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FEATURED IN THIS WEEK’S MVCAN NEWSLETTER (8/6/20):

UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIONS

1. OUR CONGRESSMAN JARED HUFFMAN - SPECIAL SPEAKER! JOIN US FOR THE MVCAN SEPT MEETING. Plus Elections 2020 update and more! - Thursday. Sept 10, 5pm - 6pm (New date)

2. JOIN MVCAN BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST! - Tuesday, September 8, 5:30 - 6:30 pm at Depot Plaza and then ZOOM ATTEND MILL VALLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING at 6:30pm

3. ELECTIONS 2020 - NO TIME TO LOSE - UPCOMING VIRTUAL PHONE BANKS AND FRIEND-TO-FRIEND VOTER OUTREACH plus TRAININGS on SEPT 12th, 13th and 20th!

4. TEXT VOTERS IN BATTLEGROUND STATES - SIGN UP NOW

5. HELP WITH GRASSROOTS FUNDRAISING- join AIRLIFT POWER HOUR ON SEPTEMBER - WEDS, SEPT 16, 5pm- 6pm, HOST: SUPERVISOR KATE SEARS

6. SUPPORT POWERFUL BLACK LIVES MATTER ART PROJECT: THE DEPOT IN DOWNTOWN MV - and help w/ Go Fund Me

7. SUPPORT LOCAL BLACK BUSINESS OWNERS- On Sept 12, Shop at “pop up” outdoor market at PROOF LAB in Tam Junction, Mill Valley, Saturday, Sept 12, 10am - 6pm

8. SAVE THE DATE - MVCAN OCTOBER MONTHLY MEETING - Sun. Oct 4, 5pm - 6pm.  The Final Stretch h - No Regrets!!

WHERE WE’VE BEEN AND WHAT WE DID

1. MVCAN CO-SPONSORED TWO “PROTECT OUR POST OFFICE’ PROTESTS IN AUGUST  

2. INSPIRATIONAL MVCAN AUGUST MEETING WITH “BLACK VOTERS MATTER” CO-FOUNDER.

3. MVCAN HEALTH CARE TEAM MEETS WITH MARIN PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIAL ON COVID-19 ISSUES

UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIONS

1

MVCAN SEPTEMBER MONTHLY MEETING ONLINE

THURSDAY, SEPT 10th: 5pm - 6pm (Note day change)

Jared Huffman at our March meeting (no masks back then)

EXCITING MVCAN NEWS! We are thrilled once again to host our inspirational Congressman -- Jared Huffman. Join us virtually on Thursday, September 10, 5pm-6pm (Note change of date) and hear the Congressman’s always incisive report on Washington and the elections, and hear him field our most pressing questions!

PLUS GET THE LATEST FROM THE MVCAN 2020 ELECTIONS TEAM:

MVCAN strategists from the Electoral Team will give an update about the national and state electoral landscape and our action strategies to make victories happen.  

Plus, hear the latest on Mill Valley City politics and the new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force news.

HOW TO LOGIN TO MVCAN MONTHLY MEETING:

Join our Zoom Meeting Thursday, September 10th 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 )

Need more help? During the meeting you can get assistance with Zoom:

• Type into the Zoom Chat Box to reach Bernard Catalinotto.

• Text or Call Larry Litvak 415-595-0030

2

MVCAN BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST AND RALLY

Tuesday Sept 8 - 5:30pm plus MVCAN Open Letter to City

Join with fellow MVCAN members and other allied activist groups on Tuesday, Sept 8, 5:30 to 6:30 pm at Depot Plaza to show support for a strong Mill Valley City Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force. A large turnout at the protest is essential to demonstrate to the Mill Valley City Council that our community is still serious about supporting Black Lives Matter issues and addressing police reform in Mill Valley, despite city officials’ ongoing secrecy and intransigence.

MVCAN leadership submitted an open letter to Mill Valley city officials last week summarizing their shortcomings in the formation and development of the DEI Task Force to date and demanding they follow through on their promises. It is well worth the read to get all the background and current demands. The community has not forgotten, nor should the majority of the City Council be allowed to minimize and re-write what happened in Mill Valley during BLM protests this summer.

ACTION: Please email your endorsement of the open letter to info@MVCAN.org

Your endorsement email can be simple, such as a statement like the following, “I endorse the MVCAN open letter on the DEI Task Force dated Aug, 31, 2020.” An impressive show of endorsements is needed to convince city council members of their responsibilities to the community.

After the rally, MVCAN members are encouraged to virtually attend the Mill Valley City Council meeting at 6:30pm. While in the meeting, please communicate by phone or written message during the Public Comment period (early in the meeting) or during agenda item #6 (the DEI task force).

Please use the MVCAN open letter/position paper as a jumping off point to raise concerns or make demands.

You can review the city’s inadequate and flawed DEI Task Force plan posted on the city website here: City Staff Report on Formation of DEI Task Force.

HOW TO ATTEND THE MILL VALLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING

How to attend the city council meeting on Tuesday, Sept 8, 6:30pm using Zoom in a webinar format:

Click on How to Participate Remotely_200908.pdf

Also please mark your calendars to attend the subsequent MVCC meeting Monday, Sept 21, 6:30 pm.

3

2020 ELECTION PHONE BANKS AND TRAINING

& FRIEND-TO-FRIEND VOTER OUTREACH

STOP WORRYING. START DOING.

We have less than 60 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 60 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 (more on that below.) 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.

There are currently 3 phone banks a week. 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.

VOTER COMMUNICATION TRAINING

Training - Voter Communication With Kathi Walsh - Sept 13 and Sept 20.                                

This is the last training with Kathi Walsh before E-Day! Kathi is one of our favorite trainers -- a psychiatric nurse specializing in substance abuse who has developed a unique active listening technique. This is a very persuasive tool perfect for our conversations with voters...and in life.

You must take Part 1 in order to take Part 2 (note: we will have Part 1 recorded so you can catch up if you cannot make Sept 13)

Voter Communication With Kathi Walsh Part 1
Sun. Sept 13, 11 am - 12 pm
Register HERE for Part 1

Voter Communication With Kathi Walsh Part 2
Sun. Sept 20, 11 am - 12 pm
Register HERE for Part 2

REGISTER FOR OUR PHONE BANKS

Phone Bank - Sat. Sept 12, 3 - 5 pm

Co-Hosted with Sister District Marin. Calling NC with the NC Dems/Biden Campaign and also for Reclaim Our Vote.

Register HERE for details.

Phone Bank - Sun. Sept 13, 2 - 4 pm

Calling NC with NC Dems/Biden Campaign. Dialer training available.

Register HERE for details

Phone Bank/Training - Dialer - Wed. Sept 16, 12 - 2 pm

Join this All-Dialer phone bank if you’re an experienced phone banker who wants to make calls using the auto-dialer: you’ll be trained from start-to-finish.

Register HERE for details

No Phone Bank Sat. Sept 19: Rosh Hashanah

Phone Bank - Sun. Sept 20. 2 - 4 pm

Calling NC with NC Dems/Biden Campaign

Register HERE for details.

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.

For more information on Democracy Action Marin’s wide variety of electoral activities and for more info about the phone banks, please contact Marti Cermak at marti.cermak@gmail.com.

FRIEND TO FRIEND VOTER OUTREACH - A MAJOR MVCAN INITIATIVE

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 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.

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. Sept 12 - 12:30 - 1:30pm
To Register and for more details, email swbolle+demaction@gmail.com

Tips for 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.

TRANSITIONING FROM POSTCARDING TO PHONE BANKING AND TEXTING

The incredibly successful postcarding project that MVCAN members have been working with through Reclaim Our Vote will begin winding up its work for the November 4 election. The last day to mail postcards is Oct 10, and they are no longer accepting new postcarders. (Current writers please stay with your Team Lead.) They are strongly recommending that postcarders switch to phone banking and/or texting as the best way to ensure boosted voter turnout as the election rapidly approaches.

REMINDER: Last date to mail postcards is October 10.

4

TEXTING VOTERS IN BATTLEGROUND STATES

Texting is one of the most strategic ways, next to phone banking, to have personal conversations with voters. Below are some current texting opportunities which DemAction Marin’s Text Team leader Corrie has researched and selected for you to pursue this week and next. The Biden and Texas texting are available mostly everyday all day, but the other campaigns use scheduled shifts.

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

Check out the Calendar of Texting Events.

TEXTING TO NORTH CAROLINA

The North Carolina Democratic Party will provide you with training, resources, and guidance to set you up for texting success!

The out-of-state volunteer text bank events are scheduled in shifts on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Sign Up for NC Texting Here

TEXTING IOWA AND BEYOND WITH FLIP THE WEST

Right now, Flip the West is texting registered Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents in Iowa to support Theresa Greenfield and to sign up to vote by mail.

Flip the West is hosting a weekly text bank every Wednesday 4-6 PM PST and every Sunday 11 AM- 12:30 PM PST.

They will be adding other states soon. You will be texting from your computer or cell phone, while participating on a Zoom call where technical support and camaraderie will be abundant.

The text platform is called Spoke. Even if you have texted with Spoke for a different organization, you'll need to create a new account in Spoke for this campaign. Sign up and you will receive a Confirmation Email from Flip the West with the link to create the Flip the West Spoke account and with the Zoom link.

Sign Up for Flip the West Texting Here

TEXTING FOR BIDEN / HARRIS

To text for the Biden campaign, it is required that you attend a training even though you are an experienced texter. Campaigns have very specific messaging and each one of them wants to make sure that anyone representing them applies their messaging correctly.

Here is the Sign Up for NC/Biden Campaign Training.

Once you have been trained with the campaign, you will be able to sign up for the Biden Slack channel where you will get instructions on how to get set up with the actual texting platform ThruText and learn the correct answers to replies.

If you have any problems getting set up on their Slack channel, please email me at corriesias11@gmail.com for help.                              

TEXTING TEXAS

If we can flip those 38 electoral votes in the big state of Texas BLUE, the Democrats own the White House. Beto's organization, Powered By People, is bound and determined to do just that so they are texting every single registered Texas voter to ID them as supporters of Biden or Trump. Basically, they are scrubbing a list of registered voters to make it as clean as possible. That way they will only be reaching out to our supporters in the final days to GOTV. They offer training and set-up instructions Wednesdays 4P PST and Saturdays 11AM PST . The campaign communicates with volunteers through their Slack channel and they use the text platform, Spoke. Once you are trained, you will be able to text everyday all day.

Sign Up for Texas Text Training

If you already know and use Slack and have texted on the Spoke platform before, just go to this link to join the Powered by People Slack channel and ask for a batch of texts to get started. Join Powered by People Slack Channel

5

AMAZING AIRLIFT POWER HOUR - Wed. Sept 16, 5pm-6pm     HOSTED by SUPERVISOR KATE SEARS

What are Power Hours about?

We're all nervous about the election in November, and we have reason to be. Trump’s knee is on the necks of voters in communities of color, and we need to win big in November.

MVCAN’s sister organization Airlift supports a set of community-based grassroots groups across battleground states that find and engage unlikely voters (the exact ones we need to show up if we're going to win). These groups not only register and mobilize hundreds of thousands of new voters, they also ensure these voters feel civically engaged. Voters who feel like they are truly part of the process turn out at triple the rate of voters who register but are not engaged.

POWER HOUR EVENT

Airlift is throwing a virtual event on Sept 16th hosted by Marin Supervisor Kate Sears that offers all the information you need to know about Airlift strategy and groups. After an inspiring 25 minute presentation, we promise you'll feel hopeful about 2020 and relieved to know about the work of these amazing (and highly effective) groups.

KATE SEARS’ POWER HOUR MEETING

Wednesday, Sept 16 - 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

Register Here

A Zoom link will be provided via email after you register.

If you don’t have time to attend the meeting, but would like to donate, we’ve got you covered.

Grab a glass of wine (for real) and join us (virtually) to learn more from the people powering Airlift!

✊ Feel free to invite anyone who may want to make a difference with you.

6

SUPPORT BLACK LIVES MATTER ART INSTALLATION IN DOWNTOWN MILL VALLEY

Art Project for Racial Justice

Photo by Fabrice Florin / GreenChange.net:

If you're strolling through town this weekend, you may notice some activity on the Downtown Plaza! A community art project in response to the present-day Racial Justice movement invites Mill Valley 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. 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 both financially and through shares (explain shares). Join in anyway you can! And don’t miss seeing this inspiring art project live on the Depot Plaza.

Zoe is trying to cover the cost of the installation so any help is appreciated! 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

7

SUPPORT LOCAL BLACK BUSINESS OWNERS

Sept 12, 10am - 6pm

Local community activist Naima Dean is putting this wonderful event together. Don’t miss it next Saturday at Tam Junction!

From 10 am to 6 p. Sept. 12 at Proof Lab at 244 Shoreline Highway in Mill Valley, come out and support Black-owned businesses at Naima Dean’s Both/And Productions’ “Spread Love” pop-up market of Black-owned businesses. Masks required.

8

SAVE THE DATE - MVCAN OCTOBER MONTHLY MEETING

Sun. Oct 4

SAVE THE DATE - Join us Sunday, October 4, from 5pm- 6pm for our monthly meeting on the crucial stretch leading towards the election 2020 finish line. There will be much to discuss!

Ken Pontac and Angelique Benicio speaking at the rally in Sausalito.

MVCAN folks and partners put on two energetic support rallies for our USPS offices and their workers last month in both Mill Valley and Sausalito. Thanks to the many community members who came out to stand up for a professional and well-funded post office.

Last week the MVCAN Health Care Team met with Marin’s Deputy Public Health Officer, Dr. Lisa Santora to discuss updates and issues around addressing Marin’s COVID-19 epidemic, gaining many insights into the current situation. A follow up meeting is planned for next month.