Third Act DC’s Coordinating Committee (CC) held a one-day retreat at the Festival Center in Adams Morgan on March 4, 2025, to define its plans for the year. The retreat’s main specific objectives were to:
- Map out the work in our three major program areas
- Identify leadership and volunteer gaps and ways to fill them
- Develop outreach strategies to cultivate/engage new members
Katie Ries and Geoff Barron, TA/DC’s two new Co-Facilitators, led the retreat and were joined by CC members Deirdre Joy, Karen Gladding, Jim Lardner, Mark Rasmuson, Nancy Birdsall, and Fred Solowey. In addition, Anne Anderson from the League of Women Voters for DC (LWVDC) and Carol Hamblin, a previous CC member, joined the discussions.
The day’s deliberations resulted in the following strategies and tactics identified for 2025 in Third Act’s 3 main program areas.
Democracy and Voting
With the overall goal of Protecting Democracy in Washington DC, the group identified defending DC Home Rule as one of its top priority strategies in this area. Third Act DC will work closely with the LWVDC, FreeDC, and other partners on implementing the strategy, through tactics including promotion of the DC Statehood petition, lobbying Congress to resist cuts in DC’s budget, and engaging Third Act Working Groups in other states to encourage their state legislatures to support DC Statehood. (Residents of Washington DC have only token representation in Congress, despite paying federal taxes, serving in the military, and having a larger population than some states, such as Vermont and Wyoming. We have one non-voting representative in the House and none in the Senate. DC’s annual budget requires approval by Congress.)
Another top priority will be to support federal workers and agencies who have been adversely affected by the Administration’s drastic cuts, in partnership with partners such as Indivisible and MoveOn.
Power Up Communities (Clean Energy)
Third Act’s overall goal in this area is to mobilize citizen participation in government decisions to shift climate and energy policy, with two focal points: Stopping Methane Gas and promoting Smart Local Solar energy.
The strategies TA/DC identified as top priorities are to support DC’s Healthy Homes Act and the Fight Project Pipes project. The Healthy Homes Act provides funding for low-income families to get off gas and equip their homes with cleaner electric energy. It was passed by the DC Council last year, but its funding is at risk. Fight Project Pipes is an initiative to prevent DC Gas from implementing an expensive and unneeded replacement of gas lines throughout the district. Third Act is supporting the work of a number of partners on these initiatives, including the Sierra Club, CCAN, and Beyond Gas DC.
Under the Smart Local Solar rubric, TA/DC’s top strategic priority is to help fast-track the adoption and implementation of solar and other clean energy projects in the District, in collaboration with partners such as Solar United Neighbors, the Solar for All program of the DC Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE), and the Anacostia Coordinating Council. We will also work with Third Act VA and Third Act MD to carry out activities during Third Act’s National Sun Day on September 20-21, a nationwide mobilization and celebration of solar and other clean energy in the same spirit and tradition as Earth Day.
Climate Finance
In the Climate Finance area, Third Act’s overall national goal is to push for alignment of global financial flows with global climate goals, reducing investment by big banks in the extraction and burning of fossil fuels and expanding it for renewable sources, especially solar and wind. The retreat participants identified TA/DC’s top priority as helping people to Align Their Money with Their Values—shifting their bank accounts and credit cards to banks that do not support fossil fuel investments. A committee of Third Act DC volunteers is already at work developing an educational program that helps people move in this direction.
Volunteer Opportunities
In addition to identifying program priorities for 2025, the retreat analyzed TA/DC’s current structure and identified priorities for recruiting new volunteers. Here are some of the volunteer opportunities:
- Co-lead our Climate Finance and Volunteer Coordination teams
- Organize and participate in tabling for TA/DC at events
- Design flyers, signs, and other materials
- Participate in rapid response actions (as part of a lobbying group, at rallies)
- Help us research solar focused issues before the DC Public Services Commission
- Join National Sun Day planning committee
- Monitor news to glean relevant updates related to our campaigns (CM newsletters, DC agencies, WGL/Pepco, Council legislation/calendars, mayor’s office communications and calendar
- Attend Beyond Gas, CCAN meetings
- Create outreach team for DC’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANC)
- Serve as TA Liaison to FreeDC, Anacostia Coordinating Council, and other partners
If you are interested in one of these volunteer opportunities or would like more information about the retreat, please contact us at dc@thirdact.org.