First, I want to thank Marilyn Singer who has revitalized the Action Committee with her innovative ideas and her "taking action yesterday’ policy. Witness my delay in putting this together as a sign that yesterday has changed into tomorrow. My apologies to all for the delay. No excuses. I intend to do better next month.

Our December meeting was a lunch highlighted by Lara York’s presentation to us about school finances in Fremont. FUSD has wisely used a 3% reserve fund level instead of the usual 2% of most districts. This has helped them in this time of budget crisis. However, no school district is out of the woods financially. Dependence on the state budget has complicated everything for school districts since there has been no action taken yet in Sacramento to address the budget shortfall. As Lara mentioned our state standards are high but the funding per student is low. Much constraint exists of where and how to cut expenses to meet the goal of a balanced budget because of contractual obligations. So far no one has come up with a realistic plan to solve this issue. Lara shared with us many scarey statistics. Among them were: California educates 1 in 6 children in the USA; Prop 98 guaranteed funds were suspended two years ago; our state ranks 46^th in per pupil funding which is exacerbated by our high cost of living and diverse student body; FUSD will receive another interim budget report in January and the news will probably not be good.

Other information shared at the meeting included Miriam’s report that the updated Fremont General Plan is moving along. Miriam wants us to put the General Plan on next month’s agenda. For more information go to Fremont’s web site, then to General Plan and then to Background Reports. Miriam noted that there is confusion about Action Minutes versus Action Notes. Peter and I will resolve this before the end of the year.

Miriam will ask Syeda to add an item on December’s board agenda to address who will tell the webmaster what information to put on and take off the web site. Confusion remains on this item.

Also at the next Action meeting we must discuss our recommendation to the board as to whether or not to support a study of the state prison system. Several Leagues have asked for local support for this at the 2009 LWVC convention. Concern was voiced that the scope of the proposed study might be too big and should be confined, but how? 

There was also a request that members look at the Government section of the LWVC update to keep up with the CA budget crisis.

At the next meeting we need to discuss who will head the interview team for newly elected and re-elected officials, including Jeff Davis and Eileen McDonald.

It was also noted that there are still sections of the web site that are listed as "Under Construction." That needs to be attended to.

And finally, a reminder of the LWVBA Bay Area League Day on January 31^st in Oakland. Topic is Delta Water. As usual the speakers will be very good. Traditionally we have paid for our members to attend while they take care of their own lunch fees. Does the board want to continue this policy?

If there are additional items you want highlighted at the next Action Committee meeting, please let me know ahead of time so I can plan the agenda appropriately.

Next meetings: January 8^th, Noon at Kay’s home; February 5^th, Noon at Kay’s home. According to November’s minutes, "We will meet Jan. 8th and then the meetings will go to the first Thursday of the month."

Alex Starr