Minutes for MPJC Meeting for September 5

Old Business

1. Approval of the Minutes for August 1: The minutes were approved as written. Peter observed that he had not linked the questions for candidates or voting information to the MPJC home page. He will do this ASAP. Caroline has emailed Becky several times about events planned by the Arab-American community, but has received no response. Perhaps she is traveling.
   
   
2. Progress Reports
   1. Town Hall Meeting to showcase alternatives to Bush ideas: Ellyn was not able to attend the meeting. Those present were concerned that the last few educational events sponsored by MPJC had low attendance. Perhaps we should try to piggyback onto an event planned by another group. Ellyn is contacting Penny to see if the realtors or the League is planning anything.
      
      
   2. MPJC statement on Lebanon/Gaza: Lee, Lisa and Caroline have been engaged in lots of back-and-forth communication on the issue, but no statement has yet emerged. We encouraged them to pull together a bare-bones topic announcement and put it out on the list serv for comment.
      
      
   3. CLAP project: Carol had nothing to add to Kamaria's comments at the last meeting. We should add the emails of the new CLAP contacts at ND when we send out the minutes and agenda for the next meeting.
      
      
   4. Questions for Candidates: Peter will put them on the web and encourage folks to use them when talking to candidates.
      
      
   5. Meeting with Donnelly: Caroline has not been able to contact Dustin to get this meeting off the ground. She got his phone number at the meeting and will work on this.
      
      
   6. Bird-dogging plans: Rey could not attend and did not send any plans for this. We observed that it will be very difficult to ask any questions at a Chocola event if the immigration session he held last month is any indication. Only his preselected panel members and the two other Republican congressmen present were allowed to say anything. The Tribune reporter contacted a few attendees after the event and asked what they would have said if they had been allowed to speak. Caroline was one of three people who attended from her work (the Institute for Latino Studies), and she pulled together a statement, parts of which were printed in the Tribune (Jaime Ros, "A Chance to Hear Silent Voices," Section E, August 29, 2006). She suggested that anyone who attends one of Chocola's events and is not allowed to speak should write a Point of View about what they would have asked or said and submit it to the Tribune.
      
      
   7. Literature Table at the 8/12 Artist Festival: The attendance at the festival was very poor. Only a handful of folks came by the table. There was a lot going on that day. Perhaps we can table at an event at ND, SMC, or IUSB. There is a panel on the Role of Religion in Peacekeeping on November 4 at the Snite museum. We will probably have to get a campus organization to request the table. We will discuss this further at the next meeting.
      
      
   8. Hiroshima Day vigils: These were fairly successful and faily well supported by MPJC folks. Lois sent 26 comment cards to President Bush. There was no publicity. The WVPE reporter did not show up, and an intern and cameraman from WSJV came and did an interview but it did not make the news.
   
   
3. Treasurer's Report: We forgot to ask for the bank balances, but they should be similar to last month's. Glenda Rae tried to withdraw our money because the bank is charging $3 per month, but she was not allowed to do so. The account is under the Peace Education Fund of Indiana, and the bank needs minutes from a meeting of the fund authorizing her to close the account. If we are willing to do all communication on-line, the bank will remove the service charge. Peter agreed to be the recipient of the bank communication and we authorized Glenda Rae to set up the online communication provided she is still able to write checks (and not have to use a debit card).

New Business

1. Planning for Fall Activities: The consensus was that we wait until after the elections to plan significant anti-war events since neither candidate is advocating withdrawal. MPJC cannot endorse or work for a candidate, but individuals will probably be pretty busy with election preparation.

   Since September 11 is a Monday this year, we plan to have a big banner which says "September 11 -- No Iraqi Connection." If anyone has other ideas for the banner, please email them to the list.

   September 21 is the Declaration of Peace date. If the U.S. has not agreed to a timetable for withdrawal, leaving no bases behind, paying to repair the damage of 13 years of war and sanctions, and turning the oil fields back to Iraqi control by a few days before September 21, folks are planning demonstrations candlelight vigils, and CD in DC and locally. We thought we could do something at the Monday vigil after Sept. 21. For more information and to sign the declaration go to http://declarationofpeace.org/
   
   

2. Topic of the Month: We will continue with the Lenanon/Gaza topic.
   
   
3. Other Topics and Issues: The Jobs with Justice Banquet is on September 21. The deadline for Ad copy for the program is September 11. We agreed to take out a $25 ad. Lee should have the ad copy from last year which we agreed to reuse. Caroline will contact him to get the check from Glenda Rae and turn in the ad. Folks who want to attend the banquet should also contact Lee. Tickets are $30 for an individual or $25 apiece for two or more.

   Our www.michianapeacejustice.org domain name to due to expire in February. It will cost $30 to renew for a year. Peter will look into getting a cheaper renewal price. If anyone knows a provider who would allow us to forward the web contacts to the community.michiana.org site, let him know. We do not need any server space.

   There is a Stop Violence worship service being planned for the beginning of advent (a month before Christmas).
   
   

4. Next Meeting: We will meet on October 3rd at 1036 N. Niles Ave.