The Delta Grassroots Caucus (DGC) is a broad coalition of grassroots leaders in the eight-state Delta region. DGC is also a founding partner of the Economic Equality Caucus,
which advocates for economic equality across the USA.

Expanded Delta Caucus Schedule in 2014; & Annual Dues for Calendar Year 2014

Posted on January 07, 2014 at 03:53 PM

We’ve received a great deal of feedback that 2013 was the best year yet for the Delta Grassroots Caucus, and we plan to keep that momentum going into 2014. Happy New Year!

The expanded 2014 schedule for the Delta Grassroots Caucus will highlight the following activities, in addition to smaller-scale meetings:

–Ongoing, daily advocacy/communications/educational activities on key Delta issues;

–the late spring, 2014 Delta regional conference at the Clinton Presidential Library;

–support for The College of Aspiring Artists’ Delta to Washington, DC Tour later in the year;

–and a fall, 2014 Delta regional conference to be held in Monroe, Louisiana, to include more partners in Louisiana, south-central and southwestern Mississippi and the southernmost areas of the region.

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP DUES FOR CALENDARY YEAR 2014: Thanks so much for those of you who contributed annual membership dues in 2013.

The number of people who pay the dues is steadily increasing and our goal is to make this a major component of our budget, which is growing along with the overall growth of the organization.

The only requirement is for $25 once a year, although for larger organizations or those who want to contribute more, we suggest the following:

Individuals or the smaller organizations: $25

Medium-sized banks, chambers of commerce, municipal and county governments, colleges, and other medium-sized groups: $50

Larger banks, chambers of commerce, universities, corporations, foundations, or those who wish to contribute a larger amount: $100

If everyone contributes $25 and some contribute $50 or $100, it will be a major expansion of our budget. The annual dues are separate from the registration fees for the regional conferences and the sponsorships, which are at higher levels.

Again, the only requirement is $25 once each calendar year from everybody. The amount is set that low so that we are clearly not asking for too much.

Please make out the $25, $50 or $100 annual membership dues check for 2014 to “Delta Caucus” and mail to:

Delta Grassroots Caucus

5030 Purslane Place

Waldorf, MD 20601

The initial down payments that the Delta Caucus has to pay for the spring Delta conference and other expenses come due soon as well as other costs, so sending in dues by January 22, 2014 would be tremendously helpful.

The Clinton Library Delta Conference will be in approximately late May and we will finalize the date as soon as possible.

Registration fees for the spring, 2014 Delta conference are $100 each. Registration fees, sponsorships and annual membership dues are the three separate categories of fundraising for the Delta Caucus.

Both sessions for the opening evening session and the all-day session the following day will be at the Great Hall of the Clinton Library this year.

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS POSTING

I. Delta Grassroots Caucus Conference at the Clinton Library, Spring, 2014

II. Key issues for the year-round program of advocacy/educational activities by the Delta Grassroots Caucus partners

III. Visit www.Sharemeister.com social giving platform to help good causes in the Delta, including the current “Delta Caucus Nutrition Challenge”

IV. Support for the group of community leaders coming to Washington, DC from the Delta led by The College of Aspiring Artists in the fall of 2014

V. Delta Grassroots Caucus Conference in Monroe, Louisiana, October, 2014

VI. Listen to audio of President Clinton’s brilliant presentation to the Delta Grassroots Caucus at the Clinton Presidential Center in May, 2013

I. Clinton Library Conference in the spring, 2014:

The Clinton Library conference in the spring will feature distinguished leaders from all eight states, we will be inviting the candidates in what is one of the most hotly contested series of races in Arkansas history, including:

Sen. Mark Pryor and Rep. Tom Cotton in the Senate race, President Clinton’s former FEMA Director James Lee Witt and other candidates in the Fourth District, Patrick Henry Hays and other candidates in the Second District, Mike Ross and Asa Hutchinson in the governor’s race.

The Members of Congress deal with national issues that are relevant for all eight states and we will have speakers from all the Delta states.

We will be inviting Gov. Mike Beebe to give his valedictory presentation to the Delta Caucus after having participated for the ninth straight year, beginning when he was a candidate for governor. Our partners believe he has done and is doing a great job and his participation is always one of the highlights of this event.

We are just now in the process of inviting these speakers and it is too early to announce any confirmations or the exact schedule.

As always, we are inviting leaders of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation and will focus on key issues the Foundation focuses on in its domestic policy work at the conference.

It is too early to know who the top speakers from President Clinton’s Foundation will be for the late spring conference. President Clinton’s brilliant presentation to the Delta Grassroots Caucus last year is available on audio and the information on how to listen to that is further below in this newsletter.

Many of the Clinton Foundation priorities are of tremendous importance for the Delta region, including:

–economic empowerment and job creation for economically distressed areas;

–early childhood development and nutrition, where the Delta continues to have serious problems;

–women’s issues–many of our partners emphasize that lower income women are among our most vulnerable populations, and our region has a large number of households led by single mothers;

–global climate change initiatives involving renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green jobs that have great potential in the Delta.

II. Key issues for the year-round program of advocacy/educational activities by the Delta Grassroots Caucus partners:

–Job creation/retention, workforce development, entrepreneurialism;

–Farm bill issues such as SNAP, school meals, aid to food banks, rural development, help for family farmers, farmers’ markets;

–Transportation improvements to repair deteriorating infrastructure and create jobs;

–Broadband expansion to connect the Delta to the information superhighway;

–Health care for underserved areas and issues involved in implementation and disseminating factual information about the Affordable Care Act;

–Housing and other infrastructure;

–Support for diversity and civil rights;

–Renewable energy/energy efficiency/green jobs and environmentally friendly development;

–Delta heritage tourism focused on the civil rights movement, blues and jazz, natural resources, the Delta Queen and steamboating in general, and other phases of our region’s great legacy;

–Last but not least, dissemination of information about best practices and role models for community and economic development in the eight-state region.

We support a comprehensive approach to community and economic development, although there have to be priorities among the literally hundreds of worthy initiatives going on.

We welcome additional feedback on other key issues, and we invite our partners to send us information about role models for development that have worked well on specific issues and/or local geographic areas.

III. Visit www.Sharemeister.com to help good causes in the Delta, including the current ‘Delta Caucus Nutrition Challenge’:

We would like to support fundraising through the Sharemeister website at www.sharemeister.com for Annette Dove and the TOPPS nonprofit in Pine Bluff, the Memphis Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA) in Memphis–if you can go on to the website and go to the Delta Caucus Nutrition Challenge and even give $5, that would be a plus. The hope is to get hundreds and eventually several thousand people visiting that site and each pitching in a little bit.

Delta Caucus Nutrition Challenge: We are suggesting TOPPS in Pine Bluff and MIFA in Memphis for this six-month period as recipients of donations for the “Delta Caucus Nutrition Challenge” to help these exemplary nonprofits fight hunger and poverty in the region–culminating in the Clinton Library conference in the spring, in order to give examples of worthy causes in the region. But the Sharemeister website has many, many other good causes to contribute to, so please visit the website at www.Sharemeister.com

Registration on the Sharemeister website is free, and self-explanatory instructions are on the website. Donations to Sharemeister are tax deductible. The registration is to keep track of donations for the purpose of assisting in documenting your tax deductible donation. There is no requirement to donate anything at all for visiting the website, so if you would like to just register and read the information about charitable giving in the Delta, please do so.

Even if you don’t want to give even $5, visit the site and see all the good causes and interesting fundraising challenges, including the Delta Caucus Nutrition Nutrition Challenge and many others that are going on.

We are working with CEO Marlon Henderson of Sharemeister over the long term to devise innovative, interesting ways to raise funds for good causes in the Delta. Contact Marlon Henderson at Sharemeister at (870) 897-7425 or Lee Powell at the Delta Caucus at (202) 360-6347 for more information.

IV. Support for The College of Aspiring Artists and Rev. Arthur Hunt’s group coming to Washington, DC from the Delta in the fall of 2014:

In the fall we will praise and support the Delta to Washington DC Diversity Tour led by The College of Aspiring Artists and Rev. Arthur Hunt, who will bring a group of community leaders–many of them young people who are the future of our region–from the Delta to Washington DC.

This will be the fourth consecutive pilgrimage to the nation’s capital beginning in 2011 with the dedication of the MLK Memorial.

Many in this group tend to be younger people and they bring them to historic sites like the Martin Luther King Memorial, Capitol Hill, etc., to educate them about Washington, DC and get them more attuned to public service and the great issues of the day in the Delta.

For the Delta To DC Diversity Tour, Martin Luther King Memorial, Washington, DC, community representatives and volunteers from the Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Mississippi Delta region will travel to Washington, DC and return as community ambassadors of diversity, creativity and volunteerism.

We encourage our partners in the region to support this program of bringing community and representatives to Washington, DC, and for our network based in the Washington, DC, please come to parts of this event. The exact schedule will be announced later in the year.

V. Regional conference is planned for Monroe, Louisiana at Monroe in October, 2014, with Sen. Mary Landrieu and her hotly contested US Senate race, and grassroots leaders from all eight states.

The fall Delta regional conference will be held for the first time in Monroe, Louisiana. We will be inviting Sen. Mary Landrieu, Rep. Bob Cassidy and other candidates for the hotly contested Senate seat in Louisiana, as well as other Louisiana Members of Congress, and distinguished leaders from all eight states.

We are meeting in Louisiana to reach out to more partners in that great state, in south central and southwestern Mississippi and elsewhere in the southernmost areas of the region. We have many excellent partners in those areas now and would like to include many more.

We will be inviting leaders of CenturyLink, which has great programs for expanding broadband access to the Delta, the mayors of Monroe and West Monroe, officials of the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Grambling State University, Louisiana Delta Community College and many other corporations, foundations, nonprofits, local elected officials and grassroots leaders from across the region.

Specifics about the Louisiana conference will be sent out as we get closer to the time of the event.

VI. Listen to President Clinton’s presentation to the Delta Grassroots Caucus in May, 2013 at the Clinton Center:

Many people have said they thought 2013 was the best year yet for the Delta Grassroots Caucus–let’s keep the momentum going for 2014.

Certainly President Clinton’s great presentation in May was fabulous–you can hear the entire 30-minute presentation by Googling the key words of “Talk Business, KUAR, President Bill Clinton, Delta Grassroots Caucus, Clinton School of Public Service, and May, 2013.” In that aricle you will find a link to a news organization called Talk Business that will take you to his speech, with a brief introduction from Caucus Director Lee Powell.

President Clinton’s opening presentation was a little over 10 minutes and then he fielded questions, with a total time of about 30 minutes–and then of course he visited in person for another 30 or 40 minutes. He was there over an hour, in total.

Even for people who were there and heard it live, we find that you can get a lot out of listening to his thoughts again–he is the most brilliant policy analyst in the world today.

Please help us build upon the successes of 2013 to make 2014 the best year ever for the Delta Grassroots Caucus!