Well winter has finally arrived here in Toronto. So before moving on to the latest updates about our work to bring ranked ballots to our city, we wanted to first take this opportunity to wish you a happy holiday season. We really hope that it’s one that is full of joy and happiness for you and your friends and family.

RaBIT at YIMBY

On Saturday, December 9th, RaBIT volunteers were out in full force at Toronto's annual YIMBY (Yes in my Backyard!) festival, a wonderful event that promotes grassroots civic engagement in the city. As in previous years, our volunteers had a lot of great conversations about ranked ballots with other attendees and came away feeling inspired about Toronto's future possibilities. We also got a whole bunch of new signatures on our petition!

Report from RaBIT’s First Meetup

You may recall that in our last update, we announced RaBIT’s first monthly meetup. The meetup was held on Monday, December 4th and, as we’re happy to report, was a great success. We had about a dozen new supporters and volunteers come out and, after some introductions, we launched into a great discussion on how to move RaBIT forward in an election year.

Soon thereafter, we divided into three groups and started working on a variety of different projects including:

• Designing a new “ward kit” for on-the-ground volunteers

• Identifying priority wards for mobilization during the municipal election campaign

• Creating some new communications tools and strategies

It was really great to meet everyone who came out and and to feel so much new energy focused so strongly on improving Toronto’s democracy. And by the end of the meeting, the projects were looking pretty interesting too!

RaBIT’s Second Meetup

As we also mentioned in our last update, our plan is for these meetups to be monthly events that happen on the second Monday of every month.

So, as you may have guessed, that means that our next meetup is scheduled for January 8th, 2018. The meetup will take place in a new location, namely, The Commons (587a College Street) in Studio 2, which is on the second floor above an establishment called “Dish”.

Like last time, we’d ask that everyone who is coming to please arrive by 6.20pm. It would also be great if you could please RSVP at [email protected] so that we have a sense of numbers (and know how much food to get).

How do the meetups work?

These meetups are fun opportunities for RaBIT supporters and volunteers to meet each other and contribute whatever time or effort they feel able to give to the cause. Coming to one meetup does not commit you to coming to the next one, nor does missing one (or 2 or 3…) mean you can’t return when you have some more spare time. We really want to make it as easy as possible for people who want to help RaBIT to do so, without having to take on any more commitment than they are able to.

The format for the meetings is to start with some RaBIT board members and active volunteers pitching some projects they are either already working on or are keen to launch. Attendees will have the opportunity to pick whichever project interests them the most and work with the team that comes together around that project for the next couple of hours. It’s that simple.

If you’re able to make it, it would be great to see you on January 8th at The Commons (587a College Street) in Studio 2 at 6.20pm. So if you think you can join us, please RSVP at [email protected].