Thursday, October 4, 2007

Next JCDFA meeting

Click here for the details of the next Jersey City DFA meeting.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Minutes of 9/20/2006 JCDFA Meeting

Jersey City DFA Agenda and Minutes

Date: Thursday, September 20, 2007

Location: Brownstone Diner, Jersey Ave @ Grand Ave.

Attendees: Cheryl, Christian, Gina, Leila, Tavie

Meeting called to order at: 7:00 PM

1) Agenda items:

A) DFA-Link Usage/Blog Usage/Yahoo Groups Usage
Christian suggests that the DFA-Link is just for strictly DFA-related business, whereas the blog and Yahoo email group are for more general purposes. Why are both a blog and Yahoo group need?

1) A blog is more public and doesn’t clog people’s inboxes, and
2) Visiting a blog more voluntary, whereas a Yahoogroup can get messages out to many people at once.

B) Webmaster of the three sites - Tabled

C) JC-DFA Policies and Procedures
The meeting minutes should be typed and submitted to the Yahoo group by the Secretary. It will be open to the entire group for corrections and updates.

D) Dennis Kucinich Signature Drive
Christian pointed out that this is not to be equated with JC-DFA’s “official support” for Kucinich, but everyone present agreed that he should be represented on the ballot.
Christian reports that the contact info in Dale’s email about this was incorrect; he will ask Dale to re-post the correct info.

E) October 3, 2007 Matt Linfante – Union County DFA Monthly Meeting at Rockin Joe’s 20 Prospect Street, Westfield NJ
Christian suggested that events such as these be posted to DFA-Link as events. Gina suggests that they also should be emailed to the Yahoo group.

F) Gina Genovese needs help defeating Tom Kean
Gina volunteered to contact her.

G) Status of Meeting/Town Hall with Albio Sires
Leila suggests we go down to DC for the day. She will research logistics of a possible group excursion.

H) Status of Health Care Town Hall
Tabled

I) Strategy & Tactics to Speak with Reluctant Reps
Christian suggests we all create our own lists of strategies and discuss them in person or over email to combine them into a coherent plan; see what other DFA groups have done and discuss what we can do.



2) Tabled:
A) Status of Health Care Town Hall is unknown. Christian will get an update from Dale.
B) Gina mentioned a peace march in DC in October, but more information is needed.
3) Committee reports:
A) Cheryl suggested we contact Steve Fulop to see if he needs our help with his Ethics Resolution. Link.

It was suggested that Steve be invited to attend a JC-DFA meeting to share and receive input.

4) Summary of resolutions and assignments:
A) Tavie will put together a simple tutorial for logging in and using the blog and send out the common login info for all to use.
B) Gina will call Gina Genovese, find out what she needs and email the group.
C) Leila will research the logistics involved in an office walk-in (office hours for Sires and Lautenberg)
D) Gina will contact Steve Fulop to discuss our involvement in his Ethics Resolution. Steve is collecting signatures and needs our help.
E) Christian will contact Dale to find out the correct contact info for the Kucinich signature drive.
F) The need to set a firm time and date for our meetings was discussed and a time proposed and agreed upon by all present: JC-DFA meetings will be held on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 pm. The permanent location of the meetings is yet to be determined. Possible choices, depending on how large the group gets, include the Brownstone Diner and the common room at 100 Dudley Street (Gina, Tavie & Cheryl’s building.)
G) The need to publicize the group was discussed and it was agreed we would post about it on JC List and send email invitations to other nearby DFA groups. The blog and DFA-Link page should be posted and shared to all possible interested parties.
5) Business to carry over to next meeting:
A) Webmaster of the sites – no one expressed a preference. Will put the question to the group at large and seek a volunteer.
B) Health Care Town Hall – pending Dale’s report.


End time: 8:20 PM

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Meeting minutes from 8/27/07

Jersey City DFA Agenda and Minutes

Date: 08-27-07
Location: Esperanto’s Pizza

Attendees:
Cheryl
Christian
Dale
Gina
Kayla
Leila
Tavie

Meeting called to order at: 7:15 pm

1) Agenda items: See Christian’s Topic Agenda for DFA Meeting w/Sires

2) Tabled Items:

A) Health Summit – Dale can get space for Middle School #4. The late summer is a problem for scheduling for most people. Health Summit will be postponed until after Labor Day.

B) Future DFA Endorsements (pending larger group input)

3) Committee reports: Christian’s Topic Agenda for DFA Meeting w/Sires (See Summary of resolutions & assignments)

4) Summary of discussion, resolutions and assignments:

A) Dale proposed that we copy the mission suggestion topics chosen at the New Jersey DFA’s Summer Summit that Gina, Christian, Leila, Dale and Vernon attended and propose to the group as a whole that we prioritize our mission objectives based on voting for our top mission focus.

B) It was agreed that the order of the agenda items would be prioritized.

C) Dale suggested our number one issue be Iraq. It was agreed to move that item up on the list.

D) Changed the item to push for Gonzalez’s removal to support the investigation against Gonzalez, as Gonzalez resigned from office on 8/27/07.

E) On Topic 3, Voting Reform:

1) Christian suggested that we add the proposal of adopting Australia’s mandatory-voting law to the agenda. The item was added.

2) Dale suggested we also push for a National Holiday for voting.

3) Leila, Gina and Christian suggested that we have more people monitoring activity at the polls to report on what’s happening, if any violations are being observed, etc. (This requires further discussion.)

F) On Topic 5, Homelessness:

1) At the local level, Dale discussed working with Steve Fulop to get developers to increase amount of contribution for Low-Income housing and change the language used: “low income” versus “affordable housing”; the latter is used to restrict housing from those who actually need it.

2) Dale proposed building alliances with Acorn (Acorn Housing Corporation) and with the Ward F leaders, such as Viola Richardson, Councilwoman of Ward F.
Christian proposed we come up with a CPEHA (Community Partnership to End Homelessness)/ACORN plan, and Dale agreed to work on it. Leila recommended we bring these issues up with our state reps.
Links: http://acornhousing.org/TEXT/wwa.php

http://tinyurl.com/2octet

G) Christian proposed to organized issues on agenda on the federal, state and local levels as well as by priority.

H) Topic 7, Green Spaces:

1) Discussion of Embankment victory. Link: http://www.hudsonreporter.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18721854&BRD=1291&PAG=461&dept_id=523586&rfi=6

2) Need to further adopt the Embankment cause. Dale requested that JCDFA and Downtown residents show up to upcoming Embankment meetings to make statements supporting the embankment. Tavie posted the links to the Embankment articles and website on the JCDFA blog.

I) Topic 8, Corporate Personhood

1) The Agenda item calls for abolishing corporate personhood, which isn’t a law but is being treated as such without justification from the Supreme Court. Christian recommended we read about it at the website of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, which is run out of Philadelphia. Tavie posted link on the JCDFA blog. Link: http://www.wilpf.org/

2) Christian volunteered to expand the topic of federal judicial reform on the agenda.

J) Dale suggested a photo op with Sires when they hold the meeting, which is in West New York, and invite the Jersey City Reporter.

5) Business to carry over to next meeting:

A) Agenda for next meeting postponed pending input of larger group

B) Future DFA endorsements, tabled by Christian.

End time: 8:25 pm

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Save Children's Health Insurance: Sign Petition NOW!

Say YES to children

The State Children's Health Insurance Program (known as SCHIP) has been a blessing to millions of children who would otherwise be uninsured. But SCHIP ends on September 30 and President Bush has threatened to veto legislation to renew the program.

We need to protect our children, including making sure they have health coverage.
As our children head back to school, Congress must help make sure that young people have the health coverage they need to succeed. Congress can do this by passing a strong $50 billion SCHIP reauthorization. Six million children rely on SCHIP and another five million uninsured low-income children would be covered by new funding. We will not tolerate politicians playing politics with our children. We are all judged by how we treat the least among us, especially innocent children. SCHIP has been a great success with strong bi-partisan support since it began.

We expect Congress and the President to say YES to covering our children before SCHIP ends on September 30.

Please also encourage members of your group to go to the "Care For Kids: Fund Schip", sign the petition to make their voices heard on this critical issue for the community.

For more information visit http://seiuaction.org/campaign/careforkids_fundschip