Thank you Beth you did an amazing job organizing the lobby day!!

Here’s an update on the budget conferees, thanks to Louisa Warren of the Justice Center. Below are the e-mails for the Representatives and Senators who sit as chairs on the conference committee. The best way to e-mail them about the budget is likely to do a bulk e-mail addressed to the Members of the Budget Conference Committee.

These are the people we really need to contact about the budget cuts. Thanks for your action.

mickeym@ncleg.net,alma@ncleg.net, marthaa@ncleg.net, jimcr@ncleg.net, philliph@ncleg.net, maggiej@ncleg.net, joet@ncleg.net, douglasy@ncleg.net, hughh@ncleg.net, billo@ncleg.net, lindag@ncleg.net, Charliea@ncleg.net, charlied@ncleg.net

NCWU’s advocacy day is June 18th…here’s an overview.

See the Full Page and other position papers at NC Women United

Click any or all of the following links to send a quick letter to your legislators in the NC House and Senate on one of NCWU’s four broad areas of concern.

• Access to Health Care
  • support the rating system for adult care homes
  • support increased funding for home and community care block grants
• Civic Participation and Equality
  • support HB 1366, the School Violence Prevention Act
• Economic Self-Sufficiency
  • increase the Earned Income Tax Credit
  • guarantee paid sick days
  • ensure adequate funding for the NC Housing Trust Fund
• Violence Against Women
  • support HB 44 to strengthen the enforcement of domestic violence protective orders

Sunday, June 22, 2pm- Clay Pot Painting service project

Tuesday, June 24-Triangle MomsRising Lobby Day at the legislature-we’ll be sending out more details soon!

Saturday, July 26, 4pm-Summer Social cookout and pool party

…for more info check our google group or email momsrisingtriangle@earthlink.net

Updates will be posted…

With the NC legislature in session and moving along at a very rapid pace, there are currently lots of opportunities to get involved and speak up. Below is a quick rundown on groups whose action alert listservs you might be interested in, and info about a new partner group and their initatives. If you have any policy-related questions or want to know more about an upcoming event, please send us an e-mail at momsrisingtriangle@earthlink.net.

Thanks,

MomsRising Triangle Planning team

Advocacy listservs

During the session, so many action alerts come out that we can’t pass them all along. But here are a few relevant listservs you might be interested in signing up to receive directly.

NC Action for Children- http://www.ncchild.org/action/index.php/Newsletters.html

NC Paid Sick Day Coalition—–>http://www.ncsickdays.org/getinvolved/

NC Women United——>http://www.ncwu.org

FYI, NCWU’s advocacy day is June 18th…here’s an overview.

Mothers & More has historically been a mom-to-mom support-based membership, but in recent years, they added an Advocacy deparment. Their advocacy focus differs from that of MomsRising in that their focus is more singular. The org’s are alike in that they value the work of motherhood, but different in that Mothers & More focuses almost solely on caring for the caregiver (they don’t address issues of child well-being or healthcare the way MomsRising does).

Each year, Mothers & More has a Mother’s Day Campaign in May, aimed at raising awareness of issues impacting mothers http://mothersandmore.org/campaign/campaign08.shtml

This year, they’ve also focused on saving the American Time Use Survey, the funding for which is on the federal budget chopping block. It’s about the only measure the U.S. uses in determining GDP which actually measures and places a value on caregiving. Here’s a link to more info. on that as well… http://mothersandmore.org/Advocacy/ATUS.shtml

The Motherhood Manifesto is being screened on April 22nd: Time is To Be Determined! (see YouTube Trailer below) If you are interested in seeing this documentary please email me at hera at yewess dot us

Discussion to follow!

Sunday, March 30, 4-6 Representative Melanie Wade Goodwin, a state legislator representing Richmond and Montgomery counties, will be joining us to talk about the NC General Assembly, how we can be effective advocates for children, and what its like to be the mother of small children and a state legislator. With the birth of her second child at the end of April, she will make history as the first legislator in NC history to give birth while in office. She is traveling over an hour at 8 months pregnant to speak to us because she’s excited about what we’re trying to do. We really want to have a good turnout, so please try to join us and invite your friends!

Saturday, April 19, in the morning-For our next MomsRising service project, we will be having a team at the March of Dimes March for Babies event to fight premature birth. More details will follow, but please plan to bring your little person(s) and walk, stroll, or ride with us. This is an event for the whole family!

Sunday, May 4, 4-6-Jenn Frye, Associate Director of Democracy NC, will be doing a training for us on how to be effective citizen lobbyists. This will prepare us for our June lobby day at the General Assembly. We are also working to arrange an issue briefing soon after this.

There’s lots to do and many ways you can be involved. Please plan to join us and invite your friends! If you have any questions or you’d like more information about any of these projects/ events email beth_messersmith@ yahoo.com

I am a feminist, I make no bones about it. I want equal rights and I want them yesterday anything less makes me mad.
The Guerilla Girls are coming to Asheville ….to the Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC on March 31-April 1

The performance lasts about an hour and a half, followed by a question period. We take the audience through how we came up with some of our many, many posters, books (Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls and The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art) and actions about discrimination in art, film, politics, etc.

In our performances for 2007-8, we will also be performing skits with the audience and sharing excerpts from our book Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes. We will also speak about how we invaded the Oscars with our latest billboard and sticker campaign on discrimination in Hollywood. And we’ll tell all about our 17-foot posters in the 2005 Venice Biennale, Istanbul, Athens and Mexico City.

We also conduct one-day workshops where we help students produce their own activist projects on issues that are important to them.

Would anyone be interested in going? Feel free to pass the info on to any interested parties an/or express interest/ organize a trip in the comments.

Description of the bill Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS ACT

Call Your Legislators: A guide from Post-Partum Support International