Now, as we begin this important election year, we are kicking off a project that goes to the heart of what we are as an organization and we need your help to make it a success. We call it Operation Marching Orders--or OMO--and it is our way of putting you, the people who have marched and fought for a better future, in the driver’s seat of the major decisions we will make as an organization. Phase I of Operation Marching Orders is “Crowdsourcing Our Agenda” and it will serve as a declaration of the values and ideas that we stand for--and that we will fight for. As such, it will also serve as our “marching orders” for candidates and elected officials. These are the foundational principles we expect as a movement and if politicians want our support, they’d better deliver on these.
We will conduct OMO using cutting edge civic engagement technology, which is a fancy way of saying that we will take an online poll together. It’s a fun poll and participants can add poll questions and can see which groups of people they align with on a dynamic basis.
But we don’t want OMO to be a cold, technical exercise--and that’s where you come in. We are encouraging people to host OMO parties to build community and forge connections so that the network of people we need to win elections in 2018 will be even stronger. The best part? You can host an OMO Party on the anniversary of the women’s marches as part of March On’s #WeekendOfWomen! If there isn’t an Anniversary Action near you, this can be your way of commemorating that historic day. And if there is a nearby march you are attending, OMO is something you and your friends can do afterwards. In fact, OMO is open from January 20-31st, so there’s plenty of time for you to gather with friends and neighbors and have your voice heard.
As an OMO host, you have complete control of the type of party you will hold. Whether it’s you and your two closest friends stopping at a restaurant on your way home from an anniversary march or you and your neighborhood civic organization gathering in your living room or public library meeting room, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you bring people together to debate and discuss the issues facing our country and how we can take actions together to turn things in a better direction.
