The Interim Progressive Caucus Meeting is this Saturday February 2^nd, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the law firm of Kaplan, Hecker & Fink located in the Empire State Building at 350 Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan. RSVP here.

The major topics to be covered at the Interim Progressive Caucus Meeting are:

The Sexual Harassment Working Group, a group of seven former New York State Legislative staffers, all of whom experienced or reported sexual harassment while working for the State, has finally won their campaign for a public joint legislative hearing in Albany in support of HarassmentFreeAlbany.  This will be the first hearing on sexual harassment in 20 years. 

• Our newly formed subcommittee Addressing Sexual Harrassment will be headed by State Committeewoman Lauren Trapanotto and Erica Vladimir, a former staffer of Jeff Klein, and Alexis Grenell will discuss SHWG’s legislative goals. They are encouraging people affected by sexual harassment to testify on February 13^th:   http://bit.ly/SexualHarassmentHearingSignUp

• Erie County Chair Jeremy Zellner wrote an excellent op-ed calling for an end to fusion voting, a practice which consistently hurts Democratic candidates upstate. (It also enables the pay-to-play Independence Party to flourish.) He will be discussing a proposed bill to end this practice.

• And State Committeeman Rick Gell, who has developed video software platforms and brought the platform “Nation Builder” to his local committee, will present his plan for a Democratic Civic Network which would serve as the missing “association” for Democrats at all levels of party governance, enabling each of us to easily communicate with each other.

• State Committeewoman Kelleigh McKenzie, who heads up our Bylaws Reform subcommittee will lead a discussion on Rules and Bylaw Reform and our committee’s strategy to effect real reform.

• Last but definitely not least, we will discuss a response to the egregious conduct by the Executive Committee at last October’s meeting. State Committeeman Bill Greenawalt sent an excellent letter to Mayor Byron Brown and will make a presentation about the letter and the response to it. Another letter was sent earlier by other State Committee Members and we will discuss both in the context of crafting our own Caucus letter.

Finally, there will be coffee, soft drinks, and snacks! Please remember to RSVP if you plan to come and I look forward to seeing you on Saturday!

In solidarity,
Rachel Lavine, Chair