Our mission is to bring together veterans for pro-democracy efforts in their local communities, which is a wide net! There are a host of topics that fall under the umbrella of “democracy promotion” – this could include, but isn’t limited to, events on free and fair elections, poll worker recruitment drives, discussions on preventing political violence, and accountability mechanisms. 

If you’re unsure, please submit your idea! We’re looking for community input and would love to know what makes the most sense in your space.

Here are a few suggested formats to get you started: 

• Community discussion: A facilitated discussion (by the TCN event host or another community member) about a given topic with the goal of engaging and gaining input from those in attendance.

• Presentation: A featured speaker or organization on their expertise related to democracy 

• Workshop: A more experiential training or engagement meant to teach participants a particular skill (e.g. op-ed writing, public speaking, engaging with your member of Congress)

If your event idea does not fall under one of the categories above, no problem! We would love to learn more about what you have in mind.

Because we’re a fiscally sponsored project under a nonprofit organization, The Chamberlain Network broadly cannot support specific candidates or parties in races for elected offices. This means that for TCN Community Events we generally will not feature candidates running for office in their capacity as a candidate.

Approved events will have up to $500 of expenses reimbursed by The Chamberlain Network.

TCN staff ideally need a minimum of 3 weeks to support outreach, though we may be able to make something happen in a shorter time frame! If you have a quick turn around idea, please submit and let us know in the event description. 

While in general we’re trying to foster in-person connection, if you have an idea for an online or hybrid session, please let us know!

There’s no prescriptive size on TCN events – they can be small engagements of a dozen or so excited volunteers, or larger public facing community events.

TCN Community Event hosts are generally expected to suggest the event theme, format, and location, as well as suggest dates – they’ll finalize the particulars in partnership with TCN staff. Community Event hosts will participate in a handful of prep calls with the TCN national staff. On the day of the event, we’ll ask Community Event hosts to show up an hour beforehand, and to facilitate the event itself! 

TCN national staff will draft and share promotional materials for the Community Event host to share within their networks, as well as promote the event throughout our networks and on our social media. We will provide registration information, logistics support, and fill in wherever our Community Event hosts need assistance! Schedule permitting, we hope to have a TCN team member on site for as many of these events as possible.