|
| |||||||
| |||||||
NEXT Friday Breakfast! February 3, 2006, 7:30 am, at the Village Deli
RALLY FOR WOMEN'S LIVESSeveral groups of women and men will be gathering on Sunday, January 22nd at 2 pm at the Showers Plaza in front of City Hall. The event will commemorate the 33rd anniversary of Roe V. Wade the landmark Supreme Court decision which recognized a woman's right to privacy in deciding whether to terminate a pregnancy. This fundamental right of a decision over one's health is being attacked more today than ever before. It's important that we come together to pledge commitment to reproductive freedom, and let our leaders know that we will not accept efforts to roll back these rights. Please come, bring a friend, let our legislators know that we believe these basic reproductive rights are fundamental to healthy citizens and healthy families. We MUST rededicate our time, energy and resources to safeguard this fundamental civil and human right of women to make the most intimate decisions about their bodies and their lives.Come hear how the erosion of these rights are planned right here in Indiana. LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
SOPHIA TRAVIS LEADS THE WAYIn case you didn't get to see the last county council meeting, Sophia Travis was elected President of the council for 2006. We couldn't be prouder of the fact that one of our own caucus members was given this honor and will be leading the county council in their work this year. It would be really nice to see some supportive faces among the citizenry that attends these meetings. Plan to attend on January 24th at 4:30 to lend some silent (or vocal) support to Sophia.WOMENSPEAK!Sunday, February 26th at the LODGE (101 E. 6th Street, Upstairs) Tuesday, March 28th at the Monroe Public Library Auditorium. The WomenSpeak Reader's Theater was created for our 85th anniversary celebration of Women's Suffrage last August. It was a program that included your friends and colleagues reading excerpts from speeches given by women through history, music, photos, all wrapped up in a Ken Burn's type production. Those who saw it in August thought it was truly amazing. Producer Susan Sandberg narrates us through women's history for a performance that is truly unique and inspirational. When you hear the words of Barbara Jordan, Susan B. Anthony, Shirley Chisholm, Eleanor Roosevelt read by your friends you'll be especially moved by the work women have done in the struggle for voting rights and human rights. Bring your friends, mothers, sisters, daughters, husbands, boyfriends, sons! The February performance will be part of the community celebration of ArtsWeek. The March program will be part of Women's History Month celebrations in the community. WOMEN's HISTORY MONTH FUNDRAISER!Our friends at Players Pub on South Walnut have agreed to allow us to have a fundraiser for the caucus PAC at their pub on Sunday, March 26th in the late afternoon. Details are being arranged, but we're hoping that we'll have women who want to perform a song or two for the benefit of other women. We need a couple of folks to take up this job of coordinating the details and advertising. Some vocalists have already been contacted and have agreed to sing, play music, and we're looking for more. We'll capture a cover charge at the door for the caucus, and we're working out serving and bartending so that if our members do those jobs, they might donate their tips to the cause also. The Players Pub is on South Walnut just north of 2nd Street, and serves wonderful food (meats and fish from the Butchers Block), and has a nice homey atmosphere. Let us know if you can help with this. WIPWomen in Politics Reading Group has planned the entire years selections of books and topics for 2006. Julie Thomas leads the group and is providing adobe files for easy reading of some selected items such as short texts, short articles relating to the topic of the month. Email julthoma@indiana.edu for these files to be sent to you as email attachments, and for a copy of the calendar with the monthly dates and selections. Special Selection for next December (when it's available as a paperback edition) is Barbara Boxer's novel, "A TIME TO RUN. It's a story of a female Senator whose political career may be at risk in order to prevent the confirmation of a right wing US Supreme Court Justice nominee….. Remember if you can't read the whole thing, Julie will send you excerpts! 2006 Book and Video List - Word Document RESEARCHERS NEEDED!Our WIP discussion last week ("The Brown Policy Report: Why Don't Women Run for Office?") was very interesting. It led us to ask questions of ourselves, and wonder about the answers others would give regarding running for office. We would like to conduct our own research as to why women locally don't run for office, don't get involved in that pipeline that has been identified as board and commission appointments. The Brown report indicated that women (more than men) don't believe they are qualified to run, so we'd like to ask, just what IS qualified? Kathy Byers, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Bloomington Social Work program AND Democratic Women's Caucus member, is willing to help coordinate this study. If you think this is something you'd like to help with - designing the study, collecting the data, collating and reporting the data into a local report - let us know! If you would like a copy of the Brown Report that was passed out at our last breakfast, email Julie Thomas for that adobe file! VOLUNTEERING FOR THE WOMEN'S CAUCUS!Needed: Volunteers to attend the DWC breakfast meetings and write up a little report to those who just CAN'T get up that early in the morning, or those who are otherwise unable to attend the breakfast meetings. It's the best way we can keep our members up to date on the happenings and make them feel more actively involved in the caucus. You know how stimulating these meetings are… ! Needed:: Volunteers to clip political and election related articles from the HT, the Ellettsville Journal, etc. A clipping file could be so valuable to a candidate to review, and for new candidates to look at in planning their campaigns. The On-line articles are sometimes not complete, and there's value to having the original article's impact of spacing, size, headline size, etc. that can't be gotten online. Needed:
Volunteer to coordinate upcoming fundraiser during Women's History Month.
Volunteers to help candidates look for yard sign locations! It's NOT to early to start! DAY AT THE STATEHOUSEWe're hoping to arrange a 'day at the statehouse' for our members during this short session. We'd like to travel to Indy to visit our local Representatives and Senators at the State Capital building, perhaps have lunch with them, tour the government offices and catch a little of the debates either in the sessions or committees. We're very excited about the prospect of this visit…. one that's sure to lead to more citizen participation in our state legislative scene. Watch for details on this project soon. CHANGING ROLES OF FIRST LADIESThis class is being offered by the Indiana University Continuing Studies Program on Wednesdays March 22, 29 and April 5th at the Monroe County History Center from 6:30 - 8:00 pm Call 855-5801 for more information. The course description can be found at: http://continue.indiana.edu/llcspring06.pdf McCLOSKEY SCHOLAR IS HERE!Before Roberta passed away last year, she was able to set up a foundation in Frank's name (through Indiana University and the Russian and East European Institute) to bring a scholar from that region to study in the US. What a wonderful tribute to Frank this is, and how well these resources will be used to continue his work in that area of the world. The first scholar is here in Bloomington for a semester of study. Jelena Savanovic,is 23 years old, and she is currently a second-year law student. Her project interest is on youth groups and how local governments communicate with young people. She is interested in activities and organizations that encourage young people to engage in positive action and the community, including recreational sports, volunteer activities, and other organized clubs or groups. So she wants to know not only how such local groups get going in Bloomington, but also how local government communicates with young citizens to get them interested and involved in such opportunities. We're hoping that Jelena will attend our breakfast meetings with Denise Gardiner, the Assistant Director of the Institute, and perhaps you'll have some suggestions and resources for her study. PRIMARY ELECTION INFORMATIONThis May all precinct committee chairs are up for election as well as all state convention delegates. You must run for election in the precinct in which you live (although if no one runs in a particular precinct the county chair can fill the position from another area of the county). Basic duties are to attend official meetings of the county Central Committee (all the precinct chairs and vice chairs along with the party officers), participating in any caucus which may be called to fill the vacant office of a Democratic elected official in any voting district in which your precinct lies, finding two persons to work the polls in your precinct for the primary and general elections, working with the party to make sure voter registration, absentee voting, and voter information are provided to precincts, and aiding the party in election years. You may file until NOON on February 17th in the COUNTY CLERK"s office in the Justice Building. The friendly people there will help you with any filing information you might need, information on precinct work should be directed to Lee Jones, party chair. If you're interested in going to the State Democratic Party Convention as a Delegate you'll need to file and run and be elected. The state party convention will be held on Saturday, June 3rd in Indianapolis. PRECINCT COMMITTEEPERSON TRAINING
Sessions above will be held at the Democratic Party Headquarters in the South 100 Block of S. Washington Street…. The old SeraTec building. Call 336-5875 for details. This is a great way to get to know just how some of the precinct work is done, and decide if you are interested in running for the office. The first three sessions are held before the end of candidate filing. DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSFor residents in Van Buren, Richland, Indian Creek and Bean Blossom townships (which are in the 4th Congressional District) and any one else who had had just about enough of Steve Buyer's stint in congress…. A Democratic candidate for that district will be at Party HQ on February 22nd for a pizza party and get together to meet up with folks in Monroe County. His last name is Cornstubble (not a joke) and I think there's a kernal of truth to the fact that they'll be serving succotash with that pizza. A-Maizing! HOWARD DEAN COMES TO INDIANADon't miss your chance to hear from the National Democratic Party Chair, Howard Dean. He will be at the Avalon in Hobart, Indiana on Thursday, January 26th. It's interesting that he'll be in Indiana as the National Party and presidential candidates often dismiss Indiana as being less than perfect in the Democratic column! For information and ticket prices, call the Indiana State Democratic Party at 1-800-223-3387. CANDIDATE FORUMSThe first of the candidate forums for this election season have been announced by the Democracy for Monroe County group. On Wednesdays, February 1 and March 1, they will hold forums for Democratic Candidates in the primary. The February 1 forum will concentrate on the county commissioner candidates with a few others. The March date will focus on the Judicial candidates. Email chjulia@indiana.edu for details. If you have any questions regarding this information email regina@bluemarble.net, and don't forget to put the DWC Breakfast meetings on your schedule. 7:30 am at the Village Deli on the First Friday of each Month. Bring a friend! Printer Friendly NewsletterDWC January Newsletter - Word Document Check out details on the DWC Web Site: www.democraticwomenscaucus.org/index.html Read the DWC Blog and add your comments: http://dwcaucusbloomingtonin.blogspot.com | |||||||
|
Contact: Regina Moore | |||||||
