Twenty-five members came out to this week’s Jefferson County Annual Chapter Meeting and potluck at First Unitarian Church. The meeting started off with a review of the chapter’s work over the past year:
- Our chapter registered 1,400 people to vote during the 2012 Election and transported dozens of people to the polls in November.
- We recruited 24 new members during the 5th Annual Louisville Loves Mountains Festival in May 2013.
- Chapter members attended all the major lobby days in Frankfort during the 2013 General Assembly and turned out busloads of people to I Love Mountains Day.
- We have tabled at 6 community events in Louisville since the beginning of the year. Hundreds of people have signed KFTC petitions and interest forms during these events.
- Members have given presentations about KFTC’s work at two colleges and two churches since January.
- Our chapter celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. We are kicking off the celebration with a Birthday Bash on Saturday, June 22nd at Tim Faulkner Gallery.
Following a review of these chapter highlights, members made suggestions for future chapter work. These suggestions included: addressing the minimum wage, working on a state mandate for GMO foods, partnering with REACT to address issues in Rubbertown, and partnering with ACLU to address racial disparities in marijuana possession arrests. The results of the chapter's Local Issue Survey were also reviewed.
The survey was completed by 90 chapter members earlier this month. According to the survey results, members are primarily interested in working on air quality issues, particularly as they pertain to the communities surrounding Rubbertown chemical plants and LG&E power plants, and economic justice and affordable housing issues. Chapter members are also interested in participating in workshops focused on issue framing, direct action organizing, coalition building, and power analysis.
During the meeting the group agreed that the next step would be to form an Air Quality work team and an Economic Justice work team. These teams would explore creating local campaigns to address these issues. During the meeting several members committed to joining these work teams.
Next the following upcoming events were announced.
Voting Rights Coalition Meeting
Wednesday, June 19, 3pm
UFCW 227 Union Hall, 3300 Pinecroft Drive, Louisville, KY
KFTC’s Annual Meeting
August 16-18
General Butler State Park, Carrollton, KY
KCADP (Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty) at Kentucky State Fair
KFTC sponsoring a day at the fair
August 22
Contact Alicia (alicia@kftc.org, 502-589-3188) if you’re interested in volunteering
After spending time reviewing the chapter's work, news, and events we moved into a review of KFTC’s platform. The group was reminded that the Jefferson County chapter was instrumental in getting the death penalty added to the platform last year through a statewide education initiative. The platform is an important document because our organization only works on the issues listed in it.
There was a discussion about the platform not addressing GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The group also discussed if the platform should include something about protecting the residents of gentrifying neighbors. After much discussion the group decided that the platform adequately addressed issues relating to gentrification. Members voted in favor of recommending that “herbicides” be added to the portion of the platform that currently addresses pesticide usage.
The group unanimously decided to petition to remain a KFTC chapter. Shekinah Lavalle and Nan Goheen were also nominated to remain the chapter's Steering Committee Representative and Steering Committee Alternate, respectively. Ryan Fenwick was nominated as Chapter Publicity Coordinator. The chapter’s Fundraising Coordinator and Membership Coordinator positions were not filled. Contact Alicia if you’re interested in these positions (alicia@kftc.org, 502-589-3188).
Several members were nominated to join KFTC’s statewide committees including Land Reform, Economic Justice, New Energy and Transition, Voter Empowerment, and Litigation. Mary Love accepted a nomination for the Executive Committee At-Large member position. These nominations will be considered by the Steering Committee.
The final portion of the meeting focused on the chapter’s grassroots fundraising and membership recruitment goals. So far this calendar year the chapter has raised $7,200 and recruited 63 new members. The goal for 2013 is to recruit a total of 200 new members. The group discussed ways to recruit the remaining 137 new members by the end of December. There was a consensus in the room that the chapter should aim to raise a total of $10,000 in grassroots funds by the end of theyear. This means that our chapter needs to raise an additional $2,800. The Birthday Bash should help us get closer to this goal.
After an action packed meeting filled with lively discussion the meeting miraculously adjourned on time. The room was filled with energy and members seemed ready to tackle the work to come.
There is a special legislative election coming up in two weeks on Tuesday, June 25th in the 56th House District, which covers Woodford County plus parts of Franklin and Fayette Counties. 
