COUNCIL OF GEORGIST ORGANIZATIONS
“A Coalition for Economic Justice” — a 501(c)(6) Non-profit Corporation
4075 Cheltonham Court, Plainfield, Indiana 46168 USA
www.cgocouncil.org
Annual Letter from the President
November 1, 2021
The 2022 Annual CGO Conference will start on Friday night, July 15th, 2022, with an Opening Reception, and will go until Sunday night July 17th with a closing Economic Justice Award and Friendship Banquet.
We have chosen a hotel in Albany, New York, with free parking and free shuttle service to both the Albany County Airport and the Rensselaer Transportation Center for Amtrak and Inter/Intra City busses. The hotel rate will be $120/night. As negotiated by our Administrators, Sue and Scott Walton, the contract allows us to cancel without penalty up to 15 days prior to Staff arrival on July 14th – so we are protected.
We welcome your ideas for the overall conference theme, and for specific session topics and speakers. Please submit all your suggestions by 12/31/21.
In 2021 we revised our bylaws to permit electronic voting and meeting; to allow our annual business meeting to be held separately from the annual conference; and to open voting Membership to individuals, and non-voting Affiliation to organizations.
Our website, cgocouncil.org, needed revising and renewal. Our new webmaster Ken Novak has been working with our website committee to upgrade our site to make it a resource for both members and visitors. Ken has revised our website front page, our calendar, and our membership listing, while also adding links to our YouTube page. Ken is also the webmaster for Common Ground-USA and the Henry George Institute.
Our new executive committee took office last June, as follows:
At Large Members: Ed Dodson, Marty Rowland and Nicholas Rosen;
Treasurer Al Katzenberger;
Secretary Mark Sullivan;
Vice President Dan Sullivan;
and President Ted Gwartney.
Best wishes to our retiring members of the Execcom: Secretary Nate Blair and At-Large Member Devpreet Jassald.
Zoom Webinars and YouTube Videos
Two years in a row we were not able to hold an on-site conference in Scranton, Pennsylvania, due to the COVID pandemic. Instead, we held our 2020 and 2021 conferences online. We have been using Zoom webinar format that has allowed us to get a wide variety of speakers because they don’t have to travel to our conference site. The webinars become YouTube videos that are free to the public. This past year’s webinars included the following speakers and topics:
9/17/20 – Matthew Downhour, The Homesteading Myth
10/15/20 – Zephyr Teachout, Antitrust Today
12/3/20 – Tom Kramer, Mayor of Milbourne, PA, how LVT helped his borough
12/17/20 – Deep Dive with Ed Dodson and Wyn Achenbaum
1/21/21 – Ed Dodson speaks on Fred Harrison’s new book
2/18/21 – Richard John, Opposition to Monopoly
3/18/21 – Karl Fitzgerald, Land Value Tax in Australia
3/28/21 – A tribute to Walt Rybeck
4/15/21 – Dan Sullivan, Taxes Ranked by several criteria
5/20/21 – Jonathan Howell, Debt Free money
6/15/21 – Adam Schuster, Illinois Budget issues (cosponsored by the Chicago HGS)
7/15/21 – David Wilson, Chicago’s Suburban Development (Chicago HGS, co-sponsor)
7/25/21 – 2021 Friendship Gathering
8/19/21 – Derek Sagehorn, Financing public transportation
9/30/21 – Dr. Dirk Loehr, A real-world victory in Germany
10/21/21 – Dr. James Galbraith (economist and son of John Kenneth Galbraith)
11/18/21 – To be determined
12/16/21 – To be determined
These videos, post-production, can be found on our CGO You-Tube channel.
Donations from 2021 CGO Sponsors
Our thanks to the following individuals and organizations for their generous donations:
John Beck, Polly Cleveland, Mario Cordero, Kathleen Cummings, Foundation of Economic Justice, Damon Gross, Ted Gwartney, Jonathan Hall, Gib Halverson, Sue Honsl, Devpreet Jassald, Ralph Rivera, Center for Public Dialogue (and the late Walt & Ericka Rybeck), Common Ground-USA, Earth-Sharing Associates (Mark Sullivan & Osamu Uehara), Henry George School of Chicago, Henry George Institute, International Union for LVT, Public Revenue Education Council, and Robert Schalkenbach Foundation.
The CGO cannot operate without funds, without your annual support. We have overhead expenses including insurance, website and zoom fees, and internet and audio-visual costs. Our Administrators, Sue & Scott Walton, have long given CGO a substantial discount on the services their firm provides, with labor often provided at minimum wage. Sue is our eyes and ears for logistics, and she works with our part-time webmaster who also generously works for us “below market”. And our planning team and executive committee members kindly donate their time and talent.
In order to break even in 2022, the Council needs to raise $10,000 dollars. Last year we asked members, affiliates, and sponsors to make a $99 or greater donation. A total of roughly $5,000 in donations were gratefully received.
Public Revenue Education Council
The Public Revenue Education Council (PREC), a 501(c)(3) organization, has limited funds but is committed to supporting the educational efforts of the Council of Georgist Organizations. Those who wish to support CGO with a tax-deductible donation can donate to PREC and earmark the check “for CGO educational purposes”.
This year, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act allows you to deduct up to $300 ($600 for joint filing) from your taxable income, even if you don’t itemize your expenses, as long as you donate (to PREC) by December 31, 2021. The EIN number for PREC is 43-6029486. Those who donate to PREC, earmarked for CGO educational work, will be acknowledged as a CGO Sponsor. However, Membership and Affiliation dues to CGO still need to be paid separately, as detailed below.
Joining or Renewing as Members and Affiliates
If you represent a CGO Member organization or want to join as an individual Member, the dues are $50 per year. Members have the right to both speak and vote at the annual business meetings. Individuals and organizations may join as Affiliates for $25 per year, and have a voice (but not a vote) at our business meetings. Member and Affiliate dues are separate from donations as a Sponsor, and are not tax deductible. We invite and urge you to join or renew as a Member or Affiliate.
With your generous support and participation, the Council of Georgist Organizations will be ready to meet new challenges and work for an exciting year ahead.
Sincerely,
Ted Gwartney
CGO President