The Licking County Progressives

Agenda for Monthly Progressive Business Meeting

2/6/18

7-9pm

24 Mill St., Newark, OH

Subject to Change

• Introduction (5 Mins. 7:00-7:05)
• Fair Districts = Fair Elections Update  (5 Mins. 7:05-7:10)
• Summer of Labor (5 Mins. 7:10-7:15)
• Democracy Day (5 Mins. 7:15-7:20)
• Gazebo and Related Activism (5 Mins. 7:20-7:25)
• Open Discussion (If Desired) (95 Mins. 7:25-9:00)
• Adjourn (9:00)

Review of Progressive Meeting

1/2/18

• We discussed the current progress on the Fair Districts = Fair Elections effort, with noting that some in the state legislature partook in a Committee – as covered in the local newspaper – to consider forwarding an amendment to the people of Ohio to make our redistricting for Ohio’s Congressmen nonpartisan and fair as is the case with the redistricting for our State Legislative districts. Our job is to keep an eye on this, keep pressure on the elected officials to follow through and maintain transparency, all the while we continue to collect signatures just in case they fail us.
• With respect to the Summer of Labor: we will pick at least 12 dates from June-September (3 events per month) in the coming weeks, and perhaps try to organize alongside the Freedom School and others. If the Freedom School finds it suitable to host some of these events, the events they’d host MUST remain nonpartisan, since it is a nonprofit organization created for educational purposes. In those cases, the Licking County Progressives can help promote the event and possibly co-sponsor the event via our nonpartisan/“transpartisan” subgroup, the 99% of Newark and East Central Ohio.
• As part of the Summer of Labor, the 2^nd Annual Democracy Day will be held again on Constitution Day, we will begin promoting it with a smaller event to be held on May 10^th, which is the official (132^nd, to be exact) anniversary of the Court precedent establishing corporate personhood. On the September 17^th Democracy Day event, we will focus more on what the call to action is, and a little less on the historical background of the issue.
• We then shifted focus to the Gazebo group. It was noted that they are still – through some good detective work – digging in to the details to find out what happened and why. It is arguable that their pressure for information helped compel the administration to reveal that a local construction company tore down the Gazebo free of charge for the time being until it is rebuilt. The group is continuing to ask questions, make their presence known, explore where dots may or may not be connecting, and planning their next move over the spring.
• In open discussion, it was noted that rumors are abound of a possible independent PAC for local progressive candidates being developed right now, and that this may well coincide with the creation of a new likewise independent initiative – dubbed “Working Families First” – which is being developed via a grassroots campaign to help provide progressive candidates with a reliable database and healthy network with which to capitalize on in future campaigns.
• We also discussed our ongoing consideration on hosting a debate/forum for the 12^th Congressional District Candidates as well as contemplated whether we should host a Women’s March in Newark at the old Gazebo location on the one year anniversary of Trump’s Inauguration (January 20th).
• Additional note: we affirmed in this meeting that the agenda from now on will officially set the bulk of our actual business for the first half hour with open discussion being an option if the attendees would like to remain and talk afterwards. This will be the goal so as to make for a faster regular meeting which gets right to the point, with the bulk of our organizing occurring via social media, text, phone, and email. Effectively, the business meetings will now serve as a report on the progress of each project and maintain – via the open discussion section – an opportunity to ponder new ideas for projects moving forward.