Hi everyone,
I wanted to give you a progress report on the building of the Coffee Party infrastructure, and also share my thoughts on the first seven months of Coffee Party and the upcoming convention.
Pam Porter and I are developing an Interim Board that will serve as our temporary executive committee for 3 to 4 months. The Interim Board — comprised of external advisers, myself, and some state coordinators — will make short term operational decisions during that time and will be tasked with researching and proposing the make-up of a permanent Board of Directors and infrastructure. We will make a detailed announcement about the Interim Board next week.
Several people have expressed a desire to provide feedback during the research process and Bruce Schuman has been kind enough to create a forum where the Interim Board will post updates and receive feedback from the community of state coordinators and core volunteers.
Also, many of you have expressed enthusiasm about the drafting of a Declaration of Principles. Bruce has collected a number of thoughtful and intelligent drafts, all of which are available for your review here. We plan to adopt a Declaration of Principles at the Convention.
Having said that, I'd like to present this perspective.
In The Audacity of Hope, President Obama wrote, "I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” I think that's been true of the Coffee Party as well. The Coffee Party is many things to many people. As we collaborate on reconciling the various views of the Coffee Party into a Declaration of Principles, I do think it's important to consider that this will be an ongoing dialogue as long as there is the Coffee Party. I doubt there will ever be a total resolution to our fundamental questions, in the same way there is no resolution to questions about what America is, what our values are, or what makes us truly American. It's just important to keep the dialogue respectful and be willing to actively listen to the various voices.
It certainly has been challenging for me personally, with Coffee Party growing from an idea posted, mostly in jest, to my Facebook page on January 26th, to a viable national nonprofit organization. It has been a tremendously time-consuming, completely unexpected undertaking. I've been working much more than full time hours, without any compensation other than the invaluable reward of meeting and collaborating with the most thoughtful Americans I have known. I've had to juggle, and at times neglect, my job as a film director with a movie in theatrical release while trying to manage the viral growth of this movement.
The Coffee Party is an unusual organization. To my knowledge, there has never before existed a grassroots political movement that has grown out of a FaceBook page. It has proven more challenging than I could have imagined to go from this virtual town hall — every bit as chaotic as it is revolutionary and inspiring — to a legal business entity incorporated as a nonprofit. It should come as no surprise that there are certain pitfalls when building an organization comprised of hundreds of thousands of suddenly very active members, with a leadership core of people who have never actually met one another.
The reality is that, as lofty as our goals are, and as inevitable as I believe them to be, our movement is young, and we are still getting to know each other. In essence, the very same miracles of technology that made an instantaneous national movement even possible are now threatening to become at once a mirage and a barrier. That is why there is so much potential, and so much riding on our convention the weekend of September 24th, when the leaders of the Coffee Party can form relationships, build trust, and take collective action the old fashioned way: face to face.
I have traveled the country during the past seven months, and have met with 15 local chapters. My partner Eric Byler has met with 12. We are proud to report that the Coffee Party is a truly remarkable network of people, united by, yes, technology, but also by an abiding faith in one other and the ideals we have developed together. It is everyday, ordinary Americans, not political professionals, who are pouring their hearts and their energy into this movement, volunteering their time to protect and fortify our democratic process. I passionately believe that the spirit of volunteerism and civic duty exemplified by all of you is the best hope for America's future. We are Americans willing to put aside our differences for the sake of our country. We are willing to make enormous personal sacrifices to improve our government, to protect our democracy, and to allow the voice of the People and no other interest, no matter how wealthy or how influential, to determine our destiny.
Thank you so much for your sacrifice and your faith in what we are trying to accomplish together.
Annabel
