Group Advisory Council is looking for volunteers who have skills in the areas of Fundraising, Outings, Recruitment of Volunteers, Leadership and Political Training, and Electronic Newsletters. The Council, has been busy collecting and compiling data from the group surveys and we would like to have people with experience on our team for the next step, which is to provide assistance to our groups. Interested individuals who would like to join should send a brief summary of Sierra Club experience, familiarity with above-mentioned areas. Please send this information and any inquiries to Debbie Matthews at treehuggerdeb@yahoo.com. We would like to have people from different Groups across the state join us.

Growth Management Committee

Florida Sierra has formed a Growth Management Coordinating Committee with the charge to work as a team to help protect Florida’s natural systems through efficient use of land, dense and diverse urban areas, communities that provide good quality of life, transportation and development that minimizes waste of resources and greenhouse gas production.

This new committee’s top priority is to provide support to the 18 Florida Groups on whatever are their local growth management issues to temper the onslaught of development in the State. To this end we need your assistance in two ways.

The committee needs to have a growth management point person in each group so ongoing, two-way communications can be established. Please let us know who this person is.The committee will be establishing a “best practices” library of how the groups successfully handled specific growth management situations. This library will be used as a resource to assist other groups that may have similar situations. Please send us your case histories, as detailed as possible.

The Growth Management Coordinating Committee currently consists of five people drawn from Orlando, Miami, Bradenton, St. Petersburg and Fernandina Beach. We are seeking two more committee members who will bring passion and knowledge to our task.

The Committee is currently working on the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment (Robert Weintraub point person), state legislation (Vicki DeSormier) and compiling group needs and experiences (Lucy Trimarco and Sandy Ripberger).

The Committee can be reached through Vicki DeSormier, committee chair, at freelancer1222@gmail.com Committee members: Vicki DeSormier,H. A. Greene, Sandra Ripberger,Lucy Trimarco, Robert Weintraub.

The new Florida Hometown Democracy web site is up and running. This site by FHD, Inc (www.floridahometowndemocracy.com/ ) is where you can follow up on news stories from around the state and get the latest information on the goal of Passing Amendment 4 in 2010. The top link, Campaign Materials, is where you will find downloads for bumper strips, t-shirts, yard signs and the FHD slide show in two formats. There are also links to You-tube videos about FHD. Join the campaign to get Amendment 4 passed by talking to your friends, neighbors and coworkers.

Kick-off events have been taking place in Jacksonville, West Palm, Sarasota and points in between. FHD is gearing up to alert and arouse our citizens to participate in actions that began once our ballot initiative was approved for the November 2, 2010 ballot. The momentum has to continue. Things you can do now: e-mail a vote for #4 message to all your address book names; an endorsement from your garden club or civic organization; table at local events and pass out the flyers available on the FHD web site; help raise funds by selling bumper strips and t-shirts; schedule a speaker to explain Amendment 4 at a local organization meeting.

Notice of Public Meetings From: Barbara A. Vergara, P.G. Director, Division of Water Supply Management

Subject: Water supply planning meetings