Thank you everyone who attended our meeting last Tuesday!

We start this with a recap of our meeting and the hope that more of you can join us as our work continues to progress. 

Indivisible Benton County met on April 23rd at Corvallis Community Center. We had a short presentation about How to Talk to your Legislators, intended to empower volunteers less experienced in political advocacy to reach out to their elected officials. This presentation was followed by a breakout session where our newly formed five committees started to plant the seeds for sustained and continued growth and actions. Each committee meeting included a discussion and the brainstorming and choosing of one action item to be taken between then and the next general membership meeting.

Communication Committee

Discussed the various methods and platforms of communication. The website is live! Events and posts will be regularly updated. Two new platforms will also be developed, a subreddit along with an Instagram account. This will hopefully help to engage younger voters and those not utilizing Facebook. The group will be meeting regularly on Zoom and communicating through Slack to do the work needed for the group.

Legislative Committee

Discussed awareness of federal and state legislation that need to be addressed. Discussed 5 calls as an easy effective way to lobby. Need for new messaging. Planning on meeting once a week, potentially on the upper floor of Market of Choice.

Voter Engagement Committee

Discussed the importance of in-person contact to turnout the vote and the canvassing opportunities in North Albany and Philomath. The group established a goal to have 20 people in N Albany and at least 4 in Philomath. To increase the number of volunteers the group suggested reaching out to book clubs, churches and other community groups, and recruiting members of other Indivisible BC committees (yes, that’s you!). The group decided to use all these strategies and also post flyers at various Corvallis locations. An email list will be created for continuity of plans.

Outreach & Partnership Committee

Discussed the role of the action committee and various categories such as Food insecurity, Immigrants, Environment, Elderly, Business, OSU students and more to partner with. One of the members will create a google document for compiling the information and resources of potential partners. Another member will create the email list of the group members.

Events

May Day (May 1st) Protest – May 1st from 5-6pm hosted by SUJR (Showing up for radical justice). Will assist them with a first aid station and reach out to the membership to see if anyone would like to volunteer to be safety leaders. Please email indivisible[email protected] to volunteer at the booth or as a safety leader.

May Day (May 3rd) Protest – May 3st from 12-2pm hosted by SUJR (Showing up for radical justice). Will assist them with a first aid station and reach out to the membership to see if anyone would like to volunteer to be safety leaders. Please email indivisible[email protected] to volunteer at the booth or as a safety leader.

May 3rd – Canvassing in North Albany and Philomath for the Special elections on May 20th!

If you couldn’t make it to the meeting on the 23rd, start thinking about which committee you would like to join. Consider what you expect from it and what you can contribute to the success of actions to be taken by the committee of your choice.

Your weekly to-dos

1. Help get out the vote in North Albany and Philomath for these special elections to protect our schools from the MAGA agenda!  The school boards in North Albany and Phiomath have competitive races against candidates supported by conservative alliances that align with Moms for Liberty, the group that is aggressively targeting school boards nationwide with an anti-DEI agenda. The group and their alliances are imposing bans on books from school libraries, censoring curriculum, bringing white supremacist Christianity to classrooms, and creating an unsafe environment for neurodivergent and LGBTQA+ students. The first defense against this is to have strong, progressive School Boards. While the Corvallis school board elections are mostly unchallenged and a majority of progressive members is secured, other Benton County schools like North Albany and Philomath are under threat. We need you to help our students by volunteering to get out the vote of democrats in these districts. You will be knocking on friendly doors only. The goal is to make sure people vote! You will receive a free Indivisible Benton County T-shirt!

2. Demand Congress fight tooth and nail against tariffs using every tool at their disposal. House Democrats can force votes on privileged resolutions and use every platform to call out Trump’s power grade and spotlight Republican complicity. Senate Democrats can force votes on privileged resolutions and put Senate Republicans on record and use every tool to hammer the message of this abuse of power and threatens economic stability and democratic checks.

3. Join a demonstration on May Day (May 1) to keep sounding the alarm about Trump’s attacks on working people and democracy. Historically, May Day celebrates the progress of working people and honors those who fought for it, but as the MAGA movement rolls back workers’ rights and strips America down for profit, we’re joining a vast coalition of orgs to turn May 1 into a nationwide day of mobilization. Can sign up here. 

4. Send an email to your Members of Congress demanding they do everything in their power to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home. With President Trump defying the Supreme Court to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia (along with hundreds of others) imprisoned in El Salvador, we find ourselves in a moral and constitutional crisis. Calls and emails to Congress aren’t sufficient to end these crises, but they are necessary to ensure our elected officials understand the public won’t move on until Abrego Garcia is home and the disappearances end.

5. Contact our state AG, Dan Rayfield, to defend residents against federal overreach. His office can file legal challenges against unconstitutional arrests, lack of due process and violation of civil liberties. They can also demand transparency with investigation and/or subpoena of ICE within their state. They can reinforce sanctuary protections by supporting and defending state and local policies that restrict collaboration with ICE. They can defend protections in school, workplaces, and universities by reinforcing both legal and physical protections for international and undocumented students, visa holders, and workers.

6. Hear the latest on April recess, reconciliation, and more — direct from Indivisible’s co-founders — this Thursday at 3pm ET / 12pm PT. Every Thursday, we take a step back to absorb the news, draw inspiration from the work Indivisibles and our allies are doing, and talk about how we fight back. This week, Leah and Ezra will share the latest from our Congressional recess events and other ways to fight Trump’s reconciliation plans.

Thank you for volunteering your time to defend our Democracy!

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to us.

We greatly appreciate hearing from our members!

Stay Safe, Stay Strong, Stand with Community!