Report back from yesterday’s organizing call

Election night is just around the corner and the Trump administration and the Republican Party are ratcheting up their attacks on democracy. But our grassroots efforts to defend democracy and build the world we want to live in are gaining momentum.  

And our plans to take bold direct action are coming together! Last night our host committee and disruption working groups laid out a proposal for an organizing timeline and an action framework and our communications working group introduced a bold new messaging concept. Check out the slide deck from last night’s meeting for details. 

We’re sharing the key updates from yesterday’s meeting below but here’s what everybody can do RIGHT NOW to get ready to defend democracy: 

Get Trained Up!

• Street Smarts and Direct Action trainings October 10 (2-4pm), October 13 (7-9pm), October 17 (2-4pm), October 24 (2-4pm)

• Timeline to a Meltdown Simulation – October 14, 7-9pm

• Escalating Resistance in Times of Crisis: Mass Rebellion Training with Lisa Fithian – October 20, 7-10pm

Find your affinity group

• Looking for an affinity group? Fill out the form https://sddc.co/AG and come to the Affinity Group Mixer on Tuesday, October 13 at 6pm

• Have an affinity group? Let us know who you are! Fill out the form: https://sddc.co/AGregistration  

Get Connected

Text DEMOCRACY to 88202 for updates from ShutDownDC

Working Group Updates

Communications

Comms is building out its content strategy to engage new people and get them involved, as well as optimizing the website, and starting to have conversations with journalists. We are welcoming new people who are interested in media, social media, art and video.

Disruption

We are in the process of helping individuals and organizations set up affinity groups. We are planning to hold an affinity group "mixer" where people who don't already have a crew can find one on October 13.

Fundraising

We have hit our middle-of-the-road fundraising goal and are working on achieving our reach goal. We are working with other working groups to set budgets.

Host Committee

The host committee has built out task teams: Convenings (on track for joint in-person/online meetings by 10/22), medics (offered a health and safety training on 10/4, more coming), language justice (please include accessibility language in all event announcements and reach out if you need translation/interpretation), legal (preparing know your rights sessions), security, and logistics.

Outreach

We have kicked off peer to peer texting to engage our full list in action. And we are working on creating flyers and setting up a street team to distribute them and wheat paste. We are also doing some 1:1 phone calls with people who are interested in plugging into Shut Down DC.

Research

We have turned from external, interest-led research to internal, task-based research. We have a spreadsheet of tasks that WGs can add to as needed. You must have an end goal for the research if you’re going to put it on the sheet. Make sure to put your name so we can follow up. The #nerdsofshutdown are doing great, building our numbers!

Training

The training working group held a training of trainers over the weekend to support new folks who are stepping up to facilitate direct action trainings. We have four Street Smarts and Direct Action trainings on the calendar as well as another Timeline to a Meltdown simulation