[Peace] minutes of weekly AWARE meeting 2009-08-09

Tue Aug 11 10:17:52 CDT 2009

Minutes of 08/09/2009 AWARE meeting are below.

NOTE: I will have to give up doing the minutes in the next week or two. So
others must take up the slack if minutes are to continue.

Upcoming Events Calendar
----------------------------
Aug 11 (TODAY, 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)

Aug 11 (TODAY, Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Aug 13 (Thursday) 6PM, Rm 126 GSLIS (Graduate School of Library
Information Science, 501 E Daniel St, Champaign)
Report from "Viva Palestina" humanitarian aid mission by participant
Martin Smith and also Chris Tuck on his previous travel to the West Bank.
See:
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace/2009-August/022444.html

Aug 15 (Saturday) 8AM-noon, AWARE's weekly presence at Farmer's Market
(Urbana Market at the Square), providing literature, expression (bumper
stickers, buttons, etc) and conversation to further AWARE's mission.

Aug 18 (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)

Aug 18 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Aug 22  (Saturday) 8AM-noon, AWARE's weekly presence at Farmer's Market
(Urbana Market at the Square), providing literature, expression (bumper
stickers, buttons, etc) and conversation to further AWARE's mission.

Aug 28-29 (Friday-Saturday) AWARE presence at Urbana Sweet Corn Festival
Friday: 5-11PM, Saturday: 11-11PM

Sep 12-13 (Saturday-Sunday) Chicago, IL
US Campaign to End the Occupation:
8th Annual National Organizers' Conference. See:
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=253

Sep 19-25 (Saturday-Friday) Pittsburgh, PA
Call by National Assembly for demonstration/action at G20 meeting
See: https://www.natassembly.org/G20.html

*****
Minutes of 08/09/09 AWARE meeting:

About 10 in attendance

News of the week was reviewed jointly

-----------------
Finance  Report:
estimated balance: $798.45

recent expenses:
$100 for Sweet Corn Festival application

upcoming expense:
$125 for 3 months rent of storage closet coming due middle of August

Contribution jar 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).

**NEW** Next Main Event is this coming  Saturday, Sep 5.

**NEW** Flyer suggestion regarding Israel/Palestine & pending U.S. State
Department study on Israel's conduct in the Gaza assault. Another
suggestion: Focus on Afghanistan, particularly since the news there is bad
and promises to soon turn worse.

Weekly Action
==========
(nothing new this week)

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

**NEW** An AWARE Presents meeting is expected once the semester starts

Ideas under consideration for the future:

- Invitation to Stephen Kinzer to appear again.

- Invitation to William Blum

- Jeremy Scahill event: previously contacted, currently in a "wait and
see" pattern.

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)

(nothing new this week)

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

Some "Aware on the Air" recordings are now available on-line. See the
AWARE home page at anti-war.net.

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.

Farmer's Market
===========
(AWARE's weekly seasonal presence at the Urbana "Market at the Square" AKA
"Farmer's Market")

**NEW** Farmer's Market setup materials are at Carl's.

**NEW** Farmer's Market signup sheet passed around

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

**NEW** Mention of former Blackwater employee allegations that CEO Erik
Prince "may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who
were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company." Key
article on this by Jeremy Scahill. See:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill
or
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/08/04-9

**NEW** Also, US still paying Blackwater millions, also by Scahill:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill2
or
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/08/07-10

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

(nothing new this week)

Monthly Message
============
(Efforts to propagate the content of the Main Event monthly flyer through
various media channels)

**NEW** Jim Dey has been good about running all views in News Gazette
letters to the editor. Send submissions directly to him at
jdey at news-gazette.com .

AWARE Films:
===========
(Organization of film and video showings in the community)

**NEW** AWARE members and friends recently viewed "Who killed the electric
car?", which touches on many AWARE issues.

Possible future showings:

1. "Rethink Afghanistan", new Robert Greenwald film.
http://rethinkafghanistan.com/ . Copy already ordered.

2. "On White Privilege" (see
http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=137 )

3. Another showing of Naomi Wolf's "The End of America".

4. "Pray the Devil back to Hell"  - the gripping account of a group of
brave and visionary women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to
shreds by a decades old civil war. Combining contemporary interviews,
archival images, and scenes of present-day Liberia the film recounts the
experiences and memories of the women who stood up to their country's
tyrannical leader and brutal warlords, in order to bring peace to their
tormented country" [from imdb.com]. **NEW INFO** Rights to show this could
be as much as $300, but we could charge admission and provide copies for
checkout to Libraries.

Talk has arisen regarding a possible film festival focused on
"Peacemakers".

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

**UPDATED** Concern regarding dwindling AWARE attendance. Idea was
proposed to survey past AWARE participants to discover why they have lost
interest. Anonymity deemed important. A survey could be constructed online
to assure convenience and anonymity using a service such as
surveymonkey.com. Randall has volunteered to construct list of folks to
survey. Wayne has volunteered to draft questions. Initially, however,
questions may be solicited via AWARE's mailing lists. Bob Illyes survey
from 2004 may inform question construction. ** NEW THIS WEEK ** More
concern expressed about dwindling attendance. New Idea proposed to
encourage new membership (see below under New Ideas)

**UPDATED** Participation in the US Campaign to End the Occupation's
campaign to oppose military aid to Israel. See:
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=2143 .
AWARE is now officially listed as an endorsing organization for a
congressional letter. See:
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/downloads/FY2010BudgetOpenLetter.pdf
**NEW THIS WEEK** No response received yet from Sen. Durbin regarding our
letter requesting a meeting with him. Focus suggested on State Department
study highlighted by US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation that will
study Israel's conduct & especially use of weapons in the Gaza assault
earlier this year (and whether it violates US Law regarding military aid
to Israel). Mention made that appropriation of new military aid to Israel
is now out of committee in both the House and Senate.

New Ideas
*********
(never before discussed ideas brought up during this meeting)

**NEW** Get money together and advertise for new AWARE membership, perhaps
specifically highlighting the ever-worsening situation in
Afghanistan/Pakistan, an insert ad in the News-Gazette, perhaps.

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

(nothing this week)

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

**NEW** In the next week, Stuart will attend an organizational meeting for
ICJPE (Illinois Coalition for Justice, Peace and the Environment).

Plans in formation for a "Midwest Liberty Festival", perhaps in the fall,
possibly at Du Quoin in southern Illinois. Possible speakers mentioned so
far: Naomi Wolf, Ron Paul with Rand Paul, Cindy Sheehan

Mennonites may offer a presentation this summer from a couple who live in
Tehran.