GVConsulting

On September 30, 2010, GVConsulting will hold several fundraising web-based seminars for nonprofits, small businesses, community-driven projects, and political efforts. Each session will be catered to the appropriate category and designed to include specific elements as requested by participants that sign up by September 28. Single theme seminars may be considered for large groups who wish to attend. Email gregory@gregoryvickrey.com for more information and to sign up your self or your group.

Here is a link where you may donate towards our legal effort against Nestle in Colorado. (click “More” below)

Shots From the East Side

It has been an incredibly dynamic week; one might not naturally conclude that from the lack of action on this website, but it is true.

On the techie side of things, our web guru set things up so that detailed posts will share the teaser on our main page, and readers can click through to enter the rabbit hole that is our world at GVC. This is a good thing, as engaging citizens can now take a quick peak  by scrolling the main page, and I (GV) can be held accountable for posting consistently. Cheers for that!

We’ve also added additional communication tools to your right: grab our Twitter feed and we will do our best to share a variety of content, from policy-making to physics to angst to music. Further, become a fan and friend at Facebook, where debate is not only honored, but encouraged.

On to issues:

We’ve been neck deep in our fight against Nestle, and it hasn’t been pretty. Nestle continues to drive the people of Chaffee County, Colorado, nuts – the corporate giant has completed construction of its pumping facility on the Arkansas River, and is ready to roll 25 8,000 trucks a day to Denver in order bottle and profit from a pillaged resource. They are angering others, as well. Communities like Aurora, Colorado, are selling off their waters to Nestle in order to augment water loss near Buena Vista; as the Nestle virus spreads, no watersheds are safe.

Buena Vista, Colorado

What can you do about this? Spread the word. Boycott Nestle products. Donate towards our legal expenses (via PayPal using gregory@gregoryvickrey.com). Sign up to make phone calls via the same email. Sign this petition. Stay involved.

This is a battle worth fighting.

There is no denying it (insert anticipated guffaw here): GVConsulting is fully engaged in the fight against catastrophic Climate Change. We are working with the talented and astute Cory Morningstar of Canadians for Action on Climate Change; the brilliant and knowledgeable Karyn Strickler of Climate Challenge TV (the nation’s first and only television program dedicated to Climate Change, soon to be available world-wide via the internet); and a collaborative force known as Climate SOS.  The amount of work we will be producing in the coming months will astound you, and provide a real foundation for driving pro-active change for the sake of the entire planet.

Karyn, Cory, and I took to the airwaves recently for nearly an hour and a half of discussion on the issue at Shared Sacrifice with Matt Stannard. The program is well worth a listen: we talked policy, the environmental movement’s corruption and collusion, the need for a significant grassroots movement around real solutions, and potential solutions (they do exist).  An unrelated but all-important editorial by Ernesto Aguilar starts the show.

Stay tuned.

We will cover more of our issues-based work in the coming days.

Life and times:

Our friend and colleague in Alaska, Representative Les Gara, issued a tribute to those who passed away in a tragic plane accident near Dillingham (close to my first stomping grounds in Alaska), including Senator Ted Stevens and Dana Tindall. I share Les’ respects.

The Sound of Music:

Our favorite business client and close friend DJ mLe chimed in this week to let us know her much anticipated video of cut “Do the Deal” is set to rock the house on August 19, 2010. Tap your inner breakbeats and get your dubstep on by visiting these links.

Finally:

This is our first open thread, and we are happy to receive your comments. Please share your thoughts as you see fit, and know that we intend to keep all our future threads open for comment and discussion.

Thanks for your support and continued engagement.

Go!

Chaffee County Tuesday afternoon issued a notice to Nestle that it could proceed with its plan to pump millions of gallons of water from springs next to the Arkansas River and cart it to Denver for bottling under the Arrowhead Springs label.

Nestle spent years negotiating with the Chaffee Board of Commissioners where water lives, buying land around the water, negotiating with the Aurora City Council for its lease to the water, fighting off protesters and finally constructing pipelines and a pumping station in Johnson Village near Buena Vista.

As of 07.27.10,  Nestle can turn the spigot and begin filling its fleet of twenty-five 8,000 gallon trucks each day.

Read more here: Nestle given the OK.

The following piece was written by Matt Gonzalez, and discusses in detail how Fred Bekele won a parking garage contract in San Francisco, only to have it taken away.

In the summer of 2007, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) hired consultant Barbara Chance to address multiple issues concerning the city’s management and award of public contracts for city-owned parking facilities. The MTA was concerned that, among other things, the city was not maximizing the revenues it could derive from parking facilities, and that locally owned businesses were being denied entry into the competitive world of public parking contracts.

Also, concerns that parking garage contracts were being awarded amid charges of influence peddling were prevalent.

On June 19, 2007, Ms. Chance, a nationally recognized expert in parking, transportation and access management, presented her recommendations, which included a plan for revising the process for contract bidding to enable a more open and competitive process.

Read more here: Why Bother Bidding?