Present: Peter, Ellyn, Glenda Rae, Rey, Lois
Old business
1. Approval of Minutes for November 20: The minutes were approved as written.
2. Progress Reports:
a. Topic of the Month: Why we oppose nuclear weapons. Peter found and promulgated our 2006 statement on our position on Nuclear Disarmament and Nuclear Power. This seemed accurate ten years later. Ellyn will try to find information on the numbers of weapons in the arsenals on the nuclear nations and whether there has been a reduction of these. Obama built a new nuclear weapons construction facility in Kansas City which is now active, replacing the work at the Oak Ridge facility mentioned in the 2006 statement. It seems that Trump wants to sell conventional weapons to everybody in order to make money to offset the budget deficit.
b. Little Taste of Peace: Scheduled for January 13, registration starting at 6pm at the Jewish Federation building. There was a facilitator meeting on January 4 at which suggestions for revising this year's questions were offered. To date 112 people have registered. 3 facilitators from last year will not be able to attend this year, but Glenda Rae has extras she can call. There will be 11 tables of 12 or 13 with registration and food in the entrance hall. Some people have had problems contacting the YWCA folks who are doing registration because their office is in the Navarre building near Memorial hospital and the folks at the Y are not aware of the Y's role in the LTOP.
c. Book of the Month report: Rey was reading "White Rage" but he had to leave to help Wanda and Galen who were having car trouble. Lois had heard about "Secrecy World" a book about the Panama papers which spoke about rich people putting their money in overseas banks to avoid taxes.
d. Immigration Coalition Report: They are scheduled to meet on Wednesday, January 10. Joe has not posted anything lately. We found out at the SURJ meeting that La Casa is organizing two weekend issuing of South Bend IDs. They are Jan 19 4-7pm, Jan 20 9-12am and Feb 2 4-7pm, Feb 3 9-12am. You have to call to register and they will tell you what documents to bring. SURJ will go on Feb 3. The ICE facility in Elkhart is still undergoing permit negotiations. We should contact the County Commissioners.
e. MLK Day table: Peter will bring the Vets for Peace and the MPJC banners. Ellyn will pick up Lois and set up the tables around 8:30-9am. We will have the bean poll again this year. Wanda and Galen will help staff the table and we are contacting Kathy and Pam to help. Peter will staff the table in the afternoon and take it down. Peter will update and print the Cost of War brochures. We will reserve a foot square space for SURJ literature. Peter and Ellyn will check their basement for table posters and may raid Lois stash. Ellyn will pick up Lois materials on Saturday. We will put out the Where do Your Taxes Go flyer as well as some tax resistance information. Lois paid for an electrical connection so we can show the National Priorities Banner with the constant updating of the cost of wars. We could also play the Vets for Peace song.
f. Human Rights Day Report: It was bad weather and there was a small turnout. The program was nicely done. They asked the League to come and register voters. A number of folks at basement meetings checked to make sure they are still registered.
3. Treasurer's Report: $101.33 with a $30 in petty cash.
New Business
1. What do we (can we) do next? We incorporated this topic into other discussion
2. Topic of the Month: Why we oppose nuclear weapons. We will continue to investigate this topic. See above.
3. Tax Day plans: Tax day is on Tuesday, April 17th this year. Peter should post NWTRCC information on the website. Perhaps we can come up with questions folks can ask themselves and post them on our facebook site. Kevin died suddenly last week and he owned the MPJC website. We are not sure how to revive it or if we have to start another one. None of us is tech savvy enough to deal with social media.
4. Other Topics and Issues: We talked briefly about the California Excellence fund where property owners donate part of their property taxes to this fund to be used by the state to fund social needs. No one knows whether the IRS will accept this attempt to get around the property tax cap.
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5. Next meeting: Monday, February 12th, at 2:30pm at Lois' assisted living center. We will send the directions in the meeting announcement.