Message from Mobilize CEO

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending, and presenting, at the National Conference on Citizenship. It was the 55^th anniversary of their endeavors in tracking and measuring the civic health of our country. While the results were promising and the energy in the room was high, I couldn’t help but think about Democracy 2.0 and what our work this past week would say about the civic health of the country. Democracy 2.0 is the process of millennials identifying the problems they want to solve on their campuses and in the communities, and proposing innovative solutions to fix them. Mobilize.org believes that millennials are most uniquely positioned to actually solve these problems and we believe strongly in the investment of resources (all of kinds) to further these ideas. This weekend we funded 4 innovative, unique and ambitious proposals that are going to help change the access to democracy for all citizens and combat the influence of money in politics. I encourage you to read about the process below and over the next week, we’ll have each of the reciepients write about their experiences at the Summit and tell you more about their proposals.

 

Thank you again to the Sunlight Foundation, CSIS and Common Cause for your support and to all of the experts and judges who took time out of their busy schedules to work with our participants this weekend.

 

Thank you for attending, online and offline, and helping us work towards a Democracy 2.0.

 

Keep Mobilizin’ –

Maya Enista

CEO, Mobilize.org

Congrats to all of the Participants!

The Faces of Mobilize.

Ian Storrar - Chief Operating Officer.

Update on how things are going: 

"The summit is going great. We had very good proposals, and the participants are enjoying the process. We'll know the final results in a little bit." 

No time to sleep.

Behind the scenes: Christina Gagnier and Nick Troiano work to video/photograph/blog and tweet! Christina is also organizing the event's logistics. 

David Mark Delivers Keynote

To a crowd of "political junkies" David Mark, senior editor at the Politco, delivered Sunday's keynote about the state of the 2008 Presidential Race. Mark said it will be extremely close. Noting that the national polls are virtually useless given our electoral system, he predicted Obama, if the election were held today, would lead by about 10 or less electoral votes. But, he emphasized, the election is still six weeks away and McCain "is within striking distance."

Mark fielded questions from the audience, which ranged from the possibility of a legal battle ensuing after the election to the merits of the campaign ads of both campaigns. 

Groups Get Mentored

They're ranked. They're judged. They're mentored. Then they're judged again. In the four-part mentoring stage, the participants hear from experts who provide feedback on their projects. Experts in communication, advertising, and specific issues such as youth civic engagement and campaign finance give advice on various aspects of proposal. This holistic approach will mold the initial proposal to an improved one that will be judged in the final round. In the last round of mentoring, pictured above, each participant presents a powerpoint. 

Peer Evaluation

In addition to multiple sessions of mentoring in front of a panel of experts, participants were also given the opportunity to confidentially evaluate each other's projects. Keypad voting was again used for this exercise, and groups were given the feedback. 

Project Overview: Student Advocacy Network

All fundraising is local and all politics are local, says Alan Reaei, interim executive director of the Student Advocacy Network. 

In an introduction to his proposal Alan writes:

"Student Advocacy Network (SAN) was created to be the definitive advocacy nonprofit organization for the college population of America, a major population within the Millennial Generation. 

This network, made up of existing advocacy groups, will have a dual mission: (1) To solve the six fundamental needs of a college student in their pursuit of higher education, (2) and to help the college population solve the needs of their community. A grant for $4600 is being requested to assist in the startup of this organization."

The proposal is some thirty pages long, but the idea is simple he says: We need an AARP of the Millennial Generation.

Project Overview: Get Out the Soap for a Clean Judiciary

This team of five hails from the Bloomsburg University chapter of Common Cause's Democracy Matters. Campaign finance reform in the Pennsylvania judiciary is the focus of their proposal.

In their executive summary, the group writes:

"Campaign finance reform is becoming an increasingly important issue all across America, yet too often politicians are able to ignore the need for change because the public is unaware of the umbrella effect of this issue and the vehicles for change available to them.  Even more terrifying is the thought that in many states our judicial system is being influenced by campaign contributions through judicial elections.

Democracy Matters of Bloomsburg University, in collaboration with other youth organizations, requests $5,000 in an effort to educate and spread awareness about the current crisis confronting our court system by the influence of money in politics and, more specifically, the judiciary and the necessity for change.  Our project will entail a statewide grassroots initiative that will draw attention to these issues.  Progress towards these ends will be measured through collection of signatories in favor of campaign finance reform for the judicial system.  Eventually, we plan to progress toward statewide elected offices, as well as generally improved public awareness.  

Throughout the next year we will use this grant as seed money to continue our ongoing efforts to foster support for change in Pennsylvania that will eventually lead to additional monetary support and the passage of legislation."