CARW January meeting at the Downtown YMCA

Hello all,

CARW’s first monthly meeting of 2012 will take place on January 11, 2012!
6-6:30 potluck, 6:30-9 pm organizing meeting
Location: Downtown YMCA Metrocenter, 909 4th Avenue between Marion and Madison

-Come enjoy some community building time and some dinner at 6:00 (bring delicious food!)
-Learn about CARW’s new structures and commitments to you as a white anti-racist organizer
-Learn about CARW’s allyship with our partner organizations and how you can get involved in the movement for Racial Justice, as a white person

Some exciting upcoming allyship opportunities to be involved in through CARW:
-Childcare for a women’s organizing and empowerment group at Casa Latina
-Study group on Filipin@ history and resistance through a white anti-racist/anti-imperialist lens

-Fundraising for Duwamish Tribe to participate in the regional tribal canoe journey
-Tutors for youth from the Seattle Young People’s Project
-Legislative session campaign against E-Verify
-Fundraising and mobilizing for the May 1st March for worker’s and immigrant rights

-New opportunities with Got Green!

This will be a very special meeting and we need you there. CARW’s monthly meeting structure, as well as membership structure is shifting in response to feedback from members over the past two years. These new structures will be introduced at the January meeting. We will also be forming a NEW ally group for our newest partner organization Got Green!, as well as bringing fresh faces into our existing ally groups.

In case you missed my last emails, here is a super brief summary of the most important changes to CARW:

Member-Organizers -we’re thinking of the people who are committed and invested in CARW and organizing with our ally groups as member-organizers now. It’s pretty similar to membership (1 year commitment, financial contribution, commitment to doing some anti-racist training), but member-organizers will also:

-participate in one or more ally group that organizes with a people-of-color led partner organization
-participate in a mentorship relationship with another CARW member-organizer
-create a leadership development plan with year-long goals for organizing skills you’d like to develop

People who are not member-organizers can still participate in CARW activities and ally groups, but they won’t be able to attend….

Member-Organizer Meetings – monthly meetings will be held with member-organizers and people who are thinking about becoming member-organizers only! They will follow roughly the same structure as our past public meetings (potluck, educational portion, organizing portion), but

- the education portion will be more tailored to the needs and interests of our committed group of white anti-racist organizers,
-the ally-group organizing will be able to involve more decision-making and planning,

-there will also be time to do some planning, discussion, and report-backs for the organization as a whole.
There will still be public meetings, but they will happen less frequently, and not on Wednesdays, as an entry point for new people to CARW.

TAKE CARE,
LEAH MONTANGE, from the CARW Organizing Collective