Caught in Conflict

My CP does not really get caught up in any conflict. laws come down from the state and there is little he or anyone for that matter can do about it. Mr. Alberts frequently attendes California board of real estate meetings but being a small business owner he has little impact on legislation or policy regarding real estate law and legislation in the state. While he states that he wishes he did have more pull he "cant  afford to pay a lobbyist like the big buys". As a small time business owner he pays his dues to the board but actually receives little benefit from new policy. Most of the new ;legislation coming down is in regard to loans and contract organization and filling so not much he can do about those things really, just follow them and keep in line really.

Political Interests

I have finally made contact with my CP for the semester. I will be doing intern work for Alberts reality, which I made contact with through the Los Altos Rotary club. My contacts name is Dick Alberts  who runs the business and has done so for the last 40 years in the South Bay area. My CP dose not make direct contributions to politics himself but, many of the laws and regulations that are passed within the state effect him and his business on a very real level. I will work closely with him and the California Real Estate Board learning how his business interacts with the government at the state level. In the past Mr Alberts was active with the San Jose police dept. and was friends with many in the local government circles such as city mayor and many other civil servants.

Citizen Participation

This weeks blog is about citizen participation and how it effects my CP. I have been reaching out to several CP opportunities and am still waiting for a response. I am still hoping o work with veterans but as the days pass I may become more desperate and have to reach out to some other folks. Hopefully this will be resolved by the end of the day. I am sending emails out to "homefirst", which is a homeless shelter in San Jose and they allow volunteers to help in the kitchen and I am also reaching out to a friend on the Los Altos Rotary club to see if she may be able to help me in some capacity.

Regrouping

          I made contact with my proposed CP yesterday as i had a doctors appointment at the Palo Alto VA, which is the hub for all VA's in the region and all requests were to be sent there anyway. I stopped into the "volunteer services center" and the person behind the desk told me that the Veterans Administration requires a minimum of a 100 hr commitment to offset the cost of training and blood work that must be accomplished; because of HIPA laws and the like everyone must be trained on privacy rights of patients regardless of contact or not with sensitive files. Also he stated that it would take at least four weeks to get everything processed for me to be a part of the team, so "I could be finished somewhere else before I was even able to start there". So, this leaves me with a bit of a quandary as to where I will be able to work. I had my heart set on helping veterans in some capacity,  perhaps iI can work homeless veterans? So I will have to regroup and rethink my CP, hopefully making contact with someone very soon. My CP will hopefully give a voice to veterans who have given so much to this country and are now seemingly left out in the wind by the federal, state, and local governments.

New Semester

This is my blog....