February 2009 Archives

We had a super book club meeting early this month at the home of Justin Leaf, complete with a vegan pot luck! Our book for discussion was Hillary Rettig's The Lifelong Activist, How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way.

We started with a group discussion of the book. All found it to be interesting and practical. Segments of the book were like a self-help workbook assisting with prioritizing, adding structure, and dedicating energy to what is most important in one's life. Activism is rewarding, but can be draining too. During the second hour of book club, Hillary spoke with us on a conference call to answer questions, offer inspiration, and share her expertise on how to be most effective in relationships, at home, and as an activist through planning, and then living, a balanced life.

Tonight was the semi-monthly CAA board of directors meeting. We got updates on all of CAA's ongoing projects and  worked on our budget and budget planning process. We also started planning for a CAA volunteer training session this spring and looked at our employee review process.

We also made some picks for who to approach to be part of our newly formed CAA Advisory Board. The Advisory Board will consist of well-known activists and experts in differerent areas of our movement that are willing to lend their support and experience to our organization. We've already recruited three members:

• Matt Ball, Vegan Outreach cofounder
• Valerie Tiberius, U of M ethics professor and CAA board alumnus
• Christopher Patterson, Veterinarian and CAA cofounder
  

 We hope to add three or four more members in the next couple weeks.

Thank you to everyone who showed up to the potluck, I hope you all had a great time. I would like to especially thank everyone who volunteered, your time and energy is what made the event such a success. For those who were unable to make it to the event, I have a little recap below and hopefully you can make the next potluck.

The event went real well! We had over 50 people show up and most of them stayed from the start of the event until the very end, enjoying the food and conversation. There was a mix of various love songs (it was a Valentine's Day Potluck after all) that played throughout the event for some background music. The volunteers did a great job getting the room decorated and looking real festive. On each of the tables valentine's were placed all around (because nothing reminds me of Valentine's Day like the old school Valentine's elementary classrooms used to make for each other), along with some heart shaped glitter thingys. The food that was brought (and made by our cooking volunteers) was real good and everything from appetizers to desserts were accounted for. All in all a real good time!

If anyone who attended has any feedback or comments feel free to leave them.

Hi everyone.

My name is Matt Schmittdiel and I recently became the campaign coordinator for CAA's literature distribution program. The propaganda machine run by the animal agriculture industry is enormous. They go to great lengths to hide the abuse that goes on in factory farms and other animal-ag facilities. The easiest and least time consuming way to combat this giant machine is through grassroots literature distribution. This includes things like stocking the Vegetarian Starter Kit (VSK) stands, co-ops, coffee shops, restaurants, and other businesses with leaflets and other information.

We currently have a number of locations throughout the Twin Cities metro area that are stocked with leaflets such as Why Vegan, Compassionate Choices, and the Mercy For Animals VSKs. We also try to hang a poster advertising for CAA at every location. We also hang posters advertising for upcoming events sponsored by CAA Current growth is focused on finding more locations in St. Paul and further strengthening our presence in Minneapolis.

Passive information distribution such as this allows for us to reach the greatest number of people with the least amount of effort. It also allows for the public to approach the matter at their own terms. If they are interested they will be more likely to be persuaded to go veg by the information provided.

Volunteering for this campaign is easy. We are open to stocking literature just about anywhere that seems viable. Interested persons and location ideas should be emailed to matt.schmittdiel@exploreveg.org.

Hello, everyone! 

As we all know, "the pen is mightier than the sword."  So, I'd like to tell you a little about CAA's writers group! 

Responding to articles in newspapers and other publications, and writing letters to the editors are both great ways to reach thousands of people.  Links to pertinent articles relating to animal rights and animal cruelty (factory farming isn't always a hot topic in newspapers everyday...) are sent to those on the writers group listserv, along with submission instructions and suggestions. 

It is very easy to participate!  Most submissions are only about 200 words or so, which is just right for an informative paragraph and only takes a few minutes to do.  Many publications, including the U of M's Minnesota Daily, are always on the lookout for good, quality submissions and it is extremely rewarding to see your own work printed and being read by so many people! 

Currently, the writers group consists of 19 wonderful and dedicated CAA volunteers.  If you want your voice heard and would like to get involved with helping to enlighten the world, please contact me at volo0012@umn.edu.  Looking forward to writing with you all!

*Kristine*

Hey All--I'd just like to update everybody on couple of volunteer coordination developments.

Yesterday I attended the first day of a 2-part Volunteer Impact Leadership Training Series which was hosted by the MN Association of Volunteer Administrators. Over the course of the day we covered topics ranging from capturing volunteer motivation, conducting effective interviews, planning for retention, recruitment, and risk management. I was able to get a ton of resources and ideas, plus do some networking. I'm excited to help incorporate some of the new techniques and ideas into CAA's volunteer team.

Also, some of you may have heard about the up-and-coming Volunteer Staff Program. This would be a way of formalizing our volunteer and internship program and add a new level of professionalism to it. One of the components of this that Unny and I have been working on is creating detailed job descriptions/contracts that outline responsibilities, expectations, benefits, and time commitments involved for a given position.

What are your ideas for transforming our volunteer program to become more effective, motivating, and fun?
 

We launched our Building a Foundation for The Animals Future fundraising campaign yesterday, with the goal of raising $15,000 from individual donors by the end of April, 2009. We brought in an excellent fundraiser to train us and an experienced volunteer to coordinate the logistics. Volunteers will meet with donors and supporters to ask them to give a contribution to the campaign. Look for more information coming soon on Exploreveg.org and the Weekly Update. Also check out the info on the wiki.