National Chair New Year’s Letter and Call to Action
Office of the California National Party National Chair
January 1, 2017
Fellow CNP Leaders,
This is an extremely exciting time to be part of the California National Party! I want to personally thank each and every one of you for everything you are doing to build the CNP and create a stronger California for all Californians. The CNP has accomplished a great deal in 2016, nearly all of it since the last Leadership Elections on June 13, 2016. This progress has all been made due to the help and support of everyone reading this letter. Only with your help have we reached substantial benchmarks and outperformed expectations as a rapidly growing grassroots party.
CNP ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN 2016
The CNP has realized dynamic growth in 2016. We have created a website, implemented day to day volunteer organizing on Slack, enabled the party to engage in fundraising via our website, and dramatically and systematically increased outreach to the media. The size of our audience and reach on Facebook and Twitter has exploded. We have stepped up the process of organizing to create a party capable of meaningfully impacting California politics.
In the last six months, the CNP has organized local chapters in the following regions, counties and cities: Los Angeles, Sacramento / Davis, Orange County, Riverside / Ventura, San Diego, North County San Diego, East Bay, San Jose/South Bay, Marin, Sonoma, Santa Barbara, and Fresno/Central Valley. In addition to our local chapters we have also built over a dozen advocacy groups in just the last six months, including, but not limited to, the CNP Hispanic Network, the Environmental Action Team, the Data Working Group, the Calexit Youth [CNP Youth Branch], and the Social Justice Working Group.
The number of CNP leaders and activists engaged in moving the CNP forward has also grown to more than 300. We recently reached 1000 active participants who have signed up to join us. The Facebook Discussion page now includes over 1,300 people.
SELECT CNP PROJECTS AND GOALS FOR 2017
The California National Party has exciting plans for 2017. We are launching a massive voter registration drive. We are organizing more local chapters and empowering existing local chapters to craft messages and policies for their communities that will continue to increase the size and influence of the CNP across all of California’s many and diverse communities. We will hold our first Southern California National Convention in Los Angeles in March for National Leadership Elections, and then we will all convene to improve and add to the party platform at another National Platform Convention later in 2017. All of us must work to continue the incredible growth of the party.
The CNP needs you. Only by working together can we save California from the political mistakes of our American friends, natural perils like climate change and water shortages, financial burdens like the unfair federal tax structure, and extreme cultural inequalities like racism and sexism. These challenges have driven us all to create a new party with a new set of solutions to ever growing problems – problems that the other major parties refuse to fully acknowledge, let alone tackle head on as the CNP intends to do. CNP’s General Secretary Jed Wheeler likes to talk about how our guiding ideology is “get-it-done”. Fellow Californians, I hope you will join me, Jed, and our thousands of volunteers and activists in making the CNP a “get-it-doneocracy.” Let us not hide from the hard decisions and growing problems that will need to be resolved in the coming decades. Let us stare down the coming storms and work tirelessly together to resolve all aspects of the impending crises that have grown far too clear and present to ignore. The California Republic needs a solution-driven government led by people with empathy, drive, and courage, just like you. Let’s get it done.
WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO HELP BUILD THE CALIFORNIA NATIONAL PARTY
- If your area has a local CNP chapter, get involved in that local grassroots effort.
- If you area doesn’t have a local chapter, contact Dr. Dave at schaafsma@californianational.party and help us set one up for your county or city.
- Register to vote for the California National Party and convince ten friends to register to vote for the California National Party.
- Consider running for office or learning how you can help someone at your local chapter run for office.
- Work with us on the voter drive. This project will require an all-party effort. We need to get over 50,000 citizens to register to vote California National Party in relatively short order. Contact Graham Balch at balch@gmail.com and join the Slack #votedrive to help us register CNP voters.
- Donate to the CNP General Fund: https://votecnp.org/en/donate/
- Donate to the CNP Video Production Fund. We are currently working with the skilled director Willow Polson to create dynamic, original CNP video content. https://votecnp.org/en/why-we-want-independence-video-call-for-donations/
THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORK, FOR YOUR PASSION, AND FOR YOUR LOVE OF CALIFORNIA
The CNP starts and ends with you. We are a 100% volunteer party, which means that we exist only because people like you donate their time, energy, and money. When you get involved with the CNP, you don’t do it because you expect the status quo. You aren’t signing up just to vote every two or four years. You are signing up to be part of movement that will ask more from you than the Democrats or Republicans. But, you should expect that the CNP will also listen more as we grow with you — our party lives and breathes because you do. You have joined other hard-working and dedicated Californians who know that this isn’t the easy way forward, but it is the only viable way forward for the California we love. The CNP is so grateful you stand with us.
I want to thank a few of our many volunteers by name. First of all, no one — and I mean no one — has done more to help build this party than Jed Wheeler, our fearless and diligent CNP General Secretary. Thank you Jed for your tireless efforts; this party would not be where it is without you and all of your hard work. I also want to thank Sam Chaney, who recently stepped down as Treasurer – and Justin Hibbard, a skilled Forensic Accountant from San Francisco, who has stepped up to be our Interim Treasurer. In terms of the elected National Leadership, I further thank Andria Franco for her work as Vice-Chairperson for the CNP.
I want to also thank both personally and on behalf of the National Leadership, in no particular order, for all of their hard work and coordination activities:
Sean Danbury– Chairman of the Southland Chapter of the CNP
Dennis Sosa– Chairman of the CNP Hispanic Network and team-lead on preparing the new leadership structures to increase the capacities of the National Leadership
Willow Polson– Head of Video Outreach
Graham Ohayon– Deputy Chair of the Southland Chapter
Harris Mowbray– Chair of the Calexit Youth [Young CNP Branch]
Daniel Rubinstein- Vice-Chair of the Calexit Youth [Young CNP Branch]
Akex Furrer– Spanish Translation team-lead
Jay Rooney- Press Team lead
Noah Zimmerman for help with the Bay Area Local Chapters and leading the CNP Social Media Coordination team
Kerry Cox for help on video production, CNP blog Editor, and contributing editor on press releases
Natalie Blake– LA Chapter Co-Chair, Co-team-lead on the Convention Committee, Women’s March Coordinator
Linda Daly– LA Chapter Co-Chair, Co-team-lead on the Convention Committee
Mike Mendez- Riverside / San Bernardino Chapter Chair
Chris May– Chair of the East Bay Chapter
Harry McKoy- Vice-Chair of the Riverside / San Bernardino Chapter
Christian (Otto) Billson- Orange County Chapter Chair and for spot assistance on Slack
Scott Lochridge- Santa Barbara Chapter coordinator
Garrett Brawley- Fresno/Central Valley Chapter coordinator
Cynkay Morningsong– Chair of the Sonoma CNP Chapter
Chuck Beretz- coordinator for the NC San Diego chapter and for his data work for the CNP
Ken Brucker- San Diego Chapter Coordinator
Brendan Freshner– San Jose/South Bay Chapter Coordinator
Jane Taylor- Chair of the Marin CNP Chapter
Scott Lochridge– Santa Barbara CNP Chapter Coordinator
Michael Hansen for help setting up the Sacramento / Davis CNP Chapter and creating handouts
Keith Turner for creating Media materials and the http://independentcalifornia.net/ website
Dr. Dave Schaafsma for his work helping local chapters get up and running
Graham Balch the team-lead on the voter drive effort, very likely the soon to be a major contributor to our election efforts, and for future help improving party fundraising
Jenn Schwartz for creating The Independent California PAC that we applaud but do not coordinate with because it is a PAC and thus PAC / Party coordination restrictions, http://www.independentcaliforniapac.org/
Ed Diggs the Chair of the Platform Committee, for his help with the Sacramento chapter and his work with the early CNP generally
Bart Gilbert for help with the early CNP generally
Isaac Takeuchi for early support for the movement generally and the CNP in particular
Raul Gíl for early involvement with the CNP generally
Calichocopony for creating some amazing CNP art
Ann Marie for help with Facebook and outreach for North County San Diego
Aaron Reveles for early work on the FB page and CNP Blog;
Frank Vasquez for work with the CNP Veterans Action Committee;
John Owens for helping coordinate the Bay Area Regional Chapter and working on creating a regional platform for that area of the California Republic
Sven Serrano for his passion and ideas
I further want to thank the many people who have due to space been left off this list. Thank you for your hard work, for your dedication, and for your activism! Because our party is only as strong and impactful as YOU our members make it, I look forward to working with all of you in the coming years to make the California Republic a land in which all of us and future generations can be prosperous and free.
I hope that you all have a fantastic 2017 and that you are ready to roll up your sleeves and help us continue to build the most effective and democratic grassroots party in California. Let us make 2017 the best year yet for your California National Party!
Sincerely,
Theo Slater
National Chairperson
California National Party
1017 L Street, #294
Sacramento CA 95814
Email: chair@CaliforniaNational.party
http://CaliforniaNational.party
