[Peace] minutes of weekly AWARE meeting 2008-07-27

[Randall Cotton]

Minutes of 7/20/08 AWARE meeting are below, but first, the Upcoming
Events Calendar:

July 29 (Tuesday) 1PM, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine
St.
Taping of this week's "AWARE on the Air" for UPTV.

July 29 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

July 30 (Wednesday) 2PM, Courtroom D, Champaign County Courthouse, 101 E.
Main St., Urbana
Final ruling expected on Patrick Thompson's small claims case against
Harvey Welch for return of legal fees due to ineffective representation of
Patrick during his 2nd trial.

July 31 (Thursday) 7PM, home of Jamie and Gary Storm, 304 E. George Huff
Dr, Urbana
AWARE Presents working group meeting.

August 2 (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 on any topic. We try to have a topical flyer to
distribute to motorists and passers-by each month.

Aug 5 (Tuesday) 1PM, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine St.
Taping of next week's "AWARE on the Air" for UPTV.

Aug 5 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

August 22-23 Urbana Sweetcorn Festival
AWARE will be tabling at our own booth.. Booth staffing required 5PM-11PM
on Friday, 11AM-11PM Saturday.

September 12 (Friday) (time, venue TBA)
Luis Alberto Urrea, author of "The Devil's Highway: A True Story", about
an incident in 2001 of 26 men attempting to cross the Mexican border into
the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the
continent. Only 12 men emerged. Luis Alberto Urrea, is from Tijuana but
now lives outside Chicago. Study guide available. AWARE will co-sponsor
this event

*****
Minutes of 7/27/08 AWARE meeting:

About 15 in attendance

News of the week was heard courtesy of Carl Estabrook

Finance Report:  Balance is $2008.10

[Adventitious discussion regarding Bill, the homeless man in the community
for many years (going back at least to mid-eighties), who prefers not to
live indoors and has apparently never harmed anyone. He has apparently
been banned from the Urbana City Building and recently from Lincoln Square
Mall, after being allowed to shelter in these places in the past.]

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 next Saturday. Stuart volunteers to send out a
reminder to all on the peace list.

A flyer on Iran could be distilled from research done by Karen in a couple
posts to peace-discuss. See:
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/2008-July/017516.html
and
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/2008-July/017523.html
No one has come forth yet to make that happen, though.

Another suggestion: A flyer on issues surrounding Pakistan.

Flyers would be handed out to motorists and passersby (at least 300) and
could also be distributed via the Farmer's Market throughout the following
month. Anyone can post a suggested flyer for feedback, comment, and
suggestions to the peace-discuss list (to which anyone may
subscribe) - See:
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss

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

First drafts of AWARE label for books distributed using the
bookcrossing.com model were passed around. Lists of tracked resources also
passed around. Library Resources Working group may help out or spearhead
the effort to host a film series (originally proposed within AWARE
Presents Working Group).

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

Next meeting is July 31st (see upcoming events calendar above for
details).

Current plans for future presentations include:

1. PTSD panel - including local individuals that work with veterans
affected by PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Projected for
September, focusing on how PTSD affects people in our community.

New development: This event may be scheduled for a Sunday afternoon.

2. Blackwater event w/Dan Kenney of Clearwater and possibly Jeremy Scahill
if he is available (he will be on a book tour this fall). Projected for
October.

3. Still being considered, some time further out: Film festival at Urbana
Free Library. Possible titles: "Body of War". "Winter Soldier"
footage, "War Made Easy" "Redacted", "Blood and Oil: The Middle East in
World War I", "Reel Bad Arabs", "Iraq for Sale".

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 developments regarding the Champaign County Nursing Home
(CUCPJ co-founder Carol Ammons is on the County Board)
At last Thursday's monthly County Board meeting, UofI Accountancy
Professor Rachel Schwartz from UofI is spoke regarding her analysis of
Nursing Home finances. There appear to be illegal financial improprieties
that have yet to be fully exposed. There are massive discrepancies
regarding in Accounts Payable among different accounting records. There is
a mysterious no-bid contract to a Texas company, that has apparently
billed for services not provided. Carol Ammons attempted to ask open
public questions of Rachel Schwarz, but was prevented from doing so by
vote of the County Board.

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

Several requests for things we don't have - yard signs, turquoise peace
flags, etc.

Suggestion: more free information - copies of whatever is distributed at
the Main Event, other flyers that are relevant, etc.

Suggestion: Make it clear to folks that all our printed information
really is free (some do assume we charge for it). We could do more to
promote in this area.

NOTE: There will be no Farmer's Market on the 22nd (we'll need to table at
the Sweet Corn Festival at that time)

After some discussion, it was agreed without objection that we'll continue
our presence all the way to the end of the Farmer's Market season
(November 8), paying the necessary fees accordingly.

More discussion about the possibility of ordering additional materials
that are being asked for - peace flags, lawn signs, T-shirts. No one
definitely commits in this regard, but additional efforts may be made.

Mention made of the "Arrest Bush" T-shirt that Ann has.

Mention made of the "ENEMY" T-shirt sighted at the National Assembly. See:
http://www.northernsun.com/n/s/1957.html

Mention made that the very powerful Winter Soldier testimony from earlier
this year will be made available on the Farmer's Market table for $10.

It was noted that we'll have much more tabling space at the Sweet Corn
Festival than we do each week at Farmer's Market - we could offer more in
the way of peace flags, lawn sings, T-shirts if we order that ahead of
time (Sweet Corn Festival is the 22nd and 23rd of August).

Another suggestion: We could increase the display space at our Farmer's
Market presence by setting up a short bench up front underneath the table.

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

Taping occurs each Tuesdays 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.

New feature is being added: AWARE's  "Question of the Day", slated to
occupy the last half-hour of the program. This week's question is:
What is "This War"?

Video posts of recent editions to the Internet are anticipated shortly.

Always room for more participation in AWARE on the Air - prepared
statements OK. Leaving early is OK.

Blackwater
========
New two-page, very informative (but confidential) report from Barbara on
happenings and progress regarding Clearwater and proposed
counter-military-contractor legislation at the State level.

Business Card
==========
Draft passed around of Business card.

Suggestion: the last sentence on the backside be dropped (under
"Demonstrate with Aware", the sentence "Choose from a selection of signs
against war and occupation or bring your own sign on any topic."

Suggestion: space be reserved somewhere on the card to write contact
information (of the AWARE person giving out the card, for instance).

Suggestion: change "5PM every Sunday" to "every Sunday 5PM".

Exact cost not nailed down for current vendor yet (the price info relayed
before was for black and white, but full color was clearly preferred).
Proposed financial expenditure of $200 for 1000 business cards, to be
ratified at next week's meeting. In the next week, a new draft will be
circulated on peace-discuss and additional price-shopping will be done
(cost will definitely be less than $200, just not nailed down precisely
yet).

Old Business
**********
(none)

New Ideas
*********
(none)

Events of the Past Week
*******************
(no additional discussion)