It’s been quite a year for Gettysburg DFA. Here are several, critically important things we have accomplished.
First and most importantly, we were able to develop an organizational model for our steering committee and task forces that has allowed many different people to take a leading role in our activities. Special thanks must go to all our steering committee and task force members but especially to:
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Tom DeLoe for his numerous opinion pieces and his program on Fair Districts;
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Bill Gilmartin for his service as moderator of the “evening with Democratic candidates,” his part in the program on the November election, and his service as chair of the Government Accountability Task Force;
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Judy Leslie for her service as treasurer;
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Leon Reed for his work on the newsletter and as chair of the communications committee, his many opinion pieces, and his program with Bill on the November election;
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Denise Wood for creating our website, keeping it up to date, and playing a critically important role in our evolving communications strategy;
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Sandy Busche for her service as chair of our Healthcare Task Force and as a liaison with the Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN) which culminated in the task force being recognized by PHAN as the best grassroots organization working on healthcare in the state;
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Jeanne Duffy for her work with the healthcare task force and as a liaison with PHAN (along with Sandy) and for her participation in a variety of statewide conferences and events;
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Dr. Dwight Michael for his active role in the healthcare task force, his public presentations on Improved Medicare for All, and his role on the state board of Healthcare for All PA;
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Bernie Mazer for his service on the steering committee and his role as liaison with Represent US, which culminated in a presentation in June by representatives of the state group;
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Elaine Jones and the Rapid Response Team for their numerous alerts on key issues during the year;
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Rayna Cooper for her articles on gun control and on retiring emeritus steering committee members Lou and Pat Hammann and her service on the steering committee;
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Lasco for his service on the steering committee and as chair of the education task force during the year;
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Jeff Colvin for his op-ed on the consequences of pulling out of the Iran deal
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Carolyn Nunamaker for her help coordinating our July picnic and December holiday gathering.
Secondly, we were able to collaborate successfully with other community and state-wide organizations, several of which are mentioned in the thank-yous above. At times these collaborations were informal, however, involving more an overlap in membership rather than a formally recognized relationship. We were very active the Fair Districts effort, for example, and played a key role in the environmental film series co-sponsored last spring by the Lutheran Seminary and a number of area churches, especially St. James Lutheran. We have also maintained a strong relationship with SCCAP and continued to draw on faculty from Gettysburg College for speakers and programming. In addition, we supplied the sound system for Gettysburg Rising’s four-part summer series on immigration and our members participate regularly in their gatherings and vigils on the square in support of immigrants.
Thirdly, we were able to maintain a lively and respected presence in the community through our monthly programs and twice-monthly opinion pieces in the Gettysburg Times. We were able to create an effective website where our activities are documented and our op-eds and other writing are fully archived. And, we were able to develop a content-rich newsletter, tapping a deep bench of skilled writers and locally available policy experts, and publish successfully every two weeks during the election season.
Finally, here is a month-to-month listing of our activities through the year. The many op-ed articles we published are all archived here on our website; there’s a lot of really great writing, so please take a look!
We have a lot to build on as we prepare for the coming year. I look forward to working with you in 2019!
Will Lane, Chair
Gettysburg DFA