Dan McGrath, Moving on Up (Like the Jeffersons)!
Like TV Land’s beloved show “The Jeffersons,” TakeAction Minnesota is moving on up into a new, better office space one block south of University Avenue on Raymond. But the lessons and memories of our past stick with us.
Today, November 1, 2011, is another milestone for TakeAction Minnesota. We’ve outgrown our old office space and are now, officially, in a brand new office. It’s strange to see bright colors, fresh paint, new carpet, windows, and realize that this is our home for the foreseeable future. It’s stranger still to leave behind five years worth of paint chips, stains on the carpet, a leaky ceiling, and a labyrinth of hallways…how many volunteers left our office to find the bathroom and never found their way back?
When we started out five and half years ago, we were an organization of 1,800 individuals and 30 organizations. We had a staff of 7. We didn’t have a name for our new organization yet and called ourselves “TNT (the new thing)”. We had the wisdom and expectations of our founding members, but hadn’t yet figured out how to make their vision a reality.
5 1/2 years hence and we are bursting at our seams. TakeAction Minnesota has a membership of more than 11,000 individuals and 26 organizations, and a staff of 30. We’ve won some big victories and built a stronger movement for social, racial, and economic justice here in Minnesota and nationally.
For all the pride I feel, I’m also nostalgic. As we cleaned out our office, I realized I’ve spent more than 9 years with TakeAction and its predecessor, Progressive Minnesota. We found the old PM banner…and decided it’s about time it’s retired permanently. We found boxes of photos from old softball games and bowling events that, sadly, will have to be sorted through before they are tossed. My favorite was the agenda for my first ever community meeting back in 1999. Thank goodness 13 people showed up (unlike the first doorknock I ever organized, where exactly ‘0’ people turned out).
As we cleaned out our office I was reminded of the legacy those that came before us. MAPA, the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action, was the other half of the equation that formed TakeAction Minnesota. When MAPA was established by Paul Wellstone among others in 1988, it was one of the first multi-issue progressive coalitions in the country. Shortly thereafter, MAPA rented office space in the building we just left. We found boxes of old reports on corporate welfare, the influence of money in politics, and the campaign against nuclear storage at the Prairie Island Indian Reservation. We also found countless examples where union members, environmentalists, LGBT activists, seniors, and community members of all sorts came together for progressive change. While many of the issues MAPA worked on are still present, so are the relationships it built.
When I travel outside of Minnesota, I’m often told how unusual it is that progressives in our state collaborate so well. “There must be something in the water up there” is usually what I’m told. My response is to remind people that no movement is built by accident. We all benefit from MAPA’s legacy of deliberate coalition-building and campaigning. Were it not for them, Minnesota would be years behind where we’re at today.
TakeAction Minnesota is just starting out and has a very long way to go. As we get serious about building statewide progressive power at a new scale, our next office will have to be outside the metro area. As we work toward this goal and others, we’ll need to remember to pull out those old files, pictures, and videos every once in a while and see what there is to learn from those that came before us.
Dan McGrath
Dan McGrath is TakeAction Minnesota’s Executive Director.
