This year for my birthday, I would like for you to give the gift of becoming a member (or to renew your membership for 2018) of the Latino and Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valley. Attached is the application. The membership dues for one year are $25.00 for individuals and $10.00 for students, retirees, and low income individuals. The address to send the dues is on the application. Your dues help to sustain our organizing and advocacy efforts. As you know, our organization has always been a volunteer organization that is primarily sustained through membership dues and a yearly fundraiser. Only until recently, have we rented an office and hired an executive director which bring forward new fundraising challenges. All the work of our organizational, community development, and immigrant rights committees are carried out by community-based organizers who have emerged out of the civil rights and human rights movements. We are continually motivated through our practice of an “abundance mentality” where we continue to see the outcomes of our efforts in training and developing new leaders in our communities. In supporting our organization through your membership, you are helping to sustain the inspiration and efforts of our members in organizing an annual Cesar Chavez breakfast and Pilgrimage march; in advancing our collaboration with area schools and colleges, as part of the College4All Coalition in implementing a school-to-college pipeline; in implementing educational forums and workshops on voter, ballot initiative, and immigrant rights; in advancing our efforts to support workers and unions in our region; and in ensuring our ongoing participation in numerous coalitions on social justice and quality of life issues.
Jose Zapata Calderon
President of the Latino and Latina Roundtable