Fall Member Update

Tech:NYC Fall Member Update

October 28, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

All,Hoping this note finds you, your family and friends, and your teams in good health and with healthy spirits. Ahead of next week’s election, we wanted to remind you of best practices for leading participation in a nonpartisan manner. These include:

  1. Implementing a voter-friendly workplace policy. 

    1. Establish “civic hours.” In order to accommodate both Election Day and early voting options, consider offering a number of “civic hours” that may be used any time during the early voting period to vote by mail, early, or at the polls on next Tuesday.

    2. Declare Election Day a “No meetings day”. Direct employees to avoid setting meetings or events on Election Day, so employees have more control over their schedules for the day.

  2. Encourage your employees to register and make a plan to vote 

  3. Share opportunities to serve as a poll worker among your employees and consumers

    1. Encourage your employees to sign up as poll workers here. (There’s still time to do so!)

    2. Post about civic actions like these on your website, social media channels, or blog posts.

    3. Integrate reminders to vote into your consumer-facing emails, receipts, or bills.

*NOTE: As someone who voted early in NYC, I can confirm that it required hours to do.And following an unprecedented seven months, I wanted to take a moment to highlight what Tech:NYC has been doing to support the NYC tech ecosystem and thank you for your support. 

  1. Built and launched COVID Alert NY, a new exposure notification app for New Yorkers. Built by the Dept. of Health and Tech:NYC, together along with Google, Apple, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Goldman Sachs, and a coalition of technology and research partners, COVID Alert NY is a critical tool to support the state’s existing contact tracing efforts. We encourage you to encourage your team to download.

  2. Continued to produce a daily newsletter with NY-specific updates re. COVID-19, city and state policy changes, and info on how companies are dealing. You can sign up here, where past issues are also available. 

  3. Managed a google group for companies to privately communicate about response tactics and plans. (You can join by sending an email to [email protected].)

  4. Constantly communicated with state and local government officials about how tech can support New York’s needs during this time and also about how our local governments will be able to support our economy as we come out of this pandemic.

  5. Coordinated Summer Bridge allowing for a hundred NYC tech companies to work with thousands of NYC students on tech-based workplace challenges during the month of August. 

  6. Supported research on how COVID-19 has impacted NYC tech; polling on New Yorker's views on tech; and research on the global positioning of the NYC tech ecosystem.

Thousands of people, representing at least hundreds of NYC tech companies, are taking advantage of these resources. Again, thank you for supporting them. Julie