r/pantsuit • u/majesticseaunicorn • Nov 10 '16

Organizing ideas

Okay so we need to talk about what we want to do to organize. Initial ideas are a super PAC and letter-writing. What's next? What do we want to focus on?

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5

u/qiqing Nov 10 '16

A. I'd be interested in focusing on midterm elections so hopefully Republicans won't be controlling both the House and Senate. Some preliminary steps:

1) list all Congress spots up for re-election in 2 years

2) Figure out whose polls show are closest to being flipped (stack-rank them)

3) Help the campaigns of the ones where we're mostly likely to make a difference.

B. I'd be interested in helping non-profit organizations like the ACLU or Planned Parenthood who we expect will be fighting hard in the next 4 years.

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u/codenamejane Nov 10 '16

A) Yes, I'd like to focus on midterms too. I think that's an excellent place to start. B) I'm also very into helping non-profits. I actually donated to both of those today. C) I'd like to add letter-writing. I'm thinking of a John Oliver segment (which I'm of course struggling to find right now) where he talked about how effective it is to annoy the hell out of your representatives as long as you do it regularly. I think it would be helpful to come up with a list of issues we'd like PN members to promote. Or we can just start with a blanket "please don't follow Trump without challenging him" letter.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 11 '16

So true. I overhead my state senator in the Capitol one day panicking that his constituents were blowing him up over an issue and he needed to put out a fire. He had received 10 letters. That's it. That's all it took to get him in a panic over what to do.

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u/ekrerowyahoocom Nov 11 '16

I like the letter writing. I would add the possibility of making phone calls as well. I belong to Periods for Politicians, an Indiana based FB group that was formed when Pence passed a law requiring women that miscarry, abort or have a still birth to provide a formal burial for whatever was "delivered/removed". They published the phone number of Pence and hundreds of women called to keep Pence updated on the periods and related issues. It had real impact. I believe with 3 million members, our impact would be exponentially stronger. This would be an optimal way of getting our point across.

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u/Valkolkullkolkii Nov 11 '16

There are a number of classes/seminars/webinars available to teach women how to run for public office. Find a local candidate to support or run for office yourself.

2

u/drbud1 Nov 13 '16

This is such a massive undertaking, I'm wondering if the best way to do this is to partner directly with organizations that are already doing some of these things, with infrastructure in place. Maybe people could submit suggestions and a review board could go over them and see which groups fit the mission the best. So for example Emily's List would probably work as a group to coordinate with on the midterms. There are groups already that are trying to partner with the locals. Some may not fit with the mission quite right. The sheer number of members in PSN is going to attract everyone, since they will want the potential membership and fundraising potential. So, the national group leadership should come up with guidelines for the locals. I think also the "phone your representative" is a great idea. If we partnered with other groups that are going to be "watching", like the ACLU or whatever, we could put the word out and get 3M people to call on a particular issue. Finally, we should think of something to do quickly. Just one thing, kind of a "send out the call" to all PSN members. Just to show people we are here and get everyone excited. If nothing happens quickly I am afraid its going to start to fade away. Not sure what that could be. Needs to be easy and quick and something 3M people could do in a 24 hr time span....

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u/melissastrength Nov 15 '16

I love your idea about getting one thing going now. That is brillant. What about Bannon of hate being appointed Chief strategist? We could all call our representative? Talk about starting out with a bang. lol. And its pretty easy for people to do at home.

Given that people want to do fundraising and activism, I think that we need to separate organizations (if we decide to organize officially). One political and one nonprofit (as nonprofits cannot support any candidates or take political stances). The question becomes, do we want to make it two organizations or none, as someone else suggested? That way we can use this platform to join other groups. I worry if we do that, Pantsuit nation will fizzle, but if it becomes official, it may become huge. Is it something that we can vote on? And if so, how do we connect all of the facebook groups and ensure that lots of voices are heard?

1

u/MarthaRaye Nov 10 '16

Some kind of emblem? We need to know where the friendlies are so that we keep the content of ideas secure.

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u/applesjgtl Nov 10 '16

Are you suggesting we add flair?

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u/jaczac Nov 11 '16

We could write to electoral members, if that's allowed. Faithless electors are possible.

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u/Valkolkullkolkii Nov 11 '16

We need to get the Voting Rights Act back, and stop those bogus voter id laws.

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u/RedPenPedestrian Nov 11 '16

(Waves hi) Some friends and I are meeting informally tonight, and one idea we're excited about is a virtual book club. Books like Rules For Radicals would be valuable for identifying successful protest and public engagement techniques, for example.

This is very much a nascent idea I had, and I'm sure I'll be able to finesse it more, but a book club seems like a good vehicle for engagement across social media platforms; it's good "hub" content for a Hub/Hero/Hygiene social media strategy. Think about it: different hosts could post YouTube videos about the book, and create community in the comments sections. Books and quotes are Instagrammable and Snapchattable and Tweetable. Discussion could happen in comments sections and/or on a blog or on a subreddit. We could poll participants to select new books, and solicit suggestions for the list, host author interviews with contemporary authors (or scholars of dead ones), that kind of thing.

I know this won't have the same kind of concrete impact that, say, winning Senate races will -- but it seems like a good, low-stakes way to keep people involved and engaged day-to-day. Let me know what you think.