Tom DeWeese, CFACT’s National Grassroots Coordinator, has organized a Grassroots Management Team to help local leaders organize effectively. The managers will keep in touch with local leaders, provide ideas, tactics, and tools, and answer questions. In short, they will serve as spark plugs to keep up the energy and eliminate anxiety for them.
In February, Tom traveled to Ohio and met with leaders in Belmont County, who are working to eliminate the oppression in their county caused by a massive exploitation of county land that has been locked away through the Egypt Valley Wildlife Area. It’s made a huge dent in county income, removing over 28,000 acres from tax rolls. Tom supplied a detailed outline for locals to follow to build opposition to getting the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to open the land to private use. The locals just held their first public Town Hall, and it was a success, 
attended by several state and local officials. Tom will be meeting with them again in April.
In Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law a provision that would eliminate county and township authority to protect their citizens’ private property from government intrusion, particularly the taking of farmland for wind and solar farms. Activists around the state have organized “Citizens For Local Change” and are distributing petitions for signatures to get the issue on the ballot and rescind the law. Tom has been in contact with County Commissioner Kevon Martis, one of the leaders of the citizen movement, and is helping to recruit locals to help circulate petitions. They need 360,000 signatures by May 29th to get the issue on the November ballot. DeWeese has also pledged to help them get more publicity for their fight.
On February 19th, Tom met through Zoom East Coast leaders of the Constitution Party to discuss ways for party members to organize locally to help local citizens stop federal overreach, especially from environmental land grabs and regulations. The hope, of course, is for the Party to become an effective voice for the oppressed landowners who are desperate for help.
Throughout the month, Tom appeared on four radio and internet programs. These included the Sam Bushman Liberty Radio Program out of Utah, VCY America radio with Jim Schneider, Christine Zipps’s blog on Zipps Media, and Reality Check Radio out of New Zealand, with host Jaspreet Boparai. The topic for all of the programs was building Freedom Pods at the local level.