[Peace] Minutes of the AWARE Meeting 8/23/09 [from Carol McKusick <freshstart315@msn.com>]

Tue Aug 25 14:53:56 CDT 2009

[Carol sent these minutes to peace, but they didn't get through
this time -- should work in future.  I've also added the time&place
of Joy George's Dept. of Peace meeting with Mike Frerichs:
Wed 8/26, *10:00am*, 2nd floor of Illinois Terminal. -Stuart]

From: cmck61801 at msn.com
To: freshstart315 at msn.com
Subject: Trian Rull
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:13:26 -0700

Calendar (minutes of 08/23/2009 AWARE meeting follow below)
***********************************************************

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

Sept 5 AWARE Main Event at Main St. and Neil in Champaign, 2-4 p.m. Stand with
signs in view of the traffic and distribute topical AWARE flyer to cars stopped
at the light who want to take one.  All peace and racism issues embraced in
this demonstration of our concerns.

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 08/23/09 AWARE meeting:
**********************************
There was no meeting and no minutes taken the previous week, August 16, due to very low attendance.

Today we have six and have held the meeting.

Finance Report 
==============
by Stuart Levy: Rental has been paid to the IMC for a quarter of a year in both
the closet and the family room ($325) and after that there remains a balance of
$578.45.

Contribution Jar Meeting of 8/9/09: $41

Farmers’ Market Take 8/15/09: $39

Farmers’ Market Take 8/22/09: $25

(Linda Weber reported receiving $50 at the 8/8/09 Farmer's Market, but Stuart
had only recorded receiving $30 the following week.  Not sure where the
discrepancy came from; Stuart changed the record to agree with Linda's recall.
[This just means that the treasurer owes AWARE $20 more at the time of next
bank deposit.])

Contribution jar passed around

Working group reports:
******************
Main Event:
========
The group selected from amongst the flyers of the previous Main Events the
April flyer on Afghanistan and the one of the two January flyers that was on a
Protest Movement for Obama

Carol McKusick would contact Randall Cotton who wasn’t there about updating the
April flyer which he wrote to be one of the September flyers.  Stuart Levy will
update the January flyer Protest Movement for Obama which he wrote for an
additional flyer.

Weekly Action
==========
The Weekly Action is a concept started in mid June 2009.   The idea is you can
come to the AWARE meeting and at the Weekly Action point in the agenda suggest
an action that you would like to see us take en masse during that week or a day
of that week: a letter to write, a phone call to make.  We thought it would
often be things picked up from other organized efforts but could be originated
by the person suggesting.  (Putting up a yard sign or some other form of
personal message could equally be handled this way.)   A standard part of the
Weekly Action was to be making a tally of the numbers who actually did the action.

There was no tally yet of the letters sent Week of June 28
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace/2009-July/022391.html
because the person who gave an e-mail address for keeping track has been
without a computer the whole summer.   The Week of June 28 was the first and so
far the only Weekly Action undertaken by a Sunday AWARE meeting.

AWARE Presents:
=============
(Organization of education outreach type AWARE-sponsored events in the community)  There was no report on this.

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)  There was no report on this.

AWARE on the Air
==============
AWARE's weekly television show on public access cable channel 6 - UPTV,
Urbana Public Television)  There was no discussion on this.

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

It was reported that yesterday several people took some of the
EndTheOccupation.org postcards to Pres. Obama calling for cutting US military
aid to Israel (and others complained about those same postcards).  (See finance
for report on the take.)

As noted in the calendar there will not be a table on August 29 due to AWARE
concentrating at the Sweetcorn Festival.

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

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-War Network (CAN), International Socialists Organization (ISO), and
IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War).

Stuart took some of the materials from the AWARE closet over to UIUC Quad Day
(1-5 this afternoon, Aug 23) and spoke of not having found CAN but having found
ISO and SJP (Students For Justice in Palestine) 

Monthly Message
============
(Efforts to propagate the content of the Main Event monthly flyer through
various media channels)  There was no report on this.  Someone wanted to
eliminate it from our list but someone else remembered that recent successes
getting published had been reported by Carl.  

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

Stuart Levy reported that there will be a Sept 20 showing at Champaign public
library probably of either 

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

4. "Pray the Devil back to Hell" [from imdb.com]  - 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".  In the past, it had appeared that we would have to raise
about $300 to bring this film, but now it appears we can borrow a copy from the
filmmakers for much less, while still showing it publicly.

Sweetcorn Festival 
===================

Our Sweet Corn Fest booth is reportedly somewhere in front of the Courthouse;
we'll have to check exactly where when we arrive.  Setting up the large canopy
for the table needs at least two people, preferably more.   Set up will be at
3:30 p.m. on Friday and between 9:30-10:30 a.m. on Saturday; tear down at 11
p.m. either day.  Otherwise commitments for staffing the table are coming along
well.   To help with a 2 hour shift or to be an extra hand just for raising and
lowering the canopy, please e-mail Stuart, slevy {at} ncsa.uiuc.edu, (or peace-discuss).

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

Department of Peace Delegation to the office of Mike Frerichs week of 8/24/09.
[*** It will be at 10am Wednesday morning, at Frerichs' office on the
 2nd floor of Illinois Terminal in downtown Champaign. ***]
====================================================================================

Concern regarding dwindling AWARE attendance. 
=============================================
No discussion on this topic.

Working group being organized to work on lobbying Durbin on Israel Palestine.   
===================================================================

A few things noted by Carol.  

No response was ever received to July 1 letter requesting a meeting of Durbin
pointedly before the appropriation committee markup.  And the letter wasn’t
really pursued with his office because we have been getting together a group
and determining our request/demand.  

This was the call http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace/2009-August/022452.html   

It was suggested that the group consider the other senator Roland Burris too.  

New Ideas
*********
(never before discussed ideas were not brought up at this meeting)

**NEW (8/9/09** 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
******************

Report on ICJPE (Illinois Coalition for Justice, Peace and the Environment) quarterly meeting 
==============================================================
in person meeting 8/16/09 attended by Stuart Levy as a delegate at large from
the northern part of Illinois.  This group has groups as members.  It belongs
to an organization made up of other comparable coalitions at state level in
other states.  They have monthly conference calls.  They have a web page for
bulletin board of activity around the state.  

Some ICJPE news (e.g. of the likely bankruptcy of broadcaster Clear Channel, or
of the Central IL Organizing Project) will be sent out by Stuart separately
from these minutes.

Submitted 8/25/09,

Carol McKusick