MFA Brainstorms for 2010

MFA Volunteer Meeting November 15 Join fellow AR activists to help Mobilization for Animals plan projects for 2010. We need ideas, expertise, and volunteers. MFA focuses on vegan outreach and wildlife issues. After a brainstorming session, join us for snacks and a chance to get together with like-minded people. Bring your ideas, a plate, cup and utensils (trash is a wildlife issue!) Dedicate the day to helping animals! Before the meeting we will leaflet with circus protesters at UniverSoul Circus, and activists can carpool with us back to the church. Two heads are better than one, three heads better yet. LetÂÂ's pool our imaginations and expertise to create the most effective outreach possible. MFA is looking for ideas for on-going and planned projects for the coming year, as well as all-together new ideas for outreach efforts. Projects we are currently working on include: Make the Connection: Our photo exhibit about animals used for food pairs pictures of farm animals and fish with photos of humans posing in the same conditions and asks viewers to try putting themselves in the animalsÂÂ' places. We have been showing it in public places for the past three years, and it almost always draws a crowd and gets people to take literature and ask questions about going vegan. Now we want to make it into a slide show that can be put on the internet or shown on a monitor for street outreach. For the slide show we will be re-shooting some of the original pictures as well as adding ones on new topics. We would like to hear suggestions for topics to include, as well as ideas for the slideshow itself, including a soundtrack to go with it, and places to make it available both online and off. We can also use volunteers to pose for some of the pictures. Mobile Video Display MFA has long wanted to show undercover videos on the street by mounting a large screen monitor on the roof of a car, but we need someone with technical abilities beyond our own to accomplish this. If you can help, please come to our volunteer meeting or contact us at 215-392-3825. Wildlife Conference MFA, along with other animal protection groups, is planning a conference on wildlife issues for spring 2010 at Valley Forge National Park where officials are planning a cull of 80% of the deer now living on the grounds. The conference will deal with the issues that the Park is ignoring as it blames the deer for environmental degradation, namely, destructive human behavior. We will address the many ways development and other human activity impacts the environment and wildlife and ways we, as individuals and through government agencies, can address these problems. We would like to hear ideas from other activists on: Topics to cover Speakers Activities Displays Marketing conference to the public Toad Detour Every year untold numbers of amphibians are killed crossing highways as they migrate to ancestral breeding places. Last year Lisa Levinson of Public Eye: Artists for Animals, an umbrella organization of MFA, with MFA assistance, established an official detour to protect toads migrating to the Roxborough Reservoir. The detour garnered national media attention and spared thousands of toads an untimely death. The toad detour will be an annual project and hopefully will lead to similar efforts in other places, as well as the establishment of wildlife corridors to protect animals impacted by roads. We would like to hear ideas from activists on: Public Outreach and Education Recruiting Volunteers Using the Detour to Address Broader wildlife issues Creating wildlife corridors for this and other hotspots Have your own idea for a vegan outreach or wildlife project you would like help with? Come share it at the meeting.