New Website Launched
The NAACP website has been revised and updated
to improve your viewing experience and to make it
easier to keep you informed about the organization’s activities, accomplishments and events. We
will continue to add sections and valuable information that will keep the organization visible and you
informed. Check it out at http://montereynaacp.org
Membership News
On behalf of the membership committee, I, Regina
Mason, Membership Committee Chair, bring you
greetings! I am pleased to report that memberships
continue to increase in our local branch.
Memberships are the life blood of the organization and without them, the organization would not
survive. We need our local NAACP now more than
ever. I am appealing to any of you that are in
a position, to sponsor a young adult. There are several young people that have expressed an interest in
joining our branch but don't have the resources, so if
you are in a position to sponsor someone, please do
so or leave me a message at the office. (394-3727)
Beginning in 2012, we will host quarterly new
member orientations - stay tuned!
February 4, 2012 our 40th Annual Life Membership Banquet will be held at the Hyatt Monterey.
Details to be on the website—Mark your calendar!!
Youth Council
Two members of the NAACP Monterey County
Youth Council have been chosen for youth posts
with the California State NAACP Youth and College Division. Alycia Singletary, who is our Youth
Council President, was appointed to the communications committee, as communications Chair, and
Timothy Benton was appointed assistant secretary.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
NAACP
Become a Member
Your membership is more than a contribution.
You are joining a team of people that believe in
equality and support for the elimination of
discrimination.
Annual Adult Membership—$30
Lifetime Adult Membership—$750
Annual Youth Membership—$15
Lifetime Youth Membership—$400
Monterey County NAACP Officers
Mel Mason, President
Joe Watson, 1st Vice President
Helen Rucker, 2nd Vice President
Jim Black, Treasurer
Edward W. Armstrong, Sec./V. Chair,
Education
Steven Goings, Asst. Secretary
Executive Committee
All listed above +
Tony Anderson, Member
Mary Claypool, Chair/Press & Publicity
Leroy Davis, Chair Armed Forces/Veterans
Rev. Harold Lusk, Chair/Religious Affairs
Monica Mapp, Chair, Youth Works
Dean Martin, Member
Regina Mason, Chair/Membership
Narges Mohsenpour, Chair/ACT-SO
Alana Myles, Member
Princess Pope, Chair/Education
Delores Scaife-Higgins, Member
Josh Stewart, Chair/Legal Redress
Ruthie Watts, Chair/Stephen E. Ross Breakfast
NAACP Office Contact
1104 Broadway Avenue, Ste F
P. O. Box 782, Seaside, Ca. 93955
(831) 394-3727
Fax: (831) 394-3727
E-mail: [email protected]
Monterey County Branch
www.montereynaacp.org
Mission
To ensure the political, educational, social
and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination
Vision
The vision of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a
society in which all individuals have equal
rights without discrimination based on race.
Objectives
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
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To achieve equality
To eliminate discrimination
To remove barriers of racial discrimination
To seek enactment of civil rights laws
NAACP Meetings
Executive Committee
2nd Tuesday 7 PM. @ NAACP Office
General Membership: 4th Thursday 7 P.M.
Check website for meeting locations.
President’s Report
As we come to an end of this assembled
leadership’s first year in office, the
Monterey County Branch-NAACP can
reflect on its many successes these past
twelve months that were recounted in
previous Branch newsletters. Of continued
importance has been the Branch’s central
role in the struggles of unions, especially
UNITE/HERE Local 483 and the hotel
workers struggles in Carmel at the Carmel
Mission Inn, the Pine Inn and the La Playa
Hotel. I, along with 15 others activists, was
arrested in Carmel for an act of civil
disobedience in support of workers who
were thrown out of work when the
ownership of the La Playa Hotel changed
hands. According to union organizers, the
participation of the Branch in all these
demonstrations continues to lift the spirits of
the workers involved in these struggles.
Most recently, after a sustained Branch
intervention, an African American woman
who had been denied a pay raise in October
2009, was awarded her long overdue pay
raise with that pay raise being made
retroactive to October 2009! The Branch
continues to be where it is needed.
February 2012 will mark the 80th anniversary
of the NAACP in Monterey County! On
February 4, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel,
the Branch will host its 40th annual Life
Membership Banquet during which those 80
years of victorious civil rights and social
justice advocacy will be celebrated. Keynote
speaker will be our own National NAACP
President/CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous! After
80 years, it is clearly obvious that the NAACP
is still needed here and across this country.
The national NAACP will be holding meetings
and demonstrations on 12/10/11 to register
new voters and to call for the U.S. Supreme
Court to strike down the 1,000 draconian voter
laws that are being proposed in 46 states.
While these laws do not yet exist in California,
it is the NAACP’s belief that, if these laws are
not overturned in other states, similar laws
could occur in California. In fact, there were
two attempts in the state legislature to get two
such bills adopted. Both attempts failed, but
other attempts may soon be made. The
California State NAACP has set a goal of
registering 26,300 new African American
voters by June 2012. All branches in the state
are going all out to accomplish this goal and
more. For more information on the draconian
voter laws, go to the National NAACP website
at www.naacp.org .
Education Committee
The Education Comm. continues to look for
opportunities to forge stronger ties with the
Monterey Peninsula Unified School District
(MPUSD) community. Princess Pope,
Education Comm. Chair is a member of
Seaside High School and the Martin Luther
King Jr. Elementary School Parent Teacher
Student Association (PTSA).
She is the community representative and cochair on the School Site Council at Martin
Luther King School . She also represents the
NAACP at the MPUSD school board meetings and reports on actions taken by the board,
paying particular attention to issues dealing
with equitable services and opportunities for
the minority student population. Mrs. Myles
is also a member of the Community Bond
Oversight Committee.
For 2011, the NAACP has awarded 13 college
and university scholarships in the amount of
$4,600 to Monterey County students who are
attending schools across the nation. Applications for 2012 are available online and at the
NAACP office on Broadway/ Obama Way in
Seaside. The deadline for application submission is April 1, 2012. The NAACP is very
appreciative of the donations received, to
date, in the amount of $1,005 as a result of
this year’s Silent Tea Fundraising efforts. We
encourage others to send in donations to the
Monterey County Branch NAACP, Scholarship Committee, P. O. Box 782 Seaside, Ca.
93955.
The Coalition of Scholarship Organizations held
its 6th High School / College Info Forum at the
Oldemeyer Center in Seaside on 10/29/11. African-America student presence was conspicuously
underrepresented. Greater effort is needed to encourage the African-American students to participate. Information presented included financing
for college, how to be a responsible student, developing a healthy self-image, and the scholarship
application process. The guest speaker was Dr.
Nicole Sims-Wyatt, MD who grew up in Seaside,
attended San Carlos Middle School & York Preparatory School. She received her medical training at Lake Erie College of Medicine and now
resides in Southern California.