The Good News, The Bad News, and the Beautiful

Good news!  We had a great turnout for our Better Budget Bash last week! Nearly 100 Oklahomans participated across Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Norman, and Lawton. For an event geared toward thanking our advocates from the past year, that is fantastic! And with our new livestreaming tool, the advocates in all four locations were able to join together in celebration. We honored four of TOK’s “All-Star Advocates” for their great work in this past legislative session — Emma Thadani was our Events All-Star; Debbie Hill was our Capitol All-Star; Nik Majdan was our Research All-Star; Merleyn Bell was our Communications All-Star; and Shay White was our All-Around All-Star.

The Bad News is that the recording of our video didn’t work. We hope we can do that again soon, and next time we’ll have a back up in case our recording doesn’t download. I know there are more of you who wanted to attend but were away; you can find out what you missed at this link.

(Correction! The Bad News is now canceled because we found the Better Budget Bash video! Feel free to check it out here.  If you have any feedback for us send it to events@togetherok.org)

OKC Good News!  Tonight, Together Oklahoma members will be joining Let’s Fix This for a West Wing watch party at the Wheeler Ferris Wheel at 1701 S. Western Avenue, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73109 from 8pm-10pm. The episode will be followed by a panel discussion with four former White House staff members, including former TOK intern Cody Minyard.  Find out more details about that event here!

Tulsa Good News! An ACTION accountability session for everyone who lives in House District 75 will take place next Sunday, July 9, 4 – 5:15 p.m., at St. Matthew United Methodist Church. It’s the first accountability session that ACTION is doing. Since TOK is a member institution in ACTION, we’d love for everyone who lives in House District 75 to come, as well as anyone else who wants to see what an accountability session is all about to inspire them to think about their own districts. If you aren’t sure which districts you are in, you can double check them here

Lawton both Good and Sad News — Our hearts our heavy with the news that advocate Kelly High is one among the many Oklahomans who have had to seek work outside our state.  She was instrumental in hosting the Better Budget Bash in Lawton and she will be missed. The good news is that there are many Lawtonians who are ready to join the TOK Lawton chapter, and we will be having a meeting there in August.  If you are in Lawton, or anywhere else in the state, make sure you have filled our our membership form so we know how to get in touch with you.
 
 
Finally the beautiful!  Summer in Oklahoma is a time of Festivals and a great time to make new friends with good folks across the state.  If you’d like to help make sure everyone knows their own two legislators and knows how to get our useful information at either the Norman 2nd Friday Art Walk or the Porter Peach Festival, let me know on this little outreach form.  If you’d like to help sign us up for another event near you, email me at events@togetherok.org.
 
Thanks so much and have a beautiful holiday weekend!
 
KJ