GAME CHANGER! See what you missed last night at Indivisible St John's General Meeting.

GENERAL MEETING

JANUARY 10, 2019

Minutes

Meeting convened at 706PM

Deb Willis, Steering member, welcomed everyone, including 9 new or returning members and read the Two Indivisible Principles.

She noted the following upcoming events:

·         First Thursday every month, 7-9PM at the UU, Indivisible St Johns General Meetings

·         Monthly Social, 2/2/19 Brisky’s on US 1N, 6-8PM, all are welcome

·         Our fabulous Postcard Party every Thursday at Growers Alliance on Anastasia Blvd 2PM

·         Sign making party 1/13 at Growers Alliance for 1/19 Womens March

·         1/19 Womens March 10-noon. Start on east side of Bridge of Lions to Fort. Speakers and tables.

·         Steering committee meets every 2 weeks. Members interested always welcome. Email indivisible.st.johns@gmail.com if you’d like to get involved in planning.

·         Donation jar passed to help fund Postcard Group postage and UU Food Bank.

Allison Rose, Steering member, introduced Jen Lomberk, Matanzas Riverkeeper. Jen ran through the history of riverkeepers starting in the 1960s on the Hudson to currently a worldwide network spanning 300 organizations, 23 countries, with 14 alone in Florida. Lively and interesting discussion. Concerns and questions from members for our specific area included:

·         County currently re-doing land development codes. This bears watching.

·         Our Matanzas waters are impaired but not to a high enough criterion to attract action on the part of the backlogged FDEP. Contaminants include fecal coliform, nutrients.

·         Plastics are also a problem. Local efforts are to ban single use plastics. State has banned local ordinances; a lawsuit has been filed with hopefully more to follow. Advocacy issue for all citizens.

·         Deep concern for removal of red cedar habitat on Fish Island. Advocacy against TBD.

·         No one trusts the Governor’s photo op attempt at addressing blue green algae down south. The agency has been defunded for years. This bears watching and advocacy. Expect greenwashing.

·         Lack of funding to address sampling costs currently exists

·         Her long term goal is to set up a water quality task force. Currently Jen runs the non profit AND does the advocacy AND the community education work. She needs more staff to build a student education program.

·          Growing the non profit requires grant and donor funding. Website: www. MatanzasRiverkeeper.org

·         GTMNERR has been a good partner but is an FDEP program. Data collected is useful for advocacy.

·         Jen monitors water legislation and shares information through her newsletter. Sign up on the website.

Mary Lawrence, Steering member, outlined the Indivisible Offense Strategy. She noted our first two years were spent continuously defending against Trump’s attacks on the ACA, the rule of law, the environment and horrific judicial appointees. Indivisible is now turning to local advocacy and community involvement. We were already ahead of the strategy by inviting known leaders of local progressive, education, civil rights, environmental and gun control groups to a brunch on 12/8. The group agreed to meet again and form a communication/sharing platform via email and an active Google calendar. This group is the SJC Leaders Group. Other leaders missing are from the minority and LGBT communities. Members urged to disseminate the existence of this group to leaders of these small local organizations.

Mary then rolled out 3 aspects of our State Advocacy Plan having collaborated with UU Justice FL and their remarkably organized bill tracking and communication system. Many FL Indivisible groups met 1/6 via web call with UU leaders to craft the following three ACTIONS:

·         Form local task force committed to setting up pre-session meetings with all local representatives to introduce ourselves, state our values and express concerns. The goal is to establish relationships with representative and aides and be consistent in watching and responding to legislation as it moves through the legislature starting 3/5/19. This task force will pick and choose legislation our members have voted most important to our larger group: environment, education and healthcare. Gun control will naturally be watched carefully if anything is proposed. Always leave handouts, always follow up. We have 5 signed up. Email andrea.degeorge@gmail.com if you’d like to do this.

·         Track bills of interest here: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AgbSWBZf00tLi1XhcM3w_ehJCZzo

And sign up for target Action Alerts with your zipcode + 4 here:  http://www.uujusticefl.org/action-network/sign-up  Share on all your social media.

·         Consider joining the UU Legislative Day Event in Tallahassee 3/11-3/12. They’ve organized hotel, training and dinner. Free shuttle to the capitol!  Sign up for information and a place here: http://www.uujusticefl.org/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=127797

Contact information for all elected officials is being updated and will be posted on the blog and Facebook and emailed to anyone signed up on our Indivisible mailing list when complete.

Meeting adjourned 837PM. Next General Meeting is 2/7/19 at the UU from 7-9PM. We are open to the public, non partisan but progressive, and guests are always welcome to learn more about us.

Respectfully,

Mary Lawrence