Two years ago, I met TheFatLadySings (Lauren) at Netroots Nation in Las Vegas. She was participating in the discussion on Community Building within the Netroots. During the panel, I asked if anyone would be able to volunteer to write for IGTNT, both she and Maggie Jean offered to write with these painful and heartbreaking diaries. I was amazed and grateful to get such a response.
During the conference, I noticed Lauren had her teenagers with her. Not only is she a great community organizer, but also a wonderful mom. All of them were having a great time together.
One year later in Minneapolis, I saw Lauren again, she told me she helped people in an impoverished area with healthcare. She brought some co-workers along with her to the convention. Netroots Nation has so many talented speakers and great information this was a brilliant idea, and Lauren was able to convince others of this.
Now, Lauren is working on winning the Pepsi Challenge, so 24 dedicated activists will be able to attend the Netroots Nation 11. We all need to support her in encouraging others to be with us at Netroots Nation. We need all voices to be heard online. We need people from all walks of life to be a part of our community. Let's help her in promoting online diversity.
"The key to winning the Pepsi Refresh grant is accumulating daily voters. Netroots Nation has agreed to help us organize to win this grant. Sign up at this link to receive an email once a day providing you links to vote. Once the contest is over, win or lose, the email list will be deleted and your email won't be shared with anyone. So please help us recruit all the daily voters you can, and we can do this."
David Trujillo and TheFatLadySings
Lucia Sanchez and Raymond Ortiz
at the NN11 American Indian
Caucus last year
Last year, TheFatLadySings brought three colleagues from
Rio Arriba County in Northern New Mexico, to NN11 in Minneapolis. They attended the American Indian and Latino Caucuses as well as workshops in community organizing, messaging, online tools, etc. Since then, Rio Arriba County has hired a Public Information Officer, revamped their
County and
health council websites, including a
blog so they can communicate directly with the public.
Mid December, mindoca is traveling to Rio Arriba County to teach them to use and train others to use new media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs. She'll explain their use in advocacy campaigns, marketing websites and blogs, community strengthening activities and legislative action. Mindoca also attended the annual CJA conference in Washington, D.C., where she trained coalitions to use online tools in their organizing efforts and to build community power.
TheFatLadySings and her team want to attend NN12 next year and provide a way for colleagues from Communities Joined in Action to attend as well. This is a solid effort to increase the numbers of people of color at NN12.
We need your help. Specifically, we need you to promote and vote for our grant application. Go to refresheverything and sign up for an account with Pepsi. Then go to Lifting the Digital Curtain and vote for us. You can vote once a day.
Please vote every day in December!
"The key to winning the Pepsi Refresh grant is accumulating daily voters. Netroots Nation has agreed to help us organize to win this grant. Sign up at this link to receive an email once a day providing you links to vote. Once the contest is over, win or lose, the email list will be deleted and your email won't be shared with anyone. So please help us recruit all the daily voters you can, and we can do this."
If funded, the grant will also send two members of Native American Netroots who would not otherwise be able to go to Providence. And NAN will help Communities Joined in Action to recruit American Indian coalitions as members.
TheFatLadySings and colleagues hope to see you at NN12 Providence, Rhode Island. They hope to be able to tell you there about the many wonderful facets of the Affordable Care Act that are helping us to eliminate health disparities. And they are eager to learn about the use online tools to register and mobilize our communities to vote.
Please Tweet and share.
We need diarists to help us promote this cause every day in December.
Sign up for a day in the comment thread below.
"The key to winning the Pepsi Refresh grant is accumulating daily voters. Netroots Nation has agreed to help us organize to win this grant. Sign up at this link to receive an email once a day providing you links to vote. Once the contest is over, win or lose, the email list will be deleted and your email won't be shared with anyone. So please help us recruit all the daily voters you can, and we can do this."