Newsletter to our members, March 2015

Our country-wide Annual Meeting this year will take place at the Hotel d'Angleterre, downtown Geneva. All members are encouraged to attend and support Democrats Abroad Switzerland as it organizes for 2015 and the 2016 presidential elections.

• Join us remotely via WebEx (you'll receive log-in instructions upon sign-up)
• If you cannot attend but wish to vote, you may give your proxy vote to someone you know who will attend (sign up and indicate you wish to vote by proxy)

However you plan to participate please email us at events@democrats.ch with the details requested above. We need to have a count to set up the meeting room.

Regular nominations for Executive Committee offices are now closed, and we have candidates on the ballot for: Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Legal counsel and one of the four Member-at-large spots. At the meeting, the Elections Committee will invite nominations from the floor for the three remaining Member-at-large positions. Please consider running for one! Read full description of each position →

Ask not what your country committee can do for you...

Elections for the Executive Committee of Democrats Abroad Switzerland will be taking place during its annual general meeting on Saturday 14 March at the Hotel d’Angleterre in Geneva (see above for details). This yearly meeting is for you, and your votes will elect the nominations brought from the floor. Maybe you would like to join the Committee! As an added incentive we will present and discuss "Citizen’s United and the American Political Landscape", a subject we are all concerned about.

If we don’t have paid staff, how do we ensure things get done? DA-Switzerland, DA International and all its other country committees are 100% volunteer organizations. We really do need help – on the local-chapter, national and international levels.

As a volunteer organization, we depend entirely on our members to accomplish our goals. It's Committee members who imagine new ways to reach out to all those Americans in Switzerland. So not only is your participation really important to us, but any hours you donate make it possible to: set up and man voter registration tables where Americans meet, create buzz on our social media channels, organize American-community events, or run phone banks before elections. We wouldn’t even have monthly meetings without you.

If you have a few hours a month that you can spare, and if you want to help us get ready for the 2016 Presidential Elections, please stand for a Member-at-Large position on Saturday, or simply get in touch with us. We’ll find the perfect job for you! :-).

— Anne-Shelton Aaron, Chair
and the Executive Committee of Democrats Abroad Switzerland

We share with you President Obama's speech at the bridge in Selma, AL, on the 50th anniversary of the March 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting-rights protest marches. These high-profile protests were a racial-justice turning point, and helped lead to the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act.