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BECOME A MEMBER
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Do you support the Citizens League? Make it official!
Become a member today with a tax-deductible contribution of any amount.
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| Connect: Take our member survey and win $50!
If you are a current member of the Citizens League, we want your feedback! Tell us what we're doing right, what we need to improve, and how we can better meet your needs by taking a brief, five-minute survey.
To access the survey please click here.
As an added incentive, two people that respond to the survey by noon on Friday, April 20th will be randomly selected to receive a $50 gift card to Best Buy.
Contact Membership and Engagement Manager Cat Beltmann at cbeltmann[at]citizensleague.org or 651-289-1074 with any questions.
Thank you for your help - and know that your responses are vital to our work of creating common ground for the common good.
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Create: Support MnPASS expansion next week
 The Minnesota Legislature is facing an important decision to expand the innovative, cost-effective and popular MnPASS program to the I-35E corridor.
Residents in the east metro deserve the same choices and congestion reduction benefits that residents in the west metro currently enjoy on I-394 and I-35W.
A bill that would do that faces a key hearing in the Senate Transportation Committee at 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 17.
If you are live along the I-35E corridor or are represented by members of the Senate Transportation Committee, let your Senator know that you support MnPASS as a key element to providing the greatest number of choices to all commuters.
The Citizens League sent a letter to all legislators earlier this session regarding the expansion of MNPASS.
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Create: Attend Citizen Solutions Health Reform conversations
Today is the day to start letting your voice be heard on health reform.
 The Citizen Solutions project, a joint effort of the Citizens League and the Bush Foundation, will travel the state this spring and summer to make sure Minnesotans are not left out of the discussion about health reform and how to make Minnesota a healthier place.
Register now for upcoming community conversations including:
One goal of this project is to take a step back and look at all the factors in play in our quest to lead healthy lives. This includes health care and health insurance, but also healthy behaviors, support services and social factors.
We'll provide key facts and trends, and ask you to work through some of the tough questions at the root of health reform.
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Connect: Become a community reviewer for the Connect for Health Challenge
 | | Connect for Health Challenge |
Help strengthen social connections in low-income communities across Minnesota. Become a community reviewer for the Connect for Health Challenge!
The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation is offering this new grant making initiative through InCommons with $500,000 in awards to winning challenge entries, and we need interested people to pick the semi-finalists.
Reviewers read and rank the entries using an online tool and predetermined criteria. Then, they meet to discuss and select the semi-finalists for up to 20 grants of up to $20,000 and one $100,000 grant recipient.
Reviewers will meet for one training meeting and two semi-finalist selection meetings, and review entries between April 17 and June 13. The estimated time commitment is 10-15 hours.
No previous experience is necessary, just an interest in the challenge topic, connecting with new people and participating in the process.
Sign up here.
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Create: Support FAIM at the Legislature
As part of our Pathways to Prosperity Project, the Citizens League has found that conditional cash transfers are a key way to directly support low-wealth families' efforts to build prosperity.
The Family Assets for Independence in Minnesota (FAIM) program is Minnesota's most successful form of conditional cash transfer. We need to develop and expand FAIM as one action to support prosperity rather than reacting to poverty.
This year the Minnesota Legislature is considering re-funding FAIM after cutting it in the deal made during the state shutdown in July 2011.
Provisions for FAIM are included in the House Health and Human Services omnibus bill. The Senate does not have a FAIM provision in its omnibus bill, but it was discussed on the Senate floor, providing an opportunity for it to be included in conference committee deliberations. Both bills have bipartisan support.
Contact your legislators in support of FAIM, particularly if they serve on the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
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Learn: What does membership mean? Part II
What does it mean to be a member? Member Andy Cook offers his take on why he joined the Citizens League and what membership means to him. Here is an except.
 I am a member because I believe that the work of the Citizens League - from citizen engagement to policy recommendations - is crucial in solving our state's most pressing issues.
The Citizens League provides a voice of common sense and consensus-building, and offers a home for people of diverse backgrounds to learn, connect, and impact policy change.
My first exposure to the Citizens League came as a staffer at the Minnesota House of Representatives. I was organizing a press conference for legislation supported by a number of Minnesota think-tank and organizational leaders, including Sean Kershaw of the Citizens League.
Wanting to know all I could about the participants in our event, I began my background research.Of all the groups involved, the Citizens League was unique in the level of regard and support of its work from both sides of the political aisle.
If you are not already a member, join now. If you're interested contributing your own membership story, contact Membership and Engagement Manager Cat Beltmann at cbeltmann[at]citizensleague.org or 651-289-1075.
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 About the Citizens League
For 60 years, the Citizens League has created common ground across parties and ideologies to solve some of the biggest challenges facing Minnesota. On issues like schools, taxes, transportation, health care, and water, some of Minnesota's greatest public achievements have emerged from the Citizens League. Citizens League members connect with other Minnesotans, learn to lead on issues that matter to them and create solutions that achieve the common good.
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