Democracy Unconference/Hackathon/etc Planning Mtg 2 (on Zoom)
The next event is up, for Monday, March 30. Find it here: luma.com/democracy
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➡️ If you're interested in helping/joining but can't join this call, please RSVP yes and answer the quick interest questions there, and we'll follow up with people accordingly.
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AGENDA FOR THE MARCH 23 MEETING:
• 6-6:45pm: General discussion on the principles, project OKRs (objectives & key results), ecosystem mapping, etc
• 6:50-7pm: Bio-break, chat, open discussion, breakouts, meet others on the call, etc.
• 7-7:30pm: SF Unconference/hackathon discussion
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Big thanks to everyone who joined the first meeting! 🙏🥳🙌
Within a very short time, we had 90 people RSVP (including many saying they wanted to help but couldn't attend the meeting), around 30 people showed up, and we made great progress on thinking through some specific actions.
We planted seeds for possible Democracy Unconferences in San Francisco, Oakland/East Bay, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, and New York. 💛
We spoke about Democracy Hackathons and Accelerator/Community support programs (potentially coming soon after the Unconferences).
We spoke about organizing citizen-led candidate debates to make sure key voices are heard BEFORE election day.
We started mapping organizations we should reach out to to collaborate.
And we spoke about leveraging ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments, civic education, community building, cross-party unifying activities, strengthening a culture of democracy, and more. 💛
And we want to move forward smoothly, and quickly, and together. Next steps & invitations:
➡️ Check out the doc and add your name for where you want to help out, or add ideas/suggestions. ⬅️ Everyone who registered for the first meeting has been added as an editor/commenter there. People who register here will also be added.
Join this next meeting on March 23, and feel free / please invite others to join.
We'll keep the overall general meetings, and start having project/location-specific meetings, so please add your name on the doc for where you're interested in helping out. (Or send a message to dmn@civ.ac or 415-355-4427 (signal preferred) to chat privately.)
Let us know who else we should talk to.
Right now this is a volunteer led civic initiative. We're in discussions with a few groups around fiscal sponsorship, and if you know people/organizations/foundations/etc that might be interested in collaborating or financially supporting this, please let us know.
Why this? Why now?
Democracy is our most precious "commons", is often under-appreciated, and is under threat from multiple directions. But there's opportunity to shift trajectory. Let's bring together our experience with communities of practice, tech, innovation, entrepreneurship, community organizing, policy, elections, culture, arts/creativity, and human ingenuity to build and support projects that can help preserve and strengthen our democracy.
Time is of the essence, and right now we have an opportunity to do things that will (likely) become more difficult in the coming 1-3 years if things continue to decline. And while we citizens have largely neglected our democracy for too long, and it's been partial for too long, what democracy we do have has been incredibly valuable to all of us, and we will certainly miss it once it's gone. Let's do our best to not let that happen.
Please invite others, or let us know who we should talk to
Partners, collaborators, supporters, sponsors, etc are welcomed. Feel free to invite other like-minded people to join. If you want to chat about something privately or put something on the agenda, please message me (David) at dmn@civ.ac or 415-355-4427.
Let's do this. 🙏💪💛
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Image source: https://www.loc.gov/resource/ds.04417/