Category: After Action Report - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

Our Water, Our Future - After Action Report

11/25/2025

Our Water, Our Future - After Action Report

St. Ambrose University and PACG Environmental Forum

This event was coordinated by Iowa's Food and Water Watch, with three speakers from the University of Iowa. They gave an excellent presentation regarding their research of Iowa's rivers in Polk County. Concerns were noted about agricultural pollutants and their impact on human health, recreation and the economy. Suggestions were made of things we all can do to help with this issue.

Lori McCollum

20th Anniversary Gala After Action Report October 21, 2025

10/21/2025

20th Anniversary Gala! After Action Report
Sunday, October 19th

Close to 150 people joined us at the Rock Island Holiday Inn to celebrate PACG's 20th Anniversary Sunday evening. Everyone had a wonderful time and enjoyed a good meal together. We offered special thanks to founding members and others who have been involved over the years, as well as to newcomers and everyone else who joined us.

Regrettably, cofounder Cathy Bolkcom was unable to join us. Cofounder Alta Price gave an interesting account of how she and Cathy came together in 2005 at a school board meeting that resulted in the banning of The Misfits, a middle school book with a tertiary gay character. From there, Alta and Cath went on to encourage others to band together and take action to promote the common good of all. Progressive Action for the Common Good arose from those initial meetings.

Caroline Vernon updated our former historical slideshow to include our more recent events. Her slides played during Social Hour which is when we were serenaded by our favorite musician, Chris Dunn.

Allison Ambrose led our PACG Trivia game. Guests competed as tables to answer questions about PACG’s history. The questions ranged in difficulty, and everyone had fun. The winning table received Whitey’s gift certificates.

Ed Tibbets, who claims that public speaking is not his forte, nevertheless gave a memorable and very relevant speech about the importance of continuing to uphold our right to free speech and other freedoms against the onslaught of increasing attacks against them.

Unfortunately, we were not able to show our film, I Am the Future: Standing on the Shoulders of the Past, due to technical issues. Our past president, Glenda Guster, spearheaded this project documenting local citizens who were involved in the civil rights movement. We're very grateful for the work and generosity of Lora Adams at WQPT, who upgraded it to a more professional format. We encourage you to watch the film.

We would like to thank Shanda Burrage for the beautiful table decorations. Caroline also painted the little rocks that were on every table. We appreciate the work that Taylor and Dakota Vernon did taking photos throughout our event. We hope to have images available to share with you soon.

We have written a blog post called 20th Anniversary Gala Documents which you can see here. You can view our Social Hour and Program presentations, our speakers’ remarks, our program booklet, pictures (which we will continue to add), and much more at the link.

Thank you to those who have been part of or supported PACG over the past 20 years. We look forward to continuing working for the common good of all!

Caryn Unsicker (she,her)

QC Electric Vehicle Rally September 24, 2025 After Action Report

9/22/2025

QC Electric Vehicle Rally - After Action Report

Freight House Farmers Market
Davenport, IA

Environmental Forum

The PACG Environmental Forum hosted the QC Electric Vehicle (EV) Rally at the Farmers Market on Sunday, September 14, 2025. This event was part of the nationwide National Drive Electric Month celebration. Four electric vehicle (EV) dealers and some EV owners were on site to answer questions from visitors and network with each other. One of the EV owners came from Macomb, IL to join our event. The participants made new friends and enjoyed sharing their experiences with each other.

Susan Leuthauser (she/her)

PACG Die-In PACG History

8/26/2025

PACG Trivia Contest!

Anniversary Planning Committee

As part of our upcoming 20th Anniversary Gala the evening of Sunday, October 19th, we will be playing PACG Trivia. To give you all a head start (as well as a nostalgic look back at some of our past events), we will have regular Progressive Action Update (PAU) posts about a past event, action or concern.

Here's the next in this series:

Question: What was the PACG Die In and why did we organize that?

Answer: Our Health Care Reform Forum and Campaign for Better Health Care (CBHC) wanted to bring attention to the fact that Health Care is a Moral Value. People die if they don't have access to quality, affordable healthcare.

Read our Die In announcement email here for more details on the event.

Watch our Die In video here.

Read our planning email here.

Read some of the aftermath of our event in an After Action Report email here.

Defending the Rule of Law After Action Report

8/14/2025

The Importance of Defending the Rule of Law Luncheon - After Action Report

Fifty-nine people attended the Importance of Defending the Rule of Law luncheon event at WIU's Riverfront Hall on Friday, August 8th, to hear Professor Sally Frank, Drake University Law School, explain in layman's terms how our rule of law is under attack and why it is important to recognize this and do what we can now to preserve our Democracy. Attendees asked many pertinent questions afterwards.

This event was part of the Quad Cities Civic Conversations series initiated by One Human Family and co-sponsored by Progressive Action for the Common Good, Iowa Citizen Action Network, and Quad Cities Interfaith. There will be pertinent events every three months, so watch for them in this Progressive Action Update and elsewhere.

Caryn Unsicker (she/her)

13th Annual Picnic and Pie Auction - After Action Report

7/9/2025

13rh Annual Picnic and Pie Auction After Action Report

PACG Board of Directors

Sixty-six of the eighty registered people braved the heat to attend our 13th Annual Picnic and Pie Auction on Sunday, June 29th in Davenport. Big Thanks to Glenda Guster, who headed up our picnic committee this year, and to committee members Allison, David, Ann, Alta and Caryn for all their hard work.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, which was catered by the Mantra restaurant in Davenport, along with a nice breeze which added to our collective comfort. Chris Dunn played his great music again this year. Thank you so much, Chris!

Once again, the pie auction was a great success thanks to professional auctioneer, Jen Broders, and her husband and PACG Board Member, Ed Broders, who registered and numbered all the pies and passed out auction numbers to bidders, among other things. We owe them many thanks.

Most of all, we thank everyone who was able to attend this year, as well as those who registered but couldn't make it, for your continued support of PACG over the years. One of the most enjoyable things about our annual picnic/pie auction and other events is that old friends and new get to sit down and visit with other progressive minded folks and share their stories and concerns in a friendly, relaxed environment. That said, we hope to see you at our 20th Anniversary Thank You Gala on October 19th at the Rock Island Holiday Inn. (Don't we go back a ways?) Save the date!

Caryn Unsicker (she,her)

City Proclamations in support of Immigrant and Refugee - After Action Report

6/27/2025

Immigrant and Refugee Proclamation - After Action Report

Civil Rights Forum

The Immigration Coalition of the Quad Cities had two more successes! Both the cities of Bettendorf, Iowa and Silvis, Illinois graciously supported our Pro-Immigrant and Refugee proclamation!

Allison Ambrose

Anything for the Cause-After Action Report

6/10/2025

Anything for the Cause - After Action Report

Multi-Generational Community Building Speaker Series

Over 75 people attended our first Multi-Generational Community Building Speakers series, Anything for the Cause. We were honored to bring MacArthur “Mac” Cotton and Dr. Frank Smith, Jr as our guest speakers at the Martin Luther King Center in Rock Island, Illinois. Both of our speakers were involved during their college days with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). They worked as civil rights activists during the 1960’s to get black people in the South registered to vote, which at the time was dangerous. Mr. Cotton continues to focus on educational equity and getting people out to vote. He is the author of the book Mississippi Black Cotton about his time and struggles in the Civil Rights movement.

After relocating to Washington, D.C. Dr. Smith served four terms on the D.C. City Council. Dr. Smith is the founding director of the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum. He continues to be involved in his community to get out the vote.

The next project for the Multi-Generational Community Building group will be to raise money to send four youths from Thurgood Marshall school to Washington D.C. to the grand opening of the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum as Dr. Smith’s special guests. We are working with both Dr. Smith and Mr. Cotton to get a speaker for next year.

A nice dinner was served after the program. Thank you again PACG for your support!

Glenda Guster

Davenport Immigrant and Refuge Proclamation - After Action Report

6/3/2025

Immigrant and Refugee Proclamation presented to the City of Davenport - After Action Report

Civil Rights Forum

The Immigration Coalition of the Quad Cities presented a proclamation to the Davenport City Council affirming the value of immigrants and refugees in our community. Several coalition members were in attendance, and the proclamation was accepted with support!

Allison Ambrose

Healthcare Reform Forum legislative visit - After Action Report

5/27/2025

Visit to Miller-Meeks office about Medicaid cuts - After Action Report

Healthcare Reform Forum

We met with Miller-Meeks staff about our concerns about the proposed Medicaid cuts to support tax breaks for billionaires. We presented the staff with facts and figures about the consequences of funding cuts, including costs to the state (Iowa), loss of coverage for people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) due to Medicaid expansion, and loss of rural hospitals and providers.

Rael Slavensky (he/him)