March 3, 2008

Dear Maya ,

After more than two and a half years as the Chief Operating Officer for Mobilize.org, is it my pleasure and honor to write to the Mobilize.org network (Board Members, Advisory Board Members, Partners, Supporters and Friends) for the first time as your new Chief Executive Officer. I am thrilled to continue the work of Founder and Executive Director, David B. Smith. In writing, and re-writing this email, I was reminded of a quote by Nietzche, "You are rewarding a teacher poorly if you remain always a pupil." I feel that this quote sums up perfectly the progression of Mobilize.org over these past two years, and serves as a testament to Dave's amazing leadership ability and the passion I have for my work with this unique organization. Today, I am given the great gift of leading Mobilize.org, with a talented and dedicated staff that keeps me waking up early and going to sleep late and a network of support that extends to all 50 states, and has grown to over 35,000 people.

This past year has been a tremendously exciting one. As Mobilize.org prepares to turn six years old, we have doubled our budget and held the most successful event in the history of the organization - the Party for the Presidency. I am looking forward to taking on the primary leadership role as we build towards the most captivating presidential election in my short history, and hopefully, yours. I am especially excited to continue the work that was started on July 4, 2007 when we launched the Democracy 2.0 survey, and continued as thousands of voices created the Democracy 2.0 Declaration and culminated at the Party for the Presidency, a gathering of hundreds of young people from every state in the country. Building off the powerful words of the Democracy 2.0 Declaration, which read "We realize that as young people we are expected to be the leaders of tomorrow, but we understand that as citizens we are called to be the leaders of today," Mobilize.org will work to equip young people with the tools necessary to impact public policy on a local, state and national level.

Yet, just as we have not done it without your support over these past six years, we cannot do it without your support and advice moving forward. I look forward to working with each of you on, and hearing from each of you about, the programs and direction of Mobilize.org. Thank you to Dave, and to my staff - Christina, Katelyn, Sergio, Kaelen, Nick, Gloria, Christine, Alex and Nikila and to all of the partners, supporters, advisors and mentors who have worked tirelessly to build Mobilize.org into the organization that is it today. I'm looking forward to making you proud.

Signed, for the first time -

Maya Enista
Chief Executive Officer , Mobilize.org
2105 Martin Luther King Way, 2nd Flr.
Berkeley, CA 94704

Washington DC Office:
1133 19th Street NW, 9th Flr.
Washington, DC 20036
Direct: [number removed]
Fax: [number removed]

Mobile: [number removed]
AIM: LaDiabla8
[address removed]

In case you missed our first email about this leadership transition, you can read Dave’s note here