SJVGreens Minutes

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Minutes of St. Joe Valley Greens

April 14, 2005; Tom Brown, recorder

Call to Order: Kathleen Petitjean called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m., in the Molloy Room of the St. Jo. Co. Public Library downtown branch, South Bend, IN.

Members Present: Lance Howard, Kathleen Petitjean, David Vollrath, Tom Brown, Neal Austin

Guests: Becky Scheibelhut, Christine Fiordalis, Ed Cohen, Bob Hinz

Guest speaker: Becky Scheibelhut, National Wildlife Federation.

Becky lives in Mishawaka and has worked for conservation her entire adult life. Becky and her husband raised their children to appreciate the conservation ethic. Becky served in various roles for the Indiana Wildlife Federation before election to the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) board. She was a board member for 12 years. Recently, Becky finished a 2-year stint as the board chair of NWF. Her current role and title is Immediate Past Chair.

Becky described the work of the NWF at the national, state and local levels. The NWF is a very broad, "big tent" organization. Their mission is to inspire and educate future generations to preserve wildlife and wildlife habitat. NWF believes that what happens to wildlife will happen to us.

NWF is family oriented. Family members and children are included in virtually all official activities and programs.

The current national foci are global warming and reaching out to religious groups. NWF is structuring itself to intensify legislative lobbying and to influence political campaigns as much as possible.

The NWF has its own membership. The NWF has 47 state affiliates, such as the Indiana Wildlife Federation (IWF). The IWF is made up of local conservation clubs and other wildlife oriented organizations. So, the IWF has its own membership. Of course, some people are members of each organization.

Becky will give Kathleen contact info re speaking at IWF gatherings re our ballet access campaign in Indiana.

Officers and Delegates reports

IGP Coordinating Committee

David could not attend the April IGP CC meeting so Kathleen stood in for him. Since the IGP CC emailed minutes of their meeting to IGP members, Kathleen gave a brief report.

The CC meeting was held in Terre Haute to support a new Green group forming there. The CC also attended a peace rally which marked the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

The CC is looking for a new treasurer to replace Bill Stant, who is resigning to pursue his candidacy for Secretary of State. The CC is working on literature for Green candidates to use in their campaigns around the state. The CC is planning the summer IGP Congress which will also be the official kick off for the Secretary of State race and petition campaign.

GreenTV

Kathleen and Tom announced the shows and segments in production:

David asked Kathleen and Tom to tape Bill Stant's address to the IUSB Political Science Club on Thursday, April 28, at 4:00 PM. Tom will adjust his work schedule to tape the speech and Kathleen's interview with Bill.

Tom announced that Comcast bought the local studio approximately a half dozen Sony Beta playback machines for "local origination" use. Comcast is investing in new commercial playback equipment while the public access equipment, which is old and deteriorating, is barely maintained. David suggested that we talk to Nancy Sulock, the Tribune Reporter, about the situation since she wrote a critical article about the poor condition of our local cable access studio in comparison with the sophisticated cable access studios in Ft. Wayne.

Treasurer - Lance gave the treasury report. He will send members a written copy of the report.

Old Business

Earth Day

Members decided to sell Green Pages at our booth on Earth Day. Green Pages will sell at list price. Back issues of Synthesis/Regeneration and Independent Politics News will go for donations. Lance will order additional copies of the current issue of Green Pages so we have a good supply.

David will meet Kathleen to set up our booth at 9:00 a.m. David will pick up literature from Child's Play for the booth. Christine will arrange for Sierra Club literature. Lance will bring our banner, buttons, etc.

Secretary of State petition drive

The IGP CC has calculated that, if each IGP member collects 10 signatures every week, we will have enough signatures by the deadline to gain ballot access. Kathleen encouraged all of us to gather 10 signatures per week. Her personal goal is 20 signatures per week.

New Business

Chocolate Cafe expansion

Kathleen spoke about the City's foot-dragging on granting the Chocolate Cafe's request to expand into the old Osco building adjacent to the Cafe's current location. Kathleen has been advised that City development planners want to promote development away from downtown.

Tom said that the city is suffering from the expansion of nonprofit land ownership within the city limits. Kathleen said that 46% of the real estate, or corporate owned real estate, in the city is nonprofit. Nonprofits don't pay property taxes, and property tax is the tax base for the city. The City's lenient tax abatement policies have also eroded the City's tax revenues.

Kathleen suggested that the SJVGreens get involved in the Chocolate Cafe issue, and Tom suggested that we create an alternative economic development plan for the City. Christine announced that the Audubon Society has already decided to work on an area plan for South Bend because the Society is not pleased with the City's efforts. She said they might welcome help from the Greens and other organizations. Tom asked for clarification, whether the area plan is a resource (water, land) use plan or an economic development plan. Christine will send Kathleen contact information re Audubon's plan committee.

Ed Cohen

Ed Cohen stopped by to introduce himself and meet the Greens. Ed worked in several recent political campaigns including Gov. Dean's Presidential race and Joe Donnelly's House race. Ed is the Associate Editor of Notre Dame Magazine.

Ed has concluded that Democrats fail because they don't energize voters with an alternative to Republicans. He is considering running for our district's Congressional House seat as a progressive independent. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and didn't hear as much from Ed as we would have liked. Ed gave Kathleen a platform statement he wrote last December and asked for feedback.

Closing: Kathleen closed the meeting at 9:05 PM.

Next meeting: Our next meeting is Thursday, May 12, 7:00 PM, in the Molloy Room at the St. Joseph Co. Public Library downtown South Bend.

 St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN