General meetings

Notes from Indivisible Central Wisconsin general meeting August 2, 2025

The meeting opened at 12:15 as people arrived after the weekly Main St. protest. Attendance was about 45.

Our facilitator stated several of Indivisible's principles: equality of all; we the people can force positive change; health care is a human right; the climate is an emergency; and free, fair elections are fundamental to democracy. He explained that we’re forming groups to work locally on issues.

The issue categories were

1. Health and safety

2. Environment, climate, resilience

3. Local laws, justice, assisting immigrants

4. Political action & participant safety

5. Group connections & recruitment

6. Local media, news, promotion

Several attendees brought out issues that particularly interested them, and discussion determined which category could include that issue. Groups formed around the issues.

The groups met and discussed what want to address. Then each group briefly reported on their decisions.

The Health and Safety group wants to collect reliable local health information and look at how budget cuts will affect the Portage County Health Care Center, Meals on Wheels, homeless persons, and the ADRC.

The Environmental / Resilience group wants to organize a city-wide Earth Day event next April. Also want to look at food security, CSAs, CO2 emissions, the role of Chase Bank in fossil-fuel projects, organize a City Resilience Fair including how to survive multiplying climate disasters.

The Local laws and Justice group wants to work with immigrant and LGBTQ communities and contact legal professionals to see how affected people can protect themselves.

The Political Action group wants to make sure they are all using 5calls.org and encourages everyone to do so. Considering office visits to e.g., Ron Johnson, Derrick Van Orden, and contacting the state Attorney General. Want to contact the county sheriff about (not) cooperating with I.C.E. - some nearby counties have already signed agreements.

The Group connections / Recruitment team wants to keep groups within Indivisible connected and work to connect with other local groups. They would like to hear from everyone about potentially allied groups to contact.

The Media, News, and Promotion group wants to learn and train on how to talk to persuadable people and how to deal with confrontational folks. Will work on public awareness of Indivisible and keeping disparate interests aligned. Want to develop a strong presence on social media. When Indivisible does good things, ensure the public knows.

It was an amazingly successful first meeting. Clearly there is pent-up demand in the community to take action to protect our democracy. More meetings will take place in the near future, with time and place to be determined. Stay tuned!

Past events..

Our next general meeting will be Saturday August 23 at noon, Pinery Room, downtown Library. See you there! Indivisible Central Wisconsin was initiated by a few individuals who know each other (and who are not diverse), with NO formal structure. An expanded leadership group is needed. We initially thought to add the 6 people who came forward as contacts for the working groups, but it’s been pointed out that these people didn’t sign up for that! Therefore at the August 23 meeting, we’ll ask for people to join the steering committee, hoping to get more diversity and more ideas.

A Charity Protest of coming cuts to SNAP (food stamps) is taking place at Seramur Park Sat. Aug. 23 from 1-2 pm (you can drop in right after the Indivisible meeting). This is not an Indivisible event, but the sponsor is active with us.

Monday August 18 at 2:00 pm, as noted on our social media, there is a picket concerning the Portage County Health Care Center. https://bsky.app/profile/indivisiblecw.bsky.social/post/3lwh6kyze7s2d