Dear MoveOn member,
This is Anna Galland and Ilya Sheyman. We're the co-executive directors of MoveOn.
This isn't a typical email from us. We wanted to share an important organizational update directly: Later this year, with gratitude, pride, and immense confidence in what lies ahead for this essential organization and our millions of members, the two of us will be transitioning out of our leadership roles, which we've held for the past six years.
We'll be running an open search for the next executive director of MoveOn, who we'll then support, train, and cheerlead. We will keep you posted on that process as it unfolds.
Why are we doing this? Simply because now—in the wake of a transformative election and at a time when the organization is healthy, strong, and having a massive impact—is the right time to pass the baton forward.
We have been so privileged to lead and win hard-fought campaigns to advance a progressive vision for our country during Barack Obama's second term and through the acute crises of Donald Trump.
All of us together have accomplished so much for our country and world:
- In the Obama years, we fought in state after state to expand health care for millions. We won major victories for peace—especially defending the Iran diplomatic agreement. We helped mount grassroots pressure for violence-preventing gun laws, time and again. We fought for racial justice. And so much more.
- We've marched, organized, and mobilized to confront the multi-front disaster of Trump and the GOP in power. MoveOn members were among those spearheading the fight to save Obamacare and Medicaid. We've prioritized immigrant and refugee rights—supporting DREAMers and protesting Trump's disastrous family separation policy. We've organized to defend the democracy, anchoring efforts to protect Mueller's investigation. And we've moved closer to ending the U.S. military role in Yemen.
- Together with vital partners, we powered the wave election in 2018, flipping the House and electing hundreds of diverse progressive champions to state houses around the country.
Today, MoveOn has never been bigger or stronger—and the MoveOn community has never been more important to this country's future.
The network of monthly donors sustaining our work together has quadrupled in size, and our (still quite lean!) staff team has tripled. We've built whole new channels to empower our members and drive impact on our campaigns, from text messaging to video, and our membership now reaches into every one of this country's 3,000+ counties.
Our visibility in the national media and our political power have ballooned. And we've built a tremendous leadership team on staff that will stay on, shepherding our vital programs and supporting the impact our members can make.
All of us, as MoveOn members, have so much to do, together, in the coming years. We are working to reinvent this rusted, creaking democracy as it's coming under such direct attack from people who wish to pit Americans against each other while enriching themselves at everyone else's expense.
We have vital work to do in the coming years, together:
- We must prepare to defeat Trump and the GOP in 2020—engaging deeply in an energizing 2020 Democratic primary that helps propel inspiring, movement-connected candidates towards the general election and then marching together with clarity and purpose to defeat Trump.
- We must block the ongoing attacks on communities who have lost so much ground under Trump and the GOP—including immigrants, Muslims, women, LGBTQ folks, and working people—and tackle threats to our democracy itself. The Democratic House is an immensely important new check on Trump, but we know that the chaos, corruption, and damage of Trump and the GOP will continue as long as they have any levers of power—and that grassroots mobilization will be essential.
- We must help lift up the positive vision of the country we can build together—developing a mandate for progressive governance so that voters in 2020 have something to vote FOR, not just against. We can't simply be content to counter the radical right. We need to fundamentally reimagine what's possible for racial, economic, and social justice.
Entering 2019, we're in such a strong position to make progress in the long-term effort to build a country where everyone can thrive.
Our staff team is aligned, energized, and committed. Our membership—that's you!—is a central force in the Resistance and broader movements that are transforming our country.
Millions of MoveOn members are connected by our shared values and by our yearning for this country to live into its potential for decency, dignity, justice, and love.
MoveOn—through our emails, our text messages, our online videos, our media spokespeople, our field organizers, and our members—has a national reach that few other organizations have. And our country needs this powerful national membership community to tackle the nation-sized challenges we face.
We've shown that we can make transformative change, even in the face of terrible adversity—and we'll keep showing it in the years ahead.
Watch for updates on this leadership transition on our website, MoveOn.org. For more texture on our decision, you can read our Medium post here. And if you have any questions or reflections, drop us a line by hitting "reply" to this email.
You can also continue supporting MoveOn's mission by starting a petition on any progressive issue that's important to you and connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
We're beaming with joy and gratitude—it's been such a tremendous honor to serve this team and this community. And we are feeling so hopeful as we prepare to step aside after six amazing years. We became MoveOn members around this community's opposition to the Iraq War in 2003, and we'll remain as executive directors while our boards conduct a leadership search, as we're fully committed to supporting the transition. And then we'll remain MoveOn members for life and ready to support MoveOn in a new way for the long haul.
MoveOn members, not any executive director or staff member, are the heart of our power and impact on this country. As always, thanks for all you do.
–Anna & Ilya
Want to support MoveOn's work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
PAID FOR BY MOVEON
This email was sent to Eddie Alfaro on January 16, 2019. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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