Chair’s Message
Posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 in the News category.
LL-R Bill Borden, Past DASweden Chair, David Plouffe, President Obama's Campaign Manager and Peter Dahlen, DASweden Chair at breakfast seminar on March 5, 2009.
I am honored to serve as chair of Democrats Abroad Sweden, especially with the group of committed and talented individuals who comprise the current board. We have come a long way since our founding in 2004 thanks to the dedicated and hard work of many. Over the past two years, with my predecessor Bill Borden setting the pace, the DASweden board worked tirelessly to deliver the vote for the Obama Biden ticket. Robbin Battison, who stepped down as Treasurer and fundraiser extraordinaire, kept us financially sound and led the fundraising charge that has helped to steadily grow DASweden, and the critical work of expanding our web presence was spearheaded by former Website Committee Chair, Tom Howland who led our talented website team. What is more, outgoing Outreach Chair Sally Kennedy, helped establish chapters all over Sweden. Their efforts, as well as those of countless members, have placed us in a stronger position than ever before in our young existence.
By way of introduction, I was an advisor to then-Senator Biden until moving to Sweden in 2001. (You can read a brief bio here on my blog for Americans abroad.) I have been involved with Democrats Abroad since 2002, when I served as the country contact — a post I relinquished when Brad DeLange and Rebecca Silverstein established DASweden in 2004. As a Democrat, I’m firmly committed to our mission to:
Advance the interests of the Democratic Party of the United States and Democrats Abroad Serve as the Democratic organization for US citizens living in Sweden, in particular by registering voters and encouraging participation in the political process, including GOTV (”Get Out the Vote”) Strengthen ties between Americans living in Sweden and their government and representatives in the US
Significantly, while we are headquartered in Stockholm, there are Democrats all over Sweden and our Chapters play a vital role in our core mission of registering Americans to vote and raising money for the US Democratic Party and Democrats across the nation. With that in mind, our goal is to continue to grow and to reach 2,500 members by the 2010 midterm elections. So if you know any US citizens living in Sweden, who subscribe to the principles of the Democratic Party and Democrats Abroad, please spread the word. Two simple ways to help us do that, if you haven’t done so already are to:
Join the DASweden Facebook group, and Follow us on Twitter
Organizing for America has launched an all out effort to enact health care reform. You can declare your support here and join this historic and unprecedented effort to correct one of the great wrongs in America today. The lack of universal health care. As Americans abroad, particularly as Democrats abroad, we have an absolutely unique opportunity to participate in the policy process back home through Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee has assured me that we will have a voice there through this process and new opportunities to help the DNC raise funds for Democrats around the US.
Finally, please consider making a donation to our parent organization Democrats Abroad. They work to build the party around the world and make it possible to launch country committees and to fund political advertising, which we are barred from running ourselves. For example, Democrats Abroad recently purchased a list of 1.6 million Americans living abroad and will contact these individuals via email and encourage them to join Democrats Abroad.
Change is coming!
Peter R. Dahlen
Chair, Democrats Abroad Sweden
chair@democratsabroad.se
