Greetings, CODA friends!
Happy 2024 to everyone! If you’re like us, you’re probably getting bombarded with ads for health clubs this time of year. Haven’t we all learned that lesson by now? We’ll be all fired up the first three times we go. Less so the fourth and fifth, but we go (even though we’re sore as heck). Find an excuse for the sixth (that knee is barking!), and if we go a seventh time, it’s a miracle. We keep the membership active because we have good intentions, and canceling it means we’re quitters. But the gym bag sits in the trunk, gathering dust.
So we thought we’d share some different options to scratch that New Year’s Resolution itch. These have a little better chance of sticking, considering our democracy is at stake. No biggie.
You want to be active, but that gym thing just isn’t working out for you (SWIDT). Maybe you’re hankering for a different kind of activity. How about this: commit to earning the badge ‘political activist’. Instead of doom-scrolling in your man cave and throwing things at the TV screen when The Cheeto’s fake-tanned face appears, get off your duff. Seek out local like-minded groups, such as your local Democratic party, or other activist groups such as CODA. You’ll be amazed at how much more fun it is to doom-scroll and throw stuff at the TV when you’re with friends.
Give procrastination the boot. In the political activism game, one of the main areas we tend to see procrastination is in applying for the VBM, the Vote By Mail ballot. If you typically vote by mail, resolve to apply for your mail ballots now, rather than twenty minutes before the deadline. If you live in Texas, you have to re-apply annually. A quick Google should provide a link with instructions on how to proceed in your area. Let us know if you’re having trouble tracking down that info.
Perhaps your goals are a bit loftier, and you prefer to resolve to become a legendary catalyst for change, motivating the masses to get to the polls and vote out the scum. We have a pro tip for you to take the first steps toward achieving this goal, and it doesn’t require a political science degree or years of fundraising or miles of campaign tours. Just encourage two friends to vote, and also have them ask two others. (We find the Reach app pretty handy for relational outreach.) Two friends doesn’t seem like it makes much of an impact, but it does! This is actually possible thanks to a crazy little factoid called exponential growth. As an example, if everyone reading this post reached out to encourage others to vote in the presidential election on November 5, 2024, we will have reached almost 19,000 people in a single hour.* Elections have been decided by far less.
Are you the Gladys Kravitz of your neighborhood? Peeking through the blinds, clocking the comings and goings of the locals and making sure everyone knows everyone else’s business? Fantastic! Resolve to apply your, shall we say, ‘observational skills’ to help get out the vote (GOTV) in 2024. If you see a moving van unloading nearby, be the first to pop over with a box of cookies, or a fresh-baked pie, and some info on how they can register to vote. If you live in a voter suppression powerhouse state like Texas and you want to be extra double slick, you can become a VDR (a Volunteer Deputy Registrar) and register your new neighbors there on the spot, before the pie gets cold.
Resolve to turn that frown (ref doom-scrolling, above) upside down and Think Positive. Spread the word on the positive achievements of the current Democratic administration. Between budget cuts and bending the knee to shareholders, it’s obvious mainstream media isn’t going to do this for us.
*thanks Wiki for helping us with the math. Assuming outreach doubles every ten minutes (choosing this number sort of at random based on the Wiki example), one person can reach 64 people in ten minutes. We multiplied our average open rate (42% = 294) by six (because there are six ten-minute intervals in an hour) = 18,816.
In other news:
Road Trip! First Friday will be in Elgin this month. Join us for some socializing with like-minded friends. And the pizza’s dang good, also.
January is pretty busy for CODA. Hope you can join us for some of these additional get-togethers.
December’s CODA Christmas party was a smash. Thanks to everyone who attended. Tim Cormie is two for two at winning CODA costume contests. He even donated his prize money to CODA. What a guy! (Be sure to zoom in on the Cormies’ Ugly Christmas Sweaters)
CODA delivered on the Bastrop Emergency Food Pantry food drive! The items in this photo equate to approximately $500 worth of food. Thanks to all that gave. A special thank-you to our neighborhood ambassadors Sheri Godwin, Carole Marmell, Linda Allen, Mary Stiteler, and Julie and Tim Cormie. Thanks also to our Outreach Chair Theresa Peery for setting up the donation boxes and collecting the donations.
Pencil us in for our Second Annual CODA Fundraiser at Watterson Hall on March 28, 2024. Food, music, and fun, just like last year!
Thanks for reading. Remember to like, comment, subscribe, and share. Until next time!