It's been a roller-coaster year. For many of us, the reality fell far short of our high hopes--but that's not the full story. MoveOn Councils did powerful organizing this year, and we made a major impact on clean energy and health care legislation.
We'll keep
working hard together in 2010, starting in January for the crucial final
sprint of the big health care fight. But as the year comes to a close, it's worth reflecting on some of the amazing and transformational
work that Councils did this year.
We've just completed a big 2009 end-of-year review, and we wanted to share it with you and other Council leaders. The complete results, with stories, highlights, and photos are below, and they're worth checking out. Here are a few highlights:
- Together, we strengthened the hand of our progressive champions in Congress and took on conservative senators who've been standing in the way of real reform. From rapid-response "roadblock rallies" targeting some of the most critical senators like Kent Conrad and Joe Lieberman to thank-you events with dozens of representatives who voted for real reform, we've shown legislators that MoveOn members will stand with those who fight for our priorities and hold accountable those standing in the way of change. The fact that any health care bill could get 60 votes in the Senate is due in no small part to the work of MoveOn Councils in states like North Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana and Louisiana.
- Together, we focused the media on meaningful issues like the need for real health care reform and the everyday Americans across the country willing to fight for it. Our events generated thousands of stories and TV news clips that made the case for real health care reform. We've seen a nearly 40% boost in our earned media coverage over the past two years.
- Together, we kept the public option alive when no one thought it was possible. Time and time again the public option was declared dead by the pundits, but working with our allies, we made sure it remained a central focus of the health care fight. And as it became the primary target for Republicans and conservative Democrats, it allowed many other important progressive pieces of health care reform to survive unscathed. It's deeply frustrating that Joe Lieberman forced the public option out of the Senate bill, but we'll keep fighting for it as well as other key improvements to the final bill. There may even be a way to win a public option later, if we can't get one in this bill.
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Together, we doubled the strength of the Councils. Looking at the growth of our earned media work, a big increase in direct contact between Councils and members of Congress, and the amazing frequency of MoveOn Council actions this year, it's clear that our Council network took a huge step forward. In many places, MoveOn Council members ran a far more powerful, sustained, localized campaign than ever before.
Last week's Senate health care bill was not the one we hoped for, and that's a discouraging way to end the year. But from the civil rights movement to the environmental movement to the decades-long drive for health care reform itself, progressive change has never come easily. It has never come without a fight, and that struggle will continue as we head into 2010.
It's been a privilege working for change together with you, and we can't wait to continue the fight for real health care reform and our other top priorities in 2010. Thank you--really, thank you--for all you do.
-Lenore, Adam, Amy, Anna, Annie, Christopher, Danielle, Emily, Gail, Ian, Ilya, Jodeen, Keauna, Matt, Matthew, Melanie, Scott, Stephen, Steven, Susannah, and the entire MoveOn team
We hit the ground running at the start of the year and ended it in a full-on sprint. In the last three months of 2009, MoveOn Councils organized a coordinated day of action every 12 days. That's a LOT! And along the way, we experimented and went deeper in our community organizing than we ever have before.
Check out this great slideshow of MoveOn Councils in action to refresh your memory about some of the incredible organizing we've done throughout the year.
Here are just some highlights from the work on Health Care Reform and Power Up America that MoveOn Councils did in 2009.
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Taking action for real health care reform. We started off 2009 with a new president and an ambitious agenda for change. MoveOn members led
the way in educating the public and our legislators about the need for health care reform and the
importance of a public health insurance option to bring down costs and
increase competition. We took on
the opponents of health care reform, highlighted insurance company
abuses, and helped create an overwhelming mandate for change.
At thousands of rallies, candlelight vigils, bird-dogging events, and stops on Dawn's tour across the country, MoveOn members generated press coverage and talked to our members of Congress about health care reform. And we kept the public option alive for months when no one thought it was possible: Just take a look at this public option timeline.
- Taking back the town hall meetings. In August, MoveOn Councils mobilized in response to right-wing attempts to hijack representatives' town halls and other health care events across the country. Councils rapidly planned hundreds of targeted events from flyering at state fairs to rallies outside of town halls. By the end of August, we'd regained the momentum and showed Congress that the people shouting at town halls were just right-wing extremists. Click here for a slideshow with highlights from other "Real Voices for Change" events across the country.
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Organizing more sophisticated actions than ever on the Power Up America campaign. MoveOn Councils kicked off the year with a massive new campaign for green jobs and clean energy. Our Clean Energy Jobs Day in May was a multi-stop media tour showcasing
local clean energy businesses, and it was one of the most complicated actions we've ever organized.
MoveOn Councils held nearly 100 Jobs Day tours in communities from Asheville, NC to Tucson, AZ. In many places, Councils organized tours of local businesses (reaching out to media, planning logistics and transportation from site to site, and arranging the speaking program and turnout) to show participants, media and representatives the clean energy economy in action at locations around the community. Check out this terrific footage from a public television interview with MoveOn Council Coordinator David Nevins about the Clean Energy Jobs Day in Tucson and take a look back at photos from across the country.
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Intensive local organizing on our most critical targets. In the fall, MoveOn Councils in several states with top-priority swing senators launched an intensive organizing push designed to do
hard-edged advocacy on conservative senators who were blocking
reform. While we didn't convince all our targets to support the public
option, all ended up voting for health care reform. MoveOn Councils in these states did some of the deepest, most
effective advocacy work we've ever pulled off.
In one example in North Dakota, Council members assembled a powerful team of small-business owners, campaign donors and volunteers, farmers, and community leaders to advocate for the public option. They organized 18 campaign events in less than three months--and Senator Conrad repeatedly responded directly to the Councils' critiques with statements, television ads, and even a debate with a MoveOn Council leader about the public option live on a call-in radio show!
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Training. All year long, MoveOn Councils have been
developing our skills as organizers and advocates for real reform. We
started the year with congressional advocacy trainings to learn the
skills to lobby members of Congress for the health care and energy
fights we faced. In the spring we launched Camp MoveOn trainings where hundreds of MoveOn Council leaders came together to learn about team-building, leadership
development, getting great media coverage, and building the progressive movement.
- Developing relationships between local Councils and targeted members of Congress. Across the country dozens of members of Congress attended "Countdown to Change" rallies for real health care reform, met with MoveOn Councils to discuss the health care campaign and started to see MoveOn Councils as forces for long-term change in their communities. One example: In Maine, Rep. Chellie Pingree came to several MoveOn Council organizing events including their Clean Energy Jobs Day. After hearing from MoveOn members, she took a leading role in circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter to strengthen the House energy bill. MoveOn members then backed her up and helped sign up nearly 50 members of Congress on the letter!
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Strategy, creativity and fun! We ended the year on a lighter note as MoveOn Councils organized "Health Care-oling"
events at the offices of progressive representatives who still have the
opportunity to stand up for real health care reform during the final negotiations. The MoveOn Council in Scranton, PA stepped it
up a notch further as they actually performed an adapted version of "A
Christmas Carol" about health care reform to get the media's attention
on a blistery cold 18-degree day. Be sure to check out this video
of Rep. Keith
Ellison of Minnesota joining in a caroling event with the Twin Cities
Metro Council and promising to keep up the fight for the public option.
As we enter the home stretch of our health care campaign, we'll have to build on our efforts this year to make sure we get the best health care bill possible out of the conference committee and continue to push forward our long-term vision for truly universal health care for every American, a clean energy future and our other shared priorities. There's a lot of work left to do to achieve the change we seek, but this past year has shown that even in some of the toughest circumstances, MoveOn Councils can rise to the challenge and lead the way.