COIN Squads

Why are we forming COIN Squads?

COIN Squads are a way to create community and accountability so that we can keep the pressure on our Members of Congress. Our MoCs pay attention to constituent calls. Our calls help them to gauge support for an issue. If our elected representatives agree with us, calls strengthen their resolve and give them data for convincing their colleagues. If they don’t agree with us, then calls help them to see how much trouble their position may cause them. Working together in teams, we can boost the number of callers, the number of calls, and ultimately our impact on Congress.

But COIN Squads can do more!! You can use them to write postcards and letters, share information, hold informal get-togethers, organize canvassing or phonebanking… the list is endless! You can do as little or as much as you like (we hope you’ll do more) with the support of your COIN Squad.

Our volunteers have been very involved with writing postcards and other activities for years. We want to inspire everyone to share our activism -- how many calls we’ve made, how many postcards and letters and emails we’ve written -- with each other for a number of reasons.

• It inspires us when we see how many actions we are collectively doing.

• It motivates us when we see what we individually have done each week.

• It helps us understand what “works” and what doesn’t because we can measure the results.

Stay tuned for additional information from COIN!

Why Should You Call Your Members of Congress?

Based on Work by Indivisible Oregon

Members of Congress (MoCs) work for you, their constituents. You are ultimately their boss. To do their job, they need to know your feelings on the bills and issues in front of them.

Other than visiting your MoC’s offices in person (district office visits), calling is the most effective way to communicate with your Member of Congress. MoCs know that calling takes more effort and they give calls much more weight than Resistbot messages, faxes, and emails. Furthermore, faxes and emails are reviewed in batches and it can take some time for staff to get to them – so your feedback may not arrive in time.