I see you all out there, feeling feisty about getting our state legislators to do right by Oklahoma and pass a better budget this year! I’m glad more Oklahomans are doing all you can do to help make the public investments that matter to us all. In fact, I’ve never seen as much citizen advocate action as we have this session, but let’s remember that to be successful we need to be strategic and we need a team. Let’s not try to go it alone.
If this a representative democracy, who is being represented? No state House Representative or state Senator is representing just you, so when you set out to do legislative advocacy, don’t go it alone. You’ve been contacting your legislators about our weekly advocacy alerts and the suggested revenue options but legislators will respond differently to a whole group of constituents than they will to just you.
That is why I’m using Together Oklahoma to reach out to you in several different team-oriented ways.
Individual TOK members are:
- Receiving and acting upon weekly updates on Thursdays, like this one, plus Action Alerts on Mondays. You can see those anytime HERE on the togetherok.org website.
- Participating in TOK Chapters or building new chapters. There are TOK Chapters where members are working together to host events, carpools to the Capitol, small group meetings with legislators, and more. Our active chapters are TOK OKC, TOK Tulsa, and TOK Norman, but there are more than enough people to start TOK Chapters all over the state. See how to start a chapter HERE.
- Connecting with fellow constituents to strategically impact the two legislators who represent you. You have both the right and the responsibility to find the best ways to engage with the two state legislators who represent you. This week members of Together Oklahoma, who have filled out our membership form, and joined Slack, have been added to two channels corresponding to each of their own two state legislative districts. If you haven’t filled out a membership form, you can do so now. You can use these district connections to plan Town Hall Meetings to talk with your legislator about ways to fix the state budget. Even if you don’t like your legislators, they still represent you ,so please let me help you connect with your district teams. I went into more detail about this last week in Your Team and Your Quest.
Beyond your individual relationships with your legislators, participating in your local chapter, creating a new chapter, and engaging with your fellow constituents in your two district groups, you can also join the Together Oklahoma committees.
- We have members all over the state who are planing creative communications, hosting events, researching legislators and districts, and doing outreach efforts to make these resources available to all Oklahomans. To join one of these committees fill out the membership form or, if you have already filled it out, and you haven’t heard from a committee chair, email us at intern@togetherok.org
There is no shortage of meaningful things you can do! If you still don’t see what you are looking for in the options above, let me know what you’d like to do and I’ll see how I can support you. You can find us on slack or at info@togetherok.org.
Upcoming Events
- Let’s Fix This: Info & Training Session (Mar 9th)
- Thursday, March 9 at 12 PM – 1 PM
- This month we’re doing a “virtual” Info & Training Session via Facebook Live at 12pm.
- TOK Norman Coffee Chat with Legislators
- Friday, March 10th, 9am-11am at The Screen Door Coffee and Entertainment, West Main Street, Norman, OK
- Senator Sparks and Representatives Griffith and Virgin will be joining members of Together Oklahoma in conversation about the budget hole, what is being done, and what we can do, as well as answering other constituent questions. Representative Martin said he will try to attend as well if he is able.
- Let’s Fix This Capitol Day (Mar 15th)
- Wednesday, March 15 at 9 AM – 12 PM at the Oklahoma State Capitol, 2300 N Lincoln Blvd, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105
- The purpose of the Let’s Fix This Capitol Days is to get regular people to go to the state Capitol and talk to their legislators about whatever issues are most important to them. We know going to the Capitol can be intimidating, and we want to change that.
- Remember to use this form to let us know if you know of any Town Hall meetings or other constituent gatherings with state legislators or if you’d like to help plan one for one of your two state legislative districts.
We are in this together so let’s be strategic and build toward more success!
