1) Leadership Elections: As per our bylaws (http://www.indivisiblegsv.org/bylaws/), there will be an election for IGSV Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary/Administrator starting February 7. The first step is that we are officially opening a nomination period from now through January 17. Nominees will be announced on January 24. Please note that we are looking for self-nominations or nominations of others for all three positions. We are especially looking for someone to be the new IGSV Chair. It’s not a ton of work, and will be life-changing!

To nominate yourself or someone else, please email our current Secretary/Administrator Barbara Chilmonik at bchilmonik@gmail.com and CC the IGSV email account indivisiblegsv@gmail.com. Include:

• the nominee’s name
• their email address
• the relevant leadership position

This is a great time to jump into a leadership role, because we have lots of opportunities to influence the 2022 elections and many pressing policy issues. Thank you in advance for stepping up.

IMPORTANT: we have not received any nominations yet. Without nominations, IGSV will end or go into hibernation mode. If you have questions about responsibilities, please email Catherine Riihimaki at Catherine.riihimaki@gmail.com.

2) IGSV January 2022 Group Meeting: Our next IGSV group meeting will be Saturday, January 29, 3-4:30 pm via Zoom. The topic will be strategic planning for the future of IGSV, with some discussion of the upcoming IGSV Leadership election. This is your opportunity to shape the focus of the group. Do you want us to align closely to the Indivisible movement? Would you rather we take a centrist perspective? Do you want there to be concerted effort on 1-2 issues? Are you more of a generalist? Should we focus on protests or other strategies? Where should we reside digitally, given Facebook’s poor global citizenship?We encourage all to attend, even if you have not been active in IGSV for a while. Note that this will be the last meeting before our Leadership election, so this is your last chance to become an eligible voter (you need to have attended two events in the last year).

Please RSVP by email to indivisiblegsv@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link.

3) Volunteer effort: In memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and in conjunction with Gina Sampaio’s MLK Day of Service – the Western New Jersey Democrats Community Service Team will be honoring our Veterans at Vet Haven North. The administrators have requested Amazon gift cards in small denominations ($25). They are available at local stores or can be ordered through Amazon and delivered to you (no e-cards please).

QUESTIONS OR TO ARRANGE PICK UP: please contact Susan DeNegre (908-256-3341) OR Donna McCall (908-468-7244).

Collection will continue from Jan. 8th through and including MLK Day Monday Jan 17th. We’d love to get as many cards as possible! Please share this message with as many people you know! The more we receive – the more we can give! Once collected, we will deliver them to Vet Haven North.

Our veterans have served in extraordinary times and are living in extraordinary times now! It’s our turn to serve them.

4) Indivisible Truth Brigade: The Indivisible Truth Brigade has its first BIG TRUTHS call of the year this Wednesday, January 12, at 6:30 pm ET. Join the 2022 Kickoff Webinar with Roger McNamee, founder (with U2’s Bono) of Elevation Partners and author of Zucked: Waking up to the Facebook Catastrophe. We inhabit a world where artificial realities thrive, personal choice is devalued and profit and power-seeking drive the undermining of our institutions. Roger McNamee understands the root causes of this system better than anyone. Sign up to learn from him about the mechanism behind the madness and how individuals can and must disrupt the disinformation machine at the heart of the harm.

Register here: https://indivisible.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJArdu-vrz8rH93lduLYHXOvC0ISDDLRfy5L

Quote of the week: “Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.” – John Lewis, from his memoir Across That Bridge