FYI
-----Original Message-----PLEASE FORWARD – PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY – PLEASE FORWARD
From: Van Jones [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 1:04 PM
To: bay area comrades
Cc: world comrades
Subject: "Indyvoter.org" Is UP, Ya'll!!! Check out the NEW kids!!!
Check this out! I just got this from Billy Upski and the brand-new League of Young Voters. VERY INSPIRING!!! The next generation is stepping up in a major, MAJOR way to deal with the criminal highjackers in the White House. Read this and you will smile. van
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From: Billy Wimsatt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 10:31:14 -0800 (PST)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: quick favor
hi,
I need your help on something right quick for the League.
I need your address + zip code.
(we need it to get your electoral district -so we can be effective).
Please go to www.Indyvoter.org <http://www.indyvoter.org/> and sign yourself up.
(under “join here” on the left hand side of the screen.)
Our test goal is to get 500 people in the database by this weekend.
Seriously, it will take you ONE MINUTE.
Our generation is about to flex. Be part of it.
billy
www.Indyvoter.org <http://www.indyvoter.org/>
ps. below is some quick background on the League.
Background:
One year ago, I sent out an email to 120 hip-hop activists and political organizers proposing that we come together and start a “League” to create local progressive voter guides and voting blocs across the country. You wrote back with a 50% response rate! It was such an obvious idea. I couldn’t believe no organization was already doing this. I felt like: Does the progressive movement have a brain? My co-founder Kyle Stewart and I called up every voting group in the country and they all said the same thing: No one is doing this. You folks should do it.
So we sent out another email to 300 people saying: Hey, are you serious? If so, volunteer! Again, we got a 50% response rate and more than 60 people volunteered. We were like: Holy Shit! We need to build an organization to channel this. We spent the next six months surveying people, researching models, building partnerships, filing paperwork, coordinating volunteers, laying the foundation.
Then Adrienne Brown came along and said: “Hey, you need a Steering Committee.” So she organized a Steering Committee of 12 of the most dedicated, talented people to build the organization. One year after the first email went out, we’re up and running.
What We’ve Accomplished so Far:
We have a fiscal sponsor, funding, an office, staff, a website, more than 50 volunteers working on a weekly basis, and 7 interns.
We’ve organized 3 national gatherings, held more than 50 local ones in 14 states, and piloted two local voter guides -in Cincinnati and New Orleans- with a great response. Our model works! It gets people who hate/ignore local politics to become involved/obsessed –precisely our intent.
We hired CTSG (the top progressive online company which does back-end programming for Moveon.org, etc.) to build our online tools. We’re not playing.
We created a book How to Get Stupid White Men Out Of Office (out in March) with 20 success stories of young people from 16 states who swung or won elections –from city council to US Senate- and a 12 author, 80 city swing state tour. It’s gonna be huge –it will revolutionize the way young people think about electoral politics. We’ve already gotten 9,200 pre-orders from bookstores.
And that was just testing the waters.
Waters = tested. Time to give stank politicians a bath.
In 2004, we’re unveiling our multi-state “voter organizer” trainings, and a comprehensive online/offline week-by-week, precinct-by-precinct ground campaign in the six months leading up to the November 2 election.
We call it November Surprise.
You’ll see.
Want to be part of it?
Go to www.Indyvoter.org <http://www.indyvoter.org/> RIGHT NOW. Sign up.
Then strap on your seatbelt.
Do you Yahoo!?
Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard <http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree>
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