throughout the priority CA Congressional Districts. The Day of Action kicks off an intensified effort to make sure we Get Out The Vote for the June 5 Primary. AND to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with TACOS!

Sat. May 5 - PHONE/TEXT BANK, Special Day of Action, 3 pm - 5 pm in San Rafael

Click here to register and get more details/directions.

IMPORTANT: We're NOT at our usual location in Sausalito for this special Day of Action, Sat. May 5. Instead, we're at Marin Democrats' headquarters in San Rafael.

Additional Dates:

Wed, May 9 PHONE/TEXT BANK, 4 pm - 6 pm in San Rafael

Click here to register and get more details/directions.

Wed, May 16 PHONE/TEXT BANK, 4 pm - 6 pm in San Rafael

Click here to register and get more details/directions.

Phone and Text Bank in Sausalito

WE WILL BE BACK IN OUR SAUSALITO OFFICE ON MAY 12.

Sat, May 12 PHONE/TEXT BANK, 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm in Sausalito

Click here to register and get more details/directions.

Join us back at our office in Sausalito to call voters to Get Out The Vote for the June 5 Primary, and of course text voters for Beto O'Rourke.

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.

Phone Bank in Corte Madera

This phone bank is the favorite of many of our volunteers – at Jan's home.

Mon, May 14 PHONE/TEXT BANK, 4 pm - 6 pm in Corte Madera

Click here to register and get more details/directions.

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.

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.

5

MARCH WITH MVCAN IN THE MEMORIAL DAY PARADE

MON. MAY 28

Opportunities to help build the Art Float for Social Change!

MVCAN Events Team Chair Fabrice Florin helms the Art Float for Social Change at the recent Earth Day Celebration at Tam High. (Read more about the celebration below.) Photo: Martha Ture.

March in the Memorial Day Parade

The Memorial Day Parade is one of Mill Valley's largest annual events, and provides a terrific opportunity to tell others about MVCAN. Our presence will feature Tam Makers' handmade unique float, which was created to inspire more people to participate in democracy. Meet your fellow activists and neighbors at this community event. The parade takes place from approximately 10 am-noon. More information forthcoming about exact meeting place and time.

Help finish the Art Float

The Float team seeks volunteers to help complete the art float and get it ready for upcoming events, such as Memorial Day, July 4th and more. There are opportunities to build, paint, assemble, and load/unload, as well as greet, host, photo/video, organize and stage. See the to-do list for upcoming tasks they could use help with.

Join float building Thursdays, 6 to 9pm. See the full schedule.

Email float@tammakers.org for directions and more information.

Learn more about the Art Float for Social Change.

6

SIGN UP FOR ON-CALL EMERGENCY PROTEST

IN SAN RAFAEL

IF MUELLER OR ROSENSTEIN ARE FIRED, WE NEED TO TAKE TO THE STREETS!

MVCAN has joined an all-Marin coalition of grassroots groups in planning a consolidated protest in San Rafael if a constitutional crisis arises from Trump’s actions. We are mobilizing under the MoveOn national action, “No One Is Above The Law.”

To receive an immediate notice and call to action if and when Trump acts to obstruct the Mueller investigation:

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATION OF EMERGENCY MASS ACTION

When you go to sign up, you will see several possible sign-ups for the same San Rafael rally. Pick the last listed entry for San Rafael, which says “Danny A.” (MVCAN’s own Danny Altman).

Once you sign up, please be on alert for a “GO” message from MoveOn.org  and also MVCAN emails providing you with details on the rally.

Rallies and protests will begin hours after news breaks of a Mueller firing or another trigger event.

For instructions on how to text and find out rally details, see:

How to text for rally information

7

NEW MVCAN WOMEN'S RIGHTS TEAM INITIATIVE

The MVCAN Women's Rights Team is excited to support the Donate a Doula program at the Marin City Health and Wellness Center. The center was founded in 2006 to provide accessible primary care for low-income families of a historically African American community.  They serve patients of all ethnicities from 4 clinic locations in Marin and San Francisco.

The newly launched doula program will provide necessary support and education for new mothers and families.  

Please help the MVCAN Women's Rights Team reach the program's initial $6,000 goal.  

To donate using PayPal, Click here

OR

Click the DONATE button on marinbirth.org/donate.

8

REPORT FROM MARIN DA CANDIDATES' FORUM

With three candidates vying to be the next District Attorney of Marin Country, MVCAN’s Civil and Immigrant Rights team took on the task of initiating a public forum in the Marin City last Saturday. All three Marin contenders – A.J. Brady, Lori Frugoli and Anna Pletcher – along with a crowd of around 75 people, took part in the two-hour event.

An often overlooked but crucial position in establishing a just society is that of the district attorney. In California’s justice system, the D.A. has the power to determine which crimes are charged and the resulting punishment. For example, it is the DA who determines whether police officers should be prosecuted on charges of unwarranted brutality.

The debate focused on a number of  issues of concern to Marin City residents: replacing the money bail system, access to the Youth Court instead of casting juveniles into the criminal system, prosecution of police officers who commit unjustified violence,, etc.

MVCAN worked with the Marin City grassroots coalition ISOJI, as well as Indivisible Sausalito and the Marin City Community Services District to conduct the event.  Kudos to the MVCAN Civil Rights/Immigration team and its leaders Peter Graumann, Lisa Scarsella and Diane Goldman for a great success.

Join us for the next MVCAN Civil Rights/Immigration Team meeting:

Sunday May 6, 5:30 pm (immediately after the MVCAN Monthly Meeting)
Mill Valley Community Center  

9

REPORT FROM EARTH DAY CELEBRATION AT TAM HIGH!

Student activist Kayla Campbell. Photo: Fabrice Florin.

Hundreds of activists, artists, environmentalists and youth gathered on Earth Day at Tam High to pay tribute to Mother Earth with a wonderful afternoon of art, music and talks, as well as the first public showing of the Art Float for Social Change. This unique parade float was created by Fabrice Florin and Geo Monley with over a hundred volunteers in the Tam Makers collective, to inspire more people to participate in democracy.

Makers Geo Monley and Fabrice Florin. Photo: David Donnenfield.

The float's feathered dragon (see photo in section 5) was inspired by Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of wisdom, and created by Howard Rheingold and others. Singers and speakers of all ages shared their ideas for a better world, including Emma Spike, Kayla Campbell (pictured above), Mimi Lawrence (pictured below), Eileen Fisher and more.

Student activist Mimi Lawrence. Photo: Fabrice Florin.

Students and others painted original posters about the earth, which were featured on the float carousel. Thank you to Bruce Burtch (pictured below) and team at Youth Poster Contest, as well as volunteers Sarah Acker and Vanitha Sampath.

Photo: Fabrice Florin.

MVCAN's Maureen Parton with Bruce Burtch, Youth Poster Contest. Photo: Bill Jansen.

Dozens of environmental partners, including Sierra Club, Resilient Neighborhoods and 350 Marin showed participants how we can all take action to reverse global warming. Guest speakers included Mark Squire from Good Earth, Crystal Chissel from Project Drawdown, Marin Supervisor Damon Connolly and young local activists. Participants also learned to plant a veggie garden and ride an electric bike, while others registered to vote.

MVCAN's Diane Goldman with Organizing for Action's Jeree. Photo: Bill Jansen.

MVCAN's Laurie Riley and BettyAnn Kram. Photo: Grace Severtson.

The day concluded with music performances by the Twinkling Stars of Singers Marin, young singer Emma Spike, and sing-alongs with the Freedom Singers and Redwoods Seniors for Peace, led by Music Director Reed Fromer.

Twinking Stars of Singers Marin. Photo: Fabrice Florin.

Student activist and singer Emma Spike. Photo: Fabrice Florin.

MVCAN Eco-Warrior Team Leader Marilyn Price and Freedom Singers. Photo: Fabrice Florin.

MVCAN Core Leaders June Cooperman and Eileen Fisher. Photo: Fabrice Florin.

Earth Day 2018 brought together activists, artists, environmentalists, makers, children, teens, teachers, parents and others who might not have connected otherwise.

This community gathering was produced by Democracy Cafe, Eco Warriors of MVCAN and Tam Makers, with the generous support of Tamalpais High School, MVCAN, Good Earth, Driver’s Market, Sloat Garden Supply and multiple partners.

Thanks to event organizers Fabrice Florin, Jennifer Tomkins, Marilyn Price, Carol Korenbrot, Elspeth Martin, Geo Monley, Grace Severtson—and all the wonderful volunteers who helped produce this inspiring event. Special thanks to photographers Bruce Burtch, Fabrice Florin, Bill Jansen, Howard Rheingold, Grace Severtson, Jenny Tomkins and Martha Ture and videographers David Donnenfield, Tim Pozar, Bob Harlow and Chris View more of their work in the Earth Day photo album.

Read more about the Earth Day 2018 Celebration.

Photo: Fabrice Florin.

MVCAN's Carol Korenbrot, Marilyn Price, Fabrice Florin, Geo Monley.

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