Voters Not Politicians Hosts Workshops to Apply for the Citizens Redistricting Comission
Thirteen Michigan voters will be randomly selected to serve on Michigan’s first Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission — and you could be one of them! The Commission will be tasked with drawing Michigan’s next set of election district maps following the 2020 Census.
The application process is now open and Voters Not Politicians is hosting two application workshops in Ypsilanti on November 13, and November 20, 2019.
RSVP today so you can:
– Learn more about the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission
– Learn more about the application process
– Complete your application on-site
– Have your application notarized for free (please bring a photo ID)
Volunteers will be on site to help you through the entire application process. Just bring your photo ID. We’ll have everything else you need to complete your application including:
- Applications
- Access to free notary services
- Volunteers available to answer questions about the application process
Admission is free. However, SPACE IS LIMITED, so please choose ONE and RSVP!
Wednesday, November 13, Ypsilanti District Library, 5577 Whittaker Road, Ypsilanti, 7 PM: http://vnp.vote/ypsilanti1113
Wednesday, November 13, Ypsilanti District Library, 5577 Whittaker Road, Ypsilanti, 8 PM : http://vnp.vote/ypsilanti1113b
Wednesday, November 20, Ypsilanti Downtown Library, 229 W. Michigan Avenue, Ypsilanti, 10 AM – 12 PM http://vnp.vote/
For more information about the Voters Not Politicians, please visit: http://votersnotpoliticians.
For more information about Michigan’s new redistricting process, please visit: https://votersnotpoliticians.
For more information about applying to serve on Michigan’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, please visit: https://votersnotpoliticians.
DEMS CARE: Volunteers needed to help with Food Distributions (November 13th and December 11th)
Community Family Life Centers located at Grace Fellowship Church, 1301 S. Harris, Ypsilanti 48198, is combining their food distributions in November and December. The dates will be: this Wednesday November 13th and December 11. The group that normally volunteers is not currently able to assist. CFLC desperately needs volunteers to help when Food Gatherers delivers and when hungry people show up at the distributions. There should be over a 100 people each distribution, many of them seniors, who need the food that will be dropped off.
Both the Nov. 13 and Dec. 11 food trucks will arrive at about 9:00 am. Help is needed unloading pallets and bagging or putting on shelves from around 8:50 until 10:15 am. 5-8 people are needed for this time.
The distributions start promptly at 10:15 am. Extra food has been ordered because over 100 people are expected, so extra help is needed. From 10:15 am until maybe 1:30 or 2:00 pm the clients will be “shopping”, so 4-6 people are needed during this time who are able to walk clients through the pantry.
4-6 “cart guys” are needed to push carts out to cars, unload, and bring the carts back in., everything stops if the carts are in the parking lot.
If you can help contact Patti Price at pattildprice@gmail.com or Kathy Wyatt at Katherineawyatt@aol.com
Join the WCDP Board– As Visibility Co-Chair
Nominations are open for Co-Vice Chair for the Visibility committees! Do you enjoy talking to people and spreading the word about the Party? Karen Kostamo could use a hand! Your role would be to ensure we have a presence in the community and at events, with a table or our booth, to help recruit other volunteers, and to take in donations for our great collection of buttons. We set up tables at local festivals and at Democratic events like the conventions, as well as at the Farmer’s Market. All are welcome to assist, but a candidate for Co-Chair also becomes a member of the Executive Board, helping to make decisions about the direction of the County Party. Meetings once a month, occasional e-mail exchanges in between. This is a significant way to help Democrats win in 2020!
WCDP is steered by an all-volunteer Executive Board, which is elected by the Executive Committee, which is elected by members every two years (yes, we know it’s complicated, but those are statewide Party rules). The board includes four officers (Chris Savage is our Chair), the Co-Vice Chairs of our working committees, and the Chair of the Black Caucus. People sometimes get too busy, move away, etc., so we sometimes must call for new members. Hope to hear from you!
Rep. Ronnie Peterson Hosts Community Conversations
Rep. Peterson is hosting a series of Community Conversations around subjects of interest to the community, beginning Monday the 21st with Rep. Donna Lasinski on the MI State Budget. Other topics include Returning Citizens– bringing people back into the community after incarceration– and Senior Safety, Elder Abuse, and Senior Housing. He will also have evenings centered around the Border 2 Border trail, and improvements to Hwy US12. Please see our calendar for details!
YOUNG WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP TRAINING- MDP Women’s Caucus
The Women’s Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party is offering a one-day training to encourage young female leaders, future and present. The MDP has really stepped up its organizing and leadership training opportunities, and WCDP members have been taking advantage! This training will take place on Saturday October 19th, in Southfield at the Sheet metal Workers’ Local 80, 17100 W 12 Mile Road. To register, a donation of $25 is requested. You can mail a check to 19432 Burlington Dr. Detroit, Michigan 48203-1454
or pay online at michigandems.com/mdwc.
For more information call 248-579-9065. The co-ordinators are Kristina Robinson Hunt, Eleanor Carey and Mary Cavanagh.
WCDP Members Bring 350.org to Washtenaw
Washtenaw350 is the newly-organized county chapter for 350.org. WCDP members Lisa Patrell, Rita Mitchell and Lauren Sargent invite you to join them! They are traveling the county with Kick-Off events. The Ann Arbor Kick-off is Oct 9, 7pm at The Circ Bar (210 1st Street).
Washtenaw350
- Advocates for a holistic understanding of the environmental stress climate change presents: only holistic policies can adequately and fairly address climate change.
- Promotes solutions compatible with GND
- Connects constituents with legislators
Ann Arbor’s program will feature a film and Missy Stults, Office of Sustainability & Innovations for the City of Ann Arbor, who will talk about initiatives underway or planned. There is a 5-year plan. Who knew?
Discussion and identifying next actions will follow. Come to learn, poke, prod, do.
Let’s Fuel Change!
Follow Washtenaw350 on facebook..
RSVP: to Fuel Change! https://www.facebook.com/
Bring a friend or two.
Ypsi2DC Art Show and Fundraiser in Support of Ypsi Schools Artists
The Washtenaw County Democratic Party is hosting a reception/fundraiser to help send 66 Ypsilanti Community Schools (YCS) student artists to D.C. to exhibit their work at the U.S. Department of Education. This exceptional honor will be a once in a lifetime experience. Please come out to the reception to meet the young artists and see their work.
Admission is free. Snacks and drinks served.
Donations at the door are much appreciated.
Donate on-line:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/
Mail a check to:
Ypsilanti Community Schools
1885 Packard St. Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Please write “YCS DC 2020” in the memo line.
WCDP Executive Board Supports the Climate Strike
The Executive Board has voted to support Friday’s Climate Strike, organized by students and young people all over the world. We urge all who are able to join the U of M students at Ingalls Mall for a rally and workshops to learn how we can get effective action.
https://www.washtenawdems.org/calendar/washtenaw-climate-strike-9-20/
Protect Our Great Lakes: Rep. Rabhi Creates a New PAC
Representative Yousef Rabhi is responding to the overwhelming pressure being put on Michigan’s legislature by Enbridge Energy and other fossil fuel interests, with the creation of a new Political Action Committee to help protect the irreplaceable water system that is the Great Lakes. We have many effective organizations who can lobby for us, getting vital information to legislators and county commissioners who hear from industry spokespeople every day. Representive Rabhi proposes that we show our commitment, and how vital it is to protect our environment from the looming climate crisis, by putting together a real “war chest” to fund a coalition for a clean and green Michigan.
The League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, and Clean Water Action all have good lobbyists who work every day to defend Michigan’s environment, and we need them more than ever as fossil fuel companies dig in, refusing to transition to the clean economy we need. They need our support!
Protect the Great Lakes: Calling Party to Decommission Line 5
The fight to decommission Line 5, a Canadian-owned oil and gas pipeline, has ratcheted up. This 50-year-old line puts Michigan’s Great Lakes, as well as 640 miles of irreplaceable wetlands, farmlands and inhabited areas, at increasing risk with each passing month. After the resounding victory of Attorney General Dana Nessel and Governor Gretchen Whitmer, both of whom campaigned on the promise to retire this line, lobbyists and pressure groups from Enbridge and their supporters are putting tremendous pressure on legislators and on County Commissions throughout Michigan.
We can help counter this by joining a phone bank to inform voters in other counties, and by joining Rep. Yousef Rabhi in building a “war chest” – the Protect Our Great Lakes PAC– to help the lobbyists WE need, to inform Lansing legislators of the facts and the urgency of shifting Michigan to a clean and green economy.
The Washtenaw County Commission is firm in its support of decommissioning, but many other counties are swayed by Enbridge’s insistence that there is no alternative to the (very minimal) propane it supplies to the UP, and its arguments that it is safe, and will provide good jobs in building the tunnel and the replacement. The facts belie this argument. Andrea Pierce, chair of the Anishinaabek Caucus, has provided a detailed rebuttal of the resolution passed by Grand Traverse County. You can consult it under Files on the Caucus Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/342519989709649/files/
A recent report by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, How A County-By-County Push
Is Boosting Enbridge’s Line 5, shows how Enbridge has enlisted the Michigan Association of Counties to push for support for the tunnel project, which would allow the line to keep operating for at least 10 years in its current dangerous state. They have already gotten 5 counties to support resolutions in favor. To read the Michigan Campaign Finance Network’s new report on a county-by-county effort to support Line 5, follow this link.
Attorney General Dana Nessel has sued for decommissioning on the grounds of irregularities in the original easement. More info soon on the progress on this.
Ypsi 2 DC: WCDP Supports Ypsilanti Schools Artists
Sixty-six student artists from Ypsilanti Community Schools (YCS) have been invited to exhibit their work at the U.S. Department of Education, in Washington DC. This exceptional honor will be a once in a lifetime experience, and the Washtenaw County Democratic Party is hosting a reception/fundraiser to help send the young artists to the opening! Please come out to the reception to meet the young artists and see their work, at the WCDP office on October 10th, 5-9 pm.
Admission is free. Snacks and drinks will be served, and donations will be gratefully accepted. Reservations here and link to donate here.