A request and a promise...

[Karin]

Dear friends,

A few weeks ago, I wrote to let you know about Rob Carolina and to ask
for your vote in support of his election for Chair of Democrats Abroad
UK and for myself as Vice Chair. Since then, I’ve been really grateful
that so many of you have been in touch to express your support, or
tell me about your hopes for the organization, or to ask us more about
our plans. As I’ve told many of you – Rob constantly impresses me with
his energy and vision for the organization, his sincere commitment to
building an open and inclusive party, and the way that he constantly
goes far above and beyond the call of duty in achieving every task
that he takes on.

Once more, I ask for your vote – for Rob, and for myself. You can read
more about Rob, and about our thinking on our campaign website:
www.YourPartyYourVote.com

The election is now just a few days away: Thursday, 31st of March at
7PM.

Our current prediction is that the election will be very close. So, if
you are a member of Democrats Abroad, your vote could make a massive
difference. Your participation in this election is vital, not just
because we hope you might vote for Rob and me, but more importantly –
because it is the vocal and active participation of our members that
keeps this organization alive.

It’s your party, it’s your vote – but in order to be heard you must be
physically present at the meeting. No proxy votes or postal ballots
are allowed. No RSVP is required to attend and vote. So I very much
hope we will see you there!

DAUK Elections: Thursday 31 March, from 7PM
Where: New Theatre, East Building
Houghton Street
London School of Economics
London, WC2A 2AE

Map: http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/findingYourWayAroundLSE.htm

RSVP requested but NOT REQUIRED

You may RSVP to: secr...@democratsabroad.org.uk

OUR PROMISE TO YOU

The next two years will be a key moment in the development of
Democrats Abroad, and a critical test not only of whether we can keep
a Democratic White House and restore our congressional majorities, but
whether we here in the UK can adapt to embrace our much larger
membership, make use of all the skills and talents you have to offer,
and grow exponentially to represent an even larger proportion of US
voters here.

But what does that mean in practice? Here are a few concrete promises
that should give you an idea of how we hope to govern if we are
elected:

• Accessibility and openness: We will commit to including a remote
participation option at every Executive Committee and Council meeting
– either a video conference or a conference call – so that no
interested member will be unable to participate because he or she
can’t physically get to a meeting.
• Communications: The DAUK page on the Democrats Abroad website is
seriously out of date. If elected, Rob and I promise that we will
ensure members can access all information about our events and
activities via the website. In addition, we will begin to make use of
other communications channels, including social media. For instance,
we promise at a minimum to have an active DAUK Facebook page within
the first 6 months of our term. Our community increasingly uses social
media, and to reach them, so should we.
• Member contact: It’s important that all members have a chance to
hear from their Party – therefore we will run an ongoing rolling
program of member phone banking throughout the year, and will commit
to dialing every single DAUK member in each year. We can encourage
greater member participation by outreach efforts like this.
• Regional development: If elected, we promise to visit all three
of the currently organized non-London chapters to help them create
development plans for themselves and local field plans for the 2012
campaign. We will set it as our goal to stimulate at least one
additional active group outside of central London.
• Membership growth: While our existing membership will always be a
key priority for us, it is equally important that we actively seek out
new members in all corners of the UK. We promise that in our first
year we will pilot a program of direct outreach to UK residents
through Facebook and Google advertising, and create a program of
proactive media outreach. This will need to be closely coordinated
with the DNC to ensure message sensitivity and FEC compliance.

These are just a few of the things that we would hope to achieve in
the coming two years – you will no doubt have many other ideas. But I
hope you will print out and keep the above list, because we want you
to hold us to these commitments.

With thanks and best wishes,

Karin J. Robinson
DAUK Vice Chair

PS: Want to get more involved? If you want to help out in the final
days of this election, or to work with us on some ideas for the future
of the organization, we want to hear from you! Write to us at:
R...@YourPartyYourVote.com or Ka...@YourPartyYourVote.com


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I blog at www.obamalondon.blogspot.com
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