Incite Civility and Reason - The Coffee Party

Just doing a little sharing here.  Another group worth becoming acquainted with since they are a sobering anecdote to the Koch's Tea Party.  It's going to take a thousands of points of lights and millions of informed citizens.  Can you join a movement for rationality and critical thinking and patriotic intentions?

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http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/about

Coffee Party USA is a grassroots, non-partisan movement that aims to restore the principles and spirit of our republic and representative democracy in America. It started on Facebook as a popular fan page in January 2010 and has since blossomed into a national non-profit organization with a network of over half a million people and dozens of local chapters.

Our path to restoring America's republic and representative democracy:

• Identifying and advocating for legislative fixes to reform campaign finance laws, Wall Street regulations, and the tax code;
• Promoting cultural changes to address political disengagement, polarization, and widespread misinformation.

Our activities often center around encouraging inclusive, civil, fact-based, solution-oriented dialogue — online and in public places such as coffee houses — in which we meet, talk, become informed and engaged as fellow Americans, rather than as members of political parties.

We believe that we share common goals as a people. We all want to live in safe communities with access to well-paid jobs that will allow us to provide for our families, help us secure a decent education for our children, and allow us to access adequate health care. We call upon the American people to transcend the hyper-partisanship that is so common today and move toward organizing communities around the mutual desire for ongoing, responsible civic engagement.

We understand that we must act boldly to not only break the cycle of corruption, but also recommit to the concept of a government of, by and for the people. We are the government. The government is us. We want to fix the problems in our government, not turn against the idea of government.

We need more – in quantity and quality – direct engagement with our government officials and with one another. Participating in our representative democracy should not be about just voting every 2 to 4 years – relying only on what appears in mainstream media and in campaign ads – and then hoping for the best. We need to engage the government in a way that promotes accountability to the public, transparency, and the spirit of E Pluribus Unum (out of many voices, one).

We need to create effective civic engagement opportunities by:

• Demanding more officially sanctioned activities such as town hall meetings with officials and public reviews of policies with an invitation for public comments;
• Organizing informal community meetings in which we invite fellow Americans to exchange ideas.
• Encouraging the use of Internet communications, social networking and polling technologies to more effectively inform and involve the broad public community in an interactive debate.

We operate entirely independently of political parties and we do not endorse candidates.  We are funded by our members.

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GET INVOLVED:

http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/volunteer

VOLUNTEER

Thank you for your interest in volunteering with Coffee Party USA. We are a trans-partisan grassroots organization whose mission is to bring civility to our national political discussion. You can view our goals  here.

About volunteering at the national level:

Volunteer work at the national level is not location specific.   Our work on the national level is done via weekly, bi weekly or monthly teleconferences and online in Facebook and Google Drive.  

We ask that all our volunteers at the national level are members of Facebook and can attend most of the conference calls held by the group they choose.  Some aptitude and/or confidence in working online will go a long way to assure that you will be able to contribute to projects.

The Coffee Party believes in building a strong sense of community while bringing forth the best ideas from our volunteers.  We have need for many talents and skills in many areas of our organization.  (To see our volunteer opportunities, click here)   

 ***oops! Were you looking for local groups?  If so, click here.    Would you like to start a conversation in your community?  Click here

If you’d like to help at the national level, read on!

Become a volunteer in a few simple steps!

1. Check out our opportunities and pick something that fits your interest or schedule. We have a number of Work Groups (divisions)  that support our organization.  Please see the descriptions of our work groups here.
2. Fill in the form below.  Full street address, email address and phone are required.   Please do not opt out of emails or we will not be able to communicate with you.    Be sure to check the boxes for our Civility Pledge and Non Disclosure Agreement.  Use the Comment field to tell us about your interests, skills or preferred Work group or groups.  (see link above)
3. Look for an email from Coffee Party Volunteers with your invitation to our Coffee Party USA Volunteers Facebook page. (If you do not receive it within a few hours, please check your spam folder.) This Facebook Group is dedicated to supporting our volunteers and announcing volunteer opportunities.  
4. Once there,  your last step will be to connect with your preferred work group.  We also offer optional Orientation Calls for new volunteers. 

Civility Pledge and Agreement of Non Disclosure:

Civility Pledge: As a member or supporter of the Coffee Party, I pledge to conduct myself in a way that is civil, honest, and respectful toward people with whom I disagree. I value people from different cultures, I value people with different ideas, and I value and cherish the democratic process.

Non Disclosure Agreement.  In connection with your volunteer work, Coffee Party USA may provide you with access to portions of Coffee Party USA’s lists of supporters that contains personal information including but not limited to e-mail addresses and telephone numbers; and with access to other non-public information maintained by Coffee Party USA, all of which is “Coffee Party USA Confidential Information.”  

You agree that you will not make use of or disclose any Coffee Party USA Confidential Information for any purpose whatsoever other than as needed for the performance of your volunteer services for Coffee Party USA.  You also agree that all documents, files, conversations, information shared, participation in online discussions and lists relating to the operations and/or activities of Coffee Party USA, whether gathered by you or any other person, are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of Coffee Party USA.