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Boston, MA 02116
Phone: 617.266.8687
info [@] newenglandalliance.org
Past New England Actions and Events
Notes from BCA/North Bridge meeting
Minutes from our most recent meeting, held September 3 in Waltham. Our next meeting is Monday, September 28.
Present: Michael B., Barbara C., Joanna H., Karen O’D, Dave L., Mary W.
1. Tewksbury Home Rule bill & Home Rule Reform:
Dave Lewit reported on a hearing he and Jed Schwarz attended on Tewksbury’s home rule petition on swine farm regulation. For background see Dave’s article here . The town’s petition is opposed by the Mass. Farm Bureau (Dave, are there others in opposition?)
The hearing took place before the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government, which is chaired by Sen. Jamie Eldridge. Eldridge commented that it might be time to look at Massachusetts’ home rule regulations with an eye to revising them.
Positive revisions to home rule would be a plus for working on relocalization or protection from corporate extractive activities such as factory farming, pumping groundwater, or logging/biomass energy generation.
Discussion pointed up our lack of knowledge on the home rule procedure in Massachusetts. We need to research. Possible short-term goals would be to have a talk (public or private) with Committee members such as Eldridge or Pat Jehlen, who are sympathetic to community concerns.
Actions:
- Michael is going to talk to Common Cause to see what their take is on current home rule regulations
- Barbara is going to check with CELDF (www.celdf.org)
- We’ll continue to follow the situation in Tewksbury and maintain contact with the organizer there. Dave is going to be the contact. The organizer is Dave Powers who would like us to research possible connections between the pig farm and larger packing corporations.
2. Relocalization conference
We should be involved with this, though not as a 2-part regional (NE) convention, because there was very little interest among out-of-state members in attending. At the least we’d attend and table. Building support for HB 341 is one possible project to bring to the conference.
Barbara got Eli’s number and will contact him (update: I’ve talked to
Actions:
- Get information together for tabling (one proposed topic was HB341. Barbara had a packet for constituents of members of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, and has emailed them to Heather Ross. Are there other topics/campaigns?)
- Post-meeting action—do we want to participate in meeting planning? Is there someone who’s on the planning calls anyway and can let us know if there’s good ways for us to help out this event?
3. Climate SOS
Earlier in the week, Joanna had forwarded a press release from Climate SOS, c/o Maggie Zhou, on some upcoming actions to build awareness on the Senate version of ACESA (the American Clean Energy and Security Act, aka Waxman-Markey), which could very well be substantially worse than what the House passed. See www.climatesos.org.
Joanna had sent Barbara an email asking why AfD wasn’t working on climate change. In the meeting, Barbara explained that campaigns are basically volunteer-run, and therefore need people with a strong interest in the subject to put together a campaign: organizing events, developing materials, building coalitions with other groups, writing action alerts, getting grants, etc.
No one volunteered to put together a proposal for a national climate change campaign that would forefront the issue of corporate rule, so Barbara said she would forward some information on what Climate SOS is doing to members in various states where there are actions.
Actions:
- Barbara has forwarded info on upcoming AK and OH actions and is on the email list for the group.
- Does North Bridge or BCA want to sign on as a sponsoring organization? Barbara will put the question to the national council again.
- There is a Sept. 22 action in Boston. How do we want to be involved?
4. Conventions
Barbara was going to go over the bylaw changes to see what was absolutely necessary for a regional convention prior to the meeting. Unfortunately, the main office was full of squirrels so she spent that half hour chasing rodents and moving chairs to Ronnie’s office.
After reviewing the bylaws, she learned we need to set a date ASAP for the convention, since at least one regional convention needs to happen three weeks before the second week of November, which is the deadline for mailing a national ballot for the council election.
At a regional member meeting the following business is required:
1. selection of members to a nominating committee for regional rep. This begs the question whether we can we consider the membership meeting the nominating
2. recruitment of members for the national council. These members will be interviewed by the nominating committee (currently Jean Maryborn, Jim Tarbell, Vikki Savee and Barbara Clancy).
3. recruitment of one regional member for the nominating committee for 2011.
Other business—this is optional according to bylaws
- Group decision-making on regional priorities and campaigns
- Pot-luck
- Open discussion on AfD’s structure and how to improve communication and provide more input into national council decision-making
- Hosted event—film or speaker—on topic of interest
Two options discussed at the meeting were the pot-luck and structural discussion, which would be a way of airing concerns about how AfD operates locally, regionally, and nationally, and a “circuit” regional meeting on a few different dates so that people who were more involved with the organization could travel to meet with members and people from other groups who were not as likely to come to an event somewhere in Massachusetts.
Actions:
We need to set a date for these meetings. For the Boston-area one, what about Sunday, October 25 or Saturday/Sunday November 7/8?
Who is willing to outreach or help outreach to other groups/members re “circuit” meetings?
5. Events
Barbara has sent upcoming events to bca-northbridge group members as they’ve come in. Please read email from bca-northbridge@goolgegroups.com. If you are having technical difficulties or not receiving bca/northbridge group email, please contact Barb. Please feel free to send notices of upcoming events to the group.
6. Business not considered due to lack of time:
Jeff Clements, the attorney who filed an friend of the court brief in Citizens United v. FEC on behalf of Shays2, POCLAD, WILPF, DUHC and the Clements Foundation, works in Concord and would be willing to come speak to a group about the case. Anyone interested in helping to organize a talk?
7. Next meeting: Monday, September 28, 7 p.m. AfD office