A New Years Message from The New Agenda
January 1, 2009
by The New Agenda
|(The following message was sent to our members. If you would like to receive action alerts, member alerts and other information, please send us an email at JoinTheNewAgenda@yahoo.com)
A MOVEMENT IS BORN
As the New Year dawns, we invite you to look back on the successes of our first months together. The 2008 Presidential Election was our wake-up call. Whether we supported Senator Hillary Clinton or Governor Sarah Palin, this election beamed a bright light on the misogyny and sexism that is rampant in our culture. Moving quickly, we harnessed the anger, disappointment, passion and even disgust to form a new nonpartisan organization that speaks out for the rights of all women.
In just a few short months we have established ourselves as a credible voice that the news media turns to more and more frequently. Now we need your help to reach out and grow our national organization. With your support and involvement, we can and will be even more effective in our efforts to achieve women’s equality.
OUR RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT SO FAR
On August 11th we held our first meeting. A group of thirty women from around the country sat in a room and vowed to speak out against the flourishing sexism and misogyny in our country. We decided to be an inclusive, “big tent” organization where women and like-minded men could feel at home. The Founders of our organization believed that women in this country had become a Divided Majority — political parties and special interests had been dividing us and taking away our power. We left the meeting with committees and high hopes. We did not envisioned what would happen in the next few months.
A LOOK BACK AT 2008—HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR FIRST FEW MONTHS TOGETHER
- Membership: our big tent has men (15%) and women (85%) from all 50 states, all political parties (approximately 50%/50% Democrat/Republican), and all views on reproductive rights.
- Sexist Attacks on Gov. Palin: The New Agenda was the first and only women’s organization to consistently speak out for Sarah Palin.
- Larry Summers for Treasury Secretary: we were the only national women’s organization to protest Summer’s consideration for Treasury Secretary. Mission accomplished.
- Cabinet Watch: The New Agenda was the only national women’s organization with a cabinet watch and the only one to consistently speak out for gender parity in cabinet.
- Senate Seat in NY/CO: The New Agenda circulatied press releases calling on Governor Paterson of NY and Governor Ritter of CO to appoint women candidates to fill vacated senate seats.
- Jon Favreau: we were the only national women’s organization to speak out about Jon Favreau’s infamous grope.
- Coalition Meeting in DC: we were invited to and attended a coalition meeting in Washington DC of 41 of the nation’s largest women’s organizations.
- Coalition Letters: we signed on to a letter to the Obama Transition Team asking for a fair share of jobs for women.
- Talk Radio Show: we established a weekly Blogtalk Radio show called Chewing the Fat with Ophelia.
- Press: we received media coverage from every major national print newspaper as well as major cable television stations, online media and many local newspapers (see our media section.
- Website: we created a wonderful website that gets thousands of hits each day and features interesting blog pieces on women’s issues.
A LOOK FORWARD TO 2009
The New Agenda is excited to inform our members that we have officially formed our Board of Directors and named our Executive Committee. Our Board Members have experience running national women’s organizations, participating in boards of national organizations, and filling leadership roles in corporate America. Also underway in 2009:
- Donations: TNA is finalizing our paperwork for incorporation, which will allow us to collect donations, hopefully in January.
- 501c3/501c4: we will also be filing paperwork as a non-for profit 501c3 and for a politically active 501c4.
- Web Design/Branding: TNA will be updating our wonderful website and we will select a branding company and start that process.
- Priority #1 in 2009: to work towards the inclusion of the word “gender” in the definition of Hate Crimes (currently includes only race, religion, sexual preference and national origin).
We look back on 2008 as year full of achievement as well as some challenges. Nothing will stop us from moving ahead with our plans to be a true voice for the women of this country.
The New Agenda needs your continued support and involvement. We need you all to pitch in: to pick up our action alerts and speak out, to report sexism when it rears its ugly head, to consider becoming a team captain as we build our national grassroots effort, and most importantly to spread the word to your friends, family and neighbors. The voice of The New Agenda will become louder and more powerful as our membership grows nationwide.
The women of our country may rest assured that they have a strong advocate now on their side. We will not stop or back down. In fact, we are just getting warmed up!
Happy New Year!
Amy Siskind
Co-Founder and President
The New Agenda
Happy New Year, New Agenda! I was born in the 80′s so I think I have the right to say that you are AWESOME!!!!
Thank you for all that you have done and it is so nice to see this great list of accomplishments. This work is so important and so very needed.
It’s 4 months, and the list of accomplishments are impressive. Just getting started too. Proud! Elated.
Happy New Year to all.
Oops, I made myself sound younger than I am. Not born in the 80′s but a child of the 80′s, LOL.
Me too Ali and I think you’re totally AWESOME!
Congrats!
I would consider adding to, editing and monitoring the Obama Women’s Agenda http://change.gov/agenda/women_agenda/.
TNA should have an opinion or whether or not this agenda is adequate.
This piece that you put together is fantastic!!!! It would make an impressive press release. My hat’s off to those who spent the time writing this and, of course, for all of what has been accomplished in just a few short months. TNA is laying important groundwork and has developed visibility very quickly.
And, good to know that Amy is the President of the org. I haven’t been able to figure out the org structure as there appear to be a lot of co-founders!
Harkening back to Thia’s lovely piece about Laura Bush, I’m just giving everyone a heads up that there is a piece about First Lady Bush at American Thinker today (sadly, it’s not Thia’s piece). Unfortunately, the author has created the very dichotomy that TNA is working hard to chip away at regarding old notions of liberals and conservatives, and in so doing, the author has diminished Clinton en route to praising Bush. This is a great opportunity for all of us to descend upon that site and do a bit of educating. In short: Why must one woman fall in order for another to rise? Here’s the link for anyone interested in posting. (No need to register at that site. Posts are moderated, but most go through rather quickly. I don’t think they allow anyone to embed a link in their post.)
http://www.americanthinker.com.....nolia.html
Thanks for the press release idea Anna – we will follow through on that one!
And will check out the Americanthinker…..
Happy New Year, New Agenda!
Keep up the good work!
Amy – Saw your post. And it went through with the plug for TNA!
Exactly. We must be mindful of staying well balanced in all areas. We need to attract conservative women to what we are doing.
Amy, congratulations for accomplishing so much in such a short period of time!
Would you please identify 1) the Co-Founders of TNA; 2) the newly chosen Board of Directors; and, 3) the Executive Committtee members. Thank you and Happy New Year!
I’m proud of what TNA has done is such a short time and I’m psyched for the 2009 objectives.
I would like to make a suggestion re the branding. I suggest designing a simple logo. I think having a simple logo is great for web links and for t-shirts, bumper stickers, flyers, etc.
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The New Agenda is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. More...