Healthcare Workgroup

Margaret Madams, Maureen Dion-Perry

May 14th: Monthly Social and Workgroup Meeting: reproductive health wallet cards in Spanish arrived from the printer. Thanks again to El Dorado Public Health for their support. We had discussions around House Parties, Community Conversations on Healthcare, and plans for the booth at the El Dorado County Fair.

May 18: Rene and her husband hosted a very successful House Party. A nice group of 15 people showed up and there was a lot of participation and questions. Many misconceptions about the costs of healthcare were corrected. We watched the movie FIX IT: Healthcare at the Tipping Point. It clearly shows how we can do a lot better for businesses and individuals. One local horror story, an 83-year-old friend shared that she recently was prescribed a medication that cost $10,000. Overall, it was a very good and inspiring evening. We plan to do more House Parties like this.

Looking ahead to June:

June 11: The next monthly Social and Workgroup Meeting, 6:30 pm, will be a potluck goodbye party to three wonderful, valued members: Kathy and John McCoy are moving to be closer to family in the Vallejo area, and Helen Mansfield is headed north to Oregon. Location: The Madams’ home in Placerville. Contact Margaret or Maureen for the address and gate code. Partners/spouses invited too.

June 14th-17: Stop by and say hello to us at the El Dorado County Fair.

June 15: Sierra Renaissance Society is hosting one of our community conversations about Healthcare, 1 to 3pm at the Cameron Park Community Center. For details, click here.

Protecting Public Lands

Patty Wilson
 
On June 7, our workgroup hosted a potluck picnic at the Pioneer Cemetery and Marshall Gold Discovery Park. We visited historic headstones and the grave of one of the last samurai founders of the Wakamatsu Settlement. Then we had a wonderful picnic in the park with gorgeous scenery all around.
 
Check out our recently launched Protecting Public Lands Workgroup webpage. With Peter Madams’ help, we are constantly updating it with events, actions you can take, and even a good news section!
 
Since Trump’s election, our precious environment has been under relentless attack. Trump and his administration are certainly not friends of our public lands. We are passionate about staying informed and pushing back against Trump’s agenda. We want to “Keep the Public in Public Lands.
 
Activities and events:

  • We have had one tour of the Sherwood Demonstration Garden and plan to do so quarterly as it changes with the seasons.
  • We also hope to write postcards and letters to our representatives as well as letters to the editor of our local paper.
  • Working to defeat Rep. Tom McClintock is also high on our priority list. Some of his greatest campaign contributors are from the oil and gas industries and he has repeatedly shown a willingness to sell off our public lands.
  • We want to sponsor local hikes and informative chats and possibly partner with other environmental groups.

If you feel as we do, please consider signing up for our emails so you can keep abreast of our activities. Hope to see you soon!

Vote Smart Workgroup

Mary Elliott-Klemm
 
The EDP VoteSmart workgroup has been very busy! We joined forces with Sierra Forward, the United Democrat Club of Placerville, Indivisible groups, other members of El Dorado Progressives, and friends to Get Out the Vote for the Primary election. We had many successful Postcard Parties and members were involved in phone banking or canvassing activities prior to the June 5 election. 

Events

my-calendar-calendar-page-image.jpg

May 8th - Board of Supervisors Meeting

8AM - 3PM at El Dorado County Government Offices, 330 Fair Lane, Placerville

Come early and stay as long as you can.

Come speak in open session letting the BoS know that we support California as a Sanctuary State and we would oppose any attempt to opt out of SB54 to join the lawsuit brought by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. We believe that it is a matter of upholding state law; that it is a matter of maintaining a community that is free from fear, hatred and bigotry; and that it is a matter of maintaining a healthy business climate for our agriculture and tourist industries. This is not on the agenda for this meeting but our comments should be in the public record. We should speak for those who cannot.

May 14th - Health Care Workgroup

6:30 potluck snacks and social, 7 - 8:30 meeting

El Dorado County Office of Education, Building B, 6767 Green Valley Road, Placerville

Join with our health care group to plan our spring activities, including distribution of Spanish Birth Control Resource Cards, Single Payer House Parties, presentations and a collaborative booth at the El Dorado County Fair.

Sign Up for the Placerville Rapid Response Team if Mueller is fired

This doesn't have a definite date and if you sign up you will be notified if Mueller is fired.

Start time at 5pm on the day of firing if before 2pm or if firing is after 2pm then the following day at noon. Be sure to have some poster board on hand to make signs. Meet in the Ivy Parking Lot across from the Cosmic Cafe and walk down Main St. to the Courthouse and Rte 50. Follow this link to sign up: https://act.moveon.org/event/mueller-firing-rapid-response-events/19437 .

EDP General Meeting: Get Out The Vote

EDP Logo copy.jpg

General Meeting

Sunday, May 6

3 to 4:30 p.m.

Placerville Town Hall

549 Main Street

Agenda

1.   Open Meeting - (20 minutes)

2.   Special Event: Get Out The Vote - (45 minutes)

3.   Upcoming Events - (10 Minutes)

4.   Meeting Adjourned

The General Meeting of El Dorado Progressives is where you find out about all the events and meetings that are coming up in the next month and how to get involved.

Protecting Public Lands Workgroup

Are you looking for a place to contribute? We are trying to grow our group and would welcome your participation. All that’s required is a love of our public lands and a desire to protect them. You can join us at a meeting or sign up on the EDP webpage. 

  • On the last weekend of April we sponsored a tour of the Sherwood Demonstration Garden with a focus on native plants. We will do this quarterly.
  • We have a picnic potluck/ranger chat scheduled for June 7 in Coloma. Details to follow.
  • PPL now has its own webpage that we are managing with Peter Madam’s help.
oakmeadow copy.jpg

VoteSmart Workgroup

Every. Vote. Counts. 

There are stories after stories of elections that have been won by just a few votes. In the past months dedicated volunteers have been registering voters during Voter Registration events. We truly appreciate all the time that our volunteers have spent in this effort.

Getting Out The Vote is the focus from now until the Primary on June 5. Mail-in Ballots go out on May 8 so voting actually begins on that date.

Our efforts to Get Out the Vote include sending out postcards. These postcards go to targeted audiences and encourage the recipients to vote. To accomplish the large task of addressing and mailing all these postcards we have several Postcard Parties planned.

We had our first Postcard Party at the Sierra Forward Placerville Team meeting on May 1 and whipped out 800 postcards in no time. Thank you to all of the volunteers who showed up and helped make this event a success.

Upcoming Postcard Parties:

Sunday, May 6, at the EDP General Meeting

Thursday, May 10, 2 – 4 pm

Placerville Raley’s Community Room

166 Placerville Dr, Placerville, CA 95667

Friday, May 11, 6 – 7:30 pm

Placerville Raley’s

Please join us at any and all of the parties to Get Out The Vote.
votesmart2.png

Workers Solidarity Workgroup

capitol may 1.jpg

April has been a very busy month for the Workers Solidarity Network. We have been working closely with the Red Hawk Casino workers and Unite Here to help organize a union at the Red Hawk Casino. 

We held a Meet the Red Hawk Workers meet-the-community night that was an absolute success. We have been having in-home organizing meetings with the workers as well as going to their committee meetings to help brainstorm ideas to insure continued success. We are now working on a petition with other community members and are on our way to our goal with 11 petition runners working on more signatures.

We are also working on getting other community leaders in one room to plan our next steps.

Our group participated in the May Day March in Sacramento as part of the (LCLAA) Labor Council For Latin America Advancement - Sacramento AFL-CIO contingent with whom we also were able to participate in a Boycott Driscoll's action. We also had our own EDP Workers Solidarity Network booth at the capitol to gain signatures for the Red Hawk employees.

We will continue to assist the Red Hawk workers in their unionization efforts and hope that other El Dorado Progressives will join us.

Our next monthly meeting will be held on Sunday, May 20th at 3:30 pm at Totem Coffee, 312 Main St #104, Placerville, CA 95667.