1) Leadership Elections: One more day to nominate people for our three leadership positions! Tomorrow, January 17, is deadline. 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. Nominees will be announced on January 24.

To nominate yourself or someone else, please email our current Secretary/Administrator Barbara Farrell 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.

Thank you in advance for stepping up. 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.

IMPORTANT: we are still short nominations. Without nominations, especially for Chair, 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?

If we do not get enough nominations for the IGSV leadership election, the conversation will revolve around whether IGSV should end completely or just hibernate, and what that would look like.

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 for 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 (which has been postponed until 1/23), 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 Ayr 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) Meta Theater Company: Some of you may recall an amazing performance by Meta Theater Company that IGSV co-hosted in the early days of our existence. They have an upcoming virtual performance that I encourage all to attend!

Shot in a documentary style format, this virtual performance tells the story of what happens on a college campus when Cameron, a Black student presenting her critical race theory assignment is violently interrupted by Jamie, a white student, and how Professor Gillman, the white professor teaching the class intervenes. This sparks protests on campus and media attention. Dean Adams, a Black woman, is pressured to resolve quickly what has happened. The outcome is left to the audience to decide what should happen next. The show is broken down into three parts: Truth, Resistance and Progress. The post-show discussion uses tools to help the audience grow in critical consciousness to assess what Truth, Resistance and Progress really means when working for healing and liberation.

To register to receive the Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIud-isrDwtE9T1T0MWmJOWnLeR2FySEFzA

This event is free and is offered in connection with The National Day of Racial Healing and is supported by the Creating Change Network in partnership with the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Center at Rutgers University – Newark. The activities of the Creating Change Network are made possible by the Grunin Foundation. If you would like to donate to The Meta Theatre Company to support their re-entry program you can do so at www.themetatheatrecompany.org

Quote of the week: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King, Jr., carved into his memorial in Washington D.C.