Minutes for 11/17/03

Present: Rey, Lisa, Lois, Ellyn, Lee, and Peter
  1. Reports:
    1. IUSB Conversations on Race: There were 11 people in our session "Why we demonstrate on the Corner," which was a combination of three other sessions who had no or only a couple of people. So most of the attendees were coordinators of the other sessions and supportive of our efforts. We had a good discussion of the issues. Our facilitator was an IUSB Political Science professor from Greece and kept things moving well.
    2. Vigils: We decided to continue the weekly vigils on Mondays 5-6pm. We will try to get some hand-held battery-powered candles and transcribe some of the signs using neon markers with sparkles.
    3. Cheney demo: This was very successful with a good turnout. The demonstrators were allowed to line up across the street from the ACC.

  2. Finances: Indiana Peace and Justice Network dues - To continue our membership with this statewide coordinating group, we needed to pay $25 in dues. We passed the hat and collected the necessary amount. Anyone who cannot make the meetings, but who wants to contribute can make out a check to Peace Education Fund of Indiana, mark the memo for MPJC, and send it to Glenda Rae Hernandez, 702 East South St., 46601. Lee and Lisa are still interested in coordinating with IPJN and will try to make their meetings.

  3. Directions for the Coalition
    1. Bring the Troops Home Campaign - sponsored by A.N.S.W.E.R., it can be signed on-line at www.votenowar.org or one can print out a sign-up sheet. We decided to promote this petition, and take sign-up sheets to Fiddler's Hearth for Paul Mishler's talk, get them to the local colleges and workplaces, and perhaps have a fan-out day when we would go door-to-door asking folks to sign. If you are interested in participating in this day, please respond to psmith@saintmarys.edu.
    2. Move-On Ad and Press Conference Campaign. We decided to sign up on the move-on web site and participate in this effort. We would need to put in 16 hours of work during the first two weeks in December to prepare a local press conference to point out Bush's bad policies. Lee, Peter, and Ellyn will work on this.
    3. Election Statement/approach. Lee presented an Open Letter to Candidates for Election in 2004 which was formulated by the IUSB Peace and Justice Coalition. He recommenced that MPJC support and push this project. Some members were concerned that there were too many dissimilar issues in the statement for a successful petition drive. Lee will post the letter on the list-serv. We will wait two weeks for comment and then decide at the next meeting (Dec. 1) whether or not to endorse and push it. We would probably not start working on this until February.

  4. March 20th Activities: This date is the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war and folks are pushing for local demonstrations. We postponed discussion until a later meeting.

  5. SOA March is this weekend in Columbus, Georgia. There are busses departing from Notre Dame on November 21.

  6. Website changes - We decided to add the words "and Iraq" after "Afghanistan" to update our statement of purpose. We also decided to add the votenowar petition to the Upcoming Events (See 3a).

  7. The next meeting will be 7:00pm at 1036 N. Niles Ave. on Monday, December 1.

Note: Rey has tickets for a Christmas Music Concert in which he is participating. $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and youth. Children under 12 free. Call him at 287-7715.