Tuesday, February 2, 2010

What's keeping me busy & how do I find more to do?

When people ask me what's keeping me busy these days, I often have so many thoughts come to mind at the same time, that all I can manage to say is, "uh, hmm, nothing".

If you've heard me say that, it is definitely not true, I just can't quite figure out what to share first. Somehow many projects keep me busy and new goals and tasks so, I figured I'd write about them so as to share some good info (and in a way organize myself).

I currently am on the board of the Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee a non-partisan political action committee dedicated to furthering gender equality and feminist values through political and social action, and education. The Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee endorses the candidacies of women and men who actively support our goals and promote a feminist agenda. The Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee works on behalf of women to achieve political Access, Voice and Power.The organization has recently sponsored Joyce Dudley for District Attorney and Susan Jordan for the 35th State Assembly district seat, and have endorsed Janet Wolf for re-election as 2nd District Supervisor.

I plan to become more involved in a volunteer capacity in the short term future with Joyce Dudley's campaign for DA where she faces a difficult primary competition. I first met Joyce when she was my professor at the Santa Barbara College of Law, later she was one of the first supporters of my bid for Santa Barbara city council- I have endorsed and have known personally to be passionate about her work and most importantly the people she serves. In the 33rd State Assembly district, I am endorsing and strongly supporting my long time friend, Hilda Zacarias, who is an accomplished woman. She is tenacious, stong-willed and will be a great asset to the State Assembly. In the 24th Congressional District, I have endorsed and will be helping my friend, Tim Allison, who has an uphill battle for the seat, but is committed and understands the value of grassroots campaigning.

One of my biggest goals this year, as co-chair of Santa Barbara County Young Democrats is to focus on growing the membership and expanding to groups we have never reached before and engaging new activists & creating new leadership of young individuals county-wide. We are interested in building a good not only voting bloc but active bloc in elections, voter reg and general community participation. Among other projects and fun endeavors, we are holding a joint fundraiser to benefit the three Santa Barbara area Young Democrats chapters on March 13 from 3-5pm (If you want to attend or sponsor this event, let me know ;0)

I am also president of the Eastside Optimists Club, a regional club of Optimist International
their Mission is: "By providing hope and positive vision, Optimists bring out the best in kids." Last year we worked hard to plan and coordinate the Milpas Holiday Parade, which, unfortunately was canceled due to rain. This season we have a basketball hoops competition, and an essay contest in the planning stages, to provide opportunities at scholarships for youth in the Eastside in Santa Barbara.

Within a week I will be starting the Self- Employment Training, a14 week course at Women's Economic Ventures and I am greatly looking forward to it. This SET is for entrepreneurial lessons on everything that is necessary to starting a business and throughout the 14 weeks, participants work on a business plan to have completed by the end of the course. Of course, if you know me, you know I have a project in mind- (more to come...hint: The Digital Inclusion)

For fun, I am training for the LA Marathon which is on March 21st. This will be my second marathon, and I have already completed 4 of the 11 training weeks that were scheduled. I am updating my progress daily on dailymile.com. The marathon begins at Dodger stadium and ends at Santa Monica Boulevard. I am greatly anticipating this race.

What prompted this blog, was a reminder email from an automated website (weebly.com) that let me log into a long unpublished and forgotten project, that at the time I was very excited about; The Progressive Slate For whatever reason I didn't find the best way to get this started, I think perhaps because the courage campaign (among others was doing such a good job) of keeping progressives informed, but, I think my vision was something simple- less blogging and more unvarnished info. (i.e. I would like to find as a middle class hardworking parent w/out time for research, who are the "Designated Progressive candidates" in my district). I would like to take this up again, but I don't think that I have the time to devote to it.

There are many projects, events and ideas that grab my attention on a daily basis, but I can't do it all. I am very committed to certain causes and if an action is necessary to instigate or further immigration reform, to maintain "choice" or to repeal prop 8, or ensure same-sex marriage, I would take the necessary time to work on specific campaigns. Beyond such items, I find that my best place at this time is to match interested people to the best possible groups for action. So if any of these projects, you are curious to discuss, drop me a line, and I'll try to connect you with the right people in our community so that you too can get involved.