We are a very active group.  Below is a list of some of the things our members  have done in 2014, so far.  However, we do not pressure anyone to participate in these actions.  We respect each person’s autonomy.   Members find a variety of ways to engage in activism and exercise their leadership capacities.

We have:

1. Participated in weekly Occupy Elgin demonstrations on Saturday afternoons from  1:00 PM till 2:00 PM at Kimball Street and Grove Avenue, across from the Library in Elgin.
2. January 13th.  Spoke at school board meetings in Elgin and Carpentersville about the upcoming legislation to dissolve the Illinois State Charter Commission.
3. Had a literature table at Elgin ‘s Martin Luther King Breakfast.
4. Picketed Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth outside of the Elgin Township Democrats Fundraiser Dinner to try to persuade her to take a position against Fast Track and the Trans Pacific Partnership.
5. January 23rd. Participated in a public forum about Charter Schools at the Batavia  Public Library entitled “Do Charter Schools Really Perform Better?”
6. February 1st. Participated in a rally and march in Chicago against Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Also participated in a rally and march in Chicago for Peace with Iran and against further sanctions and threatened war.
7. February 8th:  Held a public forum  about Syria with speakers Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel of the University of Denver Center for Middle East Studies.
8. Lobbied State Representative Keith Farnham about charter schools.
9. Attended a meeting of Illinois Fair Trade Coalition about the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Fast Track.
10. Participated in One Billion Rising,  the demonstration against Rape and all forms of Domestic Violence on February 14th 2014 at the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin.
11. March 5th. Attended meeting of Du Page coffee house about the TransPacific Partnership and Fast Track.
12. March 8th:  Hosted a meeting at Gail Borden Library featuring Dr. Vincent Gaddis speaking about the dire economic situation facing today’s youth:  “Hard Times 2014; Hunger Games 2025.”
13. March 10th:  Lobby/Strategy meeting with State Representative Linda Chapa LaVia about the charter school bills.
14. March 20th Elgin Community College .  Co- Hosted Dr.  Vince Gaddis in a repeat of his talk “Hard Times 2014; Hunger Games 2025.”   The other host was the Peace & Justice committee at ECC.
15. March 20th: attended a talk at Northern Illinois University with three International Peace Activists, Kathy Kelly, Medea Benjamin and Colonel Anne Wright.  We were one of several co-sponsors.
16. March 21st; Picket at Congressman Bill Foster’s  Aurora Office in an effort to pressure him to take a position on Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific  Partnership.
17. March 28th:  film showing of Legalize Democracy at Friday Flick’s at the Geneva Unitarian Church .  Two of our members spoke and conducted the Q & A afterwards.
18. April 2nd.  Participated in a lively protest on Randall Road in Elgin against the Supreme Court’s  McCutcheon decision.  We were the only protest site in Illinois outside of Chicago.
19. April 7th.  Participated in a National Day of Action to Stop Deportations in Chicago , with a rally and march.
20. April 8th:  Attended a Board of Trustees meeting at Elgin Community College to protest possible outsourcing of their custodians.
21. April 24th, Participated in a rally in Schaumburg in front of a Staples store,  in support of Postal Workers protesting the outsourcing of their jobs to Staples.
22.  Some of us attended and spoke up at an  ECC board of Trustees meeting about possible outsourcing of custodians.
23. Some of us went to Champaign/Urbana to talk with Central IL Jobs with Justice about charter school efforts.
24. We had a literature table at the Green Candles environmental event  in St. Charles & collected signatures on petitions.
25. We attended the May Day rally and march in Chicago.
26.  May 7th, we awarded our annual Jim Spurgeon Memorial Scholarship to a deserving student at Larkin High School.
27. We had a literature table at Elgin’s Green Expo, May 10th
28.  May 13th, we once again attended an ECC Board of Trustees meeting to speak up in support of custodians who were threatened with the outsourcing of their jobs.
29. We participate in a “Rally to Save the Planet” on Randall Road in Elgin on May 17th.
30. We attended the first meeting of the Fox Valley Chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby, April 29th.
31. We met with Sylvia Hood Washington at the Green Buddha Book store in Aurora to consult about environmental justice, May 20th.
32. Some of us walked in the DeKalb Memorial Day Parade with DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace & Justice, May 26th
33. Mary spoke to the Elgin Kiwanis Club about the Transpacific Partnership, May 28th.
34. We had a literature table at the Aurora Green Fest, June 14th
35. We showed the film, Lying Greedy Bastards at Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren
36. We walked in the Elgin July 4th parade.
37. Some of us spoke at the U-46 School Board meeting in opposition to a charter school application July 21st.
38. Some of us participated in various demonstrations against the Israeli military assault on Gaza, July 20th through 30th.
39. We walked in the Streamwood Summer Festival Parade, July 26th
40. We attended the town hall meeting which Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth held in Carpentersville on August 6th.
41. We had a literature table at Batavia’s Green Fair on the Fox, August 9th
42. We had a booth at the Fox Valley Folk Festival on August 31st and September 1st, as we do each year.
43. We attended the ECC Board of Trustees meeting on August 12th at which we were assured that the custodians at ECC would retain their jobs.
44.  On September 4th, we held a demonstration outside a McDonalds restaurant on Randall Road in support of Fast Food Workers who were on strike across the nation on that day.
45. On September 5th and again on September 26th, we joined a picket line with striking mechanics at Al Piemonte’s Chevrolet in East Dundee.
46. We showed the film Koch Brothers Exposed at Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren on September 12th and held a discussion afterward.
47.  September 13th,  we participate in an all day workshop with David Cobb,  Move to Amend, and Occupy Naperville about reclaiming democracy.
48. September 21st, some of us travelled to New York City to participate in the People’s Climate March there, along with 350,000 other people.  The rest of us held a People’s Climate Rally in Elgin with over 100 people followed by a march across town to participate in a potluck supper with Elgin the International City of Peace.
49.  September 30th, some of us spoke at the Illinois Charter Commission Public Hearings about the proposed charter school in Elgin.
50. Some of us attended a public hearing held by the new Chairwoman of the Federal Elections Commission, Ann Ravel on October 14th at the University of Chicago School of Social Work Administration.   Commissioner Ravel was gathering input from the public about dark money and about the influence of big money in politics.