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Building a successful movement starts in our communities. It starts by connecting with our neighbors and by defining shared values. Community building should be organic, but it also has to be intentional. That’s why All On The Line is launching a book club series. We’re encouraging members of this movement to intentionally gather with folks in their communities and dig into why fighting for fair maps is so necessary and important.
We’re kicking off our book club series this month with “Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count” by journalist David Daley who lays out in great detail how Republicans manipulated maps across the nation during the 2011 redistricting process to lock in political power and how their grip on power since then has eroded our democracy. This book has helped to inform the work of our organization — in fact, when someone joins the AOTL team, a teammate is quick to lend them a copy to read. And we think you and volunteers like you across the country should read it too!
After you sign up as a host, Mallory, our training director, will email you in the coming weeks with a toolkit with everything you need to know on how to host a successful organizing book club.
Hosting a book club with your friends and neighbors, and joining a discussion with fellow activists across the country helps build a strong foundation for this movement. Organizing is like a muscle — we need to get into the right habits and strengthen our organizing power now before the redistricting process starts in 2021. That way, when we start hosting phone banks and organizing town hall events, we won’t be starting from scratch. We’ll already have teams across the country ready to fight for fair maps together!
— The AOTL Team
All On The Line is the grassroots advocacy campaign supported by the National Redistricting Action Fund.
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A Plan to End Gerrymandering NY Times Audio Interview with Eric Holder
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Gerrymandering doc featuring Voters Not Politicians founder debuting at Tribeca Film Festival
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Judges declare Ohio’s congressional map unconstitutional
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Eric Holder: The Supreme Court can’t allow Trump to weaponize the census
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Training 1
Hey friends,
I’m so glad many of you were able to join us on Thursday night — it was an incredible honor to host All On The Line’s first training call with you. You are among the first to join this exciting campaign, and I can’t wait to see the incredible work that we do together over the next three years!
We find this training series to be critical because for too long, people in our country have viewed redistricting as up to lawyers, up to states, up to politicians — and we want to move the issue of redistricting from a feeling of ‘it’s out of my hands’ to ‘I can make a difference.’ We also want you to feel comfortable communicating sometimes confusing concepts and ideas to people as you talk about your work on this campaign.
For the series’ first session, we delved into the question, “What would happen in our country if we kept maps drawn as they currently are?” Below is a brief recap of the material and concepts we covered (and if missed out and want a recording of the training, go here! You can also find our slides from last nighthere.) And if you could provide feedback on our training, we would deeply appreciate it — you can find the survey from last night’s traininghere!
Here were our goals the training:
- Describe the consequences of keeping districts drawn ‘as is’ for our country, and how we came to this problemImagine a reality where our democracy is working, and illustrate the outcomes on issues
- Believe in our efficacy to address redistricting
There were two essential takeaways from the evening:
- If we do not do anything to address inequitable redistricting in our country, public opinion will continue to not match how representatives are voting
- If we are able to make redistricting in our country more transparent and equitable, our representatives will vote more aligned to constituents desires, and our voting process will be more democratic
We spent time walking through how we got to a place of unfair maps in our country, as well as discussed the plan moving forward for the campaign. If you find the definitions of the census, redistricting, gerrymandering, cracking, or packing confusing in any way, be sure to check out the recording and slides above — we walk through these concepts in detail. We know that people are entering the discussion of redistricting with various levels of understanding, and we are committed to getting everyone on the same page together!
Thank you again for joining us! Your enthusiasm and commitment was evident, and we need all voices and perspectives as we begin to tackle this issue.
We hope you’ll join us for the second session on ‘tying your values to redistricting’ on Thursday, 4/11 at 8:00pm ET/ 5:00pm PT.
Until then,
Liz
Elizabeth Erickson; AOTL Training Consultant
Training 2
Hey friends,
Thank you for joining us for the second night of our Spring Training series! I was inspired by the commitment and dedication I heard on the call, and the passion you have for fair maps in your community is truly heartening. I’ve said this before, but I can’t wait to see the incredible work that we do over the next three years.
We know this training series is coming at a critical time. The All On The Line team wants you to feel effective in your organizing work, and move the issue of redistricting from a feeling of ‘it’s out of my hands’ to ‘I can make a difference.’ We also want you to feel comfortable communicating sometimes confusing concepts and ideas to people as you talk about your work on this campaign.
For the series’ second session, we delved into the question, “Why do you care about redistricting at this moment?” Below is a brief recap of the material and concepts we covered (and if you missed out and want a recording of the training, go here! You can also find our slides from last night here. And if you could provide feedback on our training, we would deeply appreciate it — you can find the survey from last night’s training here!).
Here were our goals the training:
- Identify different motivations of audiences you’ll encounter
- Explain the importance of using your values to connect with your audience
- Use your values to move your audience to take action on redistricting
There were three essential takeaways from the evening:
- Personal stories are important. And we also know that a key part of organizing is asking people to get involved and take action. That requires not just understanding what drives you, but also what motivates others
- To be an effective organizer, you have to get people to see your goal as their goal — and doing that requires being able to authentically articulate what moves you in a way that taps into what motivates others
- The framework, ‘listen, connect, and pivot’, is one way you can use values based organizing to connect with people and prompt them to make a stand on redistricting
We worked on perspective shifting as a method to understand our audience, as well as how to tie your personal story to the issue of redistricting. It was a packed session, and we hope you found it helpful. If you missed any of it, be sure to check out the recording.
Thank you again for joining us! We hope you’ll join us for the third and final session on ‘Crucial AOTL tactics’ on Thursday, 4/18 at 8:00pm ET/ 5:00pm PT.
Until then,
Liz
Training 3
Hi friends!
I can’t believe we are wrapping up our spring training series already! It’s been a pleasure being with you during the past few weeks, and I remain convinced that the excitement and energy of people in this group is exactly what is needed for this campaign to be successful.
If you didn’t get the chance to join us, you can find a recording of the training here, and the slides for the eveninghere! And if you have any feedback for us, you can find the survey for the evening here.
In the coming weeks, I will send out a final recap of the series to you, letting you in on the feedback we received from the training series, key takeaways that I repeatedly saw, and a list of all the recordings for you to have in one place.
Below is a brief recap of what we covered during our final training together!
Here were our goals the training:
- Describe the four phases of the All On The Line campaign
- Explain the best practices of building your All On The Line team
- Feel motivated and prepared for the work ahead
There were three essential takeaways from the evening:
- There are four phases to the AOTL campaign — though the timeline is broken up into four distinct phases, the tactics in these phases will sometimes overlap with each other
- We are currently in phase two of the campaign, and we need to build our AOTL teams to be successful in the future states of the campaign
- To build your team effectively, you need to recruit volunteers, connect with them personally, and build cohesion amongst your group
We walked through best practices to build your AOTL team, and are excited to see teams develop all across the country.
Finally, we are currently out with a poll in the field and doing research on how to frame a pledge for candidates and activists and organizers like you! We’ll be sharing details from the poll with you soon, and will have a Day of Action in May to take this pledge and get as many people we can signed on. Stay tuned!
Thank you again for your work and commitment. It’s truly an honor!
Much appreciation,
Liz
Elizabeth Erickson; AOTL Training Consultant
The Supreme Court Will Soon Consider Whether the Census Will Include a Citizenship Question