[Peace] minutes of weekly AWARE meeting 2008-11-30

[Randall Cotton]

Minutes of 11/30/08 AWARE meeting are below, but first, AWARE Volunteer
Opportunities and the Upcoming Events Calendar:

CU Storybook Guild - Eastern Illinois Food Bank

AWARE Volunteer Opportunities
-----------------------------------
(various ways to volunteer in AWARE's work)

AWARE is helping search for locations to set up a portable electronic LED
display that reports (in a loop) various statistics on the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan (casualties, financial cost, etc.). Here's a video of the
sign going through a typical loop:
http://dart.ncsa.uiuc.edu/stuffed/slevy/costofwar-sign.mp4
Dimensions of the sign are: 50.3" L x 6.3" H x 1.7" W and it weighs 12
pounds. Full specifications are at:
http://www.bigbrite.com/product.aspx?id=78
The display could be set up anywhere indoors - home, business, event -
where it will be seen by many, for as long or as little as you like. If
you can volunteer to display the sign somewhere or have any ideas where it
could be set up, contact Barbara Kessel, barkes at gmail.com, 365-9473 or
Randall Cotton, recotton at earthlink.net, 351-8644/722-8470.

AWARE is looking for an attorney or law student who would be interested in
volunteering to help craft Illinois legislation to regulate military
contractors such as Blackwater within the state as part of the AWARE
Blackwater Working Group. This would be in conjunction with a statewide
effort involving Clearwater (see www.noprivatearmies.org) and would be a
continuation of last year's effort (HB 5700) to pass legislation. See:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=5700&GAID=9&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=37316&SessionID=51&GA=95 .
Contact Barbara Kessel, barkes at gmail.com,  365-9473 or Randall Cotton,
recotton at earthlink.net, 351-8644/722-8470.

Help is needed with content creation and maintenance for AWARE's website,
anti-war.net. Technical experience (UNIX/HTML/CSS) required for
maintenance work (but not content creation) Contact: Stuart Levy,
slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu, 351-9264/244-1543 or Randall Cotton,
recotton at earthlink.net, 351-8644/722-8470.

Meeting minutes: Someone is needed to share or take over meeting minutes
duty (preparing these notes each week). Help will be provided (as much as
necessary). Contact: Randall Cotton, recotton at earthlink.net,
351-8644/722-8470

AWARE publicity: Someone is needed to maintain AWARE publicity documents
(and arrange for copies, as needed). This includes our business card,
intro sheet for new meeting attendees and our general information sheet
for tabling events). All reproduction costs reimbursed, Help provided as
needed. Contact: recotton at earthlink.net, 351-8644/722-8470

Upcoming Events Calendar
----------------------------
Dec 2 (Tuesday) 1PM, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St.
Taping of "AWARE on the Air" for UPTV to be broadcast later the same day
(see below)

Dec 2 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Dec 6 (Saturday) 2-4PM Main St. & Neil St., Champaign
The Main Event - AWARE's monthly (first Saturday of each month) street
demonstration event. Largely focuses on opposing U.S. occupations of Iraq
and Afghanistan, but is open for anyone to join us either using one of our
signs or one of their own. We try to have a topical flyer to distribute to
motorists and passers-by each month.

Dec 9 (Tuesday) 1PM, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St.
Taping of "AWARE on the Air" for UPTV to be broadcast later the same day
(see below)

Dec 9 (Tuesday) 7PM 2007 S. George Huff  Dr., Urbana (home of Jan & Durl
Kruse)
AWARE Presents Working Group meeting to discuss new efforts, possibly
along lines of a panel of local speakers on the current state of
progressive issues or what should be pressed for from an Obama
administration.

Dec 9 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Dec 12-14 (Friday-Sunday) United for Peace and Justice 4th National
Assembly
Wyndham O'Hare Hotel - near Chicago O'Hare Airport
6810 North Mannheim Road, Rosemont

*****
Minutes of 11/30/08 AWARE meeting:

About 15 in attendance

News of the week was initially postponed to save time (then cancelled)
because of the People's Thanksgiving event scheduled to begin at 6PM.

Finance Report: Balance is $2273.07
Finance report passed around

Working group reports:
*****************
Main Event:
========
(AWARE's monthly street protest held at the intersection of Main & Neil
2-4PM on the first Saturday of each month).

The next Main Event is December 6 (see details above in Upcoming Events
Calendar).

Flyer suggestions: Some in favor of UFPJ's statement (I wasn't in the room
for this, but I'm guessing it was the statement at:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3974 ). However, Stuart has
drafted a statement addressing and pressing Obama as well. Stuart will
continue work, perhaps integrating UFPJ's statement, his own draft and
suggestions posted on peace-discuss.

Mention made of new idea to be discussed next week - to propagate the
message in our monthly Main Event flyer through other channels - Letters
to the editor (in town and out), WILL Public Square, AWARE on the Air,
etc.

Details still forthcoming (from David H) on Champaign/Urbana's busiest
intersections

Library Resources:
=============
(Compilation of valuable reference materials w/strategies to make them
available in the community through various channels including local
libraries).

Current planned event: A showing of Naomi Wolf's "The End of America",
based on her 2007 book. Monday, December 1st at Champaign Public Library
(details above in the Upcoming Events Calendar).

AWARE Presents:
=============
(Organization of AWARE-sponsored events in the community)

New working group meeting scheduled Dec. 9th (see above in upcoming events
calendar for details).

Current AWARE Presents event lineup:

1. Jeremy Scahill event still being pursued (he is on a book tour this
Fall). Contact made, currently in a "wait and see" pattern.

2. Proposal under development: Invite Juan Cole to speak (University
of Michigan Professor of History, middle-east expert, author of Informed
Comment blog, see: www.juancole.com ). Initial contacts to promote
interest in this at UIUC: Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern
Studies and Center for Global Studies.

Anti-Racism:
=========
(AWARE's efforts to keep apprised of and provide support for
anti-racism/anti-discrimination efforts, including efforts of CUCPJ -
Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice)

Mention made of Urbana City Council consideration on Monday, Dec. 1 during
"committee of the whole" meeting of a possible new "nuisance ordinance"
which would fine property owners for crimes or perhaps even just
complaints involving residents of their property. Many concerns raised,
including that this might be used to selectively target individuals in a
subjective, discriminatory, unfair manner for eviction (perhaps just based
on complaints).

Mention made of Champaign County Health Care Consumers demonstration
scheduled for Dec 6th regarding Champaign's  north side 5th and Hill St.
toxic site owned by Ameren (see below under "Other Upcoming Events").

Holiday Market
============
(AWARE's presence at the indoor version of Urbana's "Market on the Square"
each Saturday from 8AM to noon where we offer progressive and anti-war
materials, generally at or below cost).

Sign-up sheet passed around for staffing the table.

Two individuals are asking to be present at the AWARE table for the
purpose of participating in a moveon.org campaign called "Real Voices for
Change" in which photos are taken of people holding messages regarding
Obama that moveon.org promises to forward on to Congress. See:
http://pol.moveon.org/event/faq/index.html?faq_id=115 . Much discussion
ensued. Some reservation voiced about being part of a "cheerleading"
effort offering only unqualified support of Obama. There was also
reluctance to turn the request down, given the discouragement that would r
esult. Consensus without objection was reached in favor of granting the
request, with the condition that the requesting individuals will be asked
not to provide ready-made messages - only a blank whiteboard on which
participants would write their own message with no bias being presented to
them toward any particular message.

AWARE on the Air:
==============
(AWARE's weekly television show on public access cable channel 6 - UPTV,
Urbana Public Television)

It's presumed Carl will be present to host the show. As always, the call
goes out for anyone in AWARE or any friend of AWARE to join in the fun.

Taping typically occurs each Tuesday at 1PM and is broadcast later the
same day at 10PM. AWARE members (and friends) invited to participate - the
more the merrier (see details above in upcoming events calendar). Program
quality is always better with more participants.

There is always room for more participation in AWARE on the Air - prepared
statements OK. Arriving late/leaving early is OK.

Blackwater
========
(Activism regarding notorious domestic policing and international
mercenary contractor Blackwater, including coordination with
Illinois-based activist group Clearwater: see:
http://www.noprivatearmies.org )

(nothing new this week)

Student Groups
===========
(AWARE's efforts to keep apprised of and provide support for local
chapters of student-affiliated anti-war groups such as Campus Anti-Network
and Iraq Veterans Against the War).

Students are currently in Thanksgiving break week.

Old Business
**********
(new developments regarding ongoing issues)

UFPJ National Assembly, Dec 12-14 in Chicago (Rosemont). AWARE is a member
group and can have 2 voting delegates if we attend. Mort and Conrad are
now planning to attend, with Mort driving. Stuart may also attend.
Standing AWARE proposal is up to $650 for sending up to three people.

Randall gave conference information packets to Mort, Conrad and Stuart.

New Ideas
*********
(none this week)

Events of the past week
******************
(comments/reviews of recent events since the last AWARE meeting)

Chris reports about his attendance at the annual School of Americas
protest.

Other Upcoming Events
******************
(events of note which aren't listed in the upcoming events calendar above)

Dec 3 (Wednesday) 7PM, The Iron Post (bar/grill), 120 S. Race St.
CU Storytelling Guild concert to benefit the Eastern Illinois Foodbank.
$5 (and up) admission donation.

Dec 6 (Saturday) 12PM (noon), 405 E. Hill St., Champaign
March and rally to raise awareness about the Fifth & Hill toxic site and
demand that Ameren conduct more testing. Organized by Champaign County
Health Care Consumers.