As we ring in the new year let’s take some time to reflect on the great things we did in 2015 and look ahead to 2016.

In January, MN NOW activists attended the Women’s Economic Security Summit. The Summit was a great opportunity to learn more about the advocacy and public policy work that remains to be done following the passage of the Women’s Economic Security Act in 2014.

In March, ERAMN, including several MN NOW activists, lobbied at the state capitol in support of efforts to finally pass the ERA. By the end of the legislative session a resolution asking Congress to remove the ERA ratification deadline was passed by the Senate. Victory!

We held our annual State Conference at St. Cloud State University in April. Attendees worked on feminism-inspired collages, heard from some fantastic speakers, and bid on some great silent auction items. We recognized a few of our awesome Minnesota NOW activists for their efforts and elected new officers to the board. MN Valley NOW hosted a screening of Paycheck to Paycheck in April and MN NOW had a presence at Planned Parenthood’s annual solidarity rally.

A few of our athletically-inclined members ran in NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota’s “Run for Your Rights” 5K in May.

In June we tabled at the Pride Festival in Loring Park. We handed out some snazzy fans made by a MN NOW member that included pictures and info about some amazing LGBT activists. The Cackle of Rads trivia team, featuring MN NOW members, took home their third straight first place trophy at the Minnesota Women’s Consortium’s Trivia Perusal.

We celebrated Women’s Equality Day in August, with a happy hour at Honey in Minneapolis. Senator Sandy Pappas and Representative Rena Moran talked what inspired them to get involved in the fight for constitutional equality and discussed next steps we can take in Minnesota to make it a reality. We also recruited a few new activists at our Activist Open House.

MN NOW participated in the annual SlutWalk event in October. The speakers were powerful, the performers were great, and the solidarity among the marchers was inspiring. We held the first meeting of our feminist discussion group, Feminist Forum, at the end of October. We’d like to continue this group in 2016 – if you’re interested in hosting a discussion let us know!

In November we participated in Give to the Max Day and raised over $1,200 for the MN NOW Foundation. We also held another Activist Open House and set our priorities for the coming year at our board meeting.

Looking ahead to 2016, we’ve got another great state conference in the works. We’ll continue to host our Activist Open Houses and table at events like the Pride Festival. We’re hopeful that we can accomplish more legislative victories on our core issues this year, including passage of the ERA legislation that ERAMN is supporting, a special session to address racial inequalities in Minnesota, and changes to sexual assault and domestic violence policies.