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7-14-05
Fredericksburg Meeting Agenda and Gas Chamber Update
1. Please come to the VVAW anniversary meeting on Saturday, 7/23/05.
The meeting will be held from 11am to 1pm.
It will be at the Colonial Inn, the same place we have held 3 earlier meetings.
Colonial Inn
1707 Princess Ann St.
Fredericksburg, VA 22401
(540) 371-5666
Please let us know that you are coming so we can have enough seating.
This is a special meeting, so please make every effort to attend, and bring along those who are like-minded.
2. The agenda will be a brief review of next steps with legislative initiatives from 2005.
It will also be an opportunity to discuss additional legislative suggestions a number of you have made.
If there are other initiatives you think should be considered, it would be helpful to know what they are prior to the meeting so we can plan for discussion of them as well.
Information about initiatives will be sent separately.
3. At the meeting we will also update you on our 501 status.
Courtesy of Sandy Echeverry, a member of VVAW, a volunteer with HART, and an em-ployee of Swidler Berlin, a Washington, DC, law firm, we have help! Swidler Berlin has contributed significantly by working to establish us in various tax-exempt and legally proper forms on a pro bono basis. Thank you so much!
a. 501c3 – tax-deductible charitable foundation
Our application to become a 501c3 – a charitable organization where contribu-tions are tax deductible - is underway. Swidler Berlin counseled that to so qual-ify, the word “voters” should not be in our name. So, for the charitable portion of our group, we will be “Virginians for Animal Welfare”.Projects anticipated to be funded by tax-deductible contributions to “Virginians for Animal Welfare” will be sent out separately. We will make time at the 7/23 meeting to briefly discuss these. By the way, please come ready to say which project you want to work on.
b. 501c4 – lobbying for legislation
Our application is in process to become a 501c4 so that we can lobby for VVAW legislation or for other legislation that VVAW supports.While contributions made to this are not tax-deductible, these are very necessary for the success we want at both the local and state level.
Information about initiatives will be sent separately.
c. PAC
We further anticipate becoming a PAC – Political Action Committee – so we can “electioneer” in favor of or in opposition to local and state candidates.d. As we get our clearances, we will be back in touch with you for your membership
in the new organizations, and for your contributions to them.
4. Update on gas chambers
Earlier this week, Don and I met again with Secretary of Agriculture Robert Bloxom (the State Vet reports to him), the State Veterinarian, Dr. Richard Wilkes, and Bill Murray, Deputy Director for Policy for Gov. Warner.
Sec. Bloxom was pleased that the direction was positive since Chesterfield County has transitioned to EBI since the last meeting. We told him Prince Edward had also transi-tioned as had Floyd and Pulaski earlier, and we agreed those changes were positive, but advised of rumors that some now doing EBI may revert to gas since payment by private sources to vets for EBI may stop.
We noted that inspections made within the last year for jurisdictions with gas had NOT A SINGLE INSPECTION DONE pursuant to the regulations the State Vet’s office itself had put into place in November, 2004.
We also provided, where state figures were available, the number of animals that were being gassed annually by the gas-using jurisdictions.
We asked if Secretary Bloxom and Dr. Wilkes had seen a gas chamber, or seen one in operation. Sec. Bloxom has not seen one at all, and Dr. Wilkes has seen one but not in operation. They were shown the photograph of the Buckingham County chamber.
We noted that not all jurisdictions have turned into the state, as mandated by law, the animal records for 2004, including some of the jurisdictions with gas. Dr. Wilkes says there will be a reminder sent to that effect.
We reiterated that the offer of financial assistance to jurisdictions still using gas chambers is still active. We advised that we had written each jurisdiction using gas to communicate the offer but had replies only from those already transitioning. We decided that a mutual effort was next with an inspection by the vet accompanied by the financial assistance of-fer made after the inspection.
Dr. Wilkes asked if we would welcome other animal welfare groups to work with VVAW. We said of course.
The meeting ended with the expectation that we would work collaboratively on this, the decision about doing so to be made in another meeting during the first week of August. While we expect to work together, it was made clear that VVAW will move separately if circumstances require.
We will see you on 7/23.
Lillian Clancy, Don Marro and Glen Swain