6632 Telegraph Rd,
Ste 110
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301
248-559-DADS
dadspac@dadsofmichigan.org
|
June, 2006 DADS of Michigan PAC, Find your legislator, under contacts: http://www.dadsofmichigan.org/pacnews.html
FAMILY MATTERS: DADS of Michigan PAC conducted a Legislative Forum on Tuesday, June 13 at the House Office Building in Lansing to brief Legislators. A folder with information on Shared Parenting was distributed to every Representative and Senator prior to the forum. Attendance was good and featured speakers included Representative John Stahl, Robert Pederson, Dr. Michael Ross, Gary Naeyaert, Jay Fedewa, Harold Sanchez, and more. Robb MacKenzie in his bright orange jersey greeted many people and visited many of the offices. Food service was provided by favorite Art’s Pizza.
DADS MARATHON, June 14-23, 2006
DEAR REPRESENTATIVE Thank you very much for your vote for HB 5701 on Parenting Plans. The Marriage package of bills is also good initiative. Unfortunately, many Dads struggle unsuccessfully to be involved in school and sports activities with their children. We have had 3 recent calls where Dad's were denied access to a YMCA, school calendars, and one was incarcerated when he went to see his son's soccer game. He did not know that the Mom set him up to be arrested. There are 3 things you can do.
This Federal law entitles noncustodial parents access to a child's educational records. The Michigan Attorney General recently responded that he does not have the authority to intervene when schools withhold educational information from non-custodial parents. Have a wonderful independence day and best wishes in your campaign. Let us know how we can help. I have asked our membership to be there for you and help distribute materials. DOM
UPDATE ON KEY LEGISLATION
Legal Updates: Family law
Updated Bills or Resolutions
Precinct Delegates Once elected as a Delegate, there are a few mandatory events that you should note in your calendar. The next date to put on your calendar will be the State Convention, which will take place Friday and Saturday August 25th and 26th in Southeast Michigan! Location and venue to be announced. OAKLAND COUNTY: Your main responsibility will be to attend the first County Convention of 2006 on August 17th starting at 7:00 PM at the Commissioners Auditorium located at 1200 N. Telegraph Road in Pontiac.
VAWA Update: Violence Against Women Act (Make Gender Neutral)
Dads Marathon, It was our day in Washington, DC by Paul Sielski Special thanks to Karl J. Vesterling for helping all the Fathers. Not sure if you saw the following very nice e-mail from Ed Bartlett of RADAR. It's so very refreshing to see the Father's groups cooperating, pitching in and, politically united. Let's foster this momentum and scratch each others back as often as possible. As a Naval Commander, you understand and, I as a Marine understand, the need for joint operation exercises. We all have learned from this and, we will make other operational exercise more effective next time. It was a pleasure to have the company of Robb; he is an excellent spokesman for the cause. Special kudos to Tony Taylor (PA-Army Veteran) for making much of this possible. Tony has sacrificed much of his local PAactivities to be in Iowa to work on the Klein4Change.com campaign. Traveling to and from Iowa took a lot out of me/us, I apologize for not being able to help more, I did the very best I could. I know Tony is doing his devoted warrior's best for Father's Rights both locally and nationally. Ed Bartlett did communicate with me regarding his plans for Robb's visit. I had to ask Dr. Michael Ross to pickup on this, as I was frantically trying to get to Iowa and would be away from my home office traveling from June 14th until June 20th. On Thursday the 22nd, Robb gave me a copy of your itinerary e-mail and plans for him on Capital Hill. We did visit every Michigan Rep in the Rayburn Office Building on the first day. There were several different buildings on the list and for expedient purposes and, as the time schedule was already off, to make the best of the situation on the ground, I decided to get in front of as many Reps from your home State of MI as possible. The MI delegation reception was very gracious. Robb and DadsOfMichigan.org are most effective with Michigan US Congressmen. A great deal of time/effort in the humid heat is spent traveling from bldg to bldg. Very tough on the suite and tie uniform of the day. It's best not to be dripping with sweat when on the Hill. On Friday the 23rd, I was with Robb and Tom of RADAR, so we were on RADAR's agenda as agreed and made the most of it. I did take some targets of opportunity to synergistically advance your interests in MI. Specifically; we made the long trek to Rep Rodger's (R-MI-8th) office in the Cannon Bldg to pick up the flag/colors. From reading your instructions regarding picking up the flag, I was not sure what was meant, and Robb was not sure ether. I soon realized, being a Former US Marine and fellow US Veteran, the importance of the flag/colors guide-on in our mission to save Fatherhood. Robb held Old Glory high, and it was very instrumental in subsequent meetings with all Congressional Delegates. RADAR's message is very important, and to have Robb carrying the colors, helped to advance the effective delivery of the RADAR message. We then went back to the other side of Capital Hill again, to the Russell & Hart Senate Bldgs. The last picture in the e-mail below is a picture from Sen. Debbie Stabenow's office (D-M), http://stabenow.senate.gov/ The very unusual reception was at first contentious. The young lady pictured, at first, would not receive any and material from Robb and Tom, citing security concerns, she directed them to get a Federal ID and have their material screened by the Capital Police before she could accept anything. Wearing a suit and tie, I introduced myself and handed her my business card from Dr Klein's Presidential Exploratory Committee. Her contentious attitude quickly changed and she took the Klein4Change.com bi-fold platform brochure/biz card into the back room and came back and said everything was just fine, welcoming us to the office and eager to accept the RADAR material and the DadsOfMichigan.org message. She may have been taken aback from the bright yellow bike jerseys, but I think it is really a sincere effort to screen out trivial visitors and stress Sen. Stabenow's position on Homeland Security. Her office is right near the entrance to the Hart Senate Office Bldg. So I'm sure they get lots of street people visiting. Always remember too smile, be polite and professional in the face of adversity, hurdles and challenges, "the slow blade penetrates the shield". It could have been very easy to get into a confrontation with Sen. Stabenow's desk staff. Sen. Carl Levin's (D-MI) office was very interesting as there has been some staff turn over. You/we have a chance to break in a new staffer on VAWA, SSA, and Father’s Rights issues. Kevin R. Glandon is the new Legislative Correspondent on Family/SSA issues and was eager to listen to us. He wants facts, statistics and information to support our view. We were able to visit Sen. Santorum’s office (R-PA) I dropped Dr Michael Ross's and your name, with the staffers (follow up with Jen Vesey). We did not have time to visit Sen. Brownback's office (R-KS). I wish we could have spent more quality time in those two offices as they were on your itinerary e-mail. Be assured, that both of those fine Senators are well aware of the Dr Klein's posse' and we all spent quality time with Sen. Brownback in Iowa at the State GOP Convention. Tony and I did spend quality time with Sen. Santorum in his office as part of the Real Women's Voices Citizen Lobbying Day April 26th (Real Men's Voices?). At the time, we were unaware of Dr Ross's conversation with Sen. Santorum while he was giving the good Senator a ride to the airport. Sen. Santorum did express his interest in working on SSA Title 4D means testing and revisiting the Bradley Amendment. At the time I was surprised that the Senator was aware of it. Not being fully aware of what was said previously, I was not able to take full advantage of the opportunity. The Senator is having a tough time with the challenge from Casey (D-PA) for Senate in 2006. As Casey is Pro-life, Sen. Santorum has to find another issue to differentiate himself from his opponent Casey. Illegal Immigration is one of the differentiating issues, let’s make ending the FATHERLESS EPIDEMIC another issue, (see Mr. Bagwell of TX).
DOMP in Action Our major push for this next six weeks is as follows:
We will also be sending alerts to more then 200 Region Directors and Coordinators in the state. We need you to recruit more people and have them send an email to dadspac@dadsofmichigan.org to sign up.
PAC Action: Many of you can not commit the time to be in Lansing for legislative sessions and we have engaged a very effective lobbyist to get in front of the legislators. We need your financial support. With many of the pending bills reaching a critical stage, DADS of Michigan PAC engaged a lobbyist to further these issues. This is not free and we need you to make a monthly financial commitment of $10, $15, $25, $50, $100, $500, $1000 per month for the next year. We can process these via credit card each month. Please call our hotline at 248-559-3237 today to make your pledge or email dadspac@dadsofmichigan.org.
"Fathers are responsible parents too...because the best parent is both parents" |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||