March 14 Newsletter

March 14, 2020

See it all! Read the newsletter online.

COVID-19 Is No Match for Activism

Don’t let COVID-19 dampen your Democratic spirit. Read on and see how Swing Left’s energetic volunteers are transforming events, making sure everyone can continue to volunteer safely.

Many of the event hosts are taking their events virtual! Swing Left Greater Boston is in touch with hosts and helping them explore new options.

Nonetheless, not every event listed below is happening. Check the calendar for the latest information.

We’re banding together … maybe not in person, but definitely in spirit.

Canvassing and Voter Registration

Boston

Thursday, March 19 @ 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

New Americans Voter Registration Drive (Weekly)
Learn more

Phone Calling and Texting

Online	Saturday, March 14 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am	Virtual phone bank orientation: Flip the PA State House Learn more
Online	Sunday, March 15 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am	Virtual phone bank orientation: Flip the PA State House Learn more
Online	Sunday, March 15 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm	Virtual Phone bank Party: Flip the PA State House Learn more
Online	Wednesday, March 18 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm	Re-Register Voters by Phone Learn more

Postcard and Letter Writing

Cambridge-based pick up	Saturday, March 14 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm	Write Letters to Pennsylvania Voters Learn more
Chicopee Packet pickup	Sunday, March 15 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am	Postcards to Voters Learn more
Brookline Phone call	Monday, March 16 @ 7:00 pm	Brookline Activist Evenings (Weekly) Learn more
Dartmouth	Thursday, March 19 @ varies	Postcarding for Voter Registration and Get Out The Vote (Weekly) Learn more
Bourne	Thursday, March 19 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm	Write Letters to Register Swing State Dem Voters Learn more
Newburyport Packet pickup	Thursday, March 19 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm	I-RISE Newburyport Thursday Action Hour Learn more
North Andover	Thursday, March 19 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm	Postcards to Voters with Andover Indivisible (Weekly) Learn more
Beverly	Thursday, March 19 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm	Reclaim Our Vote Postcard Party Learn more
Newburyport Packet pickup	Friday, March 20 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm	I-RISE Newburyport Friday Action Hour Postcards (Weekly) Learn more
Brookline	Sunday, March 22 @ 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm	Postcarding to Reclaim Our Vote Learn more
Cambridge-based pick up	Sunday, March 22 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm	Write to PA Voters Learn more

Training

Online/ Anywhere	Monday, March 16 @ 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm	Swing Left Phone Bank Training Webinar: Let’s Defeat Susan Collins Together Learn more
Online/ Anywhere	Monday, March 16 @ 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm	Flippin’ Wisconsin Voter Registration 101 Training Call with Field Team 6 Learn more
Online/ Anywhere	Postponed to Monday, March 30 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm	PA Vote-by-Mail Training Webinar Learn more
Online/ Anywhere	Wednesday, March 18 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm	FlippinX Pennsylvania Voter Registration 101 Training Call with Field Team 6 Learn more
Online/ Anywhere	Wednesday, March 18 @ 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm	Vote Tripling Training Learn more
Online/ Anywhere	Saturday, March 21 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm	Reclaim Our Vote New Volunteer Training Learn more

Varies

Jamaica Plain	Sunday, March 15 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm	Jamaica Plain Progressives (JPP) Sunday Activist Afternoons (Weekly) Going virtual – learn more
Packet Pickup	Sunday, March 15 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm	Cambridge Activist Afternoons (Weekly) Learn more
Provincetown	Sunday, March 15 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm	Do Something Sundays (Weekly) Learn more
Concord Packet Pickup	Sunday, March 22 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm	Concord Indivisible Activist Huddle (Biweekly) Learn more
Jamaica Plain	Sunday, March 22 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm	Jamaica Plain Progressives (JPP) Sunday Activist Afternoons (Weekly) Going virtual – Learn More
Packet Pickup	Sunday, March 22 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm	Cambridge Activist Afternoons (Weekly) Learn more
Provincetown	Sunday, March 22 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm	Do Something Sundays (Weekly) Learn more

Other

Virtual	Sunday, March 15 @ 3:00 pm – 3:45 pm	Fundraiser for Quinn Nystrom, MN-8 Learn more
Virtual	Sunday, March 22 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm	Fundraiser for Georgia US Rep. Lucy McBath Learn more
Hyannis	Sunday, March 22 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm	Juicing The Orange (Biweekly) Learn more

Swing Left Responds to COVID-19 with Activism

Swing Left and our partners in activism are transforming volunteerism into a non-contact sport.

Swing Left and COVID-19

To reduce the spread of COVID-19, Swing Left Greater Boston is adopting “social distancing”, a practice that substitutes remote activities for Activist Afternoons and other gatherings. As you read this newsletter, you’ll see how many events are already reorganized to run virtually, allowing volunteers to remain connected and active from their own homes.

Swing Left is also working with a number of organizations as part of the new Together for 2020 Coalition. In the next few weeks, you’ll see a burgeoning Bootcamp for Virtual Activism. These resources will streamline your abilities to communicate with each other online and to set up events that make it easy for people to work together from wherever they are.

Swing Left Greater Boston is a community of dedicated people who have joined to turn the White House, Senate, and State Legislative Houses blue. Even as the current challenges may keep us from working face to face, our desire to bring Democracy back to the country will keep us connected in spirit and action.

PENNSYLVANIA

Canvassing may be on hold, but we’re still going all out to win in PA

We’re Not Breaking Our Stride

As you might have guessed, we’ve cancelled the Weekend of Action canvassing in Bensalem, PA, but we’re not slowing our efforts to flip Pennsylvania. We’re making get-out-the-vote calls — right from home — for Harold Hayes, who’s running to flip a red seat blue in the special election in just three days (on March 17)! Democrats need just nine seats to flip the entire state house, and this is the first step!

Read on to see how you can keep up the fight for this critical swing state while staying safe and whiling away some of that extra time at home.

Participate in this week’s
Virtual Get-Out-the-Vote Phone Bank Party: Flip the PA State House!
Sunday, March 15 @ 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
No need to leave home — just connect to our video call, and we’ll provide support and team spirit.

We’re shifting all in-person letter writing and post carding events to virtual events, where you will visit the host’s home (or another central location) only to pick up your letters and envelopes, postcards, address lists and instructions. You will then complete and mail them at home. We do ask you to supply your own stamps, and to send us a photo of you and your handiwork so we can promote your efforts online!

For example, our Write Letters to Pennsylvania Voters event on Saturday, March 14 @ 4:00 – 6:00 pm is going virtual. Once you have RSVPed, you can pick up your materials from host Walter Kasell (617 694 9360) at 175 Richdale Ave. Cambridge; it’s the entrance to Cambridge Co-Housing, by the arch.

The Dems can really use your help in this challenging time.
If you can become a virtual host, email Bob or Ann to learn more. Let us know how we can help you stay in the fight while staying healthy.

MAINE

A new definition of house-to-house calls

Maine Goes Virtual

Starting this week, Swing Left Maine invites you to our virtual (at home) Activist Afternoons phone banks on Sundays @ 4:00 – 6:00 pm.

Sign up here
for any Stay-at-Home Maine Sunday Activist Afternoons Phone Bank

Attend One of Our At-Home Maine Phone Banking Training Webinars
Monday, March 16 @ 7:30 pm – 8:30
Wednesday, March 25 @ 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

MICHIGAN

This will show all the events within 100 miles of Detroit.

Have Friends, Family, or Colleagues in Michigan?

Point them to a Swing Left Local Group at www.swingleft.org/groups. In Michigan, there are now over twenty Swing Left groups, including affiliated and allied organizations like Indivisibles and Fems for Dems. All of them will welcome your compatriots with open arms. Encourage everyone you know in Michigan to connect with Democrats in their neck of the woods. Swing Left makes it super easy to start new groups, too, if there’s nothing nearby.

Send this link to your Michigan connections today.

Interested in Michigan or have connections there?
Tell us more!

Caption for photo

Put Yourself in Their Shoes

House party mavens Lisa Kolarik and Mary Wasmuth each have their own recipe for success. As you read this, they are transitioning from local to virtual house parties. At the same time, what brought them to leading house parties is keeping them going.

Mary has been running monthly parties at a friend’s’ home. If she was a bit skittish at first, she soon got over it.” My horror at the thought of another term for Trump and the GOP outweighed any hesitation about being a host,” she explains. Her key tips: Read the Swing Left Greater Boston house party guide and attend an Activist Afternoon party beforehand to see how things work.

Up until this week, Lisa has run monthly postcard parties at Joe Sent Me in Cambridge where her musician husband plays with the bar’s band; the party atmosphere had been drawing many “regulars.” Her key tips: prepare voter information materials ahead of time and have participants pair up. She puts each team’s postcards, address list, and script in a Zip-lock bag to easily distribute and collect afterwards. “It feels great to do something concrete and positive,” she adds.

What keeps these great volunteer hosts at it? “People suffer from a helpless feeling given everything going on in this country,” Mary notes, “so they’re enormously grateful for an opportunity to make a difference.”

These gallant house party leaders may not wear similar shoes, and they step out wirh different approaches. However, both are adamant that the virus will not be stopping them from the work they believe in. And both welcome you to join them, no matter what your footwear looks like.

Even if you aren’t comfortable hosting an in-person house party, you may find it really fun to get people active “on the fly”.

Email Lisa or Mary for advice on running your own stay-at-home party.

Get the basics from the Swing Left Greater Boston House Party Guide.

COVID-19 on Swing Left Boston Facebook Page

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