ICC July Monthly Meeting
July was a busy month for ICC. The Monthly Meeting was held at World of Beer in Exton. There was no program to speak of, but we did endeavor to get people to meet new people by having everyone move one seat to the right every 15 minutes. The table was narrow, so it was easy to talk across it. Live and learn: people tended to speak to the people NEXT to them in lieu of those ACROSS from them. It also didn’t work so well as the wait staff was bringing food and drink. Going forward, we’re thinking about ways to encourage people to meet new people. Also thinking name tags might help…
Danielle Friel Otten dropped by. If you haven’t met this candidate for the 155th District of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, she is the person in the photo on the right, in the front. Danielle is not shy and, to the best of my knowledge, moved around the table and spoke to everyone!
ICC Post Card Party
After head of the regime met with Putin, people were incredibly up in arms. We decided to pull together a post card writing party, and went back to World of Beer. We sent out 64 post cards to our elected reps, asking them if they were on the side of Putin and the Orange One, or on the side of the United States Intelligence Community, and what they intended to do about it. We’ll see what kind of responses come back.
You can’t see it well in the photo, but past our table was a table of eight millennials. I went over to see if they, too, might be interested in sending post cards, and it turns out that seven out of eight were, and did so. They all also committed to voting in November, except for the guy with the long beard, who explained that he’d had an opportunity to vote, turned it down, and was completely disinterested. I know, I know, should have tried to change his mind, but I’ll take 7 out of 8. We would LOVE to get more young people involved in ICC and in politics in general – if you’ve got any ideas, please leave them in the comments.
At both events, people had a good time, and actually did meet and connect with people they hadn’t known before. World of Beer is a good venue because there is a good amount of room, a huge beer menu (and non-beer for those who prefer other adult and non-alcoholic beverages) and decent bar food. (Plus they let you order off the children’s menu, which is a personal huge selling point for me.) But it’s in Exton, and not everyone lives close to Exton. So we’re looking at new venues and considering a couple locations in Phoenixville in September and Downingtown in October. If you have a favorite venue (that doesn’t charge for a room) please leave it in the comments. We want to try to move around the county to engage as many people as possible. We’ve also heard from people responding to the endorsement ballots that they don’t drive at night, and so if there’s interest, we could consider a brunch meeting somewhere.
Also in July, we participated in the Keep Families Together rally in Phoenixville. We ran a successful Voter Registration Drive, met a lot of new people, and I gave a few remarks. I had the opportunity to use a line I’d been saving, which was “When I first heard the term “illegal alien” I got VERY excited. I was thinking Klingons and Romulans, and figured we could work the “illegal” thing out later. I was shocked when I found out that they were talking about human beings”
Bottom line is that the majority of active ICC members have jobs, families, AND spend their spare time canvassing, phone banking and working on campaigns and causes. We still hold a meeting every month – we have held meetings on various topics with guest speakers, including both Why Courts Matter and Del-Chesco United for Pipeline Safety. We’ve also hosted the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center as part of their statewide listening tour. There was a panel discussion on guns, and training on civics and political activism. For the summer, and into the fall, we’ve decided to hold off on programs and just have group get-togethers as our meetings, with the exception of our Endorsed Candidate Meet and Greet … partially because it takes a lot of time and effort to pull off the programs, we’re all busy with the elections, and it’s nice to take an evening and just kick back with like-minded souls. If you’ve got an idea for a program, especially if you want to help organize it, please leave that in the comments.
We received a lot of emails after people received their endorsement ballots. A number of those missives asked why ICC didn’t do such and such. The general answer is that the people who…
- Manage the Facebook page (including handling the crazies…oy vey)
- Compose the daily Action Items
- Run and contribute content to the web site
- Undertake the data work to accomplish things like our Interactive Candidate Guide
- Write and publish the bi-weekly newsletter
- Approve new members
- Answer member requests
- Connect members with resources
- Coordinate with the campaigns
- Put together the meetings and events, and coordinate with other groups
- Endeavor to raise money to cover our costs
…and all else we do….well, there are only six of us. We would do more, and are behind on many things, because we too have jobs and families and we work on elections, and we lack the bandwidth. So if you would like to help build and run ICC, let us know. PLEASE. Even if we recapture the House, and potentially the Senate, and make inroads in Pennsylvania State Government, there are county row elections next year, and local races to be won. Plus the need to stay on the case of ALL our elected representatives to make sure that they are responsive to the needs and conscience of their constituents. Much of the work is flexible about when things get accomplished, and there are areas we can’t touch because we lack the bodies.
We hope to see you at the Meet and Greet in August, and at our Monthly Meeting in late August. ICC has made a big difference in Chester County: Remember, Ryan Costello mentioned us by name as one of the factors in his decision to leave Congress! We have helped people get involved who didn’t know where to start, and we’ve worked with people who are a lot less lonely now that so many more people are involved at all levels. There is strength in numbers.
As one last plug, on the top of the web site is a Donate button. We are very grateful to the people who donated at the post card party because it costs money to have a web site, and buttons to hand out, and post cards and stamps, and paying for venues. In April, we held our first Earth Day celebration, and have already booked a site for next April, and will look to raise money to cover the venue, the insurance and associated costs. Monies are collected via Act Blue, and are not tax deductible. We are limited, by law, in terms of what we can spend the money on: mostly relegated to programs, events, direct expenses, etc.
And finally – mark your calendars for November 6th. This election is for all the marbles. Make sure to get absentee ballots for your kids at college, and consider being a voter registration drive! Thanks for all you do.