The goal of this newsletter is to provide one central location for local events where people can get involved politically in Summit County.

For this newsletter’s purpose, that includes:

• Local Democratic club meetings

• Rallies

• Protests

• Educational events

• Town halls

• Supportive, fun events (think: Akron Pride!)

Basically…places you can go in-person to connect with like-minded people and take the next step to get more involved.

Building our community and connections is how change starts. Change happens when we work together and TAKE ACTION strategically. And unfortunately, it won’t happen on social media or in comment sections. It’s face-to-face with our neighbors, and it takes a lot of time, effort, and passion to navigate challenges. And that can be really intimidating!

It can be hard to step out of your comfort zone at first, but I can promise you: getting involved can be so positive, so fulfilling, and genuinely fun.

Speaking from experience, I have made lifelong friends across generations from the moment I decided to dip my toe in at my university’s College Dems chapter as a sheepish 19-year-old looking for friends.

And with things so scary and uncertain and downright stupid right now, there’s truly no time like the present. Prevent any future regret, and start dipping that toe in 🙂 

But…why?

The impetus behind this publication purpose is twofold:

1. To help those who are new to Getting Involved™ learn about your options so that you can start to dip your toe in.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and generally…starting new things isn’t always the most fun, especially when you don’t know anyone, aren’t familiar with the lingo, or don’t feel prepared to Do The New Thing.

This newsletter serves as a brief rundown of what is available without needing to know who is in charge of what, what Facebook page to look at, what website to search, yadda yadda. It’s all here & right in your inbox!

2. To help our seasoned activists keep track of events going on throughout Summit County

With so much to be outraged about, there is a lot to keep track of.

Especially if you want to take a break from social media, since so much local activism takes place on Zuckerberg’s Facebook!

What events are included?

I am a one woman operation, so I guarantee right now that I will never capture every single event.

But I will share my 3-prong strategy I plan to maintain:

• Only events where action/learning can happen….. basically no fundraisers.

This is about building community and taking action. Raising money is an extremely crucial part of being successful in politics and running an organization - it is still important! But we get fundraising texts & emails all the time. This is not going to be more of that.

The Summit County Democratic Party maintains a great calendar of fundraising events for clubs and candidates throughout the entire county if you would like to contribute to local candidates and causes.

• Only publicly promoted events

This is for two reasons.

1) A lot of local clubs (understandably) want to keep their information secure. There is more going on under the surface within these clubs for their members to partake in. Ideally, you’d become a member of one of these club, or at the very least, sign-up for their newsletter, join their Facebook group, etc.

2) I don’t have time to ask every group’s permission, so it’s just easier to choose the already-publicly promoted ones.

That said, if you have an event that you want to be included, please email the event info to [email protected] and I will make sure to include it!

• Only Summit County events (with the occasional Cleveland)

Keeping the mission narrow (because Summit County is all I really know!) + including our lovable hidden gem “Big City” to the north.

My own personal beef with Columbus aside, there are existing resources (like How Things Work at the Ohio Statehouse, the r/Columbus subreddit, etc.) that do a good job of keeping up with stuff happening in Columbus.

Finally, as long as we keep having elections, I will be including brief election information. A necessary condition of change is winning elections, and every single election matters.

Voting is a muscle, and we have to keep on exercising it, even if it’s just voting for Issue 2 to bring state funds to local communities for infrastructure projects. And why not take the boring politics as a breath of fresh air in these crazy times!

If you have feedback on what you would like to see, or what you think I should keep doing, please let me know at [email protected]

I know this publication is just a little drop in the big bucket of life, but if it can help just a couple people get involved, feel less stressed/nervous, or allow you to take a social media break for a couple weeks but still be engaged locally - I will be more than happy!

Til next time!
Stay strong & stay joyful! 💖