Nashville: Compass IV Conference

How would you like to spend this Saturday day listening to inspired
speakers, networking with like-minded people, engaging in passionate
discussion about pressing social issues, watching informative
documentary films, grooving to great music and browsing a unique
bookshop with hard-to-find books you've been looking for?
If this is your cup of tea, you need to attend the Compass IV
Conference this Saturday, April 14, 9 am to 4 pm at Cohn Adult Learning
Center, 4805 Park Avenue in West Nashville. The action packed agenda
includes 12 workshops, including a free workshop on Global Warming,
films, music, a bookshop and Keynote Speakers David Sirota and Paul
Waldman. You can register at www.tennesseeallianceforprogress.org.
Cost is $25 per day. If you need financial assistance in order to
attend, contact nellrose@earthlink.net.


Here's the agenda for Saturday.

Compass IV Workshops – Saturday, April 14, 2007, Cohn Adult Learning
Center

Registration: 8 AM to 9 AM

Welcome and Report from Friday's Strategy Session: 9 AM - AUDITORIUM
– Dan Joranko, Tennessee Alliance for Progress Board Chair

Keynote Address: 9:15 AM – AUDITORIUM – Paul Waldman, of Media
Matters for America, author of Being Right Is Not Enough: What
Progressives Must Learn From Conservative Success.

Break and Paul Waldman Booksigning: 10:15 AM

Morning Workshops: 10:30 to 11:50 AM

Doing Justly – LIBRARY – a workshop on faith, spirituality, morality
and politics organized by TAP's Doing Justly Project: Integrating Our
Deepest Spiritual Beliefs Into Our Professional and Public Lives.
Presenters: Fred Allen, Dan Joranko, Tamara Ambar Losel, Ted Parks,
Melissa Spas, and Harmon Wray.

Reducing Poverty and Inequality in Tennessee: What Works - ROOM 209.
This workshop will look at successful programs and policies that are
being used here and abroad. Presenters: Martha Wettemann of Tennessee
State Employees Association, Rebekah Jordan, Midsouth Interfaith
Network for Economic Justice, Jerry Lee of Tennessee AFL/CIO, and a
representative of the Vanderbilt employee living wage movement.

Activism 101 - ROOM 201. Want to get active and make a difference
but don't know where to start? This workshop is for you. Presenters:
Keith Caldwell, Coordinator, Nashville Peace and Justice Center, Jen
Cartwright, former Education Director, Nashville Peace and Justice
Center, and Megan Mecaraeg, Organizer, Jobs with Justice.

The Joy of Activism— Mobilizing the Mamas – ROOM – tbd.
(Fathers and all others who care about & for children are warmly
welcome). Mothers Acting Up will facilitate a conversation about
parental activism: where are we on our current journey? What are the
barriers and obstacles to parental activism? How can we overcome them?
We will view Mothers Acting Up, the movie and participants will receive
a copy of the Mothers Acting Up 2007 Mother Leadership Handbook and
Engagement calendar. The Mother Agenda includes community building,
Mother's Day Reclamation, tabling, and advocacy for children in the
offices of our representatives. Children's activities and daycare
provided. Please contact nellrose@earthlink.net if you will need
childcare. Presenter: Paige La Grone Babcock.

Media Reform – ROOM 201- Learn what's wrong with the corporate media
and how you can become a media activist. Presenters: Ginny Welsch of
Radio Free Nashville, Mary Mancini of Liberadio(!) and Elliott Mitchell
is of Metropolitan Educational Access Corporation.

How to Write Op-Eds That Get Published - ROOM 204. - Get read!
Get heard! Get blogged!Learn how to bring your activism onto the
opinion pages of Tennessee's newspapers, on airwaves, and into
cyberspace. This workshop that will show you how to leverage your
activism through the commentary continuum.The Forum is working to
increase progressive voices in the mainstream media. Presenters:
American Forum Executive Director Denice Zeck and Elizabeth Barger
Chair of the Tennessee Editorial Forum.

Lunch: Noon to 1 PM – DOWNSTAIRS CAFETERIA

Films: 12:10 PM to 1:00 PM – DOWNSTAIRS CAFETERIA.
Collateral Damage: Bad Medicine in Tennessee
Scenes from Eternal Vigilance: The Fight To Save Our Election System,
Q&A with filmmaker David Earnhardt.

Afternoon Workshops: 1:00 to 2:30 PM

Global Climate Change – AUDITORIUM - A Powerpoint presentation, based
on Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Presenters: Jennifer Tlumak, a
graduate of Al Gore's Climate Project and Rev. Jim Deming of Tennessee
Interfaith Power and Light and Northwest Earth Institute. FREE AND
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Afternoon Workshops: 1:10 to 2:30 PM

Passing the Torch: Youth Activism – LIBRARY - This workshop will be
led by youth and adult staff working with Oasis Community IMPACT
(OCI). OCI works with young people from two East Nashville High
Schools, Stratford and Maplewood, to promote educational and economic
equity for urban students, schools, and neighborhoods by cultivating
grassroots leadership through a youth organizing strategy.This
workshop will provide participants the opportunity to learn more about
this work, to better understandwhy working with youth is critical, and
someeffective strategies for working with a new generation of
change-makers.

Progressive Blogging – ROOM 121 - Sandy Smith Madsen of the
award-winning blog, Tennessee Guerilla Women will bring together
bloggers to share the secrets of their craft. Presenters: Chiara at
Thoughts of an Average Woman, Callie at Red State Exile, and Rick at
Coyote Chronicles.

Election 2008 – ROOM 203. Discussion of local, state and national
candidates, voter suppression, paper-trail ballot boxes and other
issues. Presenters: Dr. Sekou Franklin, MTSU Political Science
Department, Jim Grinstead, Democracy for Tennessee, Chick Westover,
Gathering to Save Our Democracy, and Seanna Brandmeir, President
Tennessee Young Democrats.

Tennesseee's Health Care Crisis – ROOM 203 - Discussion of uninsured
problem, TennCare, single payer proposals and other options.
Presenters: Dr. Jim Powers of Vanderbilt Medical Center, with Lori
Smith of Tennessee Health Care Campaign, Jim Hudson of Physicians NAT
Health Plan and Dr. Richard Braun.

The Politics of Crime and Punishment in Tennessee – ROOM 204 - Topics
will include prison privatization, death penalty, racism in the
criminal justice system, and restorative transformative justice as an
alternative to our present retributive system. Presenters: Harmon Wray
of Vanderbilt Program on Faith and Criminal Justice, Stacy Rector of
Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing and Gail Tyree of
Grassroots Leadership of Memphis.

Break: 2:30 to 2:45 PM

Music: 2:45 PM - AUDITORIUM - Renown Songwriter/Artist Robert Ellis
Orrall will perform his hit "Al Gore" and other selections.

Keynote Address: 3:00 PM – AUDITORIUM – Activist and Media
Commentator David Sirota, author of Hostile Takeover: How Big Money &
Corruption Conquered Our Government – and How We Take It Back.

David Sirota Book Signing: 4:00 – 4:20 PM