It’s been quite a while since I wrote the last post, so I’m writing this one before another month passes by. Since it’s still January and this is my first post of 2012, I’d like to look back at what my Contra Costa County RESULTS group accomplished last year. Then I’ll write about one of the goals I have for 2012.
Looking Backward
I’m the leader of a small group of RESULTS volunteers that meet once a month in California’s Contra Costa County to write letters and advocate for cost-efficient and effective international development programs. In 2011, the volunteers in my group got six letters to the editor published in the Contra Costa Times newspaper. Five of the letters supported international disease control and one supported international primary education. We wrote the editor probably three times that many letters, but six were published. You can read the letters by clicking on the link to the San Francisco Area RESULTS Media Generated in 2011 page and looking for the Contra Costa Times entries. That page also shows the letters to the editor and editorials that were published in the San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle, and Oakland Tribune.
In 2011, members of my group had a face-to-face meeting with Representative George Miller and with Rep. John Garamendi in their district offices.
We got Rep. John Garamendi and Rep. Jerry McNerney to support the Education For All Act of 2011. We had success in getting Reps. Miller, McNerney, and Garamendi to sign a letter to USAID Administrator, Dr. Shah, in support of the U.S. making a $450 million funding pledge over the course of three years to the GAVI Alliance. Other RESULTS groups across the nation were successful in getting their representatives to also sign onto the letter. Finally, we were able to get Reps. Miller and Garamendi to sign a Dear Colleague letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees urging them to appropriate $1.05 billion to support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Not bad for a group of six volunteers.
Looking Forward
My group is still planning what we’d like to accomplish in 2012, so I can’t write about the group goals. I can, however, write about one of my own goals.
That goal is to have 10 active people in my group. Ideally, some would be younger than me, definitely more energetic, extroverted, and passionate about making a difference. At 49 years of age, I’m the youngest in my group and have been since I joined it in 1997 or so.
I’d like to have new members so we can tap into new energy and new networks of family, friends, and contacts. Having a larger group would enable us to improve our fundraising ability, increase our media prowess, and enlarge our ability to connect and interact with like-minded members of the local community.
Expanding the group would also mean that we’re successfully enabling others to realize their own political power and make a difference in the quality of their lives and in the lives of the roughly 1.7 billion people in absolute poverty–those most bereft of resources, self-respect, opportunity, education, and health.
I know volunteering in RESULTS has profoundly affected my life. This year I want to challenge myself to extend that gift to others.
Jim may call himself a reluctant activist, but if this is reluctant activisim—watch out America! Having always stated that a few people can make a difference, he has often shown this to be true, especially through the RESULTS organization. Kudos for Jim and RESULTS for applying the democratic process as it was envisioned by our forefathers. We have a “representative” democracy, and Jim and RESULTS are actively petitioning their representatives for more action with respect to their goals and agendas.