Tricounty DFA Special Update and Alert: Meeting,Veto Protest/Vigil, State Conference News
Hello Everyone;

In This Special Update:

1. Meeting/Veto Action Tomorrow, Wednesday May 2
2. Democracy For New York State Conference Saturday And Sunday!
3. SCDC Women's banquet May 11


1. Meeting/Veto Action

Given the fact Bush now seems posed to veto the Iraq War Supplemental Bill with it's timeline tomorrow, Wednesday, we are faced with a bit of a problem: this is also our monthly meeting day. We had originally assumed we would hold a rally at the intersection of Rt. Nine and Quaker Road. But basically we can't do both. Several of you have contacted me to say we should hold our meeting, so here is the solution:

We will hold a rally/vigil tomorrow, Wednesday May 2nd at 6pm at the Bandstand at City Park in downtown Glens Falls. Since the traffic is going up Maple Avenue instead of Glen Street, this will in fact get good exposure.

Please bring a sign, if you wish, or a candle, and, as always, a friend, relative, coworker or neighbor!

Then after an hour or so we will breakup and head over to the Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe for a somewhat abbreviated meeting, which should be fine.

2. Democracy For New York State Conference Saturday And Sunday!

Here is the full schedule for this weekend's Democracy For New York Conference. DFA people from all over New York State will be attending at the SEUI Hall at 155 Washington Street in downtown Albany, near the state capitol building and Lark Street. This conference is FREE and open to all DFA members in the State of New York.

Everyone who has attended these conferences will know they are worth the trip to Albany! This year's conference starts out with an address by DFA Chair Jim Dean. There will also be a special evening buffet banquet with Congressional DFA-List Candidate Eric Mazza at the Schuyler Inn followed by the film Taking The Hill. This is a great opportunity to grow your activism!

For additional info and to RSVP, which we are really asking people to do, go to: http://www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=17019

Schedule:

Arrival and Registration
10 - 10:15 John McBride and Andrew White Welcome, Why are we here? Introduction
of DFA Chair Jim Dean

10:15 - 10:45 Jim Dean, DFA Chair

10:45 -11:45 Jennifer Wisnewski, Citizen Action, John Nonna, NY Democratic Lawyers Council, Bo Lipari, New Yorkers for Verified Voting

These three speakers will discuss the current status of their efforts to bring electoral reform to the state of New York. That is Clean Money Clean Elections, Election Protection, and Precinct Based Paper Ballots with Optical Scan. They will discuss what we can do to help with these issues. There will be a 30 minute open floor discussion or Q&A .


11:45 - 12:45 Patrick West, Sierra Club Global Warming. Patrick has an Al Gore trained follow up on Gore's oscar winning film An Inconvenient Truth.

12:45-2 Lunch on your own

2-3 NY Sens Schneiderman and Breslin, Assembly Member Jim Brennan. The dysfunction of the NYS Senate andAssembly and what can be done.

3 -3:30 Brian Keeler Four areas for reform. Rules reform, Election reform, Ethics reform and Budget reform.

3:30-4:30 Breakout groups We will break out into groups of about 10 to brainstorm on strategies to bring real reform to the NY State Legislature. After
20 minutes we will return with what we came up with.
Reassemble open discussion

4:30 - 6 Leadership meeting

Saturday Evening a special buffet banquet at the Schuyler Inn, 575 Broadway, Menands. Just north of Albany. Cost, $15.
Speaker Eric Massa (Democratic Candidate for the NY-29 C.D.)
Followed by presentation of Taking the Hill, a film by Brent Renaud and Craig Renaud.
For the Banquet, please RSVP to Carol Olszewski at 330-0226

Sunday May 6
9-9:30 Reconvene

9:30-10:15 Amy Little, Campaign Manager - John Hall for Congress What does it take to win an impossible race?

10:15-11:45 Take 19 All the strategies for winning important elections against entrenched incumbents

11:45 -12:30 Lunch

12:30- 1:15 Break out groups Iraq War
Green Issues
Election Reform
State Government Reform
Presidential politics
Congressional Politics
Growing the Grassroots

1:15 Reconvene full group. What should DFNY be doing in 2007? Where are we going in 2008 and beyond? Create a plan for the structure of DFNY


3. SCDC Women's banquet

Pell sends this along about the upcoming Saratoga Democratic Women's Luncheon:

"AN ORDINARY WOMAN'S JOURNEY IN POLITICAL ACTIVISM"

Join Robyn Ringler of Malta NY as she discusses her journey in activism. She is a nurse, attorney and a writer and most recently, has joined the board of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. She has published articles and has been heard on NPR's "The Health Show" &"51%" (Hear Her on "51%" - May 2).

SCDC Luncheon at Lillian's
Broadway - Saratoga Springs
Noon - Friday, May 11
$20

RSVP: Pat Friesen - 542-9157 or mcfriesen2@aol.com

Thanks everyone, see you tomorrow or Saturday!

Larry Dudley

Labels: Democracy For America, DFA, Glens Falls, Iraq Timeline, Iraq War, Larry Dudley, protest, Rally, Veto, vigil

- posted by Larry Dudley @ 11:45 AM