February 7 Meeting Minutes

February 7, 2017 Action Team Meeting Minutes

The purpose of our group is to mobilize a well organized, visible group of people to act responsively and proactively on issues that matter most to the vulnerable members of our community .  We want to maintain a long term task force that can act and respond to issues threatening the safety or rights of our community members as needed.

General Discussion

1. Yes – yard signs make our community feel supported.  We’ll post links.  Please buy them and put them in your windows and on your lawn.  If you need help paying, PM the group and we’ll figure it out.
2. Check out our website!!  Send me stuff to add to it! https://beloittogether.wordpress.com/
3. February 17 12-2pm: Call Party hosted by Andrea Levine – location TBA
4. ALSO February 17 at 10:30am – skip work at go to Joe Marino Park in Rockford to urge banks to divest funds from DAPL
5. We will be networking with area Indivisible groups (and others) to coordinate HUGE protests in Janesville on the same day as the big national marches.  The first one we’ll focus on is April 22: Climate March.
   1. I’ll post our events on the Indivisible page too so groups can coordinate and collaborate.

Latino/Immigration Issues Group:

• Working on ID Card petition.  Please circulate and sign!  Contact Jasmine Carbajal with questions. carbajal_j@yahoo.com
• Did a lot of research on making Beloit a sanctuary city – will move forward at next meeting
• Someone will help me find students to translate our website into Spanish and make a sister page

LGBTQ Group:

• Try to form a community support group
• Some of us will reach out to law offices by next meeting to find out who will help cheap or pro-bono with people needing legal assistance to protect their families and households in the face of an anti-LGBTQ administration
• Others will investigate current discrimination city ordinances and look for ways we can improve them
• People are investigating criteria used to judge whether a business is LGBTQ friendly so we can create a Rock County consumer guide
  • Then we can distribute Pride flag stickers to cooperative businesses
• We will engage Tammy Baldwin’s office
• Working on a Pride march for April 29 in coordination with a large peace rally

Thanks for a great night!  See you Tuesday March 7 at 5:30 at Bushel and Peck.  In the meantime, stay focused, stay encouraged, and remember that we are stronger together. ❤