11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Marin Country Club, 500 Country Club Dr., Novato

$35 | $30 members and their guests

RESERVATIONS:

Online: HERE

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

By phone:  415-878-6220 

If you cannot attend, please make your cancellation by noon Sunday, February 12. 

Our Speaker:  Some may remember some years we were fighting with ABAG, The Association of Bay Area Governments trying to stop both the processes of merging with MTC (Metropolitan Transportation Commission) and then evenly distributing low income housing throughout the Bay Area Counties, dimishing local town and county planning and zoning power. New mandates were coming from the State for "stack & pack" low income housing and Marin residents were not pleased. Neighborhoods in conflict with the bureaucracy continue today as they watch huge buildings being built in their midst. Are you helpless to fight back?

The constant pressures from State mandates on our local housing have brought forth a local pit bull in the person of Susan Kirsch. She works arduously to educate, engage and empower local citizens on the local housing plans. Susan Kirsch has a distinguished career in community organizing, nonprofit leadership, and education. She is President of Catalysts for Local Control, founded in 2021.

Catalysts organizes neighborhood, homeowner, and stakeholder groups from around the state to stand up for their communities against the onslaught of top-down, state legislation that favors the special interests of real estate developers and investors, while chipping away at local control. Catalysts’ mission is to educate, engage, and empower concerned citizens to plan for housing, land use, and environmental sustainability, the building blocks of community social and economic well-being. Catalysts fulfills the mission by sponsoring statewide town halls and workshops, outreach and networking activities, leadership development, writing, and speaking.

Susan’s staunch support for local control was featured in a front-page story in the Business section of The New York Times in June 2022. She is a monthly guest on “Sonoma radio KSVY” and hosts a weekly Catalysts Call on Zoom on Monday’s at 5 pm, which is open to all. Catalysts collaborates with many statewide groups including CA Alliance of Elected Officials (CALE), CA Cities for Local Control, Livable California, Our Neighborhood Voices, United Neighbors in Los Angeles, and other neighborhood and homeowner groups.

Integral to starting influential groups, including her own Freeman Park Neighborhood Association, Friends of Mill Valley, Citizen Marin, and Livable California, Susan’s dedication to community includes serving on the advisory boards of Community Venture Partners and the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers (COST). She is a past president of the Marin Coalition, and in 2016, she campaigned for a seat on the Marin County Board of Supervisors.

How can you be part of the solution and save the beauty and charm of Marin cities? Susan will inspire you to get involved and show you the tools to have an impact.