Brooklyn Chapter of the United Nations Association of the U.S.A.

On this blog, and through emails, I’ve informed the UNA Brooklyn Chapter (UNABC) membership of the proposed alliance between the United Nations Association of the U.S.A. and the United Nations Foundations. Now the UNA-USA is requesting its affiliated chapters to pick delegates to vote on the proposed alliance in October.

What will delegates do? They will vote on behalf of the UNABC to officially affiliate itself with the newly reformed UNA-USA, under the umbrella of the United Nations Foundation’s Better World Fund. You can read the agreement published here.

Picking Delegates

The UNABC is allotted two delegates. Any member of UNABC is eligible to become a delegate by informing me of his or her wish to be so. Once we have the list of interested parties, we will vote for delegates by email. The two members with the most votes will become UNABC’s delegates.

Unless members object to this delegate selection plan, choosing delegates will proceed as follows:

1. Any UNABC member is eligible to become a delegate. If you wish to be a delegate then please alert me by August 31, 2010.

2. The list of members who are “running” for delegate will be announced on this blog on September 5th with a call for a vote.

3. Votes for delegates can be emailed to unabrooklyn@gmail.com or placed on our website here. Details will follow on September 5th.

4. I will announce the selected delegates on September 13th.

The voting will take place in October, through email or other online medium, as determined by UNA-USA.

Gabriel Levitt

Dear UNA Brooklyn Chapter and YPIC – SNYSD Members who live in Brooklyn –

The UNA Brooklyn Chapter endeavors to meet with all of Brooklyn’s congressional representatives in the week leading up to UN Day – which is on October 24th – to advocate positions that are critical to the work of the UNA and UN. The positions are outlined at the end of this message and links can be found to background information on these positions in the following post –UNA Brooklyn Advocacy Positions.  Please note that I have added the position of “support for the Millennium Development Goals” but it is still subject to a vote by the Board.

This cannot and will not happen without your participation. Members of Congress will often only schedule meetings of this type for their constituents, meaning YOU.  I’m asking for volunteers to contact your congressional representative, as a member of the United National Association of the U.SA., to schedule a meeting for October 21-23 to discuss issues of importance relating to the United Nations, international law, and multilateralism. We only need one person from each district so we’ll do this on a first-come first-serve basis. Keep in mind that we will help you schedule the appointment.

For those of you who are interested in advocacy and want more experience this is an amazing opportunity. UNA Brooklyn Chapter member Cristina Grisham has graciously agreed to conduct advocacy training specifically geared toward our efforts for late October. Cristina is an expert in this area and it’s likely you’ll have a lot of fun working on this. The advocacy training is scheduled for September 15th at 6:00p (probably to be held at the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University).

By scheduling an appointment, you’ll commit to either leading the meeting with your congressional representative or at least showing up with others to the meeting. If you wish to be the “leader” then we ask that you attend the advocacy training on September 15th (even if you’ve done this before!).

Most of you know who your congressional representatives are, but in case you don’t or are new to the city, please review the following in formation. You can also find out who your member of Congress is by typing in your zip code on the following page: http://capwiz.com/unausa/dbq/officials/?lvl=C.
Member of Congress – District – Neighborhoods
Ed Towns    10    Fort Greene, Bedford Stuyvesant, Brownsville, East New York, and Canarsie.
Yvette Clarke    11    Park Slope, Crown Heights, Flatbush, East Flatbush and Prospect Heights
Nydia Velazquez    12    Bushwick, Williamsburg, Red Hook, and Sunset Park
Anthony Weiner    9    Much of central and southeastern Brooklyn, as well as portions of south-central Queens
Jerry Nadler    8    South Brooklyn including Coney Island, Seagate, Brighton Beach, Boro Park and parts of Bath Beach. It also includes the piers in Red Hook and Sunset Park.
Michale McMahon    13    Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst and all of Gravesend and Dyker Heights.

If you’d like to volunteer to schedule an appointment with your congressional representative then please let me know by August 31st. You can contact using our website form here or by email at unabrooklyn@gmail.com.

Gabriel Levitt
President
UNA Brooklyn Chapter

UNA Brooklyn Chapter Advocacy Positions  – subject to further refinement:
1.    Urge congressional representative to join the American Engagement Caucus.

2.    Urge congressional representative to appropriate full funding for the UN regular and peacekeeping budgets; and create the necessary administrative funding procedures to not fall behind on future payments.

3.    Urge congressional representative to support US actions that will lead to joining the International Criminal Court and to repeal the American Service Members’ Protection Act of 2002.

4.    Urge congressional representative to support UN actions to tackle the emergency that is climate change.

5.    Urge congressional representative to voice support for international treaties that the US has yet to sign and/or ratify:
a.    Rights of Women (CEDAW).
b.    Rights of the Child
c.    Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
d.    Cluster Munitions Convention
e.    Mine Ban Treaty

6. Urge support for the Millennium Development Goals (recently added, subject to a vote by the Board).