Subject: 2015 Ethnic Engagement Successes & 2016 Plans
From: Maureen C. Pikarski, NDECC Co-Chair <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2016 21:49:38 +0000
List-Id: 6994e66748dac10a390e5d779mc list <6994e66748dac10a390e5d779.508869.list-id.mcsv.net>

NDECC: 2015 Successes & 2016 Plans

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** Kicking-off 2016!
------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends,

We have so much to be proud of.  Our team of Democratic ethnic leaders around the country, representing more than 30 different heritages, accomplished a lot in 2015.  This is a new NDECC - it is energized, organized and mobilized as we kick-off 2016!

Together, we built a strong foundation for our ethnic engagement program which will continue to rapidly grow in the coming months and will help our Democratic presidential nominee and candidates down the ballot win in key targeted states this coming November.

See below overview of our 2015 successes and plans to build upon them in 2016.

A very special thank-you to our NDECC Executive Board, Committee Chairs, State Leaders and other community activists who were instrumental in taking the NDECC to this new level!

We have a really great team and will go even bigger and better this year!

Happy New Year to you and your family.  Thank you for all you do.

Warmly,

Maureen Pikarski
Alexandra Chalupa
NDECC Co-Chairs

#1.  NDECC State Roundtable Meetings with DNC CEO Amy Dacey

2015:
In late 2015, the NDECC organized seven state-wide meetings featuring DNC CEO Amy Dacey. Those meetings took place in Chicago, IL, Dearborn, MI, Paterson, NJ,  Des Moines, IA, Cleveland, OH,  Philadelphia, PA and Manchester, NH.   Our NDECC State Leaders were instrumental in helping assemble each of these events.  We also partnered with the State Democratic Parties.  The meetings included State Party Chairs and key staff, state-wide and local elected officials and candidates, and top local Democratic ethnic leaders.   We discussed the bigger Democratic Party strategy and important initiatives the DNC is preparing for our presidential nominee and other candidates, including a robust voter protection program, as seen in our NDECC PowerPoint presentation highlighting our ethnic engagement program.

2016:
In 2016 we plan to hold additional NDECC meetings in Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as organizing events in Wisconsin (around February 11th before the Democratic Presidential Debate), New York, Virginia and Texas.   Dates are still being determined for most, but we will update you as information becomes available.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS NDECC MEETING
Friday, October 2, 2015

DEARBORN, MICHIGAN NDECC MEETING
Sunday, October 24, 2015

PATERSON, NEW JERSEY NDECC MEETING
Tuesday, November 10, 2015

DES MOINES, IOWA NDECC MEETING
Friday, November 13, 2015

CLEVELAND, OHIO NDECC MEETING
Monday, December 14, 2015

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA NDECC MEETING
Monday, December 14, 2015

MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE NDECC MEETING
Saturday, December 19, 2015

#2.  Democratic National Committee Victory Task Force Testimony

2015:   In early 2015 the DNC launched its Victory Task Force (VTF), which was charged with evaluating why Democrats lost so many races in the 2014 election cycle, and what the party needs to do moving forward to prevent that from happening again.  The VTF, lead by Gov. Steve Beshear, conducted thousands of interviews and many listening tours including four regional VTF meetings in key states where Democratic experts where able to provide their input.  The NDECC had representatation at each of these meetings - we provided testimony and reminded the VTF of the importance of engaging ethnic voters.   The VTF's Final Report and Action Plan was released a few weeks ago:

ACTION PLAN  (http://ndecc.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6994e66748dac10a390e5d779&id=3684cf374c&e=91e8dbc681)

FINAL REPORT (http://ndecc.us8.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=6994e66748dac10a390e5d779&id=73e8579b8d&e=91e8dbc681)
2016:   The NDECC will incorporate many of the ideas mentioned in the VTF's Action Plan and will continue to work closely with the Democratic National Committee to ensure that a) our ethnic communities and leaders are well represented in these various initiatives and b) that we share with you opportunities to be involved in implementing some of the action items, including training sessions.
#3.  June Immigrant Heritage Month 2015

2015:
The NDECC organized several June Immigrant Heritage Month (JIHM) events earlier this year, which included a 230+ person "June Immigrant Heritage Month Kick-Off Reception" in the Foyer of the Rayburn Congressional Building on June 1st that was attended by almost a dozen Members of Congress.   We partnered with Welcome.US on this exciting initiative that brought together leaders of organizations representing dozens of ethnic groups.  We also organized a non-partisan White House Ethnic Day briefing and luncheon the following day which included remarks and discussions with senior White House staff and a "Share Your Story" panel composed mostly of NDECC leaders, which was moderated by DNC Ethnic Council Chairman James Zogby.   We  hosted an NDECC JIHM meeting at the DNC with senior staff and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.   Many of our NDECC Members also wrote Op-EDs sharing their immigration stories and issuing statements or hosting their own events in their communities.
Below are some photos from these events.

2016:
This coming June we plan to host a much bigger Congressional JIHM reception in addition to another White House Ethnic Day event and NDECC meeting at the DNC.   We are also working with the Democratic National Convention team on the idea of hosting a JIHM event in Philadelphia in June too.   We would love to hear from you about your ideas about ways to celebrate JIHM,  to have you involved in these initiatives and to see how we can help promote the work that you're doing.  More details to come in the next couple of months.

#4.  Congressional Resolution Celebrating Immigrants and their Children

2015:
The NDECC was instrumental in helping draft a Resolution (H.Res.325) sponsored by Rep. Linda Sanchez that 'Recognizes the month of June as "Immigrant Heritage Month," a celebration of the accomplishments and contributions immigrants and their children have made in shaping the history, strengthening the economy, and enriching the culture of the United States.'   In addition to taking the lead with drafting the text, some of our top NDECC leaders were instrumental in building both Republican and Democratic support for this legislation, which was introduced on 6/17/15.

Click here for a text of H.Res.325 (http://ndecc.us8.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=6994e66748dac10a390e5d779&id=f2cd098aad&e=91e8dbc681)

2016:
We plan to mobilize further support for the Resolution in early spring as part of our JIHM celebrations.   It's a great organizing tool for our various communities and an opportunity for us to promote the NDECC's work with key Members of Congress and get earned media.
#5.   College Democrats of America Ethnic Council

2015:
Every year, the College Democrats of America (CDA) (which like the NDECC, is an official affiliate of the Democratic National Committee) hosts a large leadership convention in Washington, D.C.   CDA represents college-aged Democrats at almost every campus in the country and does really great work in mobilizing these young voters.  This past summer, we ensured that there was a strong ethnic presence at the CDA Convention:  a) we organized and hosted the first-ever CDA Ethnic Council as part of the Convention, b) we worked with the CDA organizers to ensure ethnic leaders participated in other key parts of the CDA Convention as panelists and speakers, and c) several of our leaders financially sponsored ethnic students to attend the Convention.  See photos below!

2016:
We plan to build upon this work in 2016 and will host another Ethnic Council meeting at the next CDA Convention (date TBD) and will look to you to encourage young college-aged ethnic leaders to attend this important meeting and to participate in the entire Convention, which is not only very informative but a great networking opportunity.   We hope you'll consider sponsoring a couple students too.   We'll provide more info about the Convention in the next few months.

#6.   Democratic Diaspora Leader Meetings at the DNC Headquarters

2015:   This Fall we started to host diaspora-specific meetings at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in an effort to help these Democratic ethnic leaders mobilize their communities and to hear directly from senior-level Democratic Party operatives while sharing their own best practices for engaging their voters.   Two of the groups that we organized meetings with included Ukrainian-American Democrats and Bosnian-American Democrats.

2016:  We hope to work with you and other ethnic leaders to organize many more of these specific diaspora meetings in the coming months and are currently working on an African Diaspora meeting, plan to host an Irish American Democrats strategy session in March around St. Patrick's Day, as well as a Polish-American event in late winter/early spring.   If you're interested in helping organize such an event for your community, please let us know!

#7  NDECC Committees

The NDECC established several key working committees in 2015 which are responsible for addressing specific issues and mobilizing ethnic leaders within these groups.  Below are the leaders of each group and their email addresses.  Please feel free to reach out to them directly should you want to be involved in these groups.

FAITH ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Chair John McCarthy [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])

IMMIGRATION COMMITTEE
Co-Chair Billy Lawless - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])
Co-Chair Bruce Morrison - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])

LGBT COMMITTEE
Chair Darek Barcikowski - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Chair Danica Oparnica - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])

TECHNOLOGY & COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
Co-Chair Ali Cinar - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])
Co-Chair Meto Koloski - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])
Co-Chair John McCarthy -
[email-masked]

VETERANS COMMITTEE
Co-Chair Tanya Domi - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])
Co-Chair Conrad Nowak - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])

WOMEN'S COMMITTEE
Chair Maureen Pikarski - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])

YOUTH COMMITTEE
Co-Chair Elvir Klempic - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])
Co-Chair Omar Tewfik - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])
Co-Chair Lucy Winterhalder - [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])
#8 Ethnic Engagement at the 2016 Conventions

2015:   The NDECC is working closely with the Democratic National Convention team and our Philadelphia NDECC team on strategies for a strong ethnic engagement presence at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, which will be held the last week of July (25th-28th).  As you are aware, there will be a Democratic National Committee meeting which will take place as part of the Convention, during which the DNC Ethnic Council will meet.  In addition, we're planning to host an NDECC ethnic festival in downtown Philly the Saturday before the Convention, which will represent all of our communities and include elected officials and other VIPs and media.

2016:   In addition to working on the two main events highlighted above, we will continue to keep you updated about opportunities to be involved with the 2016 Democratic Convention.  In the meantime, if you know of any vendors interested in being included on the DNC's vendor directory, please have them submit their information via this link
:   http://ndecc.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6994e66748dac10a390e5d779&id=e8b44fa3e8&e=91e8dbc681

Also, we're in the process of exploring opportunities to organize in Cleveland, Ohio around the Republican National Convention that will be hosted in that very ethnically diverse city.   Regardless of who the GOP presidential nominee is, due to toxic rhetoric arising out of their primary, rhetoric which has targeted immigrants and Muslims, we believe it's necessary to mobilize with some rapid response and hold the Republican candidates accountable.
# 9 Rapid Response Against the GOP

The Republican Presidential candidates continue to fail to learn from the past and are ignoring their own party's analysis of why they lost the 2012 election.   Last month the New Yorker Magazine published an article by Margaret Talbot called 'The G.O.P's Immigration Problem' (http://ndecc.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6994e66748dac10a390e5d779&id=7e222c8362&e=91e8dbc681) which highlights how the Republican National Committee conducted an in-depth self analysis of its top political operatives to determine why Mitt Romney lost in 2012.  A key finding of its in-depth evaluation found "Mitt Romney’s call for “self-deportation” was loser rhetoric. Making people feel that “a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States” was poor politics. The report offered one specific policy recommendation: “We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our Party’s appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies."

With the top Republican presidential candidates following in Mitt Romney's footsteps and sometimes even taking the anti-immigration stance to the next level with toxic language, coupled with statements targeting other Americans based on their religion, it's clear that the GOP continues to focus on dividing the country.

While Republicans divide, the Democratic Party, with the NDECC's leadership, continues to unite ethnic minority communities and not only embrace, but also celebrate, our heritages, while recognizing that immigrants are the foundation of our country and that diversity and freedom of religion are among our greatest strengths.

Throughout 2016 we will continue to call on NDECC leaders to help us hold Republicans accountable for this negative and harmful rhetoric.  We plan to host an ethnic meeting in Cleveland around the GOP Convention, will continue to issue rapid-response statements, and will call on ethnic leaders to write Op-ED pieces and to have them published in ethnic and regional press.

Here is a link (http://ndecc.us8.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=6994e66748dac10a390e5d779&id=b04f35bd18&e=91e8dbc681) to some of the NDECC's rapid response work, positive press statements we helped with this past yearm and Op-EDs written by several of our NDECC leaders - we have another wave of Op-EDs that will be published in the next couple weeks which will continue to address the GOP''s anti-Muslim rhetoric and anti-immigration stance.  This week NDECC leader and Irish-American Democrats Vice President John McCarthy wrote one about the Syrian refugee crisis and tied it to the Irish-American immigration story.  Click here to read it.  (http://ndecc.us8.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=6994e66748dac10a390e5d779&id=1f2109e0d0&e=91e8dbc681)
#10 NDECC Internship Program

Our 2015 success are attributed to our amazing NDECC team of devoted volunteers.   We were fortunate, with the support of the DNC, to launch our first-ever NDECC internship program last summer.  We were very fortunate to fill this position with the incredible Elvir Klempic who helped with so many of the projects highlighted above and currently serves as Co-Chair of the NDECC Youth Committee, is our College Democrats of American Liaison, and also our Iowa NDECC leader.   We're currently looking for an intern to serve with us this spring and one this summer.   This will be an incredible experience during the 2016 election cycle!   Interested candidates should apply online via this form:   Click here for the NDECC Internship Application (http://ndecc.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6994e66748dac10a390e5d779&id=7e2be0ab7e&e=91e8dbc681) .
NDECC Intership Application (http://ndecc.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6994e66748dac10a390e5d779&id=fa757f5acb&e=91e8dbc681)
2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We have more exciting updates we'll roll-out over the next couple months.

Thank you again for all you do!  We're going to have an incredible 2016 working together to help elect the next President of the United States and other Democrats down the ballot!

From all of us on the NDECC Executive Leadership team, we wish you a Happy New Year!

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