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.
·
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.
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
