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Written by
Matthew Hogenmiller, Director and State Board Representative Selina Eshraghi, Director Parisa Mahmud, Director Kelly Choi, Director Published on January 29, 2019 Approved for public release. |
Since March 24th last year, we’ve being doing a lot: from hosting town halls, to learning how to run a youth led organization, and pushing our politicians to find importance in an issue very close to our hearts. It’s been hard to balance this and find a way to keep our incredible volunteers involved as we got tossed in the political tides of a series of committee hearings on gun violence prevention at the capitol. This year marks the beginning of a redesign of the March for Our Lives structure, and we’re excited to set in a place an organizational infrastructure to ensure everyone who cares about this issue has a voice. This movement deserves the most we can give to it, we hope you're still around to help us make a difference in this hectic world.
Let's start with the restructure of the national movement. Below you can see a graphic of how the organization is now structured. Our local chapter is considered a "city chapter" and is somewhat a "college chapter" as many University of Texas at Austin students, as well as other local college students, will be March For Our Lives Austin members. Almost nothing has changed on our level; however we now have a regional director. Out of immense respect for full transparency, we want to let you know our Regional Director, Perry Meade, is on payroll with MFOL National. It is a great thing that he is obligated to stay in contact and will do his job confidently. (Perry, if you're reading this, so far you're doing great!) So, if you have an issue, need assistance, or anything of the sort from national, we should have a discussion (you and the board of directors) and then we'll take it to a weekly call with the regional director and state board. Matthew's has not changed; he is still a liaison between our chapter and national. He attends weekly conference calls, contacts national when an issue arises or we need funding/legal assistance, and discuss our big picture plans with the regional director. We think it's important for you to know what we do so you can use us to your best advantage; feel free to reach out to us at any time if you need anything. Our state board is run by leaders of each chapter across Texas, outside of the National restructure, the state is restructuring too.
Let's start with the restructure of the national movement. Below you can see a graphic of how the organization is now structured. Our local chapter is considered a "city chapter" and is somewhat a "college chapter" as many University of Texas at Austin students, as well as other local college students, will be March For Our Lives Austin members. Almost nothing has changed on our level; however we now have a regional director. Out of immense respect for full transparency, we want to let you know our Regional Director, Perry Meade, is on payroll with MFOL National. It is a great thing that he is obligated to stay in contact and will do his job confidently. (Perry, if you're reading this, so far you're doing great!) So, if you have an issue, need assistance, or anything of the sort from national, we should have a discussion (you and the board of directors) and then we'll take it to a weekly call with the regional director and state board. Matthew's has not changed; he is still a liaison between our chapter and national. He attends weekly conference calls, contacts national when an issue arises or we need funding/legal assistance, and discuss our big picture plans with the regional director. We think it's important for you to know what we do so you can use us to your best advantage; feel free to reach out to us at any time if you need anything. Our state board is run by leaders of each chapter across Texas, outside of the National restructure, the state is restructuring too.
Graphic of the new national restructure.
Texas is looking to become a united front for passing legislation. We'll be working with other chapters to act in unison in our respective cities on planned action days, such as vigils for students lost on March 24th, or a day where we all rally to pass a law. These group actions, simply put, garner more attention and attention is how we get funding and legislators to listen. Our goal is to unite under one name --March for Our Lives Texas-- so we can move forward as an individual state rather than multiple small cities. This also allows smaller cities that have fewer resources to gain more exposure. States such as Arizona and California have united into one front which has done wonders for them, including large grant funding, legislation passed, and great publicity. By the end of 2019, Texas should be a forerunner in this movement; it'll be an uphill battle, but we're confident we can do it together.
Internally, as a city chapter, we'd love your participation in our remodel. By the time you leave March for Our Lives, we want you to be proud of what you have done, enough to use your title on a resume. We'll be opening up new leadership positions. This gives you more opportunities to work on large projects; below is a graphic of our new administrative layout. Collectively we truly think changing the way we work will be how we can make this whole process more efficient.
Graphic of the MFOL ATX restructure.
By reconstructing how we run from the ground up, we'll have more opportunities to hold events and pass legislation. We're looking forward to working on new initiatives together that will enact change in Austin and we want to hear your ideas for events in the future as well. For now here are some things the state will be doing as a collective to keep us occupied.
- February 14, the anniversary of the Parkland School Shooting; we'll be holding a vigil or encouraging students to have a moment of silence during school.
- March 24th, the anniversary of the March for Our Lives; Austin may hold a rally or demonstration, however logistically this may not be possible.
- April; legislative lobbying day across Texas, our state will work together to call attention to a bill
- May-June; media action to encourage HR8, read more about HR8 here.
We truly believe 2019 will be our year to enact even more change. If you have any questions reach out to us via the comments; we'll get back to you. If you're still in this, and we hope you are, please fill out the form below. It asks for your name and email, which will help us put together an updated email list so we can keep in touch. Let's change the world together.
