[Peace] Minutes of AWARE meeting 8/10/03

[Morton K.Brussel]

Linda was our facilitator.

Introductions

Carl gave his News of the Week.  His notes will be posted.

Working groups: Linda appealed for facilitators for proposed working 
groups. She remarked that a facilitator need not do all, or even most, 
of the work. (Laughter/skepticism.) Last week, several ideas were put 
forth for possible actions/working groups. Linda read these off (listed 
below), solicited interest and asked those so interested to facilitate 
a working group.

1] Demonstrations à la P4P. Periodic, not necessarily at north 
Prospect, nor every week, yet intended to “show our flag” on issues of 
importance. Gabe volunteered to pursue the matter. A sign up sheet was 
passed around.

2] On 8/27, United for Peace and Justice proposes to meet with Tim 
Johnson, our congressional representative, to discuss the U.S 
occupation of Iraq and the excuses for the war. AWARE should join in.

3] On 8/22-23, the Urbana Sweet Corn Festival will take place. It would 
be useful to have AWARE represented there. A table?; it seems too late 
for that. Passing out literature? No action taken.

4] Town Hall meetings. More are desirable.

5] Coordination with other peace groups: PRC, Student Peace Action, 
etc. There has been contact with PRC by ??, but not yet with others.

6] Creating informative AWARE literature. A sheet was passed around to 
enlist those interested.

7] Electoral issues. Jay and Mort will try to organize efforts to 
inform about the presidential candidates, and to propose possible AWARE 
initiatives.

8] Film festival in the Fall with enlightening and entertaining films.

Farmers Market.  Jay reported that our table was set up, and elicited 
modest interest. Literature was distributed, and our posters and signs 
were noticed. It was suggested that when someone comes by and shows 
interest, it is an opportunity for dialog to take advantage of.

Publicity. Lisa reported on buying balloons with AWARE messages.  500 
balloons would cost $500, an extra 100 would cost $80, etc. Too 
expensive? The discussion went on to other modes of AWARE publicity 
such as buttons, bumper stickers, yard signs, T-shirts, etc. Lisa found 
that the messages she found (for buttons?) on the web pages did not 
strike the right notes for her. Carl suggested that former AWARE 
buttons were effective, and many agreed. They will be ordered; Janet 
will see to it.  Ricky will obtain post cards on which various messages 
can be sent to our politicians. These can be passed out and collected 
at diverse events—wherever we have a table.

Other business.
1) Randall has proposed that a sense of what AWARE members are most 
concerned about is important to know, so that AWARE can have a greater 
focus to its efforts and so that we all know what is most important to 
other members of the group. He suggests “that individual advocates for 
particular issues step forward and formally submit a clear description 
of the issue close to their heart, optionally arguing for its 
importance…” There might then be a group discussion/debate on the 
merits. [See Randall’s e-mail to the “Peace-Discuss” list,  8/10/03].
The ensuing discussion seemed to indicate that there was no great 
opposition to this proposal, but neither was there great enthusiasm. 
Some mentioned that AWARE’s method of activism had been quite 
successful, that we didn’t need a formal process to steer the efforts 
of AWARE, that when individuals were especially concerned with 
particular issues, they tried to form working groups to address the 
issue, and that this had worked effectively. Other comments noted that 
what was of interest today, might change tomorrow, so that a poll of 
opinions today might quickly become irrelevant. Randall will present 
his ideas again at (a) future meetin(g), when more people are likely to 
be present, and will then consider if he wishes to further pursue his 
initial proposal.

2) There will be a presentation of the video “The Color of Fear” at the 
home of Jan and Durl Kruse on 8/23.

3) AWARE will try to coordinate with the PRC on a presence at Quad Day, 
8/26(?).

4) Meredith Kruse will report on Guatemala at next week’s AWARE meeting.

My apologies for the inaccuracies and omissions of this report.

MKB

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