Member Update: A Letter from TNA President Amy Siskind
April 20, 2009
by The New Agenda
|Dear Members,
On April 18th, your organization held its second Founders Meeting. Founders flew into New York City from all over the country to spend the day with our sleeves rolled up and our heads together. So much has happened since our organization first formed eight months ago, and it was time to plan our way forward.
As with our first meeting in August, the outcome of this meeting was revolutionary. You will see some major changes in your organization going forward.
I would like to highlight some of the exciting outcomes of our meeting:
First: We have adapted a phrase that will become a central part of our organization. We will let the women of this country know "We’ve got your back". We have also tightened up our message to reflect the current, relevant, powerful force we know our country needs.
Second: We have distilled our organizations goals into the acronym "S.O.U.L.":
- Safety: ensuring that women are safe at work, at school and at home.
- Opportunity: advancing all women through initiatives such as ending discrimination, job training, and mentoring.
- Unity: unifying women of all ages, races, religions and backgrounds, as well as like-minded men ("big tent feminism").
- Leadership: increasing the proportion of women leaders in our government, academia and corporations.
Third: To achieve our goals, we have set up Teams and Task Forces. Some of the Teams existed prior to our meeting such as Grassroots and Grass Tops; others are new or have clarified objectives such as Media/Action, Education and Legislation. To sharpen our message and grow our organization nationally, we have undertaken a branding project and have sent out a Request For Proposals.
NOW WE NEED YOUR HELP
The New Agenda needs funding for our branding project. Please
click the button at right to donate what you can – $10, $25, $100, $1000. Please send whatever you can afford. Any amount will help The New Agenda move toward achieving its goals.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN FORUM
Also on April 18th, The New Agenda loudly proclaimed "We have your back, girlfriend!" with a Violence Against Women Forum. Thank you to the many members who took time from their busy days to attend the event.
We would also like to acknowledge and thank our accomplished panelists: Karen Cheeks-Lomax, Rosemonde Pierre-Louis, Leslie Crocker Snyder and Irene Weiser. We will be posting video highlights on our blog shortly.
The event was a huge success. Not only was it an incredible learning experience for us all, but we were also able to come up with the outline of a way forward. Reducing violence against women will remain a primary focus for The New Agenda in 2009.
One panelist noted that The New Agenda is the best hope for accomplishing something substantial in dealing with this national crisis. Since The New Agenda does not rely on government monies nor special interest funding, we can uniquely speak out bravely and boldly for the women and girls of this country on this important issue. And we will. Stay tuned!
LESLIE CROCKER SNYDER
Finally, I would like to note that one of our panelists, Leslie Crocker Snyder is running for Manhattan District Attorney. Leslie got a standing ovation at our Forum when she spoke out passionately about how, if elected, she would focus on reducing violence against women. If elected, Leslie would be the first women to serve as Manhattan DA. We will be posting more on our blog in the coming days about Leslie Crocker Snyder.
We note with no small degree of pleasure that when Leslie was speaking about how she’s beginning to experience sexist treatment by the media, someone in the audience shouted, "We’ve got your back!"
This is destined to become The New Agenda’s battle cry, and with your help, The New Agenda will keep calling out sexism and getting behind women candidates whenever and wherever we can. So click on the "DONATE" button above, and help The New Agenda to keep pursuing its goals — YOUR goals — for women in America!
Thank you all for your continued support.
We fight on!!!
Amy Siskind,
President and Co-founder
The New Agenda
I am proud to say, “I was there”!!
Thank you to the New Agenda for hosting this powerful event.
I will be donating to TNA & I’ve offered my help Ms Crocker is any way I can.
NYC needs her as their next DA. Although I live in LI the DA of NYC still effects my area.
“Now if my 2009 “DREAM” of NYC electing a female (Carolyn Maloney) MAYOR…..”A GIRL CAN DREAM / CAN’T SHE”!!!!!
[...] the Violence Against Women Forum was a huge success: On April 18th, The New Agenda loudly proclaimed “We have your back, [...]
Congratulations on your orgs success and growth. May I ask you one question? Where are you on LGBT rights? I read your SOUL statement and noticed it did not mention anything on sexual orientation. Sure would like an answer on this question. I don’t want to see lesbians, etc.s interests splintered off.
karen,
Good question. The New Agenda is exclusively focused on women’s issues. We are a big tent for women (and like minded men) of all races, religions, political parties and backgrounds. But we are not taking on LGBT issues.
I belong to a couple of wonderful orgs that do focus on LGBT issues (HRC and Family Equality Council). Those orgs are successful because they stay focused on LGBT issues. The New Agenda hopes to do the same with women’s issues – be focused and successful.
I went to the VAW Forum on Saturday and it was fabulous. And very well executed. Each speaker had something unique to say about VAW and all were impressive.
Thanks for putting this together. Will be making a donation soon!
Question – would it be possible to make online donations versus snail mail?
Violet has been working on the online donations function. She got caught in perma-hold with PayPal over the last couple of weeks on a help issue, but we are working on it.
NA is focused on opposing sexism and patriarchy. Of men, women and all races. No other national organization does this in a time when this is necessary. You can join other organizations in addition to NA.
Wonderful! Our strength is in focusing on women’s issues. Great work!
Together we are strong.
What all women in the world have in common is sexism and patriarchy. 90% of rapes occur between people of the same race and economic class and it’s the same with intimate partner violence. It’s not to say women don’t also experience poverty, homophobia, racism and ableism but no other national organization focuses on sexism. One can join other organizations in addition to NA.
Great sounding goals. It will certainly be the first time any “women’s group” has actually got my back. I like the SOUL acronym too. I truly hope you can keep your focus.
I’ll be sending a donation along. I really like the phrase-
we’ve got your back- I hope we can live up to it.
I really like that “we’ve got your back”.
S.O.U.L is fabulous, too.
[...] I returned home from The New Agenda’s Violence Against Women Forum last Saturday, I couldn’t stop talking to my husband about it. (I, like one of my favorite [...]
[...] I returned home from The New Agenda’s Violence Against Women Forum last Saturday, I couldn’t stop talking to my husband about it. (I, like one of my favorite [...]
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The New Agenda is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. More...