May 21, 2026

Dear ROPnet,

The dust is starting to settle, but the energy of this year’s Rural Caucus and Strategy Session lives on and will continue to ripple outwards from each of the more than 200 people who made the weekend so transformational. For those of you who were with us, thank you! We couldn’t have done it without you. For those of you who weren’t with us, read on and watch the video below to peek into the magic that was Caucus weekend.

A picture of a person standing with their back to the viewer. They are wearing a blue and white floral dress. They have dark hair pulled back and their arms are wide open and stretched upward. They are standing in front of a large group of people standing and sitting. There are blue chairs and a white background. — A person standing with their arms raised and facing a large group of people.

Video link for the 2026 Caucus: 2026 Caucus YouTube Video

The energy of the Caucus

This year at the Caucus, we leaned into joy as resistance, building community all weekend long. We witnessed a fabulous karaoke rendition of Fergilicious. We had more song leaders than ever before. We ate VERY well – shout out to the Ponche and Pozole chefs! And we made a rural ruckus together, strategizing around how we take down the pillars of authoritarianism and dismantle the systems of Migra Terror.

The strategy and analysis we built together

Inspired by Southern Movement Assembly’s Katrina 20 convening last summer, Caucus participants split into 19 groups of 10 people each to discuss what we would do in a specific crisis scenario, and what we would want to have in place 6 months prior to such a crisis hitting our communities. Each randomized group brainstormed and swapped strategies from a variety of rural contexts, and at the end of the hour, each group decided their top 3: “most important to build in advance” elements for crisis response.

A group of people seated in a circle. — A group of people seated in chairs around a circle.

Living in times of ever-evolving crisis, we are wary of the overwhelm and fatigue folks are experiencing. This exercise helped us tap into the defiant energy of “refusing to quit” that our movement so powerfully embodies. Scenarios centered around election integrity, climate disasters, ICE, and federal government overreach, and data centers’ impact on the electrical grid. What came out of the planning process is a powerful game plan of where ROP will be focusing our energy in the lead-up to November’s election.

This priority list that scenario planbacks identified became our Saturday afternoon strategy sessions:

Statewide coordination across ROP network and beyond: sharing opposition research & organizing models
Sustaining organizers, organizations, and coalitions: maintaining unity, managing burnout, making movements irresistibly joyful
Fostering relationships with local institutions: Clerks, County Commissioners, League of Women Voters, Granges, etc
Building relationships for trust: With our neighbors down the street and around the bend
Dear Gentle Reader: Effective Messaging, Community Education & Inoculation Against Misinformation

Resources from the Caucus

We will be continuing to share in more detail directly with Human Dignity Groups the most useful tools and resources that surfaced from the Caucus. Here are a few highlights:

The ROP Neighbor-to-Neighbor toolkit
- An overarching theme of the weekend was that none of the work before us will be possible without talking to our neighbors and bringing more folks into movement. The ROP team has been developing the Neighbor-to-Neighbor Toolkit in conversation with Human Dignity Group leaders over the last year, and it’s here and ready for you to dig into with your group (the Spanish version is here)!
Blueprint North Carolina’s safety and security tools
- Our incredible partners with Blueprint NC hosted a Self Defense Training on Friday evening with rave reviews. Their tools and resources, including scenarios, safety and security agreements, and slides, can be found here.

What’s next

We could not have done this strategy planning without the powerful leaders who make up the ROP network of 95 Human Dignity Groups. We are teachers, nurses, construction workers, and farmworkers. We are students and retired forest service employees. We are underemployed gig workers and small business owners scraping by. We each have a story, and when we weave them together, we create the story of us. The story of us is the beginning of the story of how we built thriving rural communities all across our state.

Now, as we move from Caucus season into the beginnings of summer, we’re meeting with groups on the road and discussing implementation heading towards the next election. If you or your group want support or weren’t able to make it to the Caucus, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

How you can be part of this rural movement for justice

Donate today to sustain our organizing. Becoming a monthly sustainer helps us keep organizers on the road. Start your donation here today
Join a Human Dignity Group in rural Oregon. Send us an update on what you are working on and how we can collaborate and/or how you want to be involved following the Caucus at office@rop.org.
Do you know 3 friends who would appreciate this message? Invite them over for tea or dinner or a dog walk to start a conversation about how we can build relationships of trust to defy the rise of authoritarianism. Together, we can grow our movement exponentially.

A large group photo of the 2026 Caucus attendees. People are seated and standing. Several people in the back have their arms raised up in a fist. — Group Photo Caucus 2026

With Gratitude,
Elias and the ROP Team