Mountain Resource Group

This is a summary of the signature collection on the NAIL petition from Sunday September 25 at the Farmer's Market and the Summit Market.

151 signatures from Farmer's Market effort. Although not all addresses provided zip codes, I was able to ascertain that 62% of the signatures came from individuals residing either in incorporated or unincorporated Los Gatos. The zip code breakdown is:

18% - 95033
17% - 95932
27% - 95030

Renee Pressler and others worked the Summit Market on Sunday gathering approximately 200 signatures.

Adding these signatures to others that we know of, namely,

• 231 from Sept 11 meeting @ Lexington
• 9 from Rick Parfitt's gym

adds up to approximately 591 collected signatures. We know there are other people collecting signatures and hope all the petitions can be collected and counted at the meeting this Sunday.

Cathy Daigle and I came up with a list of our perceptions on collecting signatures for the NAIL petition:

• Maps are critical - color and laminated really helped -- THANK YOU REBECCA!
• Spending time with people talking about the maps is important
• Talking points that help organize thoughts are essential
• A unified message is essential
• Good brief flyer detailing a useful website and meeting info really helped. We handed out more than 160 flyers which were a great tool to give people to take home and keep their thoughts on the issues.

People seemed genuinely concerned. Issues that really seemed to hit home with signers:

• increased fire danger
• increased traffic
• loss of trees
• the perpetual plan
• SJWC seems to sugar coat the facts - esp. re. fire

Issues that we expected to be more resonant:

• impact on water quality
• noise issues
• potential for erosion
• safety

We had fun! Met lots of our community neighbors and felt appreciated by bringing this important message to the forefront of people's attention.

Those who showed up at the Farmer's Market to help included:

Catherine Russell
Cathy Daigle
Bob Mende
Scott Bradley
Michelle Gonzales
Gabrielle Gonzales
Emmanuelle Pancaldi
Rea Freedom
Kevin Flynn

Summit Market folks:
Renee Pressler, Chief Coordinator
Ed Magakian
Toni Impy

Future Plans:

Summit Market:
Renee: plans to target prime time hours at the market during the week prior to 10/3 meeting. Plans to staff her table from 8-10am, and again 3:30 – 8pm.

Renee definitely needs help! Please call her if you can help collect signatures for even an hour!

Farmers Market: Sundays:
This is a good audience to continue efforts of increasing public awareness. There’s a fine line between providing effective information and wearing out our welcome. We do think that we need to have a presence there. Could also be a source of updated information to those who already have signed the petition.

Other ideas to raise awareness among the local population:

• Post information at local coffee shops in Los Gatos (the Bear and the Coffee Roastery) - I plan on doing this over the weekend, 
• Post info at Whole Foods. Whole Foods might be a good place to collect signatures (although I am not sure how it would be received)
• Post info at Bike shops in Los Gatos -- I plan on going to Summit Bicycles this weekend.
• Post info at your gym -- I plan on posting info at the Los Gatos Athletic Club
• Redwood Estates Flea Market

URGENT NEED to build a team to staff the sites. If more people help, it is less work for all. We worked well together and even folded 1000 mailers all while educating the public!

A Big Thank You to Team NAIL!

Catherine Russell