Whew! That was FUN ….

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our second-ever in-person meeting last week at the Griffin School! We asked participants for their feedback, and here’s what you said:

• “Organized, informed, energized, and angry = people I want to be around right now!”

• “I am so glad this group is in existence. I don’t feel alone anymore.”

• “Loved seeing so many friends that I had no idea were involved.”

• "Totally inspiring and very impressed with your branding and organizational skills.”

For those of you who couldn’t be there, here’s what happened:

We shared an overview of who we are and what we believe. Why, you might ask? Because as we grow, we’re being asked “who are you, and how are you not just another chapter of Indivisible?”

And because if you invite your friends to join, you’ll need something to show them when they ask “what’s this group all about, anyway?”

And! Because we’ve got friends in other cities who are eager to follow our lead and begin organizing their own networks. Next month, a chapter will launch in Boulder, Colorado!

We know that courage is contagious. When other people see us organizing ourselves to take action, they realize that they can do it, too. So we’re sharing our work to make it as easy as possible to “step-and-repeat.”

After that presentation, we went through our cool new logo and visual identity, our organizing structure, our communication platforms, and finally, we heard updates on two exciting initiatives being led by FORWRD-ATX members.

You can read more and view all our meeting slides here.

After the group presentation, we went into our breakout sessions, where we could get to work generating ideas and building plans! In the coming weeks, we’ll ask the leaders of these groups to share their plans and progress with all of us, so we can jump in and get involved.

We think you’ll be excited about all the incredible ideas that are bubbling up — including our long-term project to Adopt a Winner for the 2026 midterms, and some fun organic local protest ideas.

We finished the evening with a surprise guest: Congressman Lloyd Doggett, who stopped by to encourage and thank us for what we’re doing. That was pretty cool!

Thanks to everyone who attended, brought snacks, brought wine, volunteered to help lead a breakout session or clean up afterward. And a HUGE thank you to the Griffin School for hosting us! We left feeling energized and determined. And eager to do it again very soon!

Passing the Hat

We’re not an organization that can accept donations, but we are beginning to incur some expenses together. So we’ve established a Venmo account to pass the hat. Thanks to those of you who have already chipped in, we’ve been able to:

• Secure the venue for the McCaul Empty Chair Town Hall (4/26, 10 am! See below for an update!),

• Print stickers and buttons, giving us a way to identify ourselves and invite new folks in,

• Cover all our ancillary meeting expenses, and

• Pay for web and email hosting on Beehiiv, giving us a home base and an more organized way to communicate.

We’ll have additional McCaul Town Hall expenses, and as we plan more projects together, more costs will likely crop up. If you are able and willing to chip in, thank you! Here’s the QR code:

It’s HAPPENING … We’ve secured a venue within GOP U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul's District 10 (no small feat given how gerrymandered it is!), and we’re hoping to fill it up!

All are welcome, but we’ll reserve the questions for voters who live in his district. As a reminder, we're focusing on McCaul for his failure to address his constituents' profound concerns about the chaos the Trump administration is inflicting at home and abroad.

The signs, as always, provided a welcome boost of humor and creativity:

🗓️ Calendar Highlights

After such a successful FORWRD-ATX meeting and Hands Off Rally last weekend, the schedule is a bit quieter. There are a few webinars and in person events this week that might interest you:

• 4/12: Tesla Takedown: ResistAustin will continue hosting the weekly Tesla Takedown from 10am-12pm.

• 4/13-17: Ready to Get Loud Training - Field Team 6 is hosting 4 trainings (various times) to teach you how to amplify your communications on social media, complete with a toolkit for posting personal messages to your reps every day.

• 4/13: ResistanceSchool is hosted by the ResistTrump Campaign. They offer a weekly virtual meeting on Sundays 5-6:30 PM to discuss art, literature, movies, and music relating to nonviolent civil resistance and organizing.

• 4/15: Postcard Party for Texas Public Schools. Westlake Eanes Democrats host a weekly postcard party on Tuesdays 5:30-7:00 at the Randall's in Westlake (Public Room) to contact voters and reps and advocate for public schools.

• 4/17: What's The Plan: Indivisible Weekly Webinar - Join Indivisible co-founders Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin each week, as they carve out an hour to discuss what’s happening and – more importantly – what’s the plan. Most of the hour is left open to Q&A, so submit in the registration or submit them in the chat during the event.

• 4/17: Rise for Freedom Training Series - this series is cosponsored by many groups including the League of Women Voters. The Rise for Democracy training is for people who love our country and understand the threat of autocracy before us, and want to do something about it. It is ongoing - on 4/17 the topic is How to talk to people you might disagree with. They are designed to be done with groups, so consider grabbing a few friends to log on together!

How Do People “Join”? How Can They Get Into the Signal Group?

If you’d like to invite other folks to join us at FORWRD-ATX, this is the link:

https://forwrd-atx.beehiiv.com/

Once they subscribe, they’ll receive a welcome email with a link to join the Signal group. (If you didn’t receive your welcome email and/or you need another link to join Signal, reply to this email and let us know! We’re happy to send it to you.)

Our goal is to keep the Signal group ‘members only,’ so if someone requests to join without subscribing, we’re going to invite them to subscribe first. We hope that by ‘checking IDs’ like this, we’ll keep that channel secure for unfettered conversation.

Stay tuned for updates from our breakout sessions beginning next week …
with more ways to roll up your sleeves and get to work!