FEATURED IN THIS WEEK’S MVCAN NEWSLETTER (9/28/20):

UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIONS

1. JOIN US FOR THE MVCAN OCTOBER 4th MEETING - SPECIAL SPEAKER FROM MOVE TEXAS! Plus Elections Home Stretch Update and More! - Sunday, Oct 4, 5pm - 6pm

2. FRIEND TO FRIEND Voter Recruitment Workshop, Saturday, Oct 3, 12pm - 1:30pm- Proven Highly Effective Method for GOTV!

3. PHONE BANKS - Now Running Several Times a Week! Join In!

4. TEXT VOTERS IN BATTLEGROUND STATES - Sign Up Now!

5. POSTCARD SEASON IS COMING TO AN END…. KUDOS to the Voter Postcard Team’s Astounding Accomplishments!

6. SUPPORT AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN MILL VALLEY. Call in Weds. Sept 30, 6:30pm to MV City Housing Meeting!

7. ATTEND MON, OCT. 5, 6:30pm Mill Valley City Council Meeting via Zoom to Voice your Opinions !

8. MILL VALLEY PROTEST AGAINST MAYOR MCENTEE’S WORDS & ACTIONS. Saturday, Oct 10, Noon at Depot Plaza

9. POWERFUL BLACK LIVES MATTER ART PROJECT DOWNTOWN MV: Provide “Go Fund Me” Support

10. RELIEF FOR MARIN IMMIGRANT FAMILIES. Donate to San Rafael’s Canal Alliance Client Support Fund

WHERE WE’VE BEEN AND WHAT WE DID

1. MVCAN AND ALLIES HOLD AWESOME BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST WITH POWERFUL SEGUE TO MV CITY COUNCIL MEETING on September 8th.

2. MVCAN HEALTH TEAM LEADS PUBLISH DISTINGUISHED COLUMN in MARIN IJ ON COVID-19.

3. REPORT FROM SEPTEMBER MVCAN MEETING - Guest Speaker Congressman Jared Huffman speaks to more than 80 attendees.

UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIONS

1

MVCAN OCTOBER MONTHLY MEETING ONLINE

SUNDAY, OCT 4th: 5pm - 6pm

MVCAN and Airlift (MVCAN’s sister organization) are working together to ensure every suppressed voter gets to the polls and every vote counts by promoting the work of organizations like MOVE Texas.

This month, we’re hosting a live interview with the executive director of MOVE Texas. For years, Texas was thought of as a safely red state. But in actuality, Texas is a non-voting state. Texas has one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the country.

Join us on October 4th to hear how MOVE Texas is changing that.

MAKING MOVES WITH THE YOUTH VOTE

MOVE runs one of the biggest voter registration campaigns in the entire country. Drew Galloway, Executive Director, has grown MOVE from a small group of dedicated students at the University of Texas, San Antonio, to an organization that spans seven cities and 55 campuses. They target young people, the largest voting bloc in the state with people under the age of 30 comprising 40% of eligible voters.

THE LEADER MAKING IT HAPPEN

HOW TO LOGIN TO MVCAN MONTHLY MEETING:

Join our Zoom Meeting Sunday, October 5th from 5:00 - 6:00 pm by clicking on this link:

JOIN ZOOM MEETING

PASSWORD: 794670

MEETING ID: 604 160 426

(We will be sending out 1 more reminder with Zoom link before the meeting )

ELECTION VOLUNTEER REPORT - The meeting will also feature a “home stretch” update on the MANY ways you can act in the final 5 weeks of Elections 2020. It’s not too late to get involved and make a difference!

2

FRIEND TO FRIEND VOTER OUTREACH - ATTEND TRAINING WORKSHOP - Saturday, Oct 3, Noon - 1:30pm

The most powerful reminder to vote is a reminder from someone you know. To win in November we need regular people to hold their friends, family and networks in key states accountable to vote.

Larry Litvak, co-leader of the MVCAN Electoral team, has developed a Friend-to-Friend Voter Outreach Program in which anyone can participate. Right now.

Reach out to ten people you know in states that matter and ask them to commit to bringing 3 friends or family members or neighbors to vote.

Tips for Friends Outreach:

Providing Friends With Voting Instructions

You can direct friends to information on When and How to Vote in All 50 States, particularly, how to vote early and How to Vote-by-Mail in Every State.

Recruiting Young People as Poll Workers

Also, you can ask friends to reach out to young people they know to recruit them to work at the polls through Power The Polls, an effort sponsored by Pod Save America.

HOW TO ATTEND FRIEND-TO-FRIEND OUTREACH WORKSHOP

If you’d like to learn more about Friend-To-Friend recruitment join us at a workshop next Saturday where we'll all roll up our sleeves and get going on reaching out to our networks. We’ll give you plenty of tools to feel comfortable contacting your friends:

Friend-To-Friend Outreach Zoom Workshop With Larry Litvak

Sat. Oct 3 - Noon - 1:30pm

3

2020 ELECTION PHONE BANKS AND TRAINING

STOP WORRYING. START DOING.

We have less than 40 days until November 3, the most important election in our lifetime.

Although it feels like this painful time in history will never end, the next 40 days will go very quickly. This is the time to step up and get training and experience in having person-to-person conversations with voters.

Don’t wake up Nov 4 feeling like you could have done more to save our democracy.

The most effective tools we have right now to increase voter turnout during the pandemic are phone banking, texting and “Friend-To-Friend” outreach (see #2, above). We cannot canvass door-to-door. Postcarding season is coming to an end: our hero, Andrea Miller of Reclaim Our Vote, has asked postcarders to pivot to phone banking and texting; ROV's last postcards must be sent out before Oct. 10.

All our work at this time is focused on educating voters to vote-by-mail or take advantage of Early Voting in their state.

As the election nears, more and more phone banks will be added in more Battleground States. We now have the auto-dialer tool in addition to manual-dial calls--you can get training at all our phone banks to use the dialer. Auto-dialers use software to call through many numbers to get you in a conversation with a voter; dialers are 10x more effective at reaching voters than manually-dialing.  

We are currently focusing on calling voters in one of our most crucial Battleground States, North Carolina, with the North Carolina Democratic Party/Biden Coordinated Campaign. North Carolina has critical races up and down the ballot: winning the Presidency, winning a priority Senate seat from incumbent Trump-BFF Tom Tillis, defending Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, holding the House and flipping their state legislature.

We also feature Reclaim Our Vote calls on Saturdays.

Our Saturday phone banks are co-hosted with Sister District Marin. We team up together to offer nonpartisan calls with Reclaim Our Vote to voters of color affected by voter suppression. Of course, we also call for the NC Dems Coordinated Campaign for our Democratic candidates up and down the ballot. We’ll offer Dialer training.

On Sundays we lead our Marin For Biden phone banks, calling with the NC Dems/Biden campaign. Dialer training is available.

On Wednesdays we host an all-dialer phone bank and training on the Thru-Talk auto-dialer

To participate in the Zoom Phone Bank, please have your charged cell phone AND a laptop, iPad or tablet along with your earbuds with a mic.

Remember, our experienced coaches are always on hand to guide you from start to finish.

REGISTER FOR OUR PHONE BANKS

Battleground Phone Bank - Tues. Sept 29, 4 - 6 pm (PDT)
Register HERE for details.

Phone Bank/Training Auto-Dialer - Wed. Sept. 30, 12 - 2 pm (PDT)

Register HERE

North Carolina Phone Bank - Sat. Oct. 3, 3 - 5 pm (PDT)

Includes calls for Reclaim Our Vote with Sister District Marin

Register HERE.

North Carolina/ AZ Phone Bank - Sun. Oct. 4, 2 - 4 pm (PDT)

Includes calls for AZ Legislative Districts with Sister District Marin

Register HERE.

PHONE BANKING FOR SPANISH SPEAKERS

¡Bienvenidos a nuestras llamadas semanales en línea!

We need your help calling Spanish-speaking voters about electing Democrats to the Senate and White House and registering to receive their ballots by mail.

Commit to Flip Blue, Democracy Action Marin, Santa Cruz Indivisible, and Flip the West teamed up for a virtual Spanish language phone bank focused on flipping U.S. Senate seats, every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Multiple times are available, see details when you sign up.

Sign up HERE to join Phone Banking For Spanish Speakers

4

TEXTING VOTERS IN BATTLEGROUND STATES

Texting is one of the most strategic ways, next to phone banking, to have personal conversations with voters. Text team leader Corrie Sias now has nearly 500(!) text volunteers reaching out to voters; they include many former postcarders who have become great enthusiasts! Here are some current texting opportunities which DemAction Marin’s Text Team leader Corrie Sias has researched and selected for you to pursue this week and next.

Please contact Text Team leader Corrie at corriesias11@gmail.com if you have questions or problems.

Texting to Iowa

The Iowa Democratic Party is launching a statewide text campaign to GOTV in this crucial state. We have a good chance of flipping the Senate seat in this state so getting out the vote is so important. The campaign is using the texting platform ThruText. Training for those who need it will be offered during your first shift. Those who already have used ThruText can just start texting once you have access to their account.

Sign Up for Iowa Texting Shifts

Texting to Florida

Florida with its 29 electoral votes is up for grabs in 2020 and that is why both candidates, Biden and Trump are spending time in this state. The training segues into sign up for shifts:

Sign up for Florida Text Training Here

Texting to Arizona

Arizona is one of the Democrat's best chances to gain a Senate seat with the excellent Democratic candidate, former astronaut Mark Kelly, running against Republican US Senator Martha McSally.

Sign up for training to get access to shift sign up:

Sign up for Arizona Text Training Here

VIEW AZ SHIFT SCHEDULE HERE: Arizona Text Shifts Schedule

Texting to Colorado

Here is a huge chance for Democrats to gain another Senate seat with former Governor John Hickenlooper running against Republican Senator Cory Gardner. They use ThruText for texting to voters and Slack for you to communicate with the campaign. To get set up and sign up for shifts, you must join a one hour training even if you know ThruText and Slack. This link will list only Wednesday, September 30 6PM PST for the next training but if that does not fit your schedule, fear not, there will be more listed as they open up the operation.

Sign up for Colorado Text Training here

Texting to Texas

If we can flip those 38 electoral votes in the big state of Texas BLUE, the Democrats own the White House. The campaign communicates with volunteers through their Slack channel and they use the text platform, Spoke.

Sign Up for Texas Text Training

Once you are trained you can sign up for shifts all day Monday-Friday.  

Sign Up for Texas Texting Shift

Latinx Vote GOTV

This is an opportunity for experienced texters to reach out to 1st generation Latinx in Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida and Arizona. A record 32 million Latinos are projected to be eligible to vote in 2020, up from 27.3 million in 2016.  

Sign up for Voto Latino GOTV texting shifts here

5

POSTCARD SEASON IS COMING TO AN END - KUDOS TO AMAZING MVCAN and FRIENDS POSTCARD TEAM!

The incredibly successful postcarding project that MVCAN members have been working on under the auspices of Reclaim Our Vote will begin winding up its work for the November 4 election. They are no longer accepting new postcarders. (Current writers please stay with your Team Lead.) Last date to mail postcards is October 10.

Reclaim Our Vote is strongly recommending that postcard writers switch to phone banking and/or texting as the best way to ensure boosted voter turnout as the election rapidly approaches.

Under the tireless and super-organized leadership of Bob Haar and his team leads, August saw continued dramatic growth in our postcard writing team (MVCAN members and other supporters across the country) with a 33% increase in the number of postcard writers encouraging unregistered and infrequent voters to vote in November’s election!

There are now more than 4,000 postcard writers on the postcard team! In 2020 so far we have distributed over 480,000 names/addresses to our writers, who have been sending postcards to battleground states with Reclaim Our Vote.

Voters of color have been engaged in the Carolinas, Texas and Georgia. Our writers blanketed North Carolina in early summer. Then sent 53,000 postcards to South Carolina for registration in June, 100,000 cards in July/August to Texas and Georgia to help with early voting.

All writers are receiving encouragement to transition to phone banking and texting. They are receiving links to phone banking and texting Zoom sessions provided by Democracy Action.

THANK YOU TO OUR AMAZING POSTCARD WRITERS AND TO BOB HAAR AND HIS AWESOME GROUP OF TEAM LEADS!

6

SUPPORT AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN MILL VALLEY Call in Weds, Sept. 30, 6:30-8:30pm to MV City Housing Advisory Committee Meeting!

The city of Mill Valley has just proposed a major initiative to create the first significant MV dedicated affordable housing complex in more than 30 years!

Please attend the Zoom meeting Wednesday, Sept 30, 6:30-8:30pm and find out about the options for Mill Valley housing expansion and details on this major affordable housing initiative.

Most importantly, call in to the meeting to voice your support for affordable housing as a major way to make Mill Valley more diverse and equitable. You can also call in to the MV City Council meeting on Monday, Oct 5, described in the section below, in which agenda item #7 will address this.

HOW TO ATTEND THE ZOOM MEETING OF THE HOUSING ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Housing Advisory Committee Virtual Meeting

Wed. Sept 30 at 6:30pm

Sign in HERE

Once you sign in, on the Agenda page, you can sign on with Zoom by clicking on “Participate Remotely.” You will also see an option to participate via phone.

How to Make Comments

Before the meeting: e-mail your comments to dstaude@cityofmillvalley.org no later than 4:00PM Tuesday, September 29, 2020. Your written comments will be forwarded to the Committee and included in the public record.

During the meeting (only): use the “raise hand” function in zoom or 9 via telephone. City staff will select you from the meeting cue when it is your turn to speak. Comments are limited to 2 minutes.

Contribute your comments for AGENDA ITEM III: Identification of City-Owned Property to Leverage Affordable Housing Opportunities...

For background information and more details on the Sept 30 meeting, see the Meeting Agenda, the MV city Staff Report and also the MV Housing website.

7

ATTEND VIRTUAL MILL VALLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING  Monday, Oct 5, 6:30pm

On October 5th, MVCAN members are encouraged to virtually attend the Mill Valley City Council meeting.

During Open Public Comment time at the beginning of the meeting, you may remark on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force Issues, Black Lives Matters or on any other issues. For example, Mayor Sashi McEntee just voted against public health and with “big tobacco” at the last meeting of the MVCC by voting “no” on a Mill Valley ban on the sale of certain flavored tobacco products, including their sale in pharmacies. Her verbal justification for this vote against meaningful tobacco regulation to protect young people was both ludicrously illogical and dangerously anti-health. Her extreme rightwing stances continue in many similar threads of words and actions.

Agenda Item #7 is the affordable housing proposal, so please comment at that time as well.

Your presence is needed at these meetings! The number of activists and supporters and their persistence in attending meetings is having an effect on the Council. However, we must continue to be active supporters in order to realize material changes in Mill Valley government policies. We also need to demonstrate to all our community leaders that the Mayor’s ongoing offenses are a profound betrayal of the values of the vast majority of Mill Valley residents.

While in the meeting, please communicate by phone or written message during the Open Public Comment period (early in the meeting).

HOW TO ATTEND THE MILL VALLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING

How to attend the city council meeting on Monday, Oct 5, 6:30pm using Zoom in a webinar format:

Click on How to Participate Remotely_201005

See the Agenda for the meeting at Agenda MVCC Meeting Oct 5.

To get more info on the MVCC issues, write info@mvcan.org

8

MILL VALLEY RALLY PROTESTING ACTIONS BY MAYOR McENTEE AT DEPOT PLAZA - Sat. Oct 10, Noon - 1:30

Let’s continue to show our opposition to Mayor McEntee by joining with allied activist groups on Saturday, Oct 10 at noon at Depot Plaza (downtown Mill Valley) to protest Mayor McEntee’s objectionable words and actions both on and off the record.

9

SUPPORT POWERFUL BLACK LIVES MATTER ART PROJECT: AT THE DEPOT IN DOWNTOWN MILL VALLEY

Photo by Fabrice Florin.

Please visit this community art project which responds to the present-day Racial Justice movement & invites Mill Valley residents to share their experiences, personal stories, and visions for a racial justice future on a set of three doors. One side of each door is painted to represent different perspectives on systemic racism. The back of each door will serve as a community message board.

This project is the result of a collaboration between the Mill Valley Arts Commission and artist Zoe Fry and other artist contributors. The project is inspired by the need for the Mill Valley community to stop and listen to BIPOC experience. In order to get a timely installation (civic art takes forever to fund), Zoe Fry had to “gift” it to the community. She is not able to fund this project on her own, so we are asking for your support to make her $6,000 goal. Join in anyway you can! And don’t miss seeing this inspiring art project still live on the Depot Plaza.

To donate, go to GoFundMe Racial Equity Community Art Project.

Also, check out the cool article in the Marin IJ: Mill Valley Art Project Tackles Racism Through Storytelling.

10

DONATE: IMMIGRANT CORONAVIRUS RELIEF FUND

"High-risk, high-poverty essential workers are facing multiple challenges that other groups are not," says Omar Carrera (above) who runs the Canal Alliance in Marin.

Your donation to the Canal Alliance Client Support Fund will help hardworking and vulnerable immigrants put food on the table, pay for rent and utilities, and cover other urgent expenses. The Canal Alliance has been helping its community with great effectiveness and efficiency for many months now - let’s help them carry on!

Many Canal Alliance clients are hourly workers who face significant or total loss of income. And while school closures present challenges for all families, these challenges are exacerbated for low-income families – when school resumes with remote learning in the fall, parents may need to stay home from work to provide child care, and children who lack access to the internet may be unable to keep up with their peers academically. You can help by donating to help families who have lost their jobs and income to purchase food, medication and diapers, or pay their rent and utilities.

DONATE TO THE CANAL ALLIANCE - CLIENT SUPPORT FUND

See the August 2020 National Public Radio article about Marin’s Canal Alliance’s work: Our Communities Are In Crisis: Latinos and Covid-19

WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO!

1

MVCAN HOSTED INSPIRING BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST AND “ATTENDED’ MILL VALLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING

Amber Allen Peirson and Barry Accius

More than 60 activists attended the Depot rally and dozens of passionate commenters weighed in at the MVCC meeting Sept 8 on Black Lives Matter reforms and other issues.

2

MVCAN HEALTH TEAM GETS MARIN VOICE COLUMN

IN MARIN IJ

The Marin Voice column by Elyse Foster MD and Greg Melcher MD in the Sept 16 Marin IJ is a lucid and persuasive commentary on the need to follow Marin public health and CA state guidelines. See Marin Voice: Getting back to businesses has potential consequences for virus rates.

We are grateful for our team members, distinguished doctors Elyse Foster and Greg Melcher, for writing this opinion piece to support COVID policies.

The MVCAN Health Care Team will continue to meet monthly with Marin Public Health officials on COVID-19 issues.

3

SEPTEMBER MVCAN MEETING

We were delighted to once again host our inspiring and super-informative Congressman Jared Huffman at our September meeting. More than 80 folk tuned in to get his take on the election and the latest DC happenings

Please check him out on video here at Report From Our Congressman: Sept 2020 Also, check out our other recent inspiring speakers - awesome organizers from the “Front Lines” at mvcan.org.

Jared Huffman, on the zoom!

**

JOIN AN ACTION TEAM

WANT TO GET MORE INVOLVED in a specific issue or support area? 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.

Eco Team 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 Airlift in the Huffington Post .

Electoral The Electoral Team is hard at work to take back our country in battleground states all over the country this November...voters start voting in September! We're calling, texting and sending letters & postcards to defend our hard-won House seats, win the Presidency, and take back the Senate. Our team of experienced electoral leaders will help get you started to talk to voters to make sure they are registered and ready to VOTE THEM OUT. We feature Voter Communication training and we'll coach you every step of the way. Join us to take back our country!

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.

WANT TO VOLUNTEER YOUR SKILLS OR TALENTS?

Numerous positions and jobs are available – one-time or ongoing.  Contact volunteer@mvcan.org.

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

MVCAN News brought to you by June, Annie and Eileen