Weekly Check In January 7

[tanaqui]

Happy New Year -- and let's hope it is a happier year, and that some of the good things that happened at the end of last year (like the success of the Get Out the Vote operations in Alabama) are carried forward into 2018.

Also, another reminder that we now have a Friending Meme and a (locked) post where you can connect with others with live in the same area. We hope you find both of these posts useful!

Posts in the comm since the last check-in covered:

Actions
Helping take back the House by finding and getting involved with your nearest swing district
Record 5Sec video for #StandwithBearsEars
Sign up to the new ballotpedia service covering primaries
Link Roundup from snickfic

Donations

We had several posts over the holiday period suggesting places to donate. While match funding may have ended, there are lots of great suggestions here if you're looking for causes to support in 2018:

Even more matchy matchy stuff, and some not-matchy stuff
More matchy-matchy
Matchy-matchy

Housekeeping (the usual stuff)
Reminder that we have a suggestion post if there’s a topic that you’d like to see discussed but would like to ask the mods to look into. This can be anything from general information, or a how-to-do-a-thing, or something you may want to discuss as a community. Folks are welcome to post directly to the comm as always, but if you’re not comfortable/don’t have spoons, we can help too.

As we don't always get the time to pull things out of the suggestions post into their own separate posts, it may be worth checking every week (or tracking the post) to see if there's any new information you're interested in.

Also if you need help with tags, PM redbird, who is our tag guru. Both tassosss and I are very grateful for the help.

So, what have you all been up to in the last week or are planning to get involved in next week?

Poll #19278 The Week

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 1

View Respondents

This week, I...

View Answers

called my one senator
1 (100.0%)

called my other senator
1 (100.0%)

called my representative
0 (0.0%)

called my governor
0 (0.0%)

called my state reps
0 (0.0%)

sent a postcard/email/letter/fax
0 (0.0%)

attended a town hall
0 (0.0%)

donated money to a cause
0 (0.0%)

attended an in-person activist group
0 (0.0%)

participated in phone/online training
0 (0.0%)

View Answers

went to a protest
0 (0.0%)

signed up for alerts
0 (0.0%)

took care of myself
0 (0.0%)

not a US citizen but worked in solidarity in my own community
0 (0.0%)

did something else
0 (0.0%)

committed to action in the coming week
0 (0.0%)

Florida voting-rights petition drive

[teaotter]

I saw this here a while back in a link roundup, but I wanted to make sure everyone saw it!

There's a petition drive to get a measure onto the 2018 ballot that would return voting rights to up to 1.6 million people in Florida.

Florida is one of the few states that permanently takes away the right to vote, even once people have served their time and returned to their communities. 1 in 10 people in Florida have had their voting rights taken away for life.

The petition drive only needs another ~100,000 signatures, but they need them in the next three weeks.

What you can do:

If you're a registered voter in Florida, go to the link above, and they will mail you a petition for you to sign and mail back ASAP. (You can have more than one voter sign the same petition -- just don't sign twice!)

If you're not a registered voter in Florida, but know someone who might be, please pass the info along. (You can also donate at the link above, to pay for having petitions mailed out and back.)

(btw, one of the co-sponsors of this project is StayWoke.org, one of the groups that did so much good on the ground in Alabama this year. Let's keep it going!)