Is it March Madness or St. Patrick’s Day Celebration for You?
Actually, March Madness and /or St. Patty’s Day both signal the beginning of Spring.
Soon Gone will be the Piles of SNOW and the below zero temperatures.
At NWSOFA the Beginning of Spring signals the times we move our issues forward against those whose mission is to suppress or negate our issues.. even if just a little every day, week, and month.. to move public and shape politician’s opinion with our voices and energy. Sometimes we achieve all that we are working towards and other times only get the issue recognized, gain support, and continue the momentum and ACTION.
As Jim Messina, OFA Chairman of the Board stated recently, “OFA is not a political campaign. We’re a built-to-last movement that’s not going anywhere. When the polls close and elections end, we’re the ones still here, fighting for the principles we believe in. We are and will continue to be the sum of millions of grassroots voices calling for change.”
For this Spring, OFA has announced two (2) new initiati: 1) Outreaches to the youth at the college and university level and 2) Outreach to the minorities in our areas, while continuing to work harder to win the hearts and minds of those that voted for: Marriage Equality, ACA Healthcare reform, Climate Change, Minimum Wage, Gun Violence Prevention, Equal Pay for Equal Work for Women, and Comprehensive Immigration Reform. If you like to work on a team for these two new important initiatives or on any or all issues please let us know.
Join the NWSOFA Team as we continue to move our social issues forward this Spring … Sara & Bill
NWSOFA is Action… In 2013 We Found our Voices…
In 2014 We Amplified our Voices ….
In 2015 We are Adding More Voices to our Community for Social Change
We Sometimes FORGET how Powerful a Force We are
and that Creating Social Change is a PROCESS not a Destination
In Four (4) days..March 5th..In Four (4) days
NWSOFA &
The Coalition to Restore Democracy (MTA)
Presents
“Movie Night”
aa
“Pay 2 Play”
@ the Schaumburg Library, 2nd Floor, Rasmussen North
March 5th
7 pm – 9 pm
(Doors Open at 6:30 for informal Meet and Greet Time)
First full NWSOFA Meeting Combined with a Movie Night presented by The Coalition to Restore Democracy.
Like the recent documentary “Citizen Koch,” “Pay 2 Play” aims to stir up outrage over influence peddling. Although billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch aren’t mentioned until midway through this film, they and their ilk – wealthy conservatives who push their agendas by pouring cash into the coffers of like- minded politicians – are clearly the villains here.
But director John Ennis is interested in doing more than getting people riled up. “How do we get past the pay-to-play system?”
The answer to Ennis’s question, which he provides himself, is not just to get mad, but to get active. He advocates doing whatever one can to protest the status quo, whether it’s as an individual street artist or blogger or as part of a larger collective such as the Occupy movement. Ennis is an optimist at heart, and his belief that one person can make a difference is infectious, if naive.
The NWSOFA “Mini” meeting will include updates on it’s Issue teams on ACA, Fiscal & Economic Discussions, Womens Rights, Climate Change, Immigration Reform, and it’s outreaches to minority communities and college and university students
NWSOFAer’s get together to relax, drink coffee, discuss current topics, enjoy cookies and make some important calls to other Progressives in the suburbs notifying them of our meetings
We call these the 4C’s and we need your help. Volunteer for an hour or two doing what we do best “organizing”!
Northwest Suburbs Organizing for Action Gun Violence Prevention Planning Meeting
Thursday, March 19th, 6-7 pm Location TBD
If you are interested in honoring all victims of gun violence through your individual and collective actions with fellow citizens to make our communities safe, then please plan to attend our monthly Gun Violence Prevention Issues Group Planning Meeting on the 3rd Thursday of each month
To RSVP: Call 224-241-2012 and leave your name and number for Cathy
Learn how you can get involved in changing the conversation surrounding gun violence prevention efforts, changing the hearts of fellow citizens and changing the laws to create safer communities everywhere in the U.S.
Fiscal Discussion Groups March BLS Deep Dive
NWSOFA Fiscal & Economic Discussion Group
Wednesday
March 25th
@ the Arlington Heights Library
7-9 pm Conf room “I”
Want the Facts about the Economic Recovery?
… Then Attend the Monthly Fiscal and Economic Issues Discussion Group Meeting and be amazed at what you discover.
We will have our standard update of the economy, both jobs and GDP. We will also continue our discussions of the economic recovery and policy issues that affect the recovery. The discussion will be based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics March 6th, 2015 report.
Some similar type reviews of economic highlights we discussed last month based on the February report:
3.2 million jobs added in last 12 months;
257,000 jobs added in January
Dec 2014 employment level revised up to 245,000 jobs
Unemployment rate nationally at 5.7% in January,
Down 0.9% in the past year
Continues to trend down from its high of 10.0% in October 2009.
Budget Deficits – Historical and Projected: 2.8% of GDP in FY 2014, down from a high of 9.8%
IL unemployment rate was 6.2% in December
Down from 8,9% in December 2013 and trending down from its high of 11.4%
GDP growth was preliminary 2.6% in the 4th quarter, 5.0% in the 3rd quarter and 4.6% in 2nd quarter, up from minus 2.1% in 1st quarter. Real GDP increased by 2.5% for 2014. Revisions scheduled for February 27 and march 27 http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm
New 10 year CBO projections released in January: deficit will stay below 3% of GDP for the next few years, but we still have a problem in the out years as baby boomers retire.
Funding for Department of Homeland Security expires February 27, 2015. Congress needs to act to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Attending the NWSOFA Fiscal & Economic Discussions and be the most informed on your block or your discussion group!
As always this is a discussion group .. bring your articles and your wits to talk about all sides of the issues.
“Here in Illinois, we’ve accomplished many of the goals we laid out for ourselves before the beginning of the first enrollment period in 2013. Thanks to widespread outreach efforts, more than 217,000 consumers signed up for marketplace coverage during the first open enrollment period-and another 500,000 (plus) through Medicaid. The uninsured rate fell 7 percentage points from 16 to 9 percent.
And during this Open Enrollment Period, we’ve seen more than 347,000 consumers enroll in or renew their marketplace coverage. That momentum is due to the incredible coalition and momentum we’ve all built here – our 14 employees and 4600 volunteers have worked closely with so many of you, especially those of you who understand the true value of collaboration.
I thank you for your unwavering support despite all of the barriers we’ve faced.”
ACA EXCHANGE Qualified Health Policy (QHP) Enrollments:
———————————————————————————-
Gov’t: 11.4 Million Signed up for
2015 coverage under the ACA’s health law prior to 2/15
Congratulations on 11.4 million (and counting)! This week, HHS announced that about 11.4 million Americans, including those in both HealthCare.gov states and State Based Marketplaces, have selected plans or were automatically re-enrolled during this Open Enrollment period. This news is an excellent opportunity to help frame the work you and your organization(s) have accomplished since November — particularly in getting local with state and local area.
Click on the above NWSOFA e-magazine for all the on Comprehensive Immigration Reform from News Sources across the Country
Immigration Reform
(CIR)
in the News
Would you like to get involved with other like minded Progressives and join our Comprehensive Immigration Reform Team
then:
Please Call
Sara or Bill
@ 224-241-2012
Did You Know?
President Obama is taking action to help fix our broken immigration system, strengthening our economy and our country and protecting our communities and our families.
According to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the President’s actions on immigration will grow the Illinois economy by $3.8 billion to $9.0 billion over the next 10 years.
It’s an important first step in the President’s plan to work with Congress on common sense, comprehensive immigration reform
Give parents of American citizen or legal resident children relief from deportation if they register with the government, undergo background checks, and pay taxes.
Allow immigration enforcement officials to focus resources on deporting felons, not families.
Strengthen our economy and our country, growing wages and shrinking the deficit. These are important steps forward, but only Congress can finish the job and fix our broken immigration system
Click on the Above Image to see NWSOFA e-magazine Stand With Women.. Timely Articles from the Press
Stand With Women
Gains Momentum
The House GOP Leaders Pull Abortion Bill After Revolt by GOP Women Moderates!
January 21, 2015: Bowing to the wishes of several moderates and women members, House Republican leaders pulled a controversial antiabortion bill from consideration late Wednesday night, a move sure to enrage antiabortion activists, who will descend on Capitol Hill Thursday for their annual March for Life.
The bill will be replaced by the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, a bipartisan bill that passed the House last year and will get another vote on Thursday, the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. The change came after House Republican women and moderates battled against their leaders on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, exhibiting the deepening rift between centrists and conservatives who are at cross-purposes on which issues the party should be highlighting.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Republican leaders were insistent they would move ahead with legislation banning abortions after 20 weeks, but the Rules Committee announced an emergency meeting Wednesday night and sources said the bill would be pulled in favor of the less controversial alternative.
You Can Make a Difference in Underserved Communities
Organizing for Action has a strong commitment to providing easy points of entry for
everyday Americans who want to have their voices heard and make a difference in their communities.
Historically, we have found that the tools and tactics employed to help in these efforts skew toward
volunteers who have access to reliable transportation, can afford financially to give hours, and have
ready access to the internet. That, in turn, means that volunteers who gravitate toward OFA tend to be people who are retired, have financial means, and/or live in the suburbs. In order to ensure that OFA remains true to our mission of providing easy access, we have developed the Fulfilling the Promise Program aimed to address these concerns and ensure we are organizing in all communities.
PURPOSE: To ensure that Organizing for Action is providing training, leadership development, team building, and issue advocacy opportunities to communities and people who do not have ready access to the internet, reliable transportation, etc. We will focus specifically in communities of color and historically underserved areas, which tend to have less financial means. The Fulfilling the Promise program will ensure that our organization and the progressive community at large is comprised of a diverse group of talented organizers who are representative of all of the communities that make up our country.
If This Outreach resonates with you, Please Call Sara or Bill @ 224-241-2012
University & College Outreach Sets Organizing Call
New Initiative for 2015 Announced by OFA
Feeling the call to work with the young adults at college and University levels to engage them in Progressive Issue Engagement.. Then Contact us:
If This Outreach resonates with you, Please Call Sara or Bill @ 224-241-2012
In January 2013 we started as a gathering of friends and neighbors from the NW Suburbs who wanted to continue to have impact on the progressive issues we voted for in 2012.This grassroots, bottom up movement spread across the country and sparked the creation of Organizing for Action, OFA National which now has Chapters all over the country. This is a non-partisan, volunteer organization that focuses on progressive issues we are committed to taking Action on to make a difference locally, statewide and nationally.
NWSOFA’s 1st Issue Team was right after the tragedy at Sandy Hook. The Gun Violence Prevention (GVP) team felt we needed accurate information and facts, events to teach others and actions we could take to make a difference on pushing for common sense gun violence prevention. That has been our basic format as new issues arose and team developed. We now have the GVP, ACA/Obamacare, Climate Change,Fiscal Issues and Stand with Women Issue Teams.Check out their individual pages to see all the events they have scheduled and to join the teams you want to make a difference with. Other teams are developing such as for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
OFA National coordinates “Days of Action” that Chapters across the country will all do on the same day. Each team also has local events and may work with affiliate organizations i.e. Sierra Club, Al Gore Reality Project, etc. to combine like-minded groups on a local, state or national event.
In this type of organization there are numerous ways you can be involved with the teams and in other roles.We were looking for ways to get our events out and now have a Twitter Master, Kathy,and Press Lead, Kym.
Two new initiatives were introduced in January 2015 from OFA. The first one is to get more young people involved in progressives issues. We prioritized working with colleges to reach out to them. One of the major benefits of joining us is learning to be a community organizer. These skills can be beneficial for a lifetime. The second initiative is working with under served populations that traditionally have not a voice on issues that are crucial for them. If either of these sound like something you would be interested in helping to develop, please let us know.
Maybe you have a special skill we haven’t even thought about give us a call we’re always open to new ideas and teams.
Thanks for stopping and hope you’ll stay and join us.
NWSOFA is a whole, diverse wonderful family of people who want to do more than talk about the social issues. We explore and dig deep on the facts and decide what actions we can take that can have an impact locally and nationally. NWSOFA members not only “talk the talk”, but we “walk the walk”.
All our teams have numerous events that will enlighten and inspire you and yes, challenge you to make the effort to make a difference.
We invite you to join us!
Follow NWSOFA on Social Media
Click to Follow us on Twitter
Follow us @NWSOFA’s Website
Click to Link to WebSite
Follow us Facebook
Click to Link to Facebook
Join Us for Coffee, Conversation, Cookies and Call @ the 4C’s
March 4th .. Wednesday night NWSOFAer’s get together to relax, drink coffee, discuss current topics, enjoy cookies and make some important calls to other Progressives in the suburbs notifying them of our meetings
We call these the 4C’s and we need your help. Volunteer for an hour or two doing what we do best “organizing”!
The ACA team working with Enroll America .. Rocks It! Congradulations
NWSOFA GVP & MDA
Cards for the Victims of
Gun Violence
February Meeting in Photos
Fiscal & Economics February Meeting in Photos
NWSOFA GVP Team
Trip to Senator Dan Kotoski’s Office Congressman to Discuss GVP (Gun Violence Prevention)
NWSOFA
To leave
a message or Sign up for an Issue Team ..
Just click the Info button and fill out the NWSOFA Comment log. We will be in touch with you shortly.
Notice:
This is a public meeting / event(s)
NWSOFA is a 501(c)4,
non-partisan organization.
All opinions are solely those of NWSOFA
It’s time to Act .. It Is Time To Get Involved
Over the years the American Citizens have lost their voices, believing that we can not make a difference. We have been beat down by the constant droning noise of the conservative right. This onslaught has made us like sheep .. afraid to express our views. Not anymore! OFA gives us back our voices and by working together we are making change one issue at a time. Together we can and will make a difference.
Thank You to our NWSOFA Issue Leads in 2013 !!
Just Click on the Photo to link the NWSOFA e-magazines daily & archived articles
Join the NWSOFA Team as we continue to move our social issues forward this Spring … Sara & Bill 
