[Pacg] PACG to receive Grassroots Leadership Award from ICAN!

[Carolina 1961]

*We are happy to have received this news from Phillip Cryan of the Iowan
Citizen Action Network in Des Moines.  Congratulations to all of us who have
built this amazingly active and vital organization we call Progressive
Action for the Common Good!!*

Anyone who would like to travel to Johnston on April 21st to receive the
award on behalf of PACG, please let me know!  Cathy  cbarts4 at aol.com

>From ICAN:

*We are very pleased to announce that at our annual Delegates Assembly and
Leadership Training Conference – April 21 in Johnston – we will be honoring
PACG as this year's recipient of our Grassroots Leadership Award. Each year
we honor one organization in the state that our Board and staff see as
"doing exemplary work, and embodying the spirit of true grassroots
activism." *

*  We specifically seek to honor groups whose accomplishments and political
strength are outsized in comparison to their budgets – groups that are doing
extraordinary work as true "Davids" facing off with the Goliaths we all have
to confront (not groups with lots of paid staff members, infrastructure,
glossy materials, etc.).*

*  In a meeting last week, our Board unanimously (and very enthusiastically)
selected PACG as the organization most deserving of the Grassroots
Leadership Award this year. *

*  Some other organizations to receive the Grassroots Leadership Award in
recent years include the American Friends Service Committee, I-RENEW (Iowa
Renewable Energy Association), United Students Against Sweatshops, a group
called the "MEANIES" (Montpelier Endangered Neighborhood Effort) that won
some major concessions from IPSCO Steel after a campaign to get the company
to clean up its practices, the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association, and the
Humboldt County auditors (who passed the first county-level ordinance
regulating CAFOs, which was later overturned by the Iowa Supreme Court).  *

*We're really happy to be able to bring the attention of progressive groups
around the state to the amazing work PACG has been doing, through this
award. We would be delighted if a contingent from PACG could make it to the
Delegates Assembly on the 21st to receive the award together.  Barack Obama
will  be our keynote speaker.  Other details are below.*

*Best,   *

*P hillip Cryan  **Program Director
**Iowa Citizen Action Network (ICAN)
**3520 Beaver Avenue
Des Moines, IA  50310
* *pcryan at iowacan.org* <pcryan at iowacan.org>
*Mobile :      515.708.2364 *

Anyone who would like to travel to Johnston on April 21st to receive the
award on behalf of PACG, please let me know!  Cathy  cbarts4 at aol.com
 Attend the ICAN Conference in Des Moines
on April 21
------------------------------

By Betty Ahrens, Executive Director

I am pleased to invite you to attend ICAN's Annual Leadership Training
Conference set for Saturday, April 21 – from 12:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. – at
the Foxboro Conference Center in Johnston (6163 86th Street).  This year our
keynote speaker is Barack Obama, U.S. Senator and best-selling author of The
Audacity of Hope. In addition, we will offer a workshop on using Our Common
Values to build progressive power and unite our voices around a shared
progressive voice. Due to limited seating (and the popularity of our keynote
speaker), pre-registration is required. There is a $35 registration fee per
person ($40 if paid at the door) for the Conference, which includes lunch,
awards ceremony, workshop and keynote speaker. I hope you will attend and
bring other members of your organization to spend the afternoon and evening
with ICAN.  We are going to have a great Conference and want you to be a
part of this exciting day.  We are intent on "Using Our Common Values to
Build Progressive Power," but we can't do it without you!


The Our Common Values training session will provide an interactive
small-group experience that will stretch your ways of thinking and doing –
and have practical application in our shared work. These small group
sessions will be fun and high-energy as well as thought provoking. This is a
great opportunity to develop new leaders or to give established leaders a
fresh perspective on their work. Participants in this workshop will find
themselves more savvy and effective advocates when they apply the lessons
learned in this session to their on-going work. We are delighted to have a
group of experienced, skilled facilitators joining us to lead the
workshops:  Alexa Bradley and Dave Mann, of the Grass Roots Policy Project,
Carolyn Castore of the Midwest States Center, Phillip Cryan of ICAN and Matt
Russell, of the Iowa Network for Community Agriculture.

In the U.S. Senate, keynote speaker Senator Barack Obama – who began his
career as a community organizer in Chicago – has focused on tackling the
challenges of a globalized, 21st century world with fresh thinking and a
politics that no longer settles for the lowest common denominator. Amid the
partisanship and bickering of today's public debate, he still believes in
the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose - a politics that
puts solving the challenges of everyday Americans ahead of partisan
calculation and political gain.  Whether it's the poverty exposed by
Katrina, the genocide in Darfur, or the role of faith in our politics,

Barack Obama continues to speak out on the issues that will define America
in the 21st

Century. This makes him the ideal speaker to include in our day-long
exercise of using

Our Common Values to build progressive power. Seating is limited, and as a
result

we are unable to provide entrance to the keynote speech to individuals or
groups who

have not attended the entire Leadership Training Conference.

Seating is very limited for the Conference.  Please register no more than 1
individual(s).
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