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coffeepartyusa
Coffee Party USA Time Line
January 26, 2010 Annabel Park's Facebook status update sparks the Coffee Party movement. "let's start a coffee party... smoothie party. red bull party. anything but tea....Let's get together...and have real political dialogue with substance and compassion." Her rant hit a nerve. The thousands of responses from people all over the country signaled to Annabel that she must do something more. About 1:30 P.M., she creates the Join the Coffee Party Movement fan page on Facebook.
February 10-14, 2010 Eric Byler and Annabel Park record the first two videos to be uploaded to Coffee Party USA's YouTube channel. The interview of Salim Michel, a salon owner in Washington, DC, is uploaded to CPYouTube channel. It is the first of a series of videos giving voice to everyday Americans. Then The video of Annabel describing the origin of the Coffee Party is posted. In it, she calls for cooperation rather than obstruction in Congress, along with a more responsible political discourse that is fact-based rather than fear-based. Domain name registered for coffeepartyusa.com.
February 17, 2010 Join the Coffee Party Movement San Antonio creates their Facebook page, the first of more than 160 local chapters to create pages for their groups on Facebook. February 19, 2010 Join the Coffee Party Movement Atlanta Facebook page, Join Coffee Party Movement Chicago, and Join the Coffee Party Movement D.C. join the San Antonio chapter in creating their Facebook pages.
February 22, 2010 Coffee Party USA's website goes live.
February 26, 2010 The Washington Post prints Dan Zak's story, the first major media outlet to cover Coffee Party USA.
February 26-27th, 2010 More Coffee Party chapters begin forming across the U.S. Tens of thousands begin using Facebook fan page and makeshift Coffee Party website as virtual town halls.
March 1-7, 2010 Coffee Party USA has 90,000+ fans on Facebook. March 1, 2010 Kate Zernike covers Coffee Party USA in the New York Times. March 2, 2010 Annabel appears on the Dylan Ratigan show on MSNBC. March 3, 2010 CNN interviews Annabel. March 8, 2010 CNN covers the first Coffee Party meetings, concentrating on the Baltimore Coffee Party.
March 11, 2010 Coffee Party USA's Blog Talk Radio channel begins.
March 13, 2010 Coffee Party National Kick-off: Thousands participate in nearly 400 meetings at coffee shops and restaurants across the U.S. CNN covers the meeting at Busboys and Poets. March 18, 2010 CNN posts a guest editorial by Annabel. March 22, 2010 Coffee Party members choose two issue priorities, Financial Reform and Campaign Finance Reform, in on-line vote.
March 27, 2010 National Coffee Party Summit includes nearly 500 meetings across the U.S. Darrel West (Brookings Institute), and Linda Killian (Politico) join Annabel in Coffee Party event broadcast on C-SPAN.
March 29 - April 10, 2010 Coffee with Congress initiative facilitates meetings between citizens and their Senators and Congress Members.
April 10, 2010 Coffee Party leaders decide to consciously avoid the media narrative that the Coffee Party is the enemy, or opposite of the Tea Party, focusing instead on turning the nation's attention to matters of substance, systemic issues that that impede progress in government: (1) corrupting influence of money in politics (2) hyper-partisianship that produces gridlock (3) well-funded misinformation campaigns. Recognizing that these are big challenges that require a long-term strategy, not just a focus on the current election cycle, Coffee Party asks members to start building relationships with their representatives and with their communities.
April 24, 2010 YouTube video depicts Lawrence Lessig (Harvard) introducing Coffee Party's Clean Up Wall Street" and "Clean up K Street" campaigns in support of financial reform and campaign finance/Fair ElectionS reform. May 6, 2010 As part of the Clean Up K Street and Clean Up Wall Street campaigns, representatives of Coffee Party hand-delivered petitions and coffee beans to Senators on Capitol Hill with the message: "Please wake up and smell the coffee; Americans want strong financial reform."
May 24, 2010 Louisville, Kentucky, selected as site of first Coffee Party Convention, to be held September 24-26, 2010.
June 12-20, 2010 Local chapters host meetings for the National Coffee Summit on Corporate Personhood and Money in Politics as part of Coffee Party USA's Coffee with Main Street Campaign.
June 21-28, 2010 Coffee Party holds a national vote on whether or not to support any current legislative efforts to address the challenges of Campaign Finance Reform and Corporate Personhood. The 3,100 people participating respond overwhelmingly that they are very concerned about the role of money in politics and that the Citizens United decision would increase the ability of corporate spending to influence elections. They also vote overwhelmingly that Coffee Party should support legislative efforts to control money in elections, including the Fair Elections Now Act, the DISCLOSE Act, and the Shareholder Protection Act of 2010. The voters also strongly support Coffee Party participating in bringing about a constitutional amendment that would reverse the Citizens United ruling.
July 10-15, 2010 Coffee Party members visit the Gulf Coast to support of those affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Annabel and others post the videos of their experiences to Coffee Party's YouTube page.
September 24-26, 2010 Coffee Party Convention in Louisville, Kentucky: Chapter leaders from 40 states around the country meet in person for the first time. Keynote speeches by Lawrence Lessig and Mark McKinnon galvanize Coffee Party leaders on the issue of money in politics, leading to the For the People Summit January 20-22, 2011. Lt. Dan Choi gives a moving presentation about repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
October 8, 2010 Coffee Party Facebook page reaches 300,000 fans.
October 30, 2010 Coffee Party participates in Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity.
November 2, 2010 Coffee Party announces For The People Summit on its website. January 2, 2011 Coffee Party helps launch Movement for the People website and Facebook page.
January 9, 2011 In wake of the shootings in Tucson, Arizona, Coffee Party circulates a petition to end violent rhetoric.
January 20-22, 2011 Coffee Party participate in the For the People Summit, the kick-off of a national effort designed to respond to the issue of money in politics and the reckless Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which gives corporations the right to spend unlimited money to influence American elections. C-SPAN3 covers the first day's events live.
January 26, 2011 Coffee Party USA now has 340,500+ fans on Facebook. --Compiled by Vince Lamb
