[C-U Smokefree] Updates from the Prez

[Scott Hays]

Hi to all who don't want a dry cleaning bill after a
night out in C-U,

Our first meeting of the year last Wednesday evening
was a success.

Members of council from both cities joined us: Dennis
Roberts from Urbana and Giraldo Rosales from Champaign

We welcomed our new CU Smokefree student worker, Tez
Napue.  And during the meeting Tez volunteered to take
on the duties of Treasurer for our organization.  We
thank Kathleen Gary (Secretary for CU Smokefree) for
acting as "interim" Treasurer, and she will continue
to support Tez in managing our finances, such as they
are.

On that note, our Treasury balance is currently just
over $500 and we could use more donations. As for me,
I'm going to commit to a $20 monthly CU Smokefree
donation, and I would ask others to consider a regular
contribution if you can in any amount you can afford.
It's fast, easy and secure through the Paypal link on
our website, and you don't need a Paypal account to do
it.

During conversations with Council Members Roberts of
Urbana and Rosales of Champaign, we decided that we
would direct all of our attention to Urbana for the
coming months.  The next most likely event will be a
town meeting hosted by the city of Urbana.  Our role
will only be to turn out our supporters at that
meeting and show Urbana Council Members what an
important issue this is for the people of Urbana,
Champaign, and the surrounding communities. We'll keep
you posted on the date, time and location.

One intriguing development in Champaign is an effort
by Mayor Schweighart to punish Champaign's youth ($250
fine) for possessing cigarettes. This is a BAD IDEA
whose time has NOT COME.  And the Mayor is simply
pretending to be anti-tobacco in a way that blames our
youth for tobacco problems which are city-wide. 
Research and the opinions of some of the best tobacco
control minds in this country agree that the best way
to tell youth not to smoke is for adults to stop
smoking in public places, which communicates that
smoking in our community is wrong among youth AND
ADULTS. A focus on youth possessing cigarettes says
smoking is wrong for kids, but just fine once you
reach 18 and beyond.  It's not.  If Mayor Schwieghart
wants youth not to smoke, he should start by setting
his own example by tearing up his cigarettes on camera
at the next council meeting and pledging never to
smoke again. For him not to do so simply demonstrates
his own hypocrisy in sending an anti-smoking message
to youth. Then he should sign onto our effort.  He
needs to get this message.

In other news, we will soon be launching a "social
marketing" media campaign to promote our cause. Anyone
who would like to help or advise with that effort is 
welcome - just drop me an email.  Tez will be doing
the research to support that effort.

We are considering two other events to promote the
smokefree cause we are considering hosting a 5K run
and a smokefree concert. The purpose of both would be
to demonstrate broad support for our cause and to give
voice to health-conscious people throughout our
community that they want smokefree public places.
Particularly among musicians, many, including Council
Member Rosales, have said they can't wait to have
smokefree venues to play in our cities. The concert
would help them to make their voice heard. Again, if
anyone knows anything about putting on these events or
would like to help in any way, please let me know.

Finally, our next regular meeting will be at 5:30,
February 1st, hopefully at the Carle Forum in Urbana
(if we can reserve it). This is where we started out
and, except for some issues with parking, is an ideal
location for our group. We'll confirm this in a later
email.

That's it for now! As usual, if you have any
questions, comments, or concerns, I love hearing from
our supporters (and, believe it or not, I like hearing
from opponents, too).

CU Smokefree!

Scott
The Prez
sphcusmokefree at yahoo.com
778-2645
www.cu-smokefree.org


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