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One of the top requests we get from local group leaders is help coordinating with other Indivisible groups in their area. And that makes sense. Across the country, there are thousands of local Indivisible groups. That’s a lot of groups.
That’s part of the beauty and power of this movement: anyone can form a local group and start taking action to resist extremism. But we also know that we will have to stand indivisible together to win. And that means coordinating, collaborating, and working with the other Indivisible groups in your area. We have an obligation to each other to do that, so we build the strongest movement we can.
Resources for Local Indivisible Coordination
You’re not on your own here. The Indivisible team has tools to help you coordinate with your local groups, and we’re available to help make connections and answer question. Here are some of the key resources for coordination:
Start talking. You can find contact information for other groups in your area on our map. We also have the information on the map—group names, general locations, and public contact info—in a database. If there are many groups in your city or congressional district, email us at supportteam@indivisibleguide.com and we can provide a more user-friendly list (we might need a couple days to get back to you).
We can help put you and other groups in your area in touch. If the email address, url, or Twitter handle listed by a group is not working, or it’s on a system you don’t use (such as Facebook), reach out to supportteam@indivisibleguide.com and we can help introduce you to the leader of that group.
Speaking of which—our team also wants to be a resource for you! The Indivisible field team is a group of a passionate and dedicated organizers and volunteers, and their focus is working with groups and group leaders across the country. We can help you make connections with other groups, and we can also help with anything else your group is taking on as part of adopting the Indivisible strategy. We love hearing about the events you are organizing and are always happy to jump on the phone to strategize about how your group can have the biggest impact.
How to get started
So you’re in touch with some of the other Indivisible groups in your area—now what? Here are a few steps to get started.
Hold a meeting or conference call with other group leaders.
Get the leaders of all of those groups together at a convenient time. In person is best, but if your congressional district is too large for that, a conference or video call is ok instead.
- Conference Calls: If you’re having a quick check in with a few folks in your group, there are free conference call platforms like Free Conference Call and UberConference.
- Video Conferencing: However to really maintain that community feel of your group -- and particularly for larger events or events with new members -- video conferencing will be best. If you are a Gmail Customer you can use Google Meet for free for up to 500 people and includes features like chat, screen share, and whiteboards. At Indivisible, we use Zoom for most of our large calls. Zoom offers free calls for up to 40 minutes for up to 100 people. If you’re hosting a larger/longer call, reach out to us and we can get you set up!
- Our quick guide to setting up a Google Meet
- Our quick guide to setting up a Zoom meeting
The point of this call is to start building relationships with your fellow group leaders and identify some ideas for working together. Remember three important steps to doing that:
- Get the story. How did each of you first get involved in organizing or politics? Why did each of you decide to form an Indivisible group? What are you hoping your groups can accomplish?
- Imagine what’s possible. What could you do if your groups worked closely together? What are your long-term goals for building power in your neighborhood, your city, your Congressional district, even your state? How would working together support those goals?
- Commitment and ownership. If you want to work together, make sure everyone agrees to support that, and to take concrete action to make it real. Figure out some next steps that each person can commit to—such as each leader talking to his or her group about partnering with other groups or owning a specific action of a coordinated event.
Consider a joint meeting or Action
If other groups are located nearby, try scheduling a joint meeting. We’d bet that most of the people in your respective local groups would get along and have a lot to talk about. If you’re too far away—in a very spread out congressional district, for example—try scheduling meetings at the same time and have one group call another one for five minutes, or have each group take photos of their meetings to share with the other ones. That will help the members of your group feel like they are a part of something bigger, which is part of what makes this movement so amazing.
Throw a party together
We know your group is running at full speed, fighting as hard as you can to stop the Trump agenda. And that’s great—but we all need to pace ourselves, to take a moment to relax, celebrate what we’ve accomplished, and just have fun. A lot of what draws people to local groups in the first place is civic engagement: being part of a social group with their family, friends, and neighbors.
Think about hosting a joint party with other Indivisible groups in your area. Maybe your Member of Congress finally agreed to host a town hall; maybe we won a big victory in Congress; or maybe you just need a party after this congressional recess. Find a venue and bring people to celebrate. This doesn't have to be expensive. It can be as simple as picking a place that you know can accommodate a group your size and encouraging people to go, like a community event, park or bar. We’re in this together, for the long haul—celebrating victories and commiserating about defeats together helps us win.
Plan a coordinated action
One of the themes of the guide—and one of the things we’ve learned on the Hill and in organizing—is that people are stronger when they stand together. Plan a coordinated action with other groups in your area to let your Members of Congress know you’re ready to resist the Trump agenda. Here are a few quick ideas on good joint actions.
- Coordinate on attending a town hall or other public event. The next big congressional recess would be a great opportunity to do this. For constituent town halls, it’s particularly important to have big numbers in attendance. Since the Member of Congress might not come, press will be more likely to cover the event if a lot of people participate.
- Plan visits to different district offices on the same day. If you live in a large district with several district offices, each local group can pick one near them and plan to go at the same day and time. That way, all at once, all of the district offices will be full of concerned citizens, ready to speak up.
- Plan a larger rally at a big district office. Rallies can attract press attention and make the impact of your group bigger. Remember, though—the most important thing is going into the district office and talking to the staff about your concerns. So if you have a huge rally, pick a delegation of people, maybe with at least one person from each local group participating, to go in, express your concerns, and then report back to the crowd on the response provided by staff.
- Plan coordinated phone calls with other groups. A single phone call doesn’t have a big impact, but a large number of them can demonstrate public concern (or support). Think about coordinating with other Indivisible groups on phone calls to your Members of Congress on an important issue.
Report back to us so we can spread the word about your amazing work together
Send pictures, stories and videos of your collaborations with other Indivisible groups to press@indivisible.org—that way we can share them with other groups to inspire them to coordinate as well!
Sometimes, you might not agree. Your groups might have different priorities or different approaches. And that’s okay. Have a discussion when you first start talking about how joint group decisions will be made, what you’ll do if there is not consensus around an activity, and how you can continue to support each other or stay in touch even if all groups are not involved in an activity. The important thing is that we are united to fight extremism.