[Cprb] Meeting with Aware

[John Wason]

At 10:57 AM 09/29/03 -0500, you wrote:

>John,
>
>You're right, the AWARE date is October 5th. I did not mean to unilaterally 
>exclude anyone. Ken sent out an email saying that AWARE wanted us to talk, 
>I sent a reply saying I was willing to go, and he replied saying that you 
>and others had been in contact with AWARE, but no one had set a date yet, 
>so why don't I do that. If I had known you had already planned for a date 
>in particular I wouldn't have made any plans. I have a meeting in Chicago on 
>the 19th of October, so I can't make it then - what dates can you make? - I 
>will reschedule for a better day.
>
>Everyone else who would like to go - please chime in.
>
>John Paul

At this point I'd say just keep the date you originally scheduled, John
Paul.  Rescheduling would inconvenience AWARE, I presume, and anyone else
who was planning to attend this coming weekend.  And I DO appreciate your
taking initiative.  It was just a bit of a communication glitch,
apparently, which is unfortunately all too common when group business is
transacted via e-mail.

[If you do decide to reschedule, however, Oct. 12 or Oct. 26 would probably
be better for me.]

My only concern was that there be SOMEONE at these speaking engagements
with what I have termed "institutional memory" - someone who has been
involved with the CPRB coalition essentially since the beginning, and knows
what has transpired to date.  The paperwork is pretty much done, but
speakers for the CPRB Coalition need to be able to answer questions about
how the various city council members responded to our proposal, what
efforts we've made to include the various minority communities, etc.

I've asked Elaine Gehrmann if she can attend the AWARE meeting this coming
Sunday, even though she hasn't met any of you as yet.  And it's possible
that Cope Cumpston will be there as well, or that she could be if she was
asked.  Jeff N-O is another possibility.  I'm not sure exactly when he got
involved, but it seems to me that he may have been present for at least
some of the discussions that we had with the various Urbana council members.

This CPRB movement, or whatever you want to call it, is much bigger than
me, and that's a GOOD thing because I certainly can't do it alone, and
because it's a COMMUNITY issue.  I just don't want the work we've done to
be for naught because new people - especially those who are doing the
presenting to community organizations - aren't "up to speed" on what has
already happened, and why it happened that way.  That's why I sent out the
brief history of our little group, but that isn't enough in and of itself,
because I couldn't possibly write EVERYTHING that has happened.  By the
same line of reasoning, I feel like we are building on the efforts made by
the NAACP and the Urban League in 1998, and it has concerned me greatly
that those organizations haven't been more centrally involved in the effort
this time around.

But we do what we can with the skills and the resources we have.  If
everyone who is involved so far informs himself/herself about the CPRB
issue to the maximum extent possible, and purposes to get others involved,
we should do all right.

Please keep us all informed of any further developments.  And thank you.

John