Author: beloittogether

October 10, 2017 Action Team Meeting

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.

 

 

• Recent Events

 

1. 1. 1. 9/26/17: National Voter Registration Day
      2. 9/27/17: Letter to the Editor workshop canceled

 

• Upcoming Events

 

1. 1. 1. 11/19/17: November 19 – First Anniversary Beloit Together Solidarity Gathering
         1. Start at Horace White Park with music
         2. Walk to First Congregational Church – other notes attached.
         3. Invitations going out this week
   2. Integrated Voter Engagement – JOB
      1. Collected volunteer information and sent it to Ruth and Wayne

 

• LGBTQ Honor Roll of Businesses – Tes Slominski – In Progress

• Rock County Unidos Website – ICE Response Updates

 

1. 1. 1. Bill Conover volunteered to head this up

 

• Local Elections

 

1. 1. 1. Contact Clint Anderson at clintonanderson17@yahoo.com if you or anyone you know is interested in running for local office.  Clint has resources and encouragement for you.

 

• Open Discussion

 

1. 1. Susan brought up the huge problems we have with Beloit law enforcement and lack of advocacy regarding domestic violence.  This will be a main topic at our next meeting
   2. Next City Council meeting is Monday Oct 16 at 7pm http://www.beloitwi.gov/index.asp?SEC=C833E327-C02B-4A6A-B4B9-030B58262A07&Type=B_BASIC

 

Beloit Together Solidarity Gathering Planning Notes

Monday October 9. 2017

Theme: Stronger Together to Overcome Social Injustice

 

1. What will our unifying call to action be?
   1. Addressing Beloit and Rock County Poverty Issues
      1. Employment
      2. Literacy
      3. Affordable health care
   2. Racism
      1. Access to jobs and education for undocumented families
      2. Definite and stated city stance on Racism and Antisemitism, all varieties of “othering”
   3. LGBTQ Discrimination
2. Speakers to Invite
   1. Lori Luther – City of Beloit
   2. Marc Perry or Erick Williams – Poverty
   3. Neddy Astudillo – Latinx Community
   4. Rev Michael Ramsdail – Race
   5. Marilyn from Janesville LGBT Group
      1. Need Spanish interpreter (SDB faculty, Danielle Lavariega, Heather Churches, or Julie Horvath)
      2. Sign Language interpreter
3. Community Resources Expo?
   1. Invite organizations and institutions that already address these issues to attend, set up tables, and provide information and gather volunteers/support
   2. Create a directory of organizations and institutions to expose general population to how they can get more involved and to educate about what Beloit is already doing
   3. Set goals – EX: Create a Poverty and Justice commission on the Beloit City Council to collect local data and make recommendations to increase access and address service deficits by using that data? Rely on existing organizations and look for ways to support them with data, publicity, or funding to improve quality of life for Beloit
4. Invite
   1. Local Media – BDN, Gazette, NBC 15, Rockford, WCLO and community radio
   2. Beloit and Janesville school board members
   3. State and local reps
   4. Local congregations
   5. Rock County board of supervisors
   6. Beloit City Council
   7. Janesville CIty Council
   8. Town of Beloit
   9. Blackhawk Tech
   10. U-Rock
   11. Beloit Health Systems
5. Collaborate with
   1. Stateline Literacy Council
   2. Switch Lanes
   3. NAACP
   4. Local GOP – need good contact information
   5. Equal Opportunity Commission (Beloit)
   6. Latino Service Providers Coalition
   7. Beloit Public Library
   8. School District of Beloit – Rachelle Elliott (Early Literacy Coordinator)
   9. LULAC #338
   10. League of Women Voters
   11. JOB/Integrated Voter Engagement
   12. Successful 20’s
   13. Community Action
   14. Please add all the organizations I’m overlooking because it’s 10:30pm……
6. Logistics:
   1. Megan will contact the Beloit Parks Dept to reserve Horace White Park gazebo on Sunday November 19 at 3:00pm
   2. Megan will contact First Congregational Church to ask if we can host the speaker and expo part of the event and also use their facility as a rain backup
   3. Also, I’ll contact Yuri Rashkin re: sound equipment indoor/outdoor
   4. Assuming good weather, people can arrive at the park around 3 where we will introduce the purpose of our solidarity gathering and handout the programs/community resource booklets.  We’ll invite musicians to play for approx 30 minutes at the park. Then we will walk to the church for the indoor portion.  We’ll need volunteers to set up food and the room ahead of time. Next we’ll let people settle in, eat, and listen to our speakers – expect that listening portion to last about 30 minutes. Then people can peruse ways to get involved via our “expo” set up, where any organization that would like to participate can have a table.

 

September 7, 2017 Action Team Meeting

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.

 

 

• Recent Events

 

1. 1. 1. 8/5/17: Voter Registration Information Saturday August 5 12-2 at Basics Coop in Janesville – we have an abundance of great resources now!
      2. 8/15/17: Voces Opposes AB 190 allowing any public employee to request citizenship status including police. We never met in person, but we co-hosted a statewide online event.  
      3. 8/30/17: Voters Engaged Nonpartisan Listening Session Thursday August 30 6pm at Basics Coop in Janesville – we had 13 participants and it was a respectful, diverse, and lively conversation.  We’ll plan the next one for either Nov 20,21, or 27 depending on representatives’ schedules.  We’ll also be inviting more local county representation.  We’d like to host in Beloit.

 

• Upcoming Events

 

1. 1. 1. 9/26/17: National Voter Registration Day – We will plan to register voters in key locations – confirmed Beloit Public Library.  Never heard back from Community Action or Evenstart. I reached out to Dr. Astudillo and Cecilia Ramirez from LSP.
      2. 9/27/17: Letter to the Editor workshop hosted by Chandler Denhart of the Environmental Defense Fund Action Team – 6pm at Bushel and Peck
      3. 11/19/17: November 19 – First Anniversary Beloit Together Solidarity Gathering – details to come soon
      4. Week of Nov 20 – another Voters Engaged Listening Session – details TBD

 

• Voter Registration

 

1. 1. 1. We are confirmed at the Beloit Public Library
      2. Need to advertise and we need volunteers!!!

 

• Compassionate Beloit

 

1. 1. 1. Kathy Larson is here to discuss this awesome initiative!

 

• LGBTQ Honor Roll of Businesses – Tes Slominski

• Rock County Unidos Website

 

1. 1. 1. I started a WordPress but I need content in English and Spanish.  Is someone free to meet Tuesday Sept 19 to work on this?

 

• Local Elections

 

1. 1. 1. Contact Clint Anderson at clintonanderson17@yahoo.com if you or anyone you know is interested in running for local office.  Clint has resources and encouragement for you.

 

• LULAC

 

1. 1. 1. We need folks to write letters regarding AB 190 – event information and resources will be posted on the Facebook page and emailed.

 

• Open Discussion

 

 

August 3, 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.

 

 

• Upcoming Events

 

1. 1. 8/5/17: Voter Registration Information Saturday August 5 12-2 at Basics Coop in Janesville – sponsored by WPA (Wisconsin Progressive Alliance)
   2. 8/15/17: Voces Opposes AB 190 allowing any public employee to request citizenship status including police.  We will gather at a location TBA soon at 6pm to write to representatives. Jasmine will provide a letter template and contact information.  We will also host a statewide online event with the same information and resources.
   3. 8/30/17: Voters Engaged Nonpartisan Listening Session Thursday August 30 6pm at Basics Coop in Janesville – Mark Spreitzer confirmed to attend
   4. 9/26/17: National Voter Registration Day – We will plan to register voters in key locations – details to follow next week
   5. 9/27/17: Letter to the Editor workshop hosted by Chandler Denhart of the Environmental Defense Fund Action Team
   6. 11/19/17: November 19 – First Anniversary Beloit Together Solidarity Gathering – details to come soon
   7. Week of Nov 20 – another Voters Engaged Listening Session – details TBD
2. Voters Engaged
   1. This is a nonpartisan group whose purpose is to host frequent nonpartisan listening sessions to help engage our lawmakers and bring bipartisan groups of citizens together to speak about issues. Our goal is to host at least one more of these in Beloit before January – most likely the week of Nov 20 as there is a House and Senate recess that week.
3. Voter Registration
   1. Vivian will contact Suds to see if they would sponsor a Farmer’s Market voter registration table for us…hoping other local businesses follow suit
   2. Megan will contact the Beloit Public Library, Community Action, and Evenstart to see if they will also host voter registration events throughout the season.
   3. Tia, Patricia, and Shirley will work with the Beloit City Clerk to meet the increased needs for widespread voter registration and engagement in Beloit
   4. Other future voter registration ideas include mobile registration at high school sports games, snappers games, bars, etc — we can get these on the calendar next meeting
   5. One goal is to work with Madison groups to get Wisconsin State Technical Colleges and UW to make voter registration a part of new student orientation.  Updates to follow at Sept meeting
4. Gubernatorial Race
   1. We heard from Philip from Kathleen Vinehout’s campaign.  
5. Local Elections
   1. Contact Clint Anderson at clintonanderson17@yahoo.com if you or anyone you know is interested in running for local office.  Clint has resources and encouragement for you.
6. LULAC
   1. We need folks to write letters regarding AB 190 – event information and resources will be posted on the Facebook page and emailed.

April 4, 2017 Action Team Meeting Agenda

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 Group:

1. Statewide Actions Report – MAIN IDEA: We want to have issue specific information at every event and actions to follow every event
   1. April 8 Meeting at Basics 12:30-3:30 (agenda attached) – hope to see you there!
   2. Healthcare Panel – Johnstown – It’s moving forward and I’ll post the event ASAP
   3. Voter ID Drive May 22 – It’s moving forward.  I’ll update you at the next meeting 🙂

Latino Community Notes:

1. Debrief from Meeting – notes attached
2. Danielle and Megan will work on these items and report back May 2.  Sherry volunteered to help collaborate with Beloit PD to assist residents.

LGBTQ Notes:

• Urge the School Board to support Transgender rights http://www.sdb.k12.wi.us/domain/37
  • Establishing a writing team – see notes under that topic
• Pride March is on hold due to lack of interest in planning.
• Laura Doll will help identify LGBTQ friendly business and offer them a safe zone sign or a pride flag for their window.

 

Open Discussion Ideas:

 

• Weekly Calls to Action. There are So. Many. Issues. We will create a weekly email to anyone who chooses to subscribe to list actions people can take on the whole range of issues both local, state, and federal.

 

• EX: Call your federal congressmen regarding HR Bill 610 – we oppose this because it is harmful to students with autism, and there is language about removing school lunches, etc. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/610

 

• Writing Team. In addition to weekly actions, we want to designate a writing team.  Each member will commit to writing one issue based letter to the editor or press release per week.

 

• We will ask JD, Tia, Vivian, Sherry, and Megan to participate and others are welcome and encouraged.  We will follow up to coordinate who writes what and when.  
• Others can submit our letters to a variety of media outlets with their names if need be.

 

• Blog. We would like to create a collection of short narratives from local people to submit regarding how they have been affected by the ACA, Immigration, etc to share with media and at council meetings and town halls.  We can facilitate this on our wordpress blog.  

• Issues and Rhetoric. We had a great discussion and decided that to make progress we have to take two main approaches: Swing and Sway.  We want to Swing (go on the offense) on our issues and Sway (reach across the middle) to bring moderate republicans aboard.  

 

• There are obviously differences in how we communicate about these issues and to whom.  Each person will take one issues and draft two strategies (swing and sway) for each issue
• Next meeting we will prioritize them and create a short term and long term action plan to move ahead

 

• Issues. We categorized them into Left and Possible Middle Ground Issues, with some overlap: 

Left	Middle
LGBTQ DAPL School Vouchers Immigration Pay equity Criminal Justice	Healthcare Veterans Healthcare and issues Local pipeline and water issues Conservation Climate Change – ice fishing, ex Education Women’s Health Violence against women Agriculture Tax rates Family values Criminal Justice – saves $$ rehab vs punishment

Who is doing what: JD – LGBTQ, Tia- Education, Laura – Pipelines, Victoria – Women’s Health, Sherry – Criminal Justice, Clint – Ag, Megan – Immigration

 

We have some work to do!! Please attend May 2 to help us move this forward on all of these projects 🙂

 

 

March 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. Megan will post a few examples of yard signs.  People can ask for them and we’ll place an order with Vance Printing – a union shop. People can pay individually or ask for assistance from the group.
2. WPA – Wisconsin Progressive Alliance is a new partner organization that organizes statewide action.  We welcomed Derek, the lead organizer, to our meeting and look forward to collaborating with him in future efforts.
3. Rachel gave updates on her contact with Indivisible New Glarus and encouraged us to download the Women’s March App and attend “huddles”. Also, she shared that there is a Trans Rights event in Appleton, WI on April 18 at 1pm.  More information to follow.
4. We also welcomed Rev Aaron Rogers who is starting “Feed the Need Ministries”.  He is supportive of our agenda and is open to collaborating (and he has a food truck!!!)

 

Latino/Immigration Issues Group:

• Voces de la Frontera, an Immigrant Advocacy group, wants to support Beloit.  They have a hotline number for ICE issues and are willing to speak to the community and get us started on nonviolent resistance training.  However, we need a core group in Beloit to facilitate these efforts.
  • Thursday March 23 at 5:30pm at a location TBD we will invite all Beloit Latino(x) organizations to brainstorm a organization plan to work with Voces and be a central location to disseminate information to the Beloit community.
  • We hope this group will deal with Rapid Response to Ice as well as fight legislation introduced to ban Sanctuary efforts in Wisconsin.  All of us can be a part of this. http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/proposals/ab450
• Aside from working with Voces, we will organize a non-violent resistance training for responding to ICE. Dates TBA
• We need people to show up to School District of Beloit School Board sessions to advocate that the school district announce that it is an immigration safe zone.  A third of Beloit students are Latino. Board contact information is here: http://www.sdb.k12.wi.us/domain/37
• Rev Dr. Neddy Astudillo is meeting with the Beloit Police Dept on March 13 to urge them not to cooperate with ICE
• We would also like to start a listing of sanctuary homes for community members in case of an emergency.  Details to follow after the March 23 meeting.

 

LGBTQ Group:

• Urge the School Board to support Transgender rights http://www.sdb.k12.wi.us/domain/37
• We have a listing of lawyers that will help pro-bono posted on the Beloit Together website https://beloittogether.wordpress.com/resources/
• Pride March will be planned for Saturday April 29.  Details to follow soon.
• Still need a few people to identify LGBTQ friendly business and offer them a safe zone sign or a pride flag for their window.

 

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. ❤