Twenty-three attended our Sept 17 meeting at 103 Plow
Candidate Endorsements
We invited 23 candidates for local office from Greenwich and the Washington County towns from which we have members. Seven candidates attended and introduced themselves:
• Sue Clary
• Katie DeGroot
• Pat Donahue
• Brian Harrington
• Sara Idleman
• Barbara Kingsley
• Kathleen Ward
We considered the question of whether GINY should make a formal statement of support/endorsement for candidates. A lively discussion settled on members not certain GINY should do that at present since we do not have an articulated position on issues by which to measure if we are aligned with a given candidate. Another factor is that GINY is not an official arm of the Democratic Party and should be able to make our own determination of who to support. It was agreed that we will very likely back Democratic candidates and individuals and subgroups of GINY will continue to actively support. In the future we will establish positions on issues prior to considering candidates for endorsement.
We highlighted the fundraiser rally GINY is planning in support of Sara Idleman, Pat Donahue and Audrey Fischer on October 22 at Green Acres Tavern in Greenwich. We sold 3 $25 tickets for the event.
Constitutional Amendment Referendum
We had an excellent presentation from guest speaker Pamela Malone, President of the Empire State College Chapter of United University Professions (UUP), Member of the statewide UUP Executive Board, Member of New York State United Teachers Board of Directors, Co-chair of UUP’s statewide Outreach Committee and member of our statewide Negotiations Team.
Pamela did a very comprehensive presentation on the background of the Con Con, who is supporting it, the money interests involved and the likelihood of sitting legislators and officials dominating. She stressed the cost of $150 – $300 million and that officials will continue to receive regular salaries as well as an $80,000 salary, including extra pension benefits.
GINY purchased 20 lawn signs and 50 buttons, most of which were picked up by members.
Announcements
Climate Forum
GINY member MaryLou Stern is organizing an event on climate in cooperation with the Ag Program on October 12 at 7:00 pm at Greenwich Jr/Sr High School. Like he did at our Fake News Forum, Joe Donahue will moderate. We have two heavy hitter panelists:
• Judith Enck, Former Regional Administrator of the US EPA and current Senior Advisor for the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development and a regular panelist on WAMC’s The Roundtable
• Jeff Goodell, contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine and author of The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities and the Remaking of the Civilized World.
New York Campaign for Health
GINY member Tracy Frisch (tracy.frisch@gmail.com · 518-692-8242) is working with the Campaign for New York Health to recruit people to canvass on September 23. The effort will target poorer areas with the objective to gather personal stories that will form the basis of lobbying efforts in support of the New York Health Act.
Next Meeting The next meeting will be scheduled after the Steering Committee discusses the impact of the day/time change for this meeting and if we want to stay with Sunday, return to Thursday or some other option.