Our First Meeting - Getting a Few Good Men to Join Me at the Table
I'm going to be covering the process in the forums so that people can see how we went about doing this in our community, hoping you might find some people who will band together with you and do the same in yours if you find it a worthy topic to 'get active' about.
I simply e-mailed or called Dr Kennedy and Dr McCloskey and asked them when they could meet for dinner. I suggested we invite others we might know, but only those who would really want to invest focused time/energy resources on this issue from start to finish, and then in the future we can open it up for a discussions with others, collecting feedback to support our position, and approaching those in charge of the decisions at the water plants; we'd just have to meet and decide what our action plan would be as a group.
Dr Jeff invited Kevin King, and the three 'gentlemen', though never having all met, felt to me like a well-oiled committee from the start, and I felt they respected my place as the 'moderator', 'reporter' and 'marketer'. There was simply a symmetry of beliefs and it felt 'synergistic'. Each brought something unique to the table (literally) and we concluded after a really FUN and interesting evening, with good food and drink readily available that we were off to a GRATE start! We got lucky, we had a good array of skill set.
Our server was also a nursing student, and when I told her what we were going to be meeting about, she said it reminded her of one of her favorite movies, Dr. Strangelove, and off the top of her head she had a really interesting quote that applied to the situation, and I found it really inspiring that a young woman in her twenties would know such things, and have an opinion about flouride in water! It gives me a great deal of hope for the future ahead for them and I hope we create a good path for her and others to follow in our footsteps.
Before we left I suggested we take a photo but my phone didn't have a flash. We tried all the newer cellulars and they looked grainy and washed out, so apologies for the quality. 
Jim Kennedy, DDS, Kevin King, Jeff McCloskey, DC, and me (Mardy Ross, OTR)
You can read about our second meeting by clicking on the link above this topic toward the right that says "Supplementing What You Eat and Drink" and see it in the list with the topics by our medical/science experts, plus one abou water in general for wellness I created. We created our name (SWIG - Safe Water is Great) and had some fun with the Love Blanket for our summer of love like 1967 only better as we have the Internet now! At least that's how it feels to me! Thank you for reading about our community activism to help reduce chronic illness/increase wellness in our community, may it spread the word and help many. ~~ Mardy
Mardy's note: I am happy to report mid-summer 2012 that this was another step toward what has resulted in the group of four of us locally which named our group "SWIG: Safe Water is Great", we have prepared a logo, mission statement and story of the group, and we have set out navigating our way to educate people 'out there' -- locally and beyond. The three medical providers in SWIG Grand Junction, Colorado created education on Lumigrate, and then I reached out to included two medical/science experts from Lumigrate who live "beyond Colorado" too (North Carolina and Dallas, Texas).
Dr McCloskey then took the key concepts from ALL our educational pieces here at Lumigrate, after we had thoroughly discussed things over our FUN and challenging dinner conversations, and prepared a 'organization/business-level statement letter' to be used as needed in the future. I volunteered to work that into a multi-purpose "statement and story" about SWIG to post here at Lumigrate for all who come to find it.
Therefore, please follow this link to that 'key document' from our group efforts:
www.lumigrate.com/forum/swig-safe-water-great-our-official-statement [1]
...(and I am putting a similar note in each topic we have at Lumigrate about this fluoride and water safety issue -- we have a growing number of topics, please look around if you're wanting to learn more details about fluoride and the history, topically/in toothpaste, or how we went about each step!) ~~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [2] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
Links:
[1] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/swig-safe-water-great-our-official-statement
[2] http://twitter.com/lumigrate