October 24th TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY Take Back Your Time Day was celebrated on Saturday, October 24, 2015. Community celebrations took place across the U.S. People from all types of professions and students across campuses joined to celebrate the day and reflect on the importance of the Take Back Your Time movement. Please continue to spread our message on Social Media by using #takebackyourtime2gether and #takebackyourtime. We had three main themes for TBYT Day. More Vacation Time! Making sure Americans get more vacation time and actually take it is one of our priorities. Here's what you can do. Organize a discussion in your workplace. If you are an HR director, bring your employees together for a celebration of Take Back Your Time Day on Friday, October 23rd. Give them an hour (or two) off, provide some snacks and beverages, and let them know you want them to take their vacation time. Ask a few to show some photos from their summer holidays. Ask them to talk about how much that vacation meant to them and to their families. Our goal is to reduce the number of vacation days Americans give back by 20 percent in the next two years. We can do that with your help. Organize a community forum about vacation policy. Bring together various stakeholders–small businesses, political leaders, academics, health professionals, travel industry representatives, etc.–to talk about how policies might be crafted to ensure that all employees get vacation time but that the legislation provides help for small businesses to make the transition. Start with a speaker–maybe someone talking about the importance of vacation time to health or to family bonding–but keep it pretty short. Then get people talking in small groups, World CafÃ© style and record all the ideas. Ask your political leaders to commit to doing something about this. Parks Celebrate our national, state and local parks for Take Back Your Time Day! 2016 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of America's National Park Service. The acclaimed writer Wallace Stegner has called it "America's best idea." Millions of Americans visit these parks each year, but their visits are getting shorter–4 hours in Yosemite, 2 at the Grand Canyon, etc.–because they don't have enough vacation time. Parks are democratic; they allow all of us to enjoy leisure and healthful recreation. In the next year, create ways to celebrate your parks, not just the National Parks, but also your state parks and local parks. Point out that John Muir, the so-called "Father of the National Park system" also was the first American to call for a paid vacation law, back in 1876. "We work too much and rest too little," he said. If the weather permits, organize a community picnic in a local park. Make it a potluck, publicize it widely and offer a couple of short talks about why parks matter and why we need more time to visit them. Organize a "Time for Parks" coalition in your town, with Take Back Your Time as one of the members, but inviting all kinds of people who believe in parks to join. We'll provide more information in the next few weeks. If it's cold or wet where you live, hold an event in the public library, another democratic institution offering something for everybody. Organize a "Time to Read" campaign with your library. More information on this is also coming soon! Ask your librarians to do an exhibit of books about free time, travel, leisure and recreation. They love this kind of input from citizens. Food October 24th is now also World Food Day (it used to be October 16). In your community, there are probably lots of people, especially young people, who are interested in local food and growing their own food and eating healthily. There may even be a Slow Food organization. Talk with them about how people need time to eat right, choose local and healthy foods–fast foods are a reaction to harried lifestyles–and grow some of their own. Hold a community "Take Back Your Time and Eat Right" potluck, either in a park or a school or a church. Co-sponsor it with food groups. Your Ideas You don't have to stick with our themes. If you have other ideas, be sure to implement them. The important thing is that lots of communities hold and publicize events so that our message becomes more visible. Publicity Be sure to let the media know what you are doing. Put up a local Web page and ask local organizations–health, recreation, food, family, faith, labor, academic, travel, etc.-- to publicize your event or theme on theirs. Write a press release and send it to your local newspaper and radio and TV stations. Write an op-ed about vacation time or time for parks or time for food for your local paper and send it to them with enough time for them to consider running it. And let us know what you're planning and doing–Please! About Us Mission Goals Board of Directors Supporters How Donations Help Contact Us Why Vacations Matter 10 Reasons to Vacation Articles by John de Graaf Articles by Dr. Leigh Vinocur Nielsen Research Findings Press & Events In The News Press Releases Take Back Your Time Day Vacation Commitment Day Vacation Commitment Summit Time Matters: National Conference TIME MATTERS TENTATIVE SCHEDULE Become A Sponsor Schedule at a Glance Resources Articles & Research Speakers Books Vacation Commitment Toolkit Vacation Commitment Pledge Follow us: Privacy Policy | Terms of Use ©Copyright 2015 Take Back Your Time. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable state, federal and international laws.