Elizabeth, who has been leafleting at the Farmer’s Markets in Palo Alto & Menlo Park, uses Compassion over Killing’s VSK and has reached over 300 people in the last 3 months.  (To join Elizabeth at future leafleting activities, see the BAVeg Event calendar)

Volunteers, VSKs, SF Ferry Building

In San Francisco, the monthly Have-a-Heart, Go Veg Leafleting activity continues with a new location – the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market on the Embarcadero.

January was the first outing at the new location.  Kuntal and Mila  joined organizers Alex and Tammy to distribute 300 of PETA’s Vegetarian Starter Kit . Yesterday, Shani, Jason, Sky, Alex and Tammy beat the rain and distributed 500 VSKs.

To join Tammy & Alex at the next Have-a-Heart, Go Veg Leafleting activity, see the BAVeg Event calendar

Thank you to our volunteer leafleters, organizers Alex & Tammy, and to Ann and Anabela who stamp the VSKs to refer readers to bayareaveg.org and our local events, activities, and vegetarian restaurant guide.

Your userid is unique to bayareaveg.org and can be anything you want.  It can be the same as your userid on other systems (like yahoo, gmail, etc) or maybe it’s just your name! Hint: “Tammy” and “Chris” are taken though.  You can also personalize your userid profile with an avatar, and fun facts you want to share with others.

Check out the forum at http://bayareaveg.org/forum

Posting a Message

Basically, on an email list like SFBAVEG hosted on YahooGroups, you can post a message by email OR if you have a yahoo userid, you can post online via the YahooGroups site ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sfbaveg )

In the BAVeg forum ( http://bayareaveg.org/forum ) , users post directly in the forum — either a “new topic” or for an existing discussion, “post reply”.  The discussions stay threaded or grouped by topic.  For example, there is a forum category “What Do Vegans Eat“.  Today Tammy posted a new topic What is your “stranded on an island” survival food.  All responses to that topic will stay centralized in that one topic, which makes it easier to read the responses.

Reading Messages

For SFBAVeg, you can choose to read messages online only OR to have messages sent to you via email (individually or digest).
With the forum, you can read messages online at the forum and not receive any emails at all.  Or, you can select to receive emails only on the topics you are interested in (“watch this topic”) OR only on topics in which you’ve replied (“notify me when a reply is posted”)

Using the Forum

1) Register – If you don’t have a userid on the BAVEG website, then you can sign-up to get one.  Note — this userid is unique to bayareaveg.org; you can choose to make it the same as your existing email address or since we have a smaller group of users, make it your name

Note, after you sign-up, you’ll be sent a separate email to confirm your registration and activate your account. If you don’t get this email after a day, your email software or provider may have filtered it into your spam or junk folders. If you don’t find it after looking there, please email us through the bayareaveg.org contact page with the userid that you used and your email address and we can manually activate your userid for you.

2) Login  – If you already have a userid on the BAVEG website, even if forgot your password, go to LOGIN. Use the “I forgot my password” link to have your password resent to you.

3) Email Notification (optional)
When you post, you can select “notify me when a reply is posted“.  This means an email will be sent to you everytime someone replies to yourpost.

–or–

If you want to get an email everytime someone posts in a specific topic, select the link at the top “Watch this topic for replies“. After you’ve selected that, it then gives you another link to “Stop watching this topic” which will disable the automatic alerts

4) Ultimate Guide Reviews - Now that you have your forum userid, you can also review businesses in the Ultimate Guide!

Using the Mailing Lists
If you’d like to receive more than just our monthly newsletter, sign-up for the mailing lists you’re interested in. SFBAVEG is for events and discussions/questions/reviews while SFBAVEG-EVENTS is only the events from SFBAVEG (yes, it is redundant to subscribe to both of these lists).

Here’s an update since we first announced this in the October 2007 BAVeg News:

People in California who are opposed to the cruel treatment of animals on factory farms have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something to improve the lives of millions of animals. Californians for Humane Farms is entering its final days of signature gathering to qualify a historic ballot initiative for the November 2008 election. 90,000 signatures are still needed.

Sponsored by the Humane Society of the US, Farm Sanctuary, and others, the initiative would outlaw gestation crates, battery cages, and veal crates in California, giving 20 million animals on factory farms each year improved conditions. This sounds and is moderate–just giving them these basic improved conditions–but would be a huge improvement and make a significant difference for these animals, especially for egg-laying hens who, if this passes, would be able to lay eggs in nests and to dustbathe (the way chickens keep themselves clean), which are critically important to them.

Getting this initiative on the ballot would also raise a tremendous amount of awareness about factory farming and, as has been shown from similar initiatives in smaller states, continue to build momentum against factory farms that has already led to pledges from pork and veal producers to phase out some of the cruelest confinement systems facing animals on farms.

Californians for Humane Farms volunteers all over the state have gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures already, by asking their family and friends or by going out publicly to gather signatures at busy locations, but we are still behind and need to really pick up the pace for the final days.

Petitions are due into the office by February 22, and the deadline to request petitions is February 8. Petitions are due into the office by February 22 to qualify this initiative for the November 2008 ballot. Signatures can also be collected during the weekend of Feb. 23 and 24, but they must be hand-delivered to your nearest Humane California office on Monday, Feb. 25. Any signatures turned in after this date will be considered invalid. Send your petitions to the office serving your counties.

The Bay Ares office is

Californians for Humane Farms
268 Bush Street; #3149
San Francisco, CA 94104

Counties Of: San Francisco/Marin/San Mateo/Santa Clara/Santa Cruz/Alameda
Contra Costa/Calavera/San Joaquin/Alpine/Stanislaus/Tuolumne/Mono
Monterey/San Benito/Merced/Mariposa/Madera/Fresno

Fore more information, please go to www.humanecalifornia.org. You can also call the office at 415-772-0952 or email nora@humanecalifornia.org for more information. Your chance to be part of this fantastic opportunity to help millions of animals is almost over.

We give a big welcome to Melisse, her first-time leafleting, and were happy to see Juan (his 2nd time leafleting), Jordan, and George join us again. Miranda and Jack from Vegan Outreach joined us, too. Jack is the President of Vegan Outreach but Miranda gets top billing because she is an amazing, Amazon leafleter.

Using Vegetarian Starter Kits provided by PETA, which includes information on factory farming as well as health and vegan recipes, as well as Vegan Outreach materials, Alex, Miranda, Melisse, Jack, Juan, Jordan, George, and Tammy gathered on a beautiful, sunny San Francisco winter day and distributed several hundred leaflets from 1 to 3 pm that provided much needed information on how eating animals is cruel, deadly, and unnecessary, and how eating plants is cruelty-free and healthy.

There are good leafleters and there are great leafleters. Miranda is a great leafleter. She started at 11:30 am, and gave out more leaflets than the rest of us combined! Please keep her and Vegan Outreach supplied with leaflets – adopt a runner in the Vegan Outreach benefit marathon. Vegan Outreach employs leafleters like Miranda to distribute these life-changing booklets to students across the nation in their Adopt-a-College program.

Jack, the organizer behind Vegan Outreach’s AAC program, brought VO’s newest member to their family of leaflets, Compassionate Choices in addition to Even if You Like Meat and Guide to Cruelty Free Eating (contains recipes & nutrition info)

So instead of spending the afternoon watching TV, surfing the Internet, or shopping like those we leafleted, over 1,900 leaflets were distributed to promote a plant-based diet. And the reason why Amanda is amazing is because she distributed the 1000.

Next month, we hope you’ll have a heart and go veg leafleting with us! We’re leafleting Saturday, March 15th. We need volunteer to help with the cart AND it would be great to have someone take photographs of our parade leafleting. Wear Green!

Here’s our myspace page -
http://www.myspace.com/bayareaveg

Thanks!

To some it is a limitation, to others it is a wonderful feature, to have a mailing list like SFBAVEG where topics about vegetarianism, animal rights, and advocacy are co-mingled.

In our minds, when we created the list, we wanted to have this sharing of ideas and energy. For the most part, we think it works well. We wanted to comment because we recently received an email from someone who no longer found the list useful, because of all the animal rights content. Yet, at the same time, this individual never or rarely posted, in over two years. Conversely, we’ve also had individuals tell us that there’s too much non-AR email. And we also get people asking us to have events at specific restaurants, or encouraging us to do different projects. Usually these requests are not accompanied by offers to help.

While vegetarians most likely outnumber vegans, and non-activists outnumber activists, it is the vegans and the activists who tend to be more outspoken or passionate about a topic leading to discussions or specific events happening for Bay Area Vegetarians and this mailing list, SFBAVEG.

So, if what’s being discussed or the events that are happening don’t appeal to you, you’re probably not alone. More than likely, someone else is also wanting for someone to start discussing a veg or AR topic that interests them, or plan a specific activity. So be that person – it’s easier than you think, and along the way you will meet some interesting and new friends.

Bay Area Vegetarians is always looking for like-minded volunteers to organize events and activities aligned with our organization’s goals. And, we always invite both individuals and other organizations to post information about their veg/AR events & activities to SFBAVEG. So, either way, whether it’s a BAV event or not, it’s very much appreciated and welcome as a contribution to the rich diversity of veg*n living here in the SF Bay Area.

We will each get out of this organization and community what we put into it: communication, creativity, compassion, and, our personal hope, community.

Shirts are $12 each. Normally they are $10.99 each + $4 shipping + tax when you order them from CafePress.com.

We got them for tabling, but thought we’d offer them to the list too as we always get questions on where to get them, especially the ‘Go Vegan’ blue cow design.

If you’re interested, email us… we’re going to some of the events this month and could bring it there.

VIPs — you’re eligible for a $2 discount as a thank you for your support.

More BAV merchandise can be found here at the following link,, including the new golden and silver BAV pin from WildBryde Jewelry.

www.bayareaveg.org/merchandise.htm

Thank you to all the folks who have partcipated at our Vegan Food Parties, vegan camping trips, Dining out, and other events (nearly 50 events so far this year!)

Thank you to our wonderful volunteer event organizers who make events happen for the rest of us. A big thank you to our Veggie Important People… These are the folks who have already held delicious Vegan Food Parties for us this year: Lyman, Nicole & Regina, Kim & Jamie, Alex, Caity, Marni, Mary Margaret, Warren, Mike & Joanna, Bill, and Pam… You can see their smiling faces at: http://www.bayareaveg.org/vip.htm

Thank you to everyone who has posted such interesting and thoughtful messages to the SFBAVEG list and bulletin board. A big thanks to Kim, who along with us, does all the behind-the-scenes list admin work to keep SFBAVEG running smoothly, thwarting the spammers, every day..

Thank you to the folks who have helped us table at events like We the Planet, Pride Festival, Doggone Fun Run, Veggie Cook-Off… Thanks to Lori who organized a lecture by Dr. Greger and fundraising dinner for him… Thank you to Bob, the originator and organizer of the savory and successful Monthly Vegan Dinners in Oakland. Thank you to our Thanksgiving event volunteers; this is our first year trying this and we’ve got 5 Thanksgiving Day events being held throughout the Bay Area!

Thanks to everyone who’s voted in the Vegetarian Restaurant Contest, and to our prize donors — Compassionate Cooks, NAVS, VegDining.com, and Wild Bryde Jewelry. ( By the way, there’s still time to vote — http://www.BayAreaVeg.org/contest.htm)

Thank you to everyone who has recommended our group to your old and new veg friends. We have over 1,400 registered members on SFBAVEG, SFBAVEG-EVENTS, and the bulletin board.

And finally, thanks to all the other folks, and other veg and animal rights groups, for being partners in compassion & good health and making our corner of the world a more veggie-friendly place for all of us, and the animals we share it with. We have found our lives enriched by the people and the ideas within our veg and animal rights community, and we hope you have benefitted as well.

Have a veggie good day!

Cheers,
Tammy & Chris
Bay Area Vegetarians co-founders