Ohio Governor Kasich has signed HB 121, a bill to protect military parents” child custody rights modeled in part on AB 2416, which we helped pass in California last year. HB 121 is the 11th bill inspired by F & F or modeled on F & F legislation to pass in the past 15 months. Legislative victories require work and money–please help fund our success and progress by visiting www.FathersandFamilies.org/give. We salute HB Ohio representative Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville), HB 121’s sponsor. To learn more about the bill, see F & F of Ohio Executive Committee Chairman Donald C. Hubin’s Columbus Dispatch column Custody agreements should survive deployments (4/6/11). This success is yet another vindication of the key tenets of our strategy:
1) Effective organizations need paid legislative representatives and staff. Volunteers are great but over time they are only effective when coordinated by fulltime staff.
2) It took decades for the family law system to become the mess it is–we are not going to change everything overnight. We pick battles that are tough but winnable, we build sustainable alliances and relationships, and we make consistent legislative progress.
3) It is axiomatic that California family law has an enormous impact on the family law of other states–we are effectively exporting F & F’s work in Sacramento to other states.
We want you with us–to volunteer, please click here. Glenn Sacks, MA National Executive Director, Fathers and Families Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S. Founder, Chairman of the Board, Fathers and Families