Information-to-Use

► County-by-County List of Qualified 2016-2017 DCA Grant Applicants

► 2016 Florida Legislative

Platform for Arts & Culture

► County-by-County List of

2015-2016 DCA Grantees

► A Few Facts to Use

► County-by-county contact list

of Florida Legislators -- locate your county on the worksheets at the bottom of Excel file.

FL Senate Directory Excel

FL House Directory Excel

► AFTA 2015 Creative Industries Reports for Florida Counties

► Contact Information for (TED) Subcommittees

► Contact information on 2015 Florida Legislative Leadership

► What you can and cannot do as an arts advocate (PowerPoint) and here.

► Know who your senator and representative are in the Florida Legislature and Congress -- go here.

► Florida Senate

► Florida House

► Governor's Office

► Florida Division of
Cultural Affairs

► Florida Cultural
Alliance

► Americans for the Arts

Please become a FCA member today and support our statewide advocacy efforts to advance arts and culture.

Join the Arts Action Fund here for federal arts-issue updates and action alerts.

Please make a contribution to the Florida PAC for Arts & Culture here to make it possible for this PAC to make campaign contributions to Florida Legislative candidates.

Also, please make a contribution to the Arts Action Fund PAC for congressional candidates.

How do I connect to this call and know who is participating on it?

Call Date:

Monday, December 14, 2015

Call Time:

9:58 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Call-In-Number: 712-775-7031 and then enter 441247#

PLEASE have your computer on and this agenda opened. We will refer to the links and documents below during the call. Thank you.

Who is participating on this call and from which Florida counties?

Go here to see who is on this call. Thank you for participating.

Guest Speaker on today's call is Bob Ward, Clerk of the Florida House:

Bob Ward serves as the Clerk of the Florida House of Representatives and is an expert on state government. The Clerk's office provides a tremendous amount of very informative and helpful resources available to us all. One of the most useful is The Florida Handbook.

What the Florida Cultural Alliance (FCA) is doing to help secure appropriations for DCA grants:

Pictured above from left to right are Florida Cultural Alliance (FCA) lobbyist Frank Meiners, FCA Intern Devin Dominguez, Representative Keith Perry, FCA President Sherron Long, and Dr. Kathy Sanz, Executive Director of FMEA.

3.A. FCA Face-to-face meetings in Tallahassee during November 2015.

3.B. Materials and information we shared and discussed at these meetings and that you can use in your local advocacy efforts:

1. 2016 Florida Legislative Platform for Arts & Culture;

2. List of all the recommended 2016-2017 Division of Cultural Affairs (DCA) grants for the county/counties the legislators represent.

3. Quick overview of the number of grant requests by DCA grant categories for each county on the Table of Contents for FCA's 2016-2017 DCA County-by-County List;

4. AFTA 2015 Creative Industry Reports for Florida;

5. The State of the Florida Traveler Special Edition 2015;

6. Cultural tourism 2-page informational piece;

7. What they say -- quotes of support for our industry;

8. Invest in Arts & Culture cover for their individual packets

3.C. Referenced During Our Discussions: The Florida Department of State 2016-2017 Grant Book of Ranked Grants' Lists for Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and Historical Resources.

3.D. Quick look below at what is recommended for 2016-2017 Florida Division of Cultural Affairs (DCA) grants
in the four grants-funding categories:

DCA Grant Programs -- click on the grant-funding category below to access specific ranked list:	# of DCA grant applicants that qualify for 2016-2017 grants by category --	State Investments Needed to Fully Fund these 2016-2017 DCA Grants:
Cultural and Museum Grants	413	$30,933,457
Culture Builds Florida Grants	80	$1,682,209
Cultural Facilities Grants	37	$11,906,424
Cultural Endowment State Matches	2	$480,000
Subtotals:	532	$45,002,090

Many thanks to Curtis Young and Patty Warren at the DCA for providing the data available to FCA to create these reports and to Broward County Cultural Affairs Division for their help to elevate the look of our advocacy materials this year.

3.E. FCA is following up with legislators and their staff with information that shows them who from their county or counties are impacted by these DCA grants.

3.F. This month, specific county advocacy messages and documents will be sent to advocates to use in their advocacy efforts tailored for their specific counties.

Please pay attention to FCA emails that you will receive, and follow through on the suggested actions.

3.G. FCA continues to coordinate monthly statewide advocacy and information-to-use conference calls to keep you and other arts & culture advocates informed and engaged.

3.H. FCA provides you with updates and alerts regarding issues that impact our industry.

L to R: Dr. Jim Zingale, Frank Meiners, Lindy Kennedy,
Tony Carvalho

3.I. FCA engages the team at Capitol Hill Group based in Tallahassee that provides us valuable and updated information and lobbying on our issues at the Florida Capitol.

Suggested Advocacy Actions You Can Take Now

1. Know who your Florida Representative and Senator are in the Florida Legislature. Learn about them and the committees they serve on. Find your county worksheet at the bottom of this Excel file for detailed information on the legislators who represent your county in the Florida Legislature .

2. Make sure you have your Florida Representative's and Senator's and their key legislative staff members' in your email and address books (included on Excel file in #1).

3. Join their Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, newsletters/updates sign up, and other social media sites they might participate in.

4. Check to see if you have legislators who represent your county in Legislative Leadership or who serve on either the House or Senate TED appropriations subcommittee. Add them to your email and address books.

5. If possible, schedule face-to-face meetings with your legislators to ask them to help secure appropriations needed to fully fund the 2016-2017 recommended DCA grants.

6. Use the resources above under #3B that FCA used in its face-to-face meetings.

7. Focus their attention to:

a. the specific name/s of the DCA funding category where your or your county's organizations are being recommended for DCA grants' funding for 2016-2017;

b. how these grants leverage the other necessary matching public and private dollars needed for cultural organizations' operations;

c. ask them to speak to the chairmen of their respective

1. Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittees (TED): Senator Jack Latvala and Representative Clay Ingram

2. Speaker of the House Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner

3. Chairmen of Appropriations: Senator Tom Lee and Representative Richard Corcoran

to please support the full 2016-2017 appropriation requests needed to fully fund all the 532 recommended DCA grants as outlined on our statewide 2016 Florida Legislative Platform for Arts & Culture.

8. Pay attention to your emails from now throughout legislative session for specific county alerts and suggested actions and future FCA Briefings and Alerts.

Every Student Succeeds Act

Signed by President Obama

After 14 years, The No Child Left Behind Act has been replaced with a new Elementary and Secondary Education Act called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which passed both the U.S. House and Senate and signed by President Obama last week.

AFTA Blog that outlines where the arts fit into this new education act.

Press release from The White House

Quick update on ESSA: Dr. Kathy Sanz, executive director of Florida Music Educators Association

Please mark your calendars.

Please mark your 2016 calendars for our monthly FCA advocacy and information-to-use statewide conference calls.

Each monthly call is scheduled on a Monday from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. ET. They are subject to change, but here are the dates we've scheduled for 2016:

January 11

February 8

March 14

April 18

May 16

June 13

July 18

August 15

September 12

October 17

November 14

December 12

Other 2016 Dates Through March To
Include On Your Calendars:

January 12 thru March 11 -- 2016 Florida Legislative Session in Tallahassee

January 26 -- Arts & Culture Day in Tallahassee -- register here to participate.

February 1 & 2 -- Florida Division of Cultural Affairs/Citizens for Florida Arts' 2016 Convening Conference at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Ft. Lauderdale -- go here for details and registration.

March 7 & 8 -- National Arts Advocacy Days in Washington, D.C. --

from YOU?

Link

from the Florida Cultural Alliance
to you, your colleagues, friends, and families and all arts & culture advocates throughout Florida.

Link

Florida Cultural Alliance

Post Office Box 2131

West Palm Beach, Florida 333402-2131

561-848-6231

info@FLCA.net
www.FLCA.net

Contact: Sherron Long, president