[Peace] Quite a bit happened at the last AWARE meeting...

[carol inskeep]

...so you may want to look over the minutes.  We discussed several upcoming events that AWARE is organizing - there are lots of opportunities to help and get involved.  And we also had a wide-ranging conversation about AWARE, prompted by feedback from Imani Bazzell and Sam Smith about AWARE's presence at Obama's Town Hall Meeting.  Folks have already asked that this discussion be continued next week.  Please feel free to add and correct these minutes.
 
And if you have other suggestions for the next meeting, email David Green, who is currently doing the agendas.  It will be my turn to facilitate.
 
AWARE Meeting Minutes 8/21/05
Bob Illyes facilitating / 20 or so folks attending
 
News of the Week posted separately
Introductions
New Ideas
- Eyes Wide Open:  Carol Inskeep announced that the AWARE has the opportunity to bring the Illinois version of the Eyes Wide Open exhibit (from American Friends Service Committee in Chicago) to town the weekend of September 16th.  The exhibit consists of 76 boots tagged with the names of every Illinois soldier who has died in Iraq, as well as a memorial exhibit to Iraqi military and civilians who have died.  We hope to display the exhibit at several locations around Champaign Urbana.  Interested in getting involved?  Come to the working group meeting (where we will also be discussing Kathy Kelly's upcoming visit) on Thursday, August 25th at 7:30 at the home of Jan and Durl Kruse, 2007 S. George Huff Drive in Urbana.  Or contact Carol Inskeep:  344-9155.
 
Working Groups
- Kathy Kelly/Peaceful Tomorrows events:  We have lots of events planned for the weekend of September 16th, including:

   Kathy Kelly's Friday Forum talk at Noon on September 16th at the Y
   An Evening event at the Y at 6:30 on Friday featuring Kathy Kelly, the speaker from Peaceful Tomorrows, and the performance group the Prince Myshkins
   An interfaith program on Saturday morning, September 17th with Kathy, the Peaceful Tomorrows speaker and Robert McKim at the Newman Center (organized by Sharon Dorsey, details to come)
   An AWARE Presents program with Mohammad al-Heeti at the Urbana Free Library on September 19th 

We also approved $200 for the Peaceful Tomorrows speaker's travel expenses (Carl asked that we mention the current Northwest Airlines as a consideration in choosing the airline he uses).  If you would like to get involved in promoting and planning these events, join us at the working group meeting, details above.

-September 24th Bus to the Washington DC Protests:  22 folks have expressed interest; 10 have committed to going.  Durl urges us to keep promoting this opportunity and to remind students that, due to generous donations, we have many student scholarships available so that students can go to Washington for at a cost of $35.

-Main Event:  35 folks showed up (including many new faces); lots of flyers were distributed.  Two reminders:  we need to stay on the curbs when distributing literature (in line with our agreement with the police), and when circulating the sign up sheet we might ask if folks want to be added to our announcements listserve.

-Farmer's Market / Sweet Corn Festival - Dave Green currently has all the tabling materials.  Dave Green will coordinate tabling efforts at Sweet Corn Festival with a posting to the list.  

-AWARE Presents:  The working group is trying to speak to a new audience by using the Vineyard Church as the location for an AWARE Presents program in October.  The topic would be "Stories from Iraq" and would feature a panel tentatively to include an Iraqi Christian woman, an anti-war soldier who served in Iraq, and a member of the Peacemaker team.  Many other topics are also in the pipeline for AWARE Presents.  You can get involved by coming to the next working group meeting on Tuesday, August 30th at 7pm at the home of Jan and Durl Kruse, 2007 S. George Huff Drive in Urbana.

-Literature:  Durl will coordinate with Dave Green about replenishing the literature supply.

-Quad Day:  Rich has offered to organize our tabling efforts for Quad Day.  Both the Campus Greens and the Muslim Women's Outreach group have offered to let AWARE put literature on their tables at Quad Day.  Karen will look into signing AWARE up as a UI student group.

Events of the Past Week

-Around 135 people and some press showed up at Greg Springer's backyard vigil in solidarity with Cindy Sheehan on Wednesday night.

-Obama Town Meeting:  Folks re-capped the AWARE activities at the Obama meeting, and then two guests, Imani Bazzell and Sam Smith gave feedback on AWARE's presence.  An extensive discussion followed which touched on many issues about AWARE and anti-racism organizing, strategies for appealing to African Americans, the best strategy to use in trying to influence Obama, etc.  A range of opinions were expressed and we will revisit this discussion next week.

Upcoming Events

UPTV Public Access Forum on August 29th at 4pm

 


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