6.18.13 Coalition Meeting Notes

Here are the notes from this month's meeting - let us know if you have any questions or comments, we would love to connect with you.

First, our next meeting is *JULY 23* at Swanson, Thomas, Coon and Newton conference room (2nd Floor) 6:00pm.  See you there if not in person, on SKYPE (alysha.atma). 

Beautiful news on so many fronts, none of this is possible without ALL of you!! The work that each of you puts into advocacy, awareness and direct support program truly make this world a better, kinder place to be and we are so honored to work with each one of you. Thank you is just not big enough!! 

Policy Updates - Alysha (Policy Director) 

A) House Resolution 131, passed full committee last night!!! This is great, next step is a push to the House floor for vote. Please continue to push those that did not co-sponsor this bill to vote in favor when the time comes. Attached is the fact sheet if they need a reminder. (Oregon reps not on the bill - Walden, Defazio & Schrader). Remarks by Rep. Karen Bass at the passage in Full Committee- H.Res. 131

B) Senate Resolution 144, passed the Senate - we are now waiting on the House companion bill (H.Res. 131 - above). 

C) US Special Envoy, Russ Feingold WAS APPOINTED!! This is wonderful, we have an incredibly solid team for DRC - it is up to us to watch, input and hold accountable. I believe this however is a changing tide for DRC, you should all be very proud.  Click here to read more about the Special Envoy

View from near Rep. Schrader's Oregon City Office

D) Friday morning (6.28) we met with Rep. Schrader (OR) office, this was a great meeting. We educated him on H.Res131 and asked for his support when this comes to vote. We have a new District Aid in this district - Ben! He asked incredible questions and gave us some great insight into the workings of this office - always important information. We look forward to continued dialogue and partnership.

E) We are making the rounds again with our offices, Rep. Blumenauer is on the schedule for July 24 and soon to come will be Rep. Bonamici and Senators Merkely and Wyden. If you would like to meet with us, please let us know.

Conflict Free City Initiative Updates - Amanda (CFCI Director) 

A) Portland- As you might already be aware from the recent Enough Blog Post, we are making progress with regard to our Conflict Free City Initiative (CFCI) PDX Resolution. As we work toward the goal of putting a draft resolution before Portland's City Council, it is now time to show Portland's commissioners and mayor constituent support for the initiative, and so here is where you and any organizations you belong to come in. We need for you and/or your organization(s) to send a letter of support to the elected officials listed below at the designated times. If appropriate, you can also ask your employer, if in Portland, to send a letter of support. (A copy of the Letter of Support can be found within this link)

B) Beaverton, we are still awaiting instructions from the Mayors office as to our next step. We will be presenting CFCI to the City Commissioners - we are always looking for supporters, please let us know if you want to attend this session! Also, thank you to Kathy Cordell for leading our efforts in Beaverton. 

C) We still aim to present our CFCI Resolution to cities beyond Portland and Beaverton.  As soon as we pass CFCI in Beaverton and Portland we will move forward to Hillsboro, Wilsonville and Salem!

Website - Coming Soon

We are designing a website! As we have become a bit more official we are working on ways to increase our visibility online.  We have our main OCH split functions into three parts while staying true to our mission and vision: 

Alysha Atma is now our Policy Director, She will be working closely with our partners to find opportunities to continue to engage our legislative official.

Amanda Ulrich is now our CFCI Director, she is working on engaging our local communities on the issue of Conflict Minerals, pushing for advocacy voices through our diverse network of members as well as making sure we do not let up the pressure on our cities to hold true to the ideals that we all believe them to hold!!

Robert Hadley is now our Outreach Director, he is busy working on getting your voices louder and united on the numerous initiatives we are working on! 

Always, always let us know if you have any questions, feedback, advice, initiatives and/or events! You all mean the world to us, this work would be for not if we didn't have your support, knowledge and encouragement!