Have coffee w/ Sally Swisher of the Big Apple Coffee Party about their journey to organize a strong a Coffee Party chapter in New York. We'll focus on their collaboration process and their plans for the future. We'll also talk about their recent forum on money in politics with Thom Hartmann, Larry Lessig and Zephyr Teachout. http://www.bigapplecoffeeparty.org/

Have coffee with Tom Atlee, founder, co-director, and research director of the non-profit Co-Intelligence Institute and author of The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World that Works for All. Please read his blog post "Are we ready to change the Game yet?" (http://bit.ly/GameChange-1).

Tom's letter to the Coffee Party. http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/tom-atlee

Have coffee with Steven Cowan, director of Priceless, a documentary about money in politics and citizens' responses across the country. We'll also discuss why stories are important to politics. http://www.habitatmedia.org/priceless.html

The scheduled talk with Sabina Virgo and the Interim Board didn't work out. Annabel and Bruce Schuman of www.sharedpurpose.net talk about a variety of philosophical, political and practical challenges of the Coffee Party and the exciting progress we are making. We delve Annabel's essay, "Leaving the Tower of Babel" and about meaning of the words: "transpartisan" vs "bipartisan" vs "nonpartisan" vs. "post-partisan." http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/content/our-tower-babel

Jackie (Pres of Independentvoting.org) and Michael (Chair of Independent Kentucky, an affiliate of Independentvoting.org) will discuss the independent voters movement: "We are a national strategy, communications, and organizing center working to connect and empower the 40% of Americans who identify themselves as independents. Our mission is to develop a movement of independent voters for progressive post-partisan reform of the American political process." Check out Jackie's op-ed, The Parties Are Over: Goodbye two-Party system? Discontent is building to open up the political process: http://bit.ly/hk3wu9

Debilyn and Walt, Transpartisan Alliance core team members, will discuss their new organization and network, Changing the Game. They hope to "creatively use the inevitable frustration, pain and suffering that is coming with of the breakdown in the realm of Power, Politics and Participation to generate a game-changing, system-changing response to the challenges of this time." http://waltsearch.wordpress.com/

http://debilynmolineaux.com/about

What is the mission of Coffee Party U? Coordinators of Coffee Party U will discuss the challenges we face and the strategies we have to engage college students and the youth to participate in politics in general and the Coffee Party in particular. Please join this strategy discussion. Special guests may join. http://www.facebook.com/CoffeePartyU

Bill Moyer and Eric Byler will discuss the collaboration between the Backbone Campaign and Coffee Party to help bring together the For the People Coalition to stand united against the Citizens United decision and the need for the People to stand together against the corruption of Congress by outsized funds. We'll discuss how the action plan is shaping up for Jan 20-22 in DC and around the country. http://backbonecampaign.org/

http://coffeepartyusa.org/

Have coffee with Heather McGhee, Director of DC office for Demos, who will discuss the work that Demos has been doing on the deficit issue. They co-published a response to the National Deficit Commission along with American Prospect called "Recovery Not Austerity." You can read it here: http://bit.ly/dz76aP Along with leading economists, they question the fundamental economic model used by the Commission for their recommendation.

Kiki McLean (senior adviser to Hillary Clinton for President) & John Avlon (CNN contributor, Daily Beast columnist and the author of Wingnuts) are leading, along with Mark McKinnon and Nancy Jacobson, a new movement that wants to end partisan gridlock in DC and pursue solutions that benefit all Americans. For a preview, here is John at the Coffee Party convention interviewed by Jeffrey Abelson: http://bit.ly/ibIPbB