Get Women in a Room: How to start or join a local chapter of The New Agenda
December 14, 2008
by Contributor
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The key to The New Agenda is getting women together in a non-partisan way so that we can begin to address issues that affect us all. The most difficult part of The New Agenda is focusing on non-partisan solutions.
Women have been divided for far too long by parties that take us for granted or don’t address our issues at all. We must find the goals that unite us as women. We are 52% of the population, but this division cuts us in half and in effect silences our voices.
Having a chapter of The New Agenda in your area would allow us to respond in force when a female political candidate needs support. Many of us were so surprised by the blatant sexism from all sides in this last election that we couldn’t get organized quickly enough to respond effectively. We never want to be in that position again. A chapter of The New Agenda in your area could respond to issues in your local government, and also call out to us when you need more voices. The purpose is to link women of all backgrounds in all regions together so that the next time we have a woman in any party who needs our help we will be able to respond with a single thundering voice: NO MORE!
Local chapters of The New Agenda may have individual goals and local needs they will address, while still participating in The New Agenda nationally when we need to speak out about a something like Chris Matthews or Jon Favreau. Just getting women on an email list that are willing to respond to “the powers that be” on behalf of other women is crucial. You might consider having your meetings on Monday nights and participating in our Chewing the Fat with Ophelia online radio broadcast. The most important thing is getting women in contact with each other.
Some of our Team Captains have expressed a desire to advocate for women in their local area. If you choose to start a chapter of The New Agenda in your area, there are many ways you can help local women and contribute to our larger cause, as well. For example, you could “adopt” a woman and combine your group’s skills to change her life. You could also lobby the elected women in your area to remind them that although you supported them in their last election, you will not continue to do so if they are inactive on the issues you want addressed. Your local chapter of The New Agenda could choose to focus on volunteering at a local battered women’s shelter, raising money for them, helping women in the shelter find jobs, helping them learn interviewing skills, simply holding their hands when they go to court—the list goes on and on. One mistake a lot of us make is thinking the only way to make changes to help women is in Washington, D.C. While we will be addressing national issues, we can’t lose sight of the importance of helping the woman that lives down the street from us.
Decide if you are willing to commit to this project. If you are, you could start with your immediate group of friends, family, and co-workers and expand from there. You can have one Team Captain, or several co-captains—the point is to have someone who will help keep everyone moving, organized, motivated, and in touch with the The New Agenda nationally. The more the merrier! It can take as little time as a meeting once per month just to go over the articles we have posted on our website and our action alerts where we request that you write protest letters etc. Or some of you members might want to take on a larger project like the ones suggested above. Members need to know that it is okay for them to be involved as little or as much as they can commit to. Some may only be able to send emails on occasion or some may have more time and be ready to take on something huge. The best way to get started is to get women in a room. From there you can decide together what your local chapter needs to focus on.
Please email me at NewAgendaTeamCaptain@yahoo.com if you are interested in being a Team Captain and organizing a Local Chapter. Your first meeting can be five people or fifty. It is important to get feedback from each of you to use our successes to help motivate us.
If women want any rights more than they’s got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it.
- Sojourner Truth
Good Morning Agendas
Wow! I was just visting NOW and it looks like they got some women in a room and they decided to steal TNA’s ideas.
NOW’s Feminist Action Agenda for 2009 And Beyond
http://www.now.org/issues/agenda2009.html
Upon reading their agenda, it sound very much like your agenda, but then I suppose you can look at it this way, at least everyone is on the same page…..
Question: How come you have so few blogrolls, if you are open to all suggestions and input, from all womens blogs?
Although it is good that NOW is looking toward the future for Feminist Action, I can’t help but remember how they threw a highly qualified woman under the bus and endorsed a man. It just seems to be an oxymoron.
I’m all for a New Agenda!
If any of you aren’t ready to commit to being a team captain but would consider being a co-captain or would like to be put in touch with other New Agenda members in your area, please feel free to email your contact information (please include city and state) to the Team Captain address.
NewAgendaTeamCaptain@yahoo.com
Thoughts from a guy. The issues that unite you are greater than those that divide.Back in the beginning of the movement the issues were to advance the cause of women’s equality, equal opportunity in sports and pay,get women into the boardrooms, and into elected positions- those are the ones that still unite…when you fight over whether or not Gov Palin is a feminist( and assuredly she is -wife mother Governor-VP Pick- she may not label it so but she is) because of certain views she holds -ie Abortion-unrelated to the mission statment above you defeat the mission.
Bruce,
Guess what? We beat you to it!
Check out our FAQ and Goals and I think you’ll see what I mean.
I just went to the NOW site…this is what you should not do- a list of legislation- some will then say they oppose you if you dont support all or perhaps some of thier agendas- some are simply liberal positions on issues. Then you go back to the Palin debate all over again- is she a feminist-should you support her etc.To me NOW has become far to left wing and should be called the National Organization of Libera Agenda Women- not the movement I was so avidly a member in the beginning. My suggested mission statement is what you should strive for-
Thia- hadnt seen it- it is great- you guys ARE right on
Bruce, with all due respect…we don’t need someone coming in and listing what we should do because he thinks another women’s group is “far to(sic) left wing.”
And you say you were an “avid” member from way back? Strange. NOW hasn’t moved to the left, and there are plenty of “liberals” here, so bashing them isn’t going to get you any brownie points.
Why don’t you try catching up first before trying to re-invent the wheel we’ve been using for a while? We’ve been busy.
Zee, didnt mean to be dissrespectful..My point was that NOW with its support of certain issues is not open to feminist supporters that have disagreements with those positions ie Palin. The old NOW , the one whose agenda was Equal rights, was more inclusive then the present one. New Agenda, as pointed out to me by you and others fills that need, and we are blessed to all be able to join together under this tent- again if yu feltattacked,I am sorry that wasnt my intention
I understand Caroline Kennedy is seeking the Senate seat of Mrs Clinton, hopefully the press will not find her unqualified because she is a mother…and needs to stay with her kids
I know the pro-choice/pro-life controversy has been a sharp divider among women. I also know the gay marriage idea is a sharp divider among liberals and conservatives. I think a neutral/non-partisan response would be either to agree to disagree or to say “I’ll let the states decide” and leave it at that. As far as I know, there is nothing else that divides women so significantly, and finding non-partisan solutions should be easy.
I would love for a New Agenda chapter to open up in the Texas Panhandle where I live. I want to be a regular member, though. I have no skill at organization, so unfortunately, I can’t be a captain. After this past election, I really want to be a member of something that can make a positive change.
Without opening a can of worms, constitutionally Karen is correct. The US Govt has ignored the concept of Federalism recently. That is why we have states, not provinces. We are to experiment at the state level, and if other states like it they too adopt it. Whethr or not you are pro choice, you must be pro constitutionas it is the tie that bnds us all. There is no right of privacy, implied rights, inherent rights,executive rights, etc, all the buzz words the Supreme Court uses to usurpe the states or to expand Federal power, or increase presidential power. Roe v Wade was decided on spurious constitutional basis- even though its result may be aplauded- they way it was done was wrong. Bush uses the same logic to expand his power as does congress repeatedly.
Bruce, re states vs federal—-
while that has traditionally been a “conservative” concern, I would hope that there is a way for “liberals” to begin to pay attention to it, as well.
I fear not yet, tho.
However, I have no idea what you are talking about re the “rights.”
We sure as hell have rights…they’re in the BILL OF RIGHTS. And we do have implied rights. The 9th Amendment spells that out…our rights extend beyond what is listed.
The Supreme Court isn’t using the rights to usurp power…they’re TRAMPLING those rights to exert power over states at a federal level.
But as you say, this isn’t really the place to fully open that particular can of worms!
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