Initial Response from City of Chesapeake, Ballot Petition Question

I received a response from the City today regarding my complaint that I was told to leave public sidewalks in front of two Chesapeake public libraries last Sunday because I was peacefully engaged in collecting ballot-petition signatures, required by Virginia State Law to put a political candidate on the ballot. The response came from Jan L. Proctor, copied to  Wanda Barnard-Bailey James E. Baker Sandy M. Madison Victoria Strickland-Cordial-Library Mary Lynn Pinkerman Helen V. Melton Susan V. Rowling Leonard Brown Jr. Debbie Ritter Dr. Alan P. Krasnoff Ella Ward John de Triquet Lonnie E. Craig Rick W. West Rick West Ritter Robert C. Ike Roland J. Davis Suzy H. Kelly.

Here is the reply:

 Dear Ms. Burke,

Thank you for expressing concerns about gathering outside of public libraries in order to obtain signatures for a petition.   The policy you referenced is attached and is based on historic practice, as well as general authority under state law and several sections of the City Code, as follows:

Section 15.2-1800(E) of the Code of Virginia provides, in part, that  a locality may operate, maintain, and regulate the use of its real property.

 

Sec. 46-13 of the City Code - Loitering; obstructing free passage of others.

 

(a)  Any person who in any public place or on any private property open to the public unreasonably or unnecessarily obstructs the free passage of other persons to and from or within such place or property and who shall fail or refuse to cease such obstruction or move on when requested to do so by the owner or lessee or agent or employee of such owner or lessee or by a duly authorized law enforcement officer shall be guilty of a class 1 misdemeanor.

(b) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit lawful picketing.

Sec. 46-16 of the City Code - Political activities in public buildings.

(a) It shall be unlawful to display in any public building any political literature or paraphernalia or use any other means of communication used to advertise political candidates, issues or political parties, except that public buildings may be made available to all political candidates on an equal basis for the purposes of introducing candidates for public office to the general public and the conduct of the business of any political party in compliance with the following procedure: Application shall be made seven calendar days prior to the proposed use to the city manager. The seven-day application period may be waived by the city manager where it can be shown that no inconvenience or disruption of normal public activities in such building will occur.

(b) This section shall apply to all elections and political activities conducted in the city.

 

Sec. 50-27 of the City Code - Merchandising, advertising, signs.

 

·       c)  Unless otherwise expressly permitted by this Code, no person shall paste, glue, tack or otherwise post any sign, placard, advertisement or inscription whatever, nor shall any person erect or cause to be erected any sign whatever on any public lands such as parks, beaches, athletic fields, trees or roads adjacent to a park.

 

Sec. 66-8 of the City Code - Obstructions.

 

It shall be unlawful for any person to place on any sidewalk, street, right-of-way or alley in the city any object which may obstruct the safe and convenient use of the same by vehicles and pedestrians, including, but not limited to, any fence, gate, porch, step, post, barrel, bench, bar, table, box, carriage, buggy, wagon, merchandise, goods, wares or other fixtures or articles whatsoever, whether they be for sale, exhibition or any other purpose

In summary, permits are required for political activities conducted in public buildings.  City Manager approval of activities conducted outdoors on public land is required to ensure compliance with the provisions above, as well as to ensure public safety and fair access to all.  

 

We apologize for any inconvenience. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Me, again. Here is the attachment, which is the same document our group received from the first library we dismissed from on Sunday. I will copy my reply to my next post: 

Proposed Chesapeake Anti-Sanctuary-City Resolution

Here is the letter I am sending to all members of Chesapeake City Council. Residents who wish to weigh in can send their own. Your message is more likely to be effective if the tone is polite. The email address is  council@cityofchesapeake.net. Be sure to include your name, email address, home address, and telephone number when you send it. Messages with insufficient information will not reach Council members.

Dear City Council:

I am a Chesapeake resident contacting you in response to an article in the Virginian Pilot regarding Councilman Robert Ike's proposed resolution that Chesapeake is not and will not ever be a sanctuary city, http://pilotonline.com/news/government/local/chesapeake-will-not-be-a-sanctuary-city-councilman-takes-a/article_073ac709-9bd0-57a2-b390-9dfa5afe042f.html

I oppose this resolution. I have high regard for Mr. Ike and his work on behalf of our local citizens, yet I beg him to reconsider.

I agree with Hugo Valverde, as quoted in the Pilot article: "a formal resolution – coupled with the racial undertones of the recent election – could signal to the immigrant community, regardless of their status, that they are unwelcome in Chesapeake. As a result, they could move from the city... or be unwilling to report being a victim of a crime for fear they or a member of their family could be deported" (emphasis mine).

While it's important to live in a safe city, making potential victims or witnesses fearful of filing complaints, cooperating with officers, or coming to court will have the opposite effect. The only potential result will be negative public perception, especially if any viral-video of an immigrant being mistreated comes to light from anywhere in Chesapeake. People will (hopefully erroneously) believe our City Council condones the abuse leading to some unfortunate victim's bullying, mistreatment, or even death. I love Chesapeake and would not like to see its name, nor the names of our Council members, dragged through the mud of public opinion. As a taxpayer, I fear a potential lawsuit.

All residents should feel they will be treated fairly by our city.  We have nothing to gain from this proposal and much to lose. Please remove it from consideration, or, should it come before Council, vote against it.

**Update 5/4/17: I received two replies to my email. One was from Councilman Lonnie Craig, who said he agreed with me 100% on this issue and pledged to vote against it should it come to a vote.

The other one was from Rick West, our Vice Mayor. This is the first time I've received a reply from him on any issue. Unfortunately, all I received was a cryptic and non-committal, "thanks." Better than nothing.

I guess.

Our Revolution Livestream, 4/23/17

South Hampton Roads for Bernie is a group now officially affiliated with Our Revolution, a spin-off from Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. Our meeting was lightly attended with participants from Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach, Virginia. After watching tonight's live-stream featuring speeches by Larry Cohen, Nina Turner, Mike Connolly,  Lucy Flores, and Ben Jealous, we had a brief discussion using Our Revolution's guiding questions.

What issues are most important in your community?

The environment and climate change was the top issue for all of us. Norfolk is increasingly affected by flooding. Virginia Beach recently suffered due to Hurricane Matthew. Chesapeake faces threats from the Atlantic Coastal Pipeline and from coal ash dumped by Dominion Power near the Elizabeth River, which is a watershed to the Chesapeake Bay. Both of these most affect a portion of Chesapeake called Deep Creek. Flooding and rising waters caused by climate change makes the coal ash an even greater threat to our watershed.

Other important issues were raising the minimum wage, improving education with at least free community college for all, improving and expanding our health care system, and limiting corporate influence and dark money with increased government transparency.

What are some possible solutions?

The successes of the Tea Party and the election of Donald Trump have been a wake-up call and are galvanizing many progressives. We realize that local and state elections are important. If we don't get involved with these, we leave them to others whose agenda will not reflect our own.

Democratic Primaries are coming up on June 13 for Virginia's Governor, Lieutenant Governor, House of Delegates, and local offices. The deadline to register to vote, or update an existing registration, is Monday, May 22, 2017. The deadline to request an absentee ballot to be mailed to you is 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 6, 2017. Voters not sure of their district can check most accurately through the Virginia Department of Elections website.

Progressives are running for state delegate in South Hampton Roads. Among Democrats, Tom Brock and Kelly Fowler are running in the 21st House District. Kimberly Anne Tucker is running for delegate in the 81st House District.

In the 77th House District, Jeff Staples of the Green Party is running for state delegate. As the Green Party nominee, he does not face a primary, so he is working on getting on the ballot for November and welcomes volunteers. He is a strong environmentalist.

As far as the race for Virginia's Governor is concerned, both Democratic candidates,  Ralph Northam and Tom Perriello, have progressive credentials. Both Bernie Sanders and Our Revolution have officially endorsed Perriello.

We agreed we should all check on who is running for the House of Delegates in our own districts and be prepared to make good choices, where available, on  June 13th. We need to get candidates elected who are willing to bring change at the state level. Good sources for information on state candidates and office-holders include The Virginia Public Access Project and  Richmond Sunlight. For finding progressive female candidates, Emily's list was mentioned as helpful.

A suggestion from MoveOn.org is to invite neighbors to neighborhood-level events or "training at the street level." Many people gripe about our political situation but need to know how to mobilize this dissatisfaction into positive political movement.

Social media are another way to help spread the word and organize.

As a group we would like more information about Arcadia Power in our region as an alternative to Dominion Power.

If progressives joined and got actively involved in our local Democratic Committees, we could increase our influence. Others have decided to work outside the system, or prefer to remain independents.

Another approach is to encourage our local mayors to join the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. The idea is to try to effect change at the local level.

Who or what are the roadblocks/allies?

 Roadblocks are the big corporations and sometimes the political establishment. Negative media attention is a roadblock. Progressives need to be unified, since we can't afford splits.

Allies are environmental groups like The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Sierra Club, neighborhood groups, women's groups like Motherboard757, Mothers Out Front, and Moms Clean Air Force Virginia. Indivisible 757 on Facebook and Virginia Beach for Bernie Sanders were also mentioned.

How can Our Revolution Support Us?

We shared that our Revolution has a number of tools available to local groups:

• Event promotion
• Sanctuary tool
• Transform the part
• Endorsements
• Trainings

We did not have time to discuss this piece, but every participant received a handout listing them for future reference.

All participants said the meeting was valuable, they learned something, and they had something to bring back to their local groups. We certainly raised awareness of the upcoming primary in Virginia. South Hampton Roads for Bernie on Facebook is the easiest means for participants to reach Mary Lou or to coordinate in the future, since tonight's participants were more interested in working within their own cities rather than regionally.

Richmond Protest 1/15/17

OurRevolution.com called for Bernie supporters to work with Democrats across the country for a series of protests against pending GOP cuts to the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, as well as potential cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Planned Parenthood.

My friend, Mary Anna White, and I traveled to Richmond to listen to speeches and to raise awareness of the need to preserve or even expand health care. I learned over 20 million people will lose health insurance coverage if the ACA is repealed without replacement. This would negatively affect working families, children, those with pre-existing conditions, and others. It affects whether people can afford to work at jobs they love and can even lead to life-or-death decisions if people can't afford health treatments or medications they need. The statistics and personal stories the speakers shared were similar to those in this special report, "Why Medicare Matters," by AARP.

Ashley Hawkins with her Baby, Zoe, tells a story about the personal impact of the ACA

We also heard moving speeches by Ralph Northam, who is Lieutenant Governor (running for Governor), Tom Periello, who is also running for governor, Justin Fairfax and Gene Rossi, who are running for Lieutenant Governor, Gene Rossi, Doris Crouse-Mays of the Virginia AFL-CIO, Representatives Don McEachin and Bobby Scott, and Governor Terry McAuliffe. And saw some great signs.

Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam (running for Governor)

Northam speaks as a doctor

Tom Periello (running for Virginia Governor)

Justin Fairfax (running for Lieut. Gov.)

Gene Rossi (running for Lieut. Gov.)

Doris Crouse-Mays, head of Virginia AFL-CIO, stands for affordable healthcare

Representative Don McEachin

Representative Bobby Scott

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe

Senator Tim Kaine

Mary Anna White and I, representing Southside!

My only disappointment was that there was lots of Democratic pride in Virginia turning "Blue" for Hillary Clinton in the last election, even though she lost. A few speakers called for universal healthcare as a right, but not one politician mentioned Bernie by name. It's a shame, because Bernie and his organization definitely turned out me and Mary Anna, and I'm sure others in the crowd, which we guess numbered about 2,000 people on a cool February Sunday on a holiday weekend.

SHR4Bernie Monthly Meeting Minutes - 11/9/15

The November meeting of South Hampton Roads for Bernie was held on Monday, November 9th, this time at Mary Lou’s house in Chesapeake.  Six people total were in attendance, and the meeting began at approximately 6:06 PM.

Introductions were the first item on the agenda.  We went around the table and each person spoke a little bit about themselves and how they came to know about Bernie.

We then moved to giving some updates on our election day experiences.  Mary Lou spoke on how she and a couple of other volunteers gathered petition signatures for Bernie at two polling places in Chesapeake for nearly the whole day and that they did pretty well.  She said she gathered about 108 District 4 signatures from her alone.  Jennifer brought up how she volunteered for the Virginia Beach Democrats and was able to gather some.  She also mentioned volunteering with an avid Hillary supporter who had told her she’d yet to be contacted by Hillary’s campaign to help with petitioning, even though she’d had experience gathering for Hillary before.

Erica mentioned the election day experience of Leslie, a member of Norfolk for Bernie, who gathered signatures at a polling place in South Norfolk.  Leslie came across a member of the Chesapeake Democratic Committee, a self-proclaimed Hillary supporter, who was very disruptive to Leslie’s group’s attempts to gather signatures for Bernie.  Their group did stay until the polls closed and managed to gather almost two sheets of signatures despite the woman’s attempt.  And then Erica talked about her experience passing out sample ballots for the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee and that she had no issues whatsoever also petitioning for Bernie and ended up with about a page and a half of signatures.

At this point, we shifted gears to discussing other events that had recently happened in our area.  On Sunday, November 8th, Mary Lou, Erica, and one new volunteer named Leigh went to Chesapeake Central Library to gather signatures.  Because there wasn’t much interest since Great Bridge is a particularly red area, the group moved to the Greenbrier Library location and had much more success there.  Future events will probably be held at that library in the future.

Next, Erica spoke briefly on an event she lead on Saturday, November 7th at the Virginia Beach Central Library.  Group member Mike had joined her there as well as three other volunteers.  Two other Bernie supporters turned up in the beginning to sign petitions.  Overall, they gathered signatures for about an hour and a half before it began raining and the event was called.  Erica determined the group gathered about 25-30 signatures in total.

Jennifer then talked a bit on her event at TCC Norfolk, which was once again a great spot for signatures.  After that event was complete, Jennifer was able to mail in 265 (good!) signatures, the majority of which were District 2, to Bernie’s campaign in D.C.  She estimates that District 2 will now be off of the campaign’s list of districts to help, and District 4 should not be far behind.

We also mentioned that if anyone has pictures of any events or meetings, they should send those pictures to Bernie’s campaign by emailing them to photos@berniesanders.com.

Next on the agenda was discussing the calls that the campaign has been attempting to get together nationally and for each state.  As of now, these weekly campaign calls are back on, and Virginia’s state calls will be happening each Thursday night at 7 PM.  Members who are able are encouraged to sign up here to attend these calls and report summaries so other group members who can’t make them will know what was said.

Erica also talked about a new tool the campaign has just released named “Call for Bernie”.  This tool will essentially help each local area or group contact and recruit a much larger pool of potential volunteers that have signed up to help on Bernie Sanders’s main website and get these volunteers out to local events we already have scheduled.  She recommended having a “phone banking” event with other South Hampton Roads for Bernie members to get started on contacting this database and recruiting more people not just to events but to our local groups as well.

We then moved on to talking about events we have happening in the next week or so.  On Saturday, November 14th, Mary Lou mentioned that she will be hosting a debate watch party at her home.  We also touched base on how we are shifting away from having one large debate watch party and that we should consider holding smaller events, but many more of them in our area.  That way the campaign can see just how active South Hampton Roads is for Bernie.

Mary Lou then spoke briefly about the new group newsletter that Erica has been emailing out to those who have signed up to receive it.  The newsletter consists of one monthly summary of events and activities that happened and will be happening in the South Hampton Roads region as well as a weekly list that gets sent out on Sunday nights detailing events happening within the next week that volunteers can sign up for.  Anyone interested in receiving these emails should visit this link to sign up. (Note: Emails may end up in your spam folders, so be sure to check on Sunday nights/Monday mornings just in case and mark them as not spam if they’re there!)

At this point, Susan mentioned some ideas she’s been thinking of in order to help spread the word about Bernie in her circles.  She said that, one, she will potentially be flyering her own neighborhood, and two, that she will be gathering more information on going to predominately African American Lutheran churches in the area to see if she can speak about Bernie in those locations.

We also mentioned three other upcoming petitioning events in the next week as well as another meeting, this time for Virginia Beach for Bernie Sanders.  The first petitioning event is happening on Tuesday, November 10th, from 12 PM to 2 PM at the Kempsville Library Blood Drive.  The second is at TCC Norfolk on Thursday, November 12th, from 12 PM to 2 PM.  The third petitioning event will be at the Virginia Beach Central Library on Sunday, November 15th from 2 PM to 4 PM.  And the meeting for Virginia Beach for Bernie Sanders will be on Thursday, November 12th from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM, but this time at Sal’s Pizza on South Independence Boulevard in the Kempsville area instead of at the Oceanfront.

And as always, anyone who has an idea of a location for an event is encouraged to create the event at map.berniesanders.com.  We will do our part to push the event on all of our social media channels to get volunteers out to help!  But it’s important to not only list the events on Bernie’s main website but to also RSVP for the events through the site.  That way the campaign can see just how active our area is in events and support for Bernie.

Mary Lou then brought us to our next agenda item -- what do we do next as a group after petitioning collecting is complete?  Some ideas that were suggested were to flyer at locations like libraries or bus transfer stations to help spread the word about Bernie.  If we do go to bus transfer stations, it’s suggested that people of color make up a good portion of the volunteers, especially since we need more outreach in minority communities for Bernie.  Our area is perfect for this kind of outreach since it’s so diverse, so we have a really great opportunity to help the campaign in this aspect.  

Susan suggested passing out some free trade candy with each flyer at the bus stations.  We also said we should bring up topics like Bernie’s support of a $15 minimum wage as well as his positions on criminal justice reform, free public college tuition, shifting to single-payer health care, immigration reform, and, in particular for women, Bernie’s stance on parental leave for parents.

Mary Lou said that the bus transfer station in Chesapeake at Robert Hall Boulevard would be a great location since there are typically a lot of people waiting around.  She said that she’ll look into the bus schedules to determine the best time to be there, although rush hour was also suggested as a good time.

It was then suggested that we look into having events in public areas around or on colleges and universities, which thankfully we have already been attempting, particularly at TCC Norfolk.  Jennifer said the Chesapeake TCC campus may also be a good place to flyer (or even petition).  Erica said that in order to have an event on the ODU campus, we would need to be sponsored by an ODU organization, although the ODU Democrats would most likely be more than willing to help.  She also mentioned that there is also a Bernie presence at Virginia Wesleyan as well.

Susan then recommended we have a Bernie presence at the upcoming Fair Trade Festival on December 5th and 6th in Norfolk, even if it was just a voter registration drive since the festival is particularly non-partisan.  She said that she would find out if the festival would be okay with the registration drive and if we would be able to pass out Bernie literature or wear Bernie swag while holding the drive.

Next, Mary Lou spoke on voter registration and how we should all watch the 30-minute training video on how to register voters in Virginia.  That information can be found here, the voter registration forms are here, and information on who is eligible to register to vote can be found here.  We can also suggest anyone with updated driver’s licenses to go to vote.virginia.gov and either register or update their registration information in mere minutes.

Some locations we brainstormed as a group to hold more events in the future included the Greenbrier Library in Chesapeake, South Norfolk, around the mass transit stop next to the MacArthur Center and Bean There Cafe, and potentially a bus transfer station in Norfolk.  Mary Lou agreed that she would look into holding an event soon at the bus transfer station at Robert Hall Boulevard in Chesapeake.

Erica then updated the group on her request to hold a booth at the NEON Holiday Market in Norfolk on Saturday, December 12th.  Unfortunately it was denied, although it may be possible to flyer in public areas outside of the event.

Mary Lou also mentioned possibly having an event in the public areas around the upcoming Chesapeake Holiday Craft Show on Saturday, November 21st and Sunday, November 22nd at the Chesapeake Conference Center, but Jennifer was unsure that there was anywhere we could legally flyer and petition.

Mary Lou also asked the group if we should be doing activities like holding up Bernie signs on overpasses in order to get more name recognition out there for Bernie, but the group came to a consensus that one-on-one conversations with people at flyering, voter registration, and petitioning events will probably be our best course of action instead.

And then at 8:01 PM, the November meeting of South Hampton Roads for Bernie came to an end.  The next meeting date and location are TBD.

South Hampton Roads for Bernie Meeting Minutes - 10/19/15

The fifth official meeting of South Hampton Roads for Bernie was held once again at the Cutting Edge Cafe in Chesapeake, VA and began at approximately 6 p.m.  

We began with introductions, but instead of saying something we like about Bernie this time, we offered up brainstorming suggestions for events we can hold in the future in order to gather petition signatures and flyer.  Our many suggestions were to flyer/petition at: Hampton Roads Organizing for Action (OFA) against gun violence on Thursday, Oct. 29th at 6 p.m. in Greenbrier Mall at the Green Turtle; Kwame Alexander appearance on Tuesday, Oct. 27th at Chesapeake Central Library from 3:45 to 5:45 p.m.; bus transfer stations (on hold for now); college campuses (Erica and Jennifer will be flyering Thursday from noon to 3 p.m. at the TCC campus in Norfolk!); Norfolk State Homecoming on November 7th (Kiala will find out more details); a financial planning meeting Kiala suggested that she will find out more details for as well; holding our own music festival for Bernie (Jennifer will look into this and Dana F. will get in touch with someone at O’Connor Brewing Company to see if this event could be held there); the FilFest 2015 (although it may not be possible since it’s being held on private property); the Anthem Wicked 10K in Virginia Beach on Oct. 31 (race begins at 8 a.m.), for which someone suggested passing out personalized Bernie Sanders water bottle labels to the runners; the Naro Cinema in Norfolk during evenings in which they showcase issues movies with speakers; and potentially Pints for Pups in Norfolk on Sunday, Nov. 15th from 1-4 p.m.

Mike C. also suggested that we hold more voter registration events.  Some people were unclear on what all it takes to be able to register people to vote in the state of Virginia, so here is the link to that information, including the 30-minute online training certification, and here is a link to the printable registration forms. And if a potential registree has an updated driver's license, they can go to vote.virginia.gov and register there in minutes!

Dana F., one of the leaders with Norfolk for Bernie, mentioned that Norfolk for Bernie’s next meeting will be on Oct. 28th at 7 p.m., with the location to be determined.  Possible suggestion choices, including churches and libraries, were given to her.  When that information is updated, it will be made available on the Norfolk for Bernie Facebook page as well as on our own South Hampton Roads for Bernie page.

We then moved on to discussing name recognition for Bernie.  We should all be wearing shirts, stickers, buttons, etc. whenever we can as well as using bumper stickers and yard signs if possible.  Bringing Bernie up in personal conversations in our own individual circles is also very important, so don’t forget to talk him up!

Mary Lou gave an update on petition totals as of October 11th, which are as follows: District 1 - 236; District 2 - 286; District 3 - 394; District 4 - 228; District 5 - 379; District 6 - 148; District 7 - 169; District 8 - 628; District 9 - 197; District 10 - 321; District 11 - 1345.  As of right now, the campaign itself will be focusing on Districts 1, 2, 4, and 6 to help gather petitions there.

We also slightly touched on the process of gathering petition signatures.  If you don’t already know about this process, check out this Youtube video and this Google Slides presentation to learn how!  If you have any questions, feel free to ask on the South Hampton Roads FB page.  And to help find voter’s districts during petition gathering events, check out these links below:
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ (requires zip code, possibly address)
http://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov/ (requires address, has interactive map)

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/VA (lists representatives, has interactive map)

vote.virginia.gov (requires name, DOB, and last 4 of SSN)

In national campaign news, Bernie is polling at around 28 or 29 percent, is ahead 5 points in New Hampshire, and is running neck and neck with Hillary in Iowa.

Erica and Mary Lou both then gave summaries of the Debate Watch Parties held on Oct. 13th.  Erica held a party at CP Shuckers at the Oceanfront in Virginia Beach.  44 people total attended, and local candidate for the 8th District of the Virginia State Senate Dave Belote gave a speech before the debate began.  Mary Lou was the substitute leader for the party held at Roger Brown’s in Portsmouth where approximately 20 people attended.  Mary Lou also mentioned that she made contact with a regional group that helps disenfranchised voters.  We then moved into a discussion about felon voting information and how to get rights restored, which can be found at this link here.  Location(s) are to be determined for the next debate parties, which will be held on Saturday, November 14th.

Jennifer then offered a brief summary of her event at the Town Pointe Wine Festival on Sunday, October 18th.  She said six volunteers total were present, and so they split up into two groups each and stood at either end of the park to gather signatures and flyer.  They gathered approximately 38 signatures, mostly D2 and D3.  It was generally a success, even if the festival was geared towards older, more wealthy individuals, plus a lot of out-of-towners.

Mary Lou then talked about the October 11th meeting with the campaign in Richmond that she, Jennifer, and Erica attended.  Kevin Keefe, the campaign’s ballot petition manager for every state that requires petitions for their primaries, mentioned at the meeting a couple of notes for future petition gathering.  First, he said that the campaign wants the petitions to be separated by county AND city.  If a mishap occurs and someone from a different city signs the wrong sheet, don't go back up and "split" the cities at the top of the sheet in an attempt to fix the error.  This will get the entire sheet of signatures thrown out, so it's best to leave it alone and let that one signature get tossed instead.  Secondly, Kevin said to NOT send petitions to the address on the back of the forms; instead, they should go to the campaign in D.C.  There are two ways to get the forms to the campaign: you can either mail them to the D.C. address yourself (please make sure you mail certified!) or you can pass them on to Jennifer, Mary Lou, or Erica and they will get them to the appropriate location.  And lastly, Kevin also suggested to go ahead and write “VA” next to the city or county name on the form line.  For example, it should read “Norfolk, VA”, etc.  Mary Lou also mentioned again how important it is for the registered voters to write out full city names and to NOT abbreviate.

Currently for South Hampton Roads for Bernie, collecting petitions for Districts 2 and 4 will be our main focus.  Per the campaign’s request, we will potentially be holding petition gathering events at local polling places on Election Day, November 3rd, 2015.  Details on that will come forward soon, but some suggested polling places (in Chesapeake) included City Hall, Greenbrier Library, Camelot, Taylor Road, and South Norfolk.  Mary Lou will potentially organize an event for Chesapeake, and other people are needed to organize one for Virginia Beach and other areas.  And after signature gathering is complete, will we then switch our focus to voter registration events.

At this point, Ken suggested forming a committee to work on future plans for after Bernie is confirmed to be on the primary ballot.  That way we will be moving forward full steam ahead once petition signature gathering is over and have set plans in place.  Anyone interested in becoming a part of this committee should contact either Mary Lou or Erica.

Someone else made the great suggestion to volunteer for other causes outside of politics as a group while wearing Bernie swag.  This way we can combat any preconceptions people may have about Bernie supporters, especially if we showcase how we are contributing and giving back to our own communities and having a positive impact.  Future events like this should be determined soon and will again be advertised on our Facebook group.

Another idea for petition signature gathering that was suggested was to go to election night parties on November 3rd that the local progressive election candidates will be hosting.  Many of these people would be willing to sign petitions for Bernie and we should potentially tap those groups.  Erica volunteered to find out any information regarding Dave Belote’s party, and other people are welcome to find out any information on other progressive candidates.

Mary Lou then briefly mentioned the next Bernie event coming up, which will be a National Student Town Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 28th at 7 p.m.  It will be live streamed to colleges and universities all over the country.  

At 7:30 p.m., the fifth meeting of South Hampton Roads for Bernie officially ended, with the next meeting time and date to be determined, most likely on a Tuesday evening.

Local Leadership Meeting - 10/5/15

The leaders of a few of the Bernie groups in the South Hampton Roads area met for a local council meeting on October 5, 2015 in Norfolk, VA.  The meeting began at approximately 6PM.  Erica L., Mary Lou B., Jennifer L, and Elizabeth B. were in attendance.

We began with introductions.  Elizabeth B. said some words about herself and her group, Virginia Beach for Bernie Sanders, President 2016 and Mary Lou talked about South Hampton Roads for Bernie.  Elizabeth and Mary Lou both shared their next group meetings -- this Thursday, October 8th at 6:30 PM at Scrambled VB in Virginia Beach, and Monday, October 19th at 6PM at Cutting Edge Cafe in Chesapeake.

We also discussed what we plan to do as far as events and organization for our groups.  At least one debate watch party has already been planned in Virginia Beach’s Oceanfront at CP Shucker’s.  The VB group also plans to tackle Virginia Beach by dividing it up into its different socioeconomic areas and deciding where to canvass and flyer from there.  The VB group is also working on getting permission from various grocery stores in low-income areas to flyer outside of them.  The VB group will be designing and printing flyers for use by group members at these events.

Mary Lou then touched base on some of the information in the Get Out the Vote Training, but we will mainly be focusing on that in the future.  It’s more for a campaign in its later stages, and since we are still in our beginnings with forming our groups and finding our volunteers, we’ll take advantage of that training and their strategies down the road.

Jennifer then brought up that we should be working in tandem with the Sierra Club and any events/meetings they have.  She said that their members are very progressive and are great Bernie supporters, so we should be utilizing them in our grassroots efforts across our groups.

It was at this point that Elizabeth brought up a merger between the two Virginia Beach groups in order to strengthen VB’s Bernie outreach.  Jennifer was very open to the idea and they will both be continuing discussions to accomplish that goal.

Elizabeth suggested that a good way to keep our groups connected is to crosspost any event or meeting each group has across all of the social media pages each group utilizes, so essentially advertising for our local groups across all of our mediums.  For South Hampton Roads, Facebook is the primary medium, and for Virginia Beach, Facebook is in the process of becoming the primary medium.

We then moved on to discussing pro-Bernie businesses in our area.  Some names that came up were the Cutting Edge Cafe in Chesapeake, Scrambled VB in Virginia Beach, Croc’s in Virginia Beach, EcoManiac in Virginia Beach, the Old Beach Green Market in Virginia Beach, and possibly Cutlass Grille in Chesapeake.  We all agreed to actively search out these kinds of businesses in our areas and do what we could to support them.  Erica also mentioned EconomyPrinting.us, a union print shop in Portsmouth we should consider utilizing as groups.

We then ended the meeting on a few thoughts and questions.  Will Bernie’s campaign or another source allow us access to voter registration records?  If we can find out who voted in the 2008 primary, we can focus on them to campaign for Bernie.  We also need to find community leaders in lower socioeconomic areas and encourage them to join up with our grassroots efforts.

And with that, we ended our first leadership council meeting for the South Hampton Roads area at approximately 7 PM.  The next meeting time was not determined, but it is possible we will hold one again in the near future.