The goal of the EngageNOLA Meet the Candidate Series is to provide access to candidates for public office in an informal, neutral, and fun setting and to promote informed civic participation and education for a new generation of New Orleanians.EngageNOLA, with member organizations Puentes, Urban League Young Professionals, Young Leadership Council, and VAYLA, is uniquely positioned to bring together diverse audiences of young professionals from across the city.We believe that by directly connecting our generation with public leaders, both from government and from the community, we can better understand and address our city’s challenges now and into the future.For additional information on this event and EngageNOLA please go to our website, www.engagenola.org or email us at getengaged@engagenola.org.

Letter from the Chair of EngageNOLA Board of Directors Hello everyone! First, I hope everyone is having a great start to the New Year. We are entering the time of the year everyone looks forward to in New Orleans, Mardi Gras season, crawfish season, and festival season! Of course we are also entering an exciting election season in New Orleans and that’s not even mentioning the 2012 presidential election cycle that is already underway. This is a great time to be in New Orleans and a great time to GET ENGAGED! Many awesome things are happening in EngageNOLA as we enter our third year as an established organization ( EMAIL US when you have a free minute and we can give you all the background info). We are in the process of officially becoming a 501(c)3 organization. We have a number of new board members who are really excited and motived. We are focusing on making our core events (Meet The Candidate Series, Meet Your Public Official Series, and Engagement Parties) better than ever. Additionally, we are continuing to work with our partner organizations, the Young Leadership Council (YLC), Urban League of New Orleans Young Professionals (ULYP), Puentes, and the Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA) in finding creative and innovative ways to promote civic education and civic engagement among our demographic. We admit that we have lofty goals set for this year with EngageNOLA. Of course we realize we cannot do this without your support and input. We hope that you will continue to support EngageNOLA by attending our events and spreading the word about how awesome we are. We also hope that you consider supporting EngageNOLA financially; no donation is too small. And last, we want you to help support EngageNOLA by giving us open and honest feedback about how we are doing. Please go check us out on the web: www.engagenola.org , on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EngageNOLA , and on twitter: @EngageNOLA , for more information and to learn about our upcoming programs and events Thank you so much for your support and look forward to seeing you soon! Fred Neal Jr. Chair, EngageNOLA Board of Directors Introducing the Newly Elected Board of Directors and Executive Committee Members In November of last year we elected our new board of directors for 2012, and in the beginning of December, the board elected the new Executive Committee for the year. So congratulations to our New Board of Directors and to the Executive Committee members! Thanks to these people, 2012 is going to be a great year for EngageNOLA! We have 18 directors, including nine new members to the board, and four of them are on the Executive Committee. Executive Committee: Chair: Fred Neal, Jr. Co-Chair: Carolina Hernandez Director of Communications: John Templeton Director of Development: Spenser Swaszyk Director of Membership: Wil Coleman Director of Projects: James A. Lancaster Secretary: Melissa Bennett Treasurer: Dan Jatres At-Large Board Members: Andrew Tuozzolo Buddy Boe Eban Walters Jameeta Youngblood Jules Goins Sonji White Todd Ragusa Partner Representatives: Puentes: Carolina Hernandez ULYP: Jonathan Sumter VAYLA: Minh Nguyen YLC: Richard Pavlick ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EngageNOLA is a diverse, non-partisan group of young adults committed to ensuring all voices are heard in elections. Through facilitating public forums and providing accurate, non-partisan information on candidates, EngageNOLA seeks to raise the level of discourse and hold candidates to a higher standard of accountability so everyone can make more educated voting decisions. Beyond elections, EngageNOLA seeks to work on accountability of elected officials and transparency in government.

                                           Let us know if there are local organizations and initiatives with which we should partner.Email Us!

EngageNOLA can receive tax-deductible charitable contributions through our fiscal agent The Committee for a Better New Orleans/Metropolitan Area Committee (CBNO/MAC). We have developed a modest budget, and we are seeking financial support.

The EngageNola website is currently undergoing maintenance but we hope to have it up and running in its entirety in the very near future.  In the meantime this homepage will always keep you up to date on how to stay engaged!!!!