This page will be updated to include all of the past 'Latest News' from the main Florida Resources page. Check out all the great news below!
Week of March 4th
Important Update to FL Discord Channels & Working Groups (WGs)
The Forward Party Discord server is the best way to stay in touch with others in the Forward community, nationally and locally (click here for instructions + tips on how to join). We've recently made some changes to the FL channels that correspond with changes made to how WGs function, including:
|
New Volunteer Opportunities!
In our search for local leaders at Forward Florida, we're working hard to build out the critical infrastructure that our party needs to grow. From regional leads and county organizers, to social media managers and welcome team members, to innovation research and analytics, there's never been a better time to get involved with this exciting new state party. Applicants of all backgrounds, with any level of experience, are welcome, so be sure to check out our full list of volunteer opportunities today!
Week of Feb. 20th
Andrew Yang visits Palm Beach County!
As we're gearing up here in Florida for some big announcements and big events coming up, we couldn't be happier to kick things off with the arrival of National Forward Party Co-Chair Andrew Yang in Palm Beach County. Together with Joel Searby, our Managing Director of Communities & Building, and a number of our state and national leaders, he'll be hosting a Palm Beach County Meet & Greet on Friday, February 24th at 3:00 p.m.
Details will be sent out to those within the vicinity of PBC as they are announced, but if you're interested (and up to make a trip), be sure to email [email protected] for more information on this exciting event!
New Volunteer Opportunities!
In our search for local leaders at Forward Florida, we're working hard to build out the critical infrastructure that our party needs to grow. From regional leads and county organizers, to social media managers and welcome team members, to innovation research and analytics, there's never been a better time to get involved with this exciting new state party. Applicants of all backgrounds, with any level of experience, are welcome, so be sure to check out our full list of volunteer opportunities today!
Week of Jan. 7th
A Note from State Leadership
First of all, thank you for your patience on the lack of updates from our end throughout this past month. Leslie and I have been transitioning into new roles within the Forward organization, and have been incredibly busy with setting up our party filing, ensuring that we have everything in place to function and grow as an official political party, and, in Leslie’s case, even to support party founding efforts elsewhere throughout the Southeast.
Beyond that, though, we want to make sure that, when we do reach out and resume regular programming, we have a strong enough infrastructure to welcome and hear all of your voices, and to give you the best opportunity to help us grow this effort. We have some incredibly exciting ideas we want to share with you about the future of this party and how you can be involved, and that starts with getting our house in order and ready for all the fun. 🙂
So for now, thank you so much for your patience, and please stay tuned. We will have some huge announcements at the Statewide Meeting at the end of this month, and more details coming in constantly through this updates page. Lastly, do feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions in the meantime, and we look forward to hearing from you!
Nate Smolensky, Interim State Lead
The Executive Committee is filing for minor party status & convened for a January Strategy Summit to kickoff 2023 with a bang!
Since they were elected in October, your FL Executive Committee (EC) have finalized and ratified the founding documents needed to file for official minor party status and they will be filing as early as February. The filing date has been flexed a bit because the EC is working on our affiliate agreement with HQ and want to make sure to we have the best deal in terms of resource sharing and more for all of you. Once they file for party status, there's a possibility that the state will take a bit to officially approve our documents but filing is a HUGE milestone nonetheless and we will keep you updated on the status of our approval. Once we achieve minor party status, you will be able to register under the Florida Forward Party (FWD) and we will be able to run candidates across the state. This will put us one step closer to achieving major party status!
Filing is just one piece of building the foundation for our state party, though - the FL EC convened for their first in-person Strategy Summit on the first weekend of January, specifically to work on the framework and strategy to set our organization up for success. The EC takes the trust you've put in them and our priorities as a party, especially being bottom-up, rather than top-down, very seriously so their work at this summit is hyper focused on creating frameworks and strategies for our party that empowers our supporters across the state to be directly involved in moving this movement forward. Expect some more volunteer opportunities and resources to come from this!
Updates on party status progress and summit discussions/results will be shared during the next Statewide Meeting - RSVP here.
New hires to support the Florida Forward Party
Leslie Villegas has been hired part-time on the HQ team as a Regional Coordinator for the Southeast. In this role, she'll be supporting 8 states, including Florida, in their organizing efforts to generate more potential supporters, and empower new supporters with tools, training and resources. She'll be overseeing each state’s movement through its phases of development, including its early establishment, its ballot access and party achievement, and its migration to a durable, established major party. Previously, Leslie led the Florida Forward Party as a volunteer Interim State Lead and State Mentor to other state leadership teams for over a year, from its inception to the formation of the state's first official Executive Committee.
Nate Smolensky is set to be hired full-time as the State Director of the Florida Forward Party. In this role, he'll be working for the Executive Committee of the state to provide them with the tools and resources they need to complete the difficult task of founding this state party.
Week of Dec. 12th
The newly elected Executive Committee has officially ratified our founding charter/bylaws
You elected them this October and they've been working diligently the past 2 months to get these documents in order to file for our official minor party status in early January. Once they file for party status, there's a possibility that the state will take a bit to officially approve our documents but filing is a HUGE milestone nonetheless and we will keep you updated on the status of our approval. Once we achieve minor party status, you will be able to register under the Florida Forward Party (FWD) and we will be able to run candidates across the state. Join our next Statewide Meeting to learn more about this!
Our Organizing Working Group is hosting a Week of Action until December 18th
What better way to embody the holiday spirit than to get out in your community and lend a helping hand? Check out our Florida Calendar for some volunteer opportunities (not affiliated with FWD) that we're promoting across the state and let us know of any in your area we should add!
Week of July 31st
Our merger last week brought in over 500 supporters and counting - we're excited to welcome all of you into our community!
Your questions and feedback in just the past week have been SUPER helpful in finding and filling the gaps of our organization and I'm excited to keep growing our movement with your help. Florida is becoming a leading state in the FWD movement with all of your support but it is led by a small, volunteer team, with only one lead doing the "on-the-ground" work (myself) since Nate is more so our connection with the national comms team.
There have been some concerns that we are holding things back from you all and I can assure you that if things ever feel like this, it's a matter of overcapacity, rather than us intentionally trying to withhold any information. We quite literally went from maybe 3 people joining our volunteer calls to getting over 100 RSVPs and counting so when it used to be easy answering every individual question as it was asked and having everyone on the same page, it is not sufficient now.
We hear your concerns and have been working on ways to fix this - here's a few things that have been implemented or will be implemented soon:
- Finalizing the build-out of our new Florida Resources page and 🧰-fl-resources channel on our Discord with links to pages with a Florida FAQ, updates on FL work, meeting recordings/notes, and more - you can access this new page from the Florida State page but I recommend you bookmark it for future use
- Creating a Florida FAQ page where you can read responses to all your FAQs and an accompanying submission form where you can submit questions you'd like to be answered:
- Organizing Town Hall meetings where some of the most prominent questions asked in our submission form can be answered with a Q&A session after (every question answered will be added to the FAQ). Our first one is on Sunday, August 21st at 1pm but until then we will be releasing answers on the FAQ page as we receive our first round of questions
- We're scrapping open office hours to be replaced by the Town Halls, any technical issues should be submitted to our technical issue form so we can help you on a 1:1 basis
Here are some general updates:
- Community channels on our Discord will soon be changed to include more communities and be organized in a different manner
- Volunteer opportunity groups will now be converted into committees with chairpersons - learn more about this transition and our new chairpersons during our next Volunteer Call:
- Our leadership team recently met with Joel Searby, the National Political Director for the Renew America Movement (one of our merger organizations) who gave us updates, including:
- State party formation is going to be an immediate priority - this is a process that can take as little as two months of dedicated work, so we may need all hands on deck soon
- Our first state convention should be around early summer of 2023 - sooner to the date we will get your feedback on where you'd like it to be hosted (Tampa or Orlando, anybody?)
- We can expect more information and appearances from some of our national leadership team (a few people you'll be extra excited to meet) to talk more about party formation during our next Statewide Meeting
We strive to be as transparent with you guys as possible but please give us some grace and patience. This movement is literally on the ground floor so if it feels like there are some gaps, it's because there is but trust that we're working on filling them all in the next few weeks, months, years with your help!
Do you like this page?