[Peace] minutes of weekly AWARE meeting 2009-07-26

[Randall Cotton]

Minutes of 07/26/2009 AWARE meeting are below.

NOTE: I'm streamlining the minutes a bit, removing things that are old or
don't otherwise seem useful.

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

Upcoming Events Calendar
----------------------------
**UNCONFIRMED** Jul 28 (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)

Jul 28 (TODAY, Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Aug 1 (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 1 (Saturday) 2-4PM Main St & Neil St, Champaign
The Main Event - AWARE's monthly 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.

Aug 4 (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 4 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6)
Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air", taped earlier in the day (see above)

Aug 8  (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

*****
Minutes of 07/26/09 AWARE meeting:

About 6 in attendance

News of the week was reviewed jointly

-----------------
Finance  Report:
estimated balance: $696.45

AWARE funds are substantially lower than in the past ($2000 has been
typical for years, we're now in the few hundreds).

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, Aug 1.

**NEW** Point made that an announcement should go out to the peace list.

**NEW** Unclear if flyer is being produced for this month, though some
work has been done on an Iran flyer.

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

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

An AWARE Presents meeting may not be imminent, but is still in the offing.

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)

**NEW** Unclear whether there will be a taping this week

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 Stuart's,  perhaps to be
moved
soon.

**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 )

(nothing new this week)

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)

(nothing new this week)

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

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)

**NEW** Anti-Recruitment - Meeting held with principal Justin Moore of
Centennial High School. Mort, Durl, Betty attended. Regarding reports that
military recruiters were given free access to students in hallways
recently, they are provided same access as if they were college
recruiters. They do have to make an appointment. They come around several
times a year. Meeting participants stressed the value of directly
contacting and providing parents with an opt-out form to keep their
children out of the military recruiter database. A form was provided.
Request to provide space for counter-recruitment literature was accepted.
One administration assistant present seemed to be particularly
sympathetic.

**NEW** Sweet Corn festival application submitted along with $100 fee.

**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** Concern
expressed again regarding dwindling AWARE attendance/participation.

**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** Formal letter to Sen. Durbin has been sent requesting a
meeting on Israel/Palestine, no response received yet. Call may go out
soon for folks to join a working group on how to proceed with this.

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

(nothing this week)

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** Mention made of CCHCC effort to bring folks over to Danville for
Tim Johnson town meeting on health care (which took place yesterday,
Monday)

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.