Collaborate With Other Indivisible Groups in Your State

The collective energy of Indivisibles across a state can be powerful. Coordinating with other groups in your state is just another type of coalition building and achieves the purposes of reducing redundancy, expanding reach, and building power. Indivisibles in some states have already begun to work together in various ways from Indivisible Illinois’ statewide call to Indivisible CA: StateStrong's statewide state legislative working group. Whatever form it takes, cementing some sort of communication or coordination structure for state legislative efforts will elevate your advocacy, allow for Indivisible cohesion, and create a stronger coalition of groups that can mobilize around a legislative campaign. By working together, you’ll be able to mobilize the relevant groups at the relevant time to have the most impact. Find a way that works for the groups in your state.

Below are a few different ideas of ways you can implement statewide collaboration based on what Indivisibles in other states have tried.

Connect with your Indivisible Organizer.

Did you know that every state has an Indivisible National Organizer? One of the ways they support the work happening across the country is by connecting groups and helping develop further collaboration. If you’re not already in touch with your Organizer, you can reach out here. They can share with you if there’s already coordination happening with groups across the state — or if there’s not, they can help you get it set up!

Schedule statewide Indivisible calls.

Pick a consistent time to jump on a video or conference call with other Indivisible leaders in your state. Based on your state’s needs and activities, this could be every week, biweekly, or every month. This can be a good forum to exchange ideas and update each other on what issues everyone is working on. Make sure you have a facilitator and agenda for each call. Consider rotating facilitators to reduce burnout. Reach out to your statewide Organizer if you need help setting up a call and agenda!

Set up an internal statewide Indivisible email list.

Most Indivisible groups have public newsletter mailing lists. But being able to communicate internally with all of the amazing group leaders in your state quickly can be helpful if a piece of legislation suddenly comes up for a vote or a rapid mobilization is necessary. For example, many Indivisibles have used google groups to internally communicate with each other en masse.

Choose an online platform for continued conversation. 

Many Indivisibles have found online chatting platforms to be an efficient way to streamline communication and prevent email overload. Some Indivisibles use statewide private facebook groups for conversations. Another popular option is Slack, an online communication tool that allows for conversation to be streamed into different channels based on the topic. Slack can be helpful for states with larger networks of members.

Set up a statewide state legislative working group. 

Some states like California, New Jersey, and Minnesota have gone a step further and formed statewide working groups that focus exclusively on state legislative work. These working groups usually have leaders from several different groups who have taken on the specialized task of following the state legislative process and informing the other group leaders in the state about legislation and calls to action. Set up a specific state legislative communication structure for your work group. Use an email list, Slack channel, Facebook group, and conference call with representatives from as many districts as possible across your state. 

Map each Indivisible group to state legislative district.

It is really helpful to know which state legislative districts are represented by each group. That way, when a crucial vote is upcoming and you find out that there is a critical legislator from a certain district whose vote is needed, constituents in his district can drive calls or actions to the target legislator. So when you’re starting to talk to other group leaders, keep track of their state legislative districts.