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National Field

Meeting

17 April 2023

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Welcome Theme

“Opportunities for Growth”

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Desired Outcomes

  • Excitement about new Alliance generation model

  • Clarity on state of discussions between BA and Bridge USA

  • Appreciation of insights from Field Survey

  • Clarity of nuance in ‘Getting Reds through the Door’

  • Awareness of availability of Annual Report and the impact of the BA Way in its production

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Red/Blue with students from the American Heritage and Waterford schools in Utah. H/T Erika Munson

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Who is invited to this call?

  • Field Leaders
    • Expectation: attend or watch every month
  • Active Volunteers -
    • Moderator Community
    • Organizer Community
    • Event Community (ZEMS, etc)
    • Ambassadors
    • Music Dudes
    • Project Volunteers
    • Expectation: attend/watch when topic of interest

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Expect an Event Summary Soon

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N.B. Action Network will send a PICTURE - click on that picture to get to the SUMMARY!!

NOTICE! PLEASE FILLOUT

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Did you know?

You can SAVE CHAT to your computer - at anytime…..

Placed into your ZOOM folder

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New Teammates

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New Teammates

New Alliances:

  • Maricopa County Alliance, AZ
  • Adams County Alliance, PA

New Alliance Co-Chairs:

  • Cylee Gutting (R) - Maricopa County Alliance
  • Joy Lubeck (B), Maricopa County Alliance
  • Chris Clouet (B) - Braver Angels Alliance CT
  • Chris Abell (O) - Carroll County Braver Angels
  • Betsy Hower (R) - Adams County Alliance
  • Lex McMillan (B) - Adams County Alliance

New Regional Lead:

  • James Coan (B) - Mid-Atlantic Region

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“Thumbs UP”

(L-R):Sue Lani Madsen (R), Barbara Farmer (OFO-R)

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We have ‘scrubbed’ our list

HELP!!

(Residence in State preferred but not required)

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Agenda

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17 APril 2023

NATIONAL FIELD CALL

Who/Why

Time (mins)

Cumulative (at end of segment)

Welcome, Good News, and Shoutouts

Desired outcomes of call

Theme = Opportunities for Growth

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Headline News and Insights

Steve and April

1 min*2

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A heartwarming RESULT from a person you should know

New Alliances from Congressional Districts AND new ground rules for RED ENGAGEMENT

Tim Gustafson, Sam Noah, and Steven Gartland

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A new idea for SYNERGY

  • Bridge USA: Exploring a Deeper Partnership - Barbara Thomas

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Power of LISTENING to one another

  • Results from the Field Survey - Jennifer Hall-Witt

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New tools that MAKE A DIFFERENCE

  • Getting REDS ‘through the door’ Maxim Schrogin and the Berkeley/Oakland Alliance

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Helping Hands for YOU

  • Field Alert - Braver School Communities - how to join the community ( Vee and Mary TV - 2 mins)
  • Annual Report, The power of ‘The BA Way’ AND getting YOUR photo into the report!- Steve and Gabbi (8 min)

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Check out - NFC Survey

Steve

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POST NFC ‘Q+A’

Steve and available speakers

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90

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Steve’s

Minute

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Field Operations

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April’s Minute

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  • Poster Session at Convention
  • “Proof Points of Impact”
  • $250 awards
    • State
    • Alliance
    • Team/Group
    • Person

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“A heartwarming RESULT from a person you know…”

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Growing Alliances using

House-District territoriesTim Gustafson

Sam Noah (R)

Steven Gartland (B)

West Suburban Alliance—MSP

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Field Operations

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Growing Alliances using

House-District territories

Step 1 - form a team���

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Field Operations

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Growing Alliances using

House-District territories

Step 2

Determine your target areas and how many meetings you can conduct���

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Field Operations

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Growing Alliances using

House-District territories

Step 3

Run the recruitment meetings with a BA sampler and a request for involvement���

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Field Operations

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West Suburban Alliance—MSP

  • Alliance cohort jump-started process

  • Temporary co-chair gave access to resources

  • State Alliance meetings gathered reds and blues

  • Invitation, discussions and compatibility

  • Importance of teamwork

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Field Operations

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Creating Civil Space

  • Anchoring who we are

  • Priming the Audience
    • Desired Outcomes
    • Ground Rules
    • ‘Raise your hand’

  • Preliminary Results
    • Civil lighthearted conversations
    • Feeling Safe

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Field Operations

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Braver Angels and BridgeUSA: �Exploring a Deeper Partnership

Barbara Thomas

and April Lawson

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Field Operations

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  • Who is BridgeUSA?
  • Our Work Together So Far
  • Why Explore a Deeper Partnership?
  • What are the possible outcomes?
  • Next steps

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Who is Bridge USA?

The largest student movement fighting polarization

Constructive Engagement: We teach students how to have constructive discourse across lines of difference by practicing empathy and understanding.

Ideological Diversity: Partisanship is our opportunity. To be a better champion for our own beliefs and find solutions, we need to understand the other side.

Solution-Oriented Politics: We want solutions, not sound bites. It’s time to work toward long-term progress.

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Our Work Together So Far

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For the last 3 years, the College Debates & Discourse team has been composed of 3 organizations: Braver Angels, ACTA, and BridgeUSA

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�Aligned in outlook and practice:��BridgeUSA points to BA as a model for depolarizing: �the BridgeUSA 2022 summit featured April, Moni, and John as speakers ��

HOLD: Picture from 2022 Summit

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Templeton grant work

  • Create robust “communities of practice” at 10 highly diverse schools, supported by a 1.3m 2-year grant.

  • BridgeUSA’s Ross Irwin has been instrumental in designing the research project, student support, and student leader selection.

  • We have blended our support materials (e.g. “how to recruit,” “how to create a debate topic,” etc.)

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Why Explore a Deeper Partnership? ���1. To create an intergenerational movement ��2. To build upon each others’ strengths and focus on addressing growth areas��3. To send a signal to the broader depolarizing field that collaboration is essential and possible

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What are the possible outcomes? ����1. Continue current partnership��2. Deeper partnership with field cooperation

�3. A fully integrated organization

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Process:��Partnership Team meets

Due diligence on admin, decision-making and field cooperation�Brainstorm Collaboration Potential

Upcoming field meeting�Report on Recommendations

For decision by convention

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Collaboration Potential �for Outcomes 2 or 3��Where there are chapters but no alliances�Where there are alliances but no chapters�Where there are both chapters and alliances�Pipeline of leadership�

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Please Join Us to Brainstorm�on Ways for Bridge Chapters and Braver Angels Alliances to collaborate��on April 27th at 7pm CT

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Results

of

Field Survey

Jennifer Hall-Witt

OFO

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Who responded?

  • 94 co-chairs responded to the survey, representing 64 of 92 alliances (70%).
    • 4 of the 94 co-chairs responded to a much shorter version of the survey meant to reach co-chairs who did not initially respond to the survey.

  • 28 alliances did not respond to the survey

  • Of those who responded, 45 are red co-chairs, 44 are blue co-chairs, 4 are purple co-chairs, and 1 didn’t say

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Note: in cases where co-chairs gave different dates, the oldest date was chosen. Establishing the date when an alliance starts is not clear-cut, as an exploratory meeting date could be different from when co-chairs were named and an alliance registered, and that is different from when a first alliance meeting, workshop, or event was held.

Year alliances were founded

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  • About ¾ of alliances (54) that filled out the survey are either active, still forming, or starting back up.

  • Co-chairs are key to keeping alliances active. When alliances fizzle, it is usually because of losing a co-chair or co-chairs getting burned out or no longer having the time. And no one steps up to replace them.

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  • If co-chairs reported different numbers, I chose the higher number.
  • The number of active volunteers may be in addition to the number of co-chairs (the question did not specify).

40% of alliances have 4 or fewer active volunteers

67% have 7 or fewer active volunteers.

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Note: When 2 alliance co-chairs gave different estimates, I used the higher number. When 3 alliance co-chairs gave different estimates, I used the number chosen by 2 out of 3. In one instance where an alliance was just starting back up after being on hold and reported 25-30 at its picnic, I chose one co-chair’s estimate of “21-40” instead of the other’s estimate of “41-60.” In one case where the co-chairs estimates included one category in between their two estimates, I entered that in-between number.

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Note: in the next slide, only local/regional alliances were labelled as discussion- or workshop/event-oriented. State and multi-state alliances were not asked about this, as they often don’t fit either category. In the future, though, they should be asked, as a later slide will show that many state alliances are hosting a lot of workshop.

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Alliances that are still forming were not counted in the bars above, as many were either undecided, not clearly committed, or had had so few events/meetings that it was hard to classify them.

Many alliances are interested in combining small-group discussion on political topics with hosting workshops and events

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  • 1 active alliance that hasn’t decided whether it is discussion- or workshop-oriented is not listed in the chart above.
  • Workshop-oriented alliances and State/Multi-State alliances held more workshops than discussion-oriented alliances.
  • Six out of 14 active discussion-oriented alliances held no workshops in 2022.

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  • The data above excludes the categories of “N/A” and “Other”. Many of the “other” category had to do with recruiting more members to their alliance.
  • The chart above counts data from the 90 co-chairs who submitted the full-length survey.

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Main challenges in first 6 months as co-chair �where they needed the most support

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Interest in potential future trainings/support

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Interest in potential new alliance offerings

Co-chairs also suggested many other ideas for new offerings not reported here

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Open-ended questions

  • Effective strategies for recruiting reds
  • Tips for starting alliances and making it easier to start an alliance
  • How can alliances best serve BA’s mission

See the final report for the details – will discuss in next week’s Deep Dive

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Some other themes

  • Less is more. Consolidate and simplify materials and trainings for alliances. Help alliances get better at core tasks rather than introducing so many new initiatives. Ease the work on volunteers.
  • De-emphasize the red/blue divide and do more to include purples and look at other divides.
  • Co-chairs are interested in:
    • Going deeper on political topics and having hard, honest conversations (and sharing resources for conducting these discussions)
    • Doing more work in the community and partnering with community organizations
    • Recruiting reds – “if we don’t, we fail as an organization”
    • Getting better at publicity and marketing (want templates to use)
    • Reaching youth and college students
    • Expanding the bench of active volunteers
    • Deepening relationships in their alliance and growing their alliance

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Getting Reds

Through the Door

Maxim Schrogin

Berkeley/Oakland

Alliance

How deep blues manage to attract reds to monthly meetings”

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Berkeley/Oakland

Alliance

A bit of our history

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Getting Reds

Through the Door

by

Provocative Phrasing of Discussion Topics

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Provocative Phrasing of Discussion Topics

  • Red-friendly titles (aka ‘blues on defensive’)

  • Curious, non-judgemental meetings

  • BA Ground Rules apply

Why the ‘Smart’ Party Never Learns

If your views by definition are enlightened and progressive, why should you bother understanding those of the other side?

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Berkeley/Oakland Alliance

GROUND RULES

No cross-talk, debating, or arguing

Be curious and listen to understand

Show respect and suspend judgment

Note any common ground as well as any differences

Be authentic and welcome that from others. Be purposeful and to the point

Own and guide the conversation

We are here to understand each other, not to convince each other

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Sample Agenda for meeting in CHAT

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Getting Reds

Through the Door

Future Directions:

More people of color

More youth

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Helping

Hands

for

Field �Leaders

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Braver School Communities

Field Alert

Vee Cangiano

Mary Thomas-Vallens

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Braver School Communities

Next Meeting:

This Wed 4/19 2PM PT / 5PM ET

braver-schools@braverangels.org�braverangels.org/braver-schools��Mary Thomas-Vallens

Vee Cangiano

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Annual Report

Now

Available

Steve Saltwick

Gabriella Timmis

Project Co-Chairs

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Annual Report

NOW ANNOUNCED

on FLP and Web

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BA Way

In

Action

Special Thanks (L-R/T-B)

Marshall Mason

Katelin Annes

Steve Saltwick (R, Co-Chair)

Bev Horstman

Gabbi Timmis (B, Co-Chair)

Darcy Crosman

Doug Teschner

Courtenay Budd Caramico

David Joseph

Video Available - How to use the Annual Report for Outreach

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Photo Library

And

Contest

Gabbi Timmis

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Calls to Action

  1. Read and SHARE Annual Report

  • State Coordinators - consider using Congressional Districts in Alliance formation

  • Attend 27April Brainstorming session on Bridge USA collaboration

  • Attend 24April DEEP DIVE on Alliance Survey Results

  • Try some provocative titles to attract Reds (but still use BA Ground Rules)

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Field Operations

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Do us a favor - fill out the NFC Survey

�NOW

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Field Operations

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Thanks for all you do

to advance the mission!

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Field Operations

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Section Headers

What’s ‘in it’ for my Community?

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What’s in it for My Role?

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