Dear Colleagues,
For twenty-eight years The DFL Education Foundation has engaged Minnesotans in a conversation about the nature of governance. Together we have met around tables, participated in forums, produced podcasts, written letters and columns and explored the art and science behind our politics. As we move forward into the next twenty-eight years we will be doing so with the same mission envisioned by Barney Allen and executed by our longtime Chair Don Fraser, and longtime Trustee Arvonne Fraser, but we’ll be doing so with a new name.
Think Again MN will be the new name of The DFL Education Foundation.
A group of The DFL Education Foundation Board Members and volunteers have been working with the name Think Again MN for two years now. Partnering with organizations like African Immigrant Services and Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light, we sponsored forums in the northern suburbs to share with new Minnesotans how damaging proposed voter restriction laws could be to their communities. The year before we assembled forums in partnership with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Oxfam (among others) to educate activists in the southern suburbs on the dangers of fracking and the benefits and affordability of renewable energy sources.
Operating as Think Again MN we found a new audience of Minnesotans, and new Partners with whom to work. Plus, we found that with a new name, promoting informed discussion and inspiring citizen action toward a just and sustainable society became much easier.
What does changing our name for The DFL Education Foundation to Think Again MN mean to you? It means more forums, more venues and more opportunities to participate in bringing our founder Barney Allen’s vision to life. It means a Stone Arch group, a South of the River group, a Brooklyn Center/Brooklyn Park group, an Achievement Gap group, and five partner forums in May alone. It means that when your trusted news source publishes an article about launching wind farms, we can dispense with the myths and fears and recognize whether there is an agenda behind the story. It means that we’re reaching out to new Minnesotans with a new Latino-American initiative to bring new Americans into the discussion. It means that the next time there’s a ballot initiative in Minnesota there will be venues for us to come together and vet it’s meaning.
For twenty-nine years our Board Members and Volunteers have taught us to think about why we vote and how we make those decisions. We’re simply carrying on and building upon this tradition, under or with Think Again MN.
Please visit us at www.thinkagainmn.org, and the Stone Arch Discussion Group, and wherever else we’re working to improve civic engagement.
Board of Directors, Think Again MN, formerly The DFL Education Foundation.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Wieland
DFL Education Foundation President
From the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance
A Grand Consensus
We launched our 2013 Stone Arch discussion with John Farrell. He’s a Senior Researcher at the local Institute for Local Self-Reliance and organizer for the Minneapolis Energy Options campaign try to let the people of Minneapolis take charge of their energy future. The grassroots campaign is challenging the energy monopoly of Xcel and Centerpoint Energy and hopes to give the city’s homes and businesses a clean, local alternative to dirty, imported energy.
Saturday, February 9
DFL Education Foundation 