Category: Board - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

First PACG Board President - PACG History

8/1/2025

PACG Trivia Contest continues...

PACG Co-Founder, Cath Bolkcom, and Rev. Ron Quay

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 Progressive Action Update (PAU) posts about a past event, action or concern.

Here's the next in this series:
Question: Who was the first PACG Board of Directors President and what was one of the most important things that PACG Co-Founder Alta Price learned from him?

Answer: Southern Baptist Minister, Rev. Ron Quay, was our first Board President. Alta was impressed to learn that many Southern Baptists are quite progressive, especially concerning the separation of church and state. Read the History portion of this post to learn more.

Read this email from Ron from 2008 as PACG attained it's all-important 501(c)(3) status.

Ron passed away in 2012. Read more about him, including his obituary, in this blog post.

People's Forum - After Action Report

10/16/2022

People's Forum - Iowa House of Representatives - After Action Report

PACG Board of Directors, Forums and AAUW and ISEA

PACG cosponsored this event with the AAUW (American Association of University Women) and ISEA (Iowa State Education Association).

Seven of the twelve candidates for the Iowa House participated in a candidate forum on Saturday morning, October 15th, at the Bettendorf Library. About 30 citizens attended this event, which was moderated by Daniel Salazar, a Senior at St. Ambrose University and a member of the Muscatine LULAC and Latinos Unidos.

Thank you to all who helped coordinate this event.

Lori McCollum

A Message from the New President - 2022

1/11/2022

New President and Changes to the PACG Board

A Message from the New President - 2022

Dear Progressives,

I am honored to have been elected by the PACG Board of Directors for the position of President. I have been a member of PACG since 2008 and a Board member since 2019, so I am familiar with the organization.

Other changes to the Board include Allison Ambrose moving into the position of Vice President. We certainly appreciate her guidance for the past few years, especially during the pandemic. I am pleased that she will remain involved, initially to help me with the transition to president.

Margie Mejia-Caraballo will be stepping down from the Board. We are grateful for her ongoing participation with PACG over the past years.

For those of you who don't know me, I have been the Secretary for NAACP Davenport for three years. I am the Environmental Climate Justice committee Chair for our local NAACP branch. Our committee worked closely with PACG's Environmental forum for the past couple of years. I am learning so much about Environmental issues working with these people. I hope to encourage others to get involved with local and national environmental issues and injustice that affect people of color.

My husband, Michael, and I have six children and nine grandchildren. I enjoy exercising, traveling, and spending time with my family.

My primary goal is to increase diversity in our organization, and to get more young people involved in PACG. How can we achieve this together? I will share other goals with you throughout the year.

Glenda Guster, President

Message from Our President

4/29/2019

Hello Progressives!

Message from the President

I wanted to give a huge THANK YOU to the Environmental Forum for the very successful Earth Day event that was held a week ago Saturday! This group of people worked hard to make sure that our messages about the environment were heard. I hear plans are underway for next year's event. We can all be proud of this event!

I also wanted to let you all know that we have two new board members: Deb Sperry and Glenda Guster. Both of these women are hard working progressives. We are lucky to have them join our board!

Keep up the good fight everyone, Allison.

Save the Date: Toast the Resistance!

1/28/2019

Save the Date: Toast the Resistance
Saturday, February 23, 2019 4:30 - 6:30 pm

the Key
Union Arcade Building
229 Brady Street
Davenport IA (map)

PACG Message to Our Membership

The year has gotten off to a great start with PACG being active in many progressive issues!

I want you to know how much we appreciate your involvement in our endeavors and invite you to an event on February 23rd!

We will be holding our 2nd Annual "Toast the Resistance" party at one of Davenport's newest restaurants: The Key, in the Union Arcade building from 4:30 to 6:30. This is not only a celebration of all that "the Resistance" has been able to accomplish since 2017, but acts as a membership drive and member appreciation event as well.

We have lots of fun things planned, and I challenge each of you to bring one new potential PACG member to the event. Our causes can be aided by numbers!

Look for more details in future weekly email updates as well as on social media, but for now, SAVE THE DATE: February 23rd, from 4:30 - 6:30. I look forward to seeing you all there!

Allison Ambrose
PACG Board President

From Our New President

12/31/2018

Happy New Year from the new President of PACG!

Message to our membership

Hello Everyone! Besides wishing you all a happy and progressive 2019, I wanted to let you know how excited and honored I am to be your new president! My name is Allison Ambrose and I have been involved with PACG since December 2016. I was asked to join the board in 2017 and graciously accepted. This organization means the world to me in that it supports all of the progressive ideals that I have always held close to my heart.

I know that many of you are members, volunteers and donors, which is greatly appreciated. During this upcoming year, I would like to hear more from you about what makes PACG near and dear to your heart as well as how the organization can be better in terms of impact and in getting more progressives involved in our activities. Thus, I will be holding a series of focus groups this spring in order to get your input first hand. Look for invitations soon.

In addition, look for information on our 2nd annual “Toast the Resistance” party / membership drive in the near future. Our first annual was a great success and a lot of fun. Please be thinking about new progressives that you could invite!

In closing, I want to thank Alta Price for the fabulous work she has done as outgoing president! She has promised to be by my side as a mentor and for that I am extremely grateful. Together, I know that all of us as devoted progressives can continue to make a difference in 2019.

Sincerely,
Allison Ambrose

Are You Interested in Non-Violent Resistance? Learn More!

11/5/2018

Civil Disobedience Training
from the PACG Board

Sunday, November 11th 4:00 pm
Metropolitan Community Church, 2930 W Locust St, Davenport, IA (map)

Rev. Rich Hendricks of the Metropolitan Community Church is training activists in peaceful civil disobedience. This training is very important! If you have not yet gone through one of these sessions, and you think that you might wish to participate in acts of peaceful civil disobedience, you really need to go through the training. With the administration considering redefining Transgender out of existence and the approach of the Immigrant Caravan, we may soon find ourselves needing to engage in acts of peaceful civil disobedience, should the government remain unresponsive to our protests.

Note: Even if you do not want to personally participate in civil disobedience, we need support in the community for those who do, and those supporters also need to be trained.

Alta Price

What You Can Do Now - VOTE on Tuesday, November 6th

11/5/2018

VOTE!
a message from the PACG Board

If you have not already voted, VOTE! on Tuesday, election day. If you have voted, convince your friends and family to vote.

In Iowa: Polls are open in Iowa from 7 am to 9 pm.

In Illinois: Polls are open in Illinois from 6 am to 7 pm.

Find your polling place: Vote411.org.

Alta Price

PACG is looking for a part time Office Manager

10/20/2018

Part Time Office Manager Job Posting

pacg_office_manager_ad.pdf
File Size:	29 kb
File Type:	pdf

OFFICE MANAGER
Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG) of the Quad Cities is seeking a part-time (10 to 15 hours per week) Office Manager to assist the Board of Directors in carrying out the organizational mission: "As progressives, we empower people to take action for positive change and social justice by coordinating a network of community forums and events aimed at educating and engaging citizens to work for the common good of all. Our core values are: Social Justice, Empowerment, Diversity, Sustainability and Community." This position is responsible for overseeing the PACG communications plan, outreach to volunteers, assistance in carrying out Issue Forum events, support for monthly Board and Issue Forum meetings and PACG software management. Candidate must have excellent organizational and communication skills (written and oral) and be willing to work occasional nights and weekends. Candidates must possess a college degree. Experience in office management is preferred. PACG is a 501(c)3. Position is open until filled. People from under-represented populations are encouraged to apply. Please submit letter of application, resume and contact information for three professional references to:

PACG
1212 W 3rd St.
Davenport, IA 52802

March 2018 Board Update

4/8/2018

March 2018 Board Update

The Board wants to bring the following events to your attention, brought to you by our hard-working volunteers in the PACG Book Club, Environmental Forum, and Health Care Reform Forum:

Tuesday, April 17 at 6 pm at Fresh Deli in Davenport - Discussion of Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (discussion led by a professor of English literature from St. Ambrose)

Thursday, April 19 at 6 pm at the Quad City Botanical Center - Celebrate the Earth! - a presentation on climate change in the Midwest.

Saturday, April 21 at 10 am at Davenport Central High School - Minority Health Conference - an event especially for immigrants, refugees, and members of minority communities (registration required). Please come yourself and invite your friends and contacts in those communities.

Hope to see you at one (or all) of these activities/events!

Alta Price, Board President