Chapters
Chapters are crucial!
- Chapters bring coordinated pressure on elected officials. How can we counter organized money and legislative complacency? Organize people - within chapters, and coordinate lots of chapters to work on the same issues.
- Chapters build enduring communities of activists. Changing policy takes time; having a community of partners makes the effort more fun, effective, and sustainable.
Lots of PM chapters have similar origin stories. Members remember meeting each other to work on paid sick time, then disbanding, gathering again to work on expanding the bottle bill, then disbanding, gathering again to work on minimum wage, then disbanding, gathering again to work on transgender rights, and later on ranked choice voting… The pattern is obvious, and so inefficient!
By building a chapter, you’re continually growing in numbers, knowledge, and skill, not starting from scratch on every campaign for change.
Chapters don’t have to start from scratch on advocacy either. Progressive Mass’ Issues Committee crafts our Legislative Agenda every two years, keeps us up to date on the progress of bills, and offers steps when it’s time to advocate.
Our Elections & Endorsements Committee creates candidate questionnaires for statewide offices, and for the legislative and District Attorney races in all of our areas.
What do chapters do?
- Build a base of people more aware of policy – through e-newsletters and social media, through book groups and forums, through vigils and Town Halls, though partnering with ally groups. Chapters are key sources of information on issues, legislators’ votes, and how to get active locally.
- Engage people in a wide range of activist tasks – contacting legislators, collecting signatures, attending rallies, talking with neighbors, organizing meetings, doing research, writing letters to the editor, participating in Lobby Day
- Get to know your legislators and hold them accountable – learning about their priority areas and voting patterns, identifying areas of agreement and disagreement, holding constituent meetings and Town Hall gatherings
- Lobby legislators and/or the Governor – PM’s Issues Committee keeps chapters up-to-date on our priority bills with advocacy steps when bills need a push
- Make municipal connections – identifying and advancing local policies that align with PM’s Progressive Platform
- Create candidate questionnaires for municipal races that represent PM’s Progressive Platform, finding parallel municipal issues and promoting transparency and issue focus in local races
- Host candidate forums or interviews
- Support voting – helping people register to vote, conveying voter information specific to your community
- Build community – virtual and in-person social events, movies, potlucks
Is there a chapter near me?
See our list of chapters below, which continually grows.
How do I get involved in a chapter?
If we have a chapter that includes your area, joining or subscribing to Progressive Mass means the chapter will add you to their outreach too. To make sure the chapter meets you right away, send them a message and introduce yourself.
How do PM chapters function in more conservative areas?
There are progressives in every community, and there are plenty of people regardless of how they self-identify, who care about justice, economic opportunity, healthcare access, or climate change in every community. Talking about issues builds awareness and common ground.
Issue conversations often surprise people who thought Massachusetts was more progressive than it is. “What, we’re 40 years behind Wisconsin on Election Day registration? We have no statute of limitation on eviction records at all, not even for no-fault evictions when an apartment building is sold, and those records haunt women and children forever? We have multi-year solitary confinement in our prisons, even for people with mental health issues?!” Some people are more complacent than conservative; such surprises can prompt new perspectives and energy.
In more conservative communities, PM chapters are even more important in some ways. Activists need partners. Voters need information, especially if your local newspaper is owned by a conservative national corporation, as many are these days.
We’ll work with you to help identify how to grow your chapter.
There’s no chapter in my area. Can I start one?
Contact chapters@progressivemass.com to propose a new chapter. A few starting tasks: find some organizing partners, identify ally groups, and think about geographic boundaries.
A few chapter basics
- PM chapters are geographical because voters within specific geographies can bring pressure to elected officials. People who want to start an issue-focused group or affinity group, let us know; we have other structures to offer.
- No chapter works on everything! Local activists and contexts determine their own priorities and projects.