UPDATE! - March 5, 2010

2010: A Year of Growth and Significance

Publication of the VAC Action Values Voter Guide

We will continue one of our signature activities which is the publication of the VAC Action Values Voter Guide before the June and November elections. Prior to each election, we “snail mail” each candidate a questionnaire designed specifically for the office he/she is seeking. We then publish the responses, or lack thereof, in a hard copy Values Voter Guide, post the Values Voter Guide on the VAC Action website, and distribute custom designed electronic Values Voter Guides to those in the VAC Action data base.

For the November 2008 election, we published and distributed approximately 35,000 hard copy Values Voter Guides through our church network and approximately 3,500 custom e-Values Voter Guides to those in our Operation: Values Matter data base.

"Confidential Medical Release” Policy (CMR)

Many school districts throughout California, including Silicon Valley, have a policy that allows a student to leave campus during the normal school day to receive “Confidential Medical Treatment” (CMT). CMT includes undergoing an abortion, STD treatment, or suicide, alcohol, and/or drug counseling and/or treatment.

"Confidential Medical Release" (CMR) policy allows a student as young as 7th grade to leave campus during school hours for the above procedures or activities without the permission or knowledge of the student's parents. 

We will identify districts that have the CMR policy in our valley. We will inform you of our efforts to repeal these policies and replace them with policies that require parental notification and permission. 

In the event we contact a district and the district does not respond or refuses to repeal the policy, we will then ask that you flood help us flood the School Board Members with calls, faxes, emails, and fill the School Board chambers on the evening of the school board meeting.

For the sake of parents, children, and families, we must repeal the existing Confidential Medical Release policies and then replace those CMR policies with policies that protect the rights of parents to know where their children are and what they are doing.

VAC Bimonthly Luncheon

We hold bi-monthly luncheons with speakers covering a host of topics that range from international affairs, life and marriage, Presidential politics, legislation in Sacramento, local issues facing our community, and other issues of the day.

Our March 16th bi-monthly luncheon speaker is our friend, Ron Prentice, Executive Director of CA Family Council, who will bring us up to date on Proposition 8. Click here to RSVP for the luncheon.

Our May speaker is another friend, Brian Sussman, KSFO Radio's morning anchor. Brian will be speaking on "Climategate: A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes the Global Warming Scam".

National Day of Prayer

Each year the Values Advocacy Council and Transformation Alliance of Santa Clara County (TASCC), organize and host the National Day of Prayer activities at San Jose City Hall.

A Pastor Prayer Breakfast for Silicon Valley pastors is held in the Rotunda at City Hall. If you are a pastor and wish to attend the complimentary breakfast, click here. Last year, over 100 pastors came together with Mayor Reed to pray for the residents and leaders of our city, state, and nation.

In the evening, a "Time of Prayer, Praise, and Worship" is held on City Hall Plaza. We will come together in community to sing and pray. Our desire is to fill the downtown with the sounds of individuals singing praise to our Lord Jesus Christ. Last year, over 550 attended.

Battle for Marriage

We continue to work with our friends in the Evangelical, Catholic and LDS Churches. The coalition that worked so well to mobilize values families in the 2008 battle for marriage is alive and well.

In 2012, we anticipate a statewide ballot measure to redefine marriage as between "any two people" rather than the current "one man and one woman" definition.

We have two main areas of focus between now and 2012. We must continue to expand our influence through outreach to other denominational and ethnic churches. And, we must organize down to the neighborhood/precinct level if we are to preserve marriage.

A key element in the VAC organizing efforts is the rejuvenation of our Church Captain program. Church Captains are the “lay point people” that we call on for communication with their pastors and congregations, church voter registration, booking speakers into their church communities, and acting as our “eyes and ears” in their church and neighborhood. If you wish to be a Church Captain in your church, click here for more information.

Joel C. Rosenberg Appearance

Best selling author Joel Rosenberg will be in San Jose at Church on the Hill on the evening of April 13th. We honored to help promote the event. His fictional works include "The Last Jihad", "Dead Heat", "The Copper Scroll", "The Ezekiel Option", and "The Last Days". His non-fiction works include "Epicenter" and "Inside the Revolution".

We are proud to be a small part of the effort that will ensure that Mr. Rosenberg's visit to San Jose will be a resounding success. If you wish to purchase tickets to the event, please enter VAC2010 in the comments section of the second registration screen that will appear when you click here. 

Values Advocacy Council Speakers Bureau

America is in deep financial trouble. Our Federal, State and local governments are broke…and broken.

As a nation, we face:

	An unstainable nation debt load--Currently $12.4 Trillion dollars and growing Unemployment at levels unheard of in decades
	Government spending at record levels--with no end in sight
	Government encroaching more each day into areas of our personal and economic lives that defy the Constitution and intent of our founding fathers

As a state, we face:

	A $22 Billion dollar in short fall between income and projected expenditures
	A state government that must issue IOU's (That is one definition of bankrupt.)
	A stunning growth in State spending that out paces inflation and population growth

At the local level, we face:

	In San Jose, $116.5 Million dollars in shortfall between income and projected expenditures--with no end in sight
	Proposed new taxes
	Service level reductions

The VAC Speaker's Bureau has prepared a presentation that identifies the nature and severity of the fiscal problems facing us in 2010 and future years. The presentation highlights the effects of increasing debt and unchecked government spending at all levels of government. A primary purpose of the presentation is to show how we may prepare for the very dangerous financial times ahead.

While we are a socially conservative organization, our broader charter is to address threats to the family. Fiscal issues directly affect family integrity and the family's economic future and viability. The burden that will be placed on churches as a result of a major financial and fiscal crisis is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that people will be turning to God and his people for help...a curse because already overtaxed church and community resources will be stretched even further.

If you are a member of an organization, service club, church community, business or community organization, or an educator, please give the VAC a call at 408-624-1280. We'd like to make our Speaker's Bureau available to you to share the message. We will have a five minute preview of the presentation posted on our website, www.vac.org, within the next 30 days. 

Operation: Values Matter

Operation: Values Matter is the VAC Action proprietary data base. This is the glue that holds our organization together. Our communication capability allows us to, among other things, inform you of threats to the family such as the Confidential Medical Release policy, send you "Calls to Action", invite you to events, and send your custom Values Voter Guide to you before each election.

We currently have 4,000+ contacts in our proprietary data base, Operation: Values Matter. To give family values significant influence in the 2010 elections, we must quickly expand the number of contacts to 10,000 in Santa Clara County. Click here to send a request to your friends and family members to register in Operation: Values Matter.

As you can see, we have work to do. May we count on you to help us make a difference in our valley? Will you help us cover our $25,000 shortfall today? We ask for your continued generosity. Click here to make a gift today.

Most importantly, I ask you to pray that God will bless the United States of America and our families. May we look to 2 Chron 7:14 "...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then..."

It is for such a time as this that we are called to stand. May we stand together for freedom, justice, prudence, righteousness, and resolve?