Dear Friends & Colleagues,

The meteoric growth of the DemocracyInAction community continues, and that growth is taking us in some pretty exciting directions.

We've changed our look. We're staffing up. And we're upgrading our hardware inrastructure -- sponsored by two clients but benefitting all DIA users.

Edward Abbey once remarked that "growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." We're trying to structure our growth, on the contrary, so that every step strengthens the community as a whole and enhances the ability of all DIA users to advance their visions of progressive social change.

We think you'll be excited by some of the changes you'll see over the next few months. We sure are.

As always, we love to hear from you. If you have feedback, suggestions, or anything else to share, drop us a line at info at democracyinaction.org.

Trainings and Events

Strategy Sessions. DemocracyInAction is pleased to bring to members of our community this series of free workshops on making the best possible use of e-activism. Our Holiday Fundraising Strategy Session (postponed a week or two from Wednesday, Nov. 16; exact date yet TBD) is coming up in Washington, DC -- RSVP for it here.

You may also want to join our joint session with OneWorld.net, "Evaluating Online Efforts," Thursday, Nov. 17. Attend in person if you're in the Washington area, or join in by conference call from anywhere. Either way, RSVP for it here.

We have regular webinars available. Join us for "DIA 101", a telephone training/webinar on core toolset items. Prospective clients, new users and old hands looking for a refresher all welcome! We're also beginning a series of "200-level courses," more detailed examinations of specific tools in our platform. Visit our home page to register for upcoming webinars.

Headquarters Makeover

You've noticed this if you've logged into your DemocracyInAction headquarters this month: we've got a new look!

In addition to redesigned navigation menus to improve handling throughout the site, your headquarters now sports a new Data Center with links to all the critical information you'll need to keep track of what's going on in the DemocracyInAction community.

You'll want to make note of two areas in particular: "Messages" (on the left side) carries links to happenings within the DIA community, such as social events or skills-building events. (If you're sponsoring such an event, or know of one, that might be of interest to the DIA community, e-mail info at democracyinaction.org.)

"Alerts," at the top of the page, has critical messages on office closures, scheduled system down time, and software deployments to enhance the toolset.

Help Us Help You

We also want to know your success stories. How is DIA improving the effectiveness of your organization? What have you done with the tools that other organizations might learn from? Please share your story here.

Comings and More Comings

Just in time for the holidays, there are three new elves in the workshop.

Kelly O’Neal, now with DIA on a part-time basis, helps nonprofits develop strategies to better utilize the Internet as an organizing, fundraising, and outreach tool. Kelly has more than a decade of experience in public affairs specializing in online organizing helping a variety of organizations with their online efforts including the League of Conservation Voters, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Union of Concerned Scientists, and SaveOurEnvionment.org. She also worked on several electoral campaigns and has experience as a lobbyist and grassroots organizer working on environmental protection, campaign finance reform, and consumer safety issues.

Elissa Laitin joins DIA Nov. 28th as its new Operations Manager. She was a co-founder of the Running for Change political committee and its "Run Against Bush" campaign, which raised over $750,000 for the 2004 presidential election. She was responsible for FEC compliance, as well as website management. She comes to DIA from the Arlington County government, where she handled project management, business process change, risk communication, and workforcetraining.

Jason A. Lefkowitz joins DIA Dec. 5 as its new Chief Operating Officer. He comes to DIA from Oceana, where he served as the Director of E-Activism. In that role he oversaw the growth of Oceana's online support base from 70,000 supporters to more than 250,000 around the world. Additionally, he managed all the organizational Web properties and launched one of the first blogs ever by an environmental non-profit, the Oceana Network. You can find his personal blog here.

Know a systems administrator whose name would look good on this list? We'll be advertising that position soon -- watch democracyinaction.org for more.

DIA is also recruiting interns for the winter/spring terms of the 2006 school year, and for the summer of 2006.

New Tool: Directories

DemocracyInAction has added a handy tool you'll find under the "Website" tab: Directories. Directories allow you to make any DIA group publicly searchable -- giving you control over how a user would search for them and what information will display. Directories are handy for indexing a network of affiliates, chapters or allies; combined with a dedicated sign-up page that populates the group, they're also perfect for ride and housing boards.

Keep in mind that the information you archive in a directory need not be your actual supporters -- or even people at all. By using your custom fields, you could create directories of legal standards by jurisdiction, historical events, statistical phenomena or almost anything else.