The California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA) continues to do lots of good work for all seniors each and every month. I want to encourage everyone to join this great organization. It is free for all of our AFT 6157R members. When you join, please let them know you are a member of AFT 6157R. Our local CARA is the Santa Clara CAT. We normally meet on the 2nd Wed of each month at 10 am. You can join this meeting in person at SEIU 521, 2302 Zanker Rd. San Jose, CA or you can attend online. Please feel free to contact me for the Zoom link. Currently we have two members involved in this group: me and Kathy Jasper. We really would love at least one or two more members from our retiree group. Please consider joining us.
The main item I will showcase this month is the CARA Annual Conventions / Senior Forums Digital Program Book. This is a great reference book for 1) What CARA does and how you can get involved and 2) Midterm Ballot Measures that CARA supports. Here is the link to this wonderful book:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fgGL0zFgVCnvZzpQOUr0VSNjNp6SC_e9/view
On pages 10 – 11 of the book, you will find many of the achievements we have made in 2026. One of them is the Senior Phone Banking Effort: “Enlisted over 150 volunteers as Senior Vote Ambassadors to conduct phone outreach, educating and mobilizing senior voters across California for the November 2026 election.” Leslie Rice and Kathy Jasper have both signed up for phone banking (I have already phone banked twice for about two hours for the upcoming midterms). It is NOT too late for you to sign up.
Senior Phone Banking with CARA and the California Democrats is fantastic. Why? 1) They train you on how to do it step by step and one on one, if necessary. There is training at the beginning of each Zoom session (if needed). What do you need? A computer connected to the internet with fairly high speed. My experience: I worked with CARA during one session for about 15 minutes or so. From then on, I have been able to work with CARA’s system basically by myself. I just sign in to the Zoom meeting and then immediately start on my own to use the system to call senior voters in CA in possible swing districts. They give me the script and info I need. The system makes the calls for me. The system works to get you in touch with a person on the phone. In one hour or so, I usually connect with 3 or 4 voters. What do I do? I encourage them to vote in Nov. and I also give them information on the candidate we support. I can also easily text the voter directly to give them more information about the candidate. Almost all of the voters I have talked to are happy to talk with another senior about the midterms. Do we always agree on issues? No, but I have learned to listen more and talk less. And also to provide information. My hour spent has been more than worthwhile.
On page 20 of the booklet, you will see a code that you can scan with your phone’s camera to sign up for the Senior Vote project. This will take you to a page where you can sign up for phone banking and more. If you need help with this, just contact Leslie at lesliertravel2025@gmail.com I would be happy to help.
The list of what CARA supports / opposes on your upcoming California Ballot for November starts on page 21. Lots of good info here.
Issues that CARA will continue to support and top issues from our 2026 ballots are on p. 15 (and also see below).
And if you just want to get CARA’s email messages and updates (fantastic info / great events), please consider giving them your email. Go to californiaalliance.org and click Join Now. Scroll down the page til you see the picture below and “Join the Fight.” Add your email and click subscribe. You will then start getting an email maybe once a week about how you can participate. There are many ways to get involved – not just phone banking.
Thank you for reading.