Present: Peter, Ellyn, Glenda Rae, Rey, Sarah, Barbara, Lois
Old business
1. Approval of Minutes for July 7: The minutes were approved as corrected. There were a couple of typos.
2. Progress Reports
a. Concern about Vote Centers: Glenda Rae will ask John Hagen for his report showing that the switch from precinct voting to vote centers is not cost effective. She tried to go to a September 11 meeting of the 3-person committee deciding this issue, but it had apparently been canceled without notifying the public.
b. September 21 vigil at Morris Civic: Lois filled us in on the details for this 4:30-5:30 vigil in solidarity with the New York City climate change marchers. Rey has asked Wendy Brunner, pastor at Zion UCC to speak about the stewardship of the earth from a faith perspective. He has also invited Jackie Walorski and Joe Bock or their representatives to speak on the climate change issue. Lois has asked George Shriker to lead the group in a song that he has written about our connectedness for the first 15-18 minutes of the vigil. He has to leave promptly to get back to Plymouth for another engagement. Tony Flora will send a statement to be read as he also must be in Plymouth. Saint Mary's prof Cassie Majetic will speak about how climate change is affecting flowering cycles of plants around the world, and the potential impact that can have on crop production and availability. Rey will sing his anti-fracking song. We will ask the Sierra club to provide a speaker and also Dr. Candace Corson to present the viewpoint of the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Rey will be master of ceremonies and asked that each speaker provide a brief bio. Glenda Rae will bring comment cards for folks to fill out to be sent to the government. We will also have paper and pens for folks to write what they would not want to lose as a result of severe climate change. We need a sign and a table to draw vigilers to sign the comment cards and fill out the papers. Ellyn will prepare a press release once she has heard from the speakers about their topics - hopefully by Wednesday or Thursday. We need to make more signs for the vigil. Peter will work on this.
Lois mentioned that there will be 1100 groups represented at the NYC march on the 21st; 28 different faith groups have endorsed the event. UFPJ is calling the event People's Climate Convergence for People, Planet, and Peace over Profit. The reason for the NYC march and rally is to influence the UN Climate Summit which starts on September 23. September 21 is also the International Day for Prayer for Peace. There will be a prayer service from 3:00 to 4:00pm on Sunday at the First Presbytarian Church.
The schedule for the Morris Civic vigil in front of Morris Civic is as follows:
Time Speaker Person responsible for follow-up
4:30 George Shriker Lois
4:50 Wendy Brunner Rey
4:55 Walorski/Bock Rey
5:00 Cassie Majetic Ellyn
5:05 Rey Hernandez song Rey
5:10 Tony Flora statement Ellyn
5:15 Health Care Rep. Ellyn
5:20 Sierra Club rep. Ellyn
5:25 Rey closing remarks Rey
c. Visit by the Climate Change Marchers: Sarah, who had housed a number of the walkers was very impressed by their commitment. They had walked every step of the way from San Francisco, some in their 70's. One 78 year old rode his bike all the way. The film "Disruption" which talked about the need for the climate change rally in NYC on the 21st was shown twice, once at Saint Marys and once at Notre Dame. The walkers were present at the showing at ND and participated in a panel discussion afterwards. Sarah is finding that some of her neighbors don't believe that climate change is happening. Folks are happy with the reduced gasoline prices, even though these come at the expense of refining tar sands oil from Canada in Indiana. The oil company doing this is getting around the ban on shipping tar sands oil by diverting the flow at the border into an old pipeline and rerouting it to the new pipeline once it crosses the border.
d. WNIT interview: Lois has arranged an interview on Tuesday afternoon with Gordy Young for Sarah Hoefner and Bobbi Woods to plug the September 21 NYC march and our solidarity vigil at the Morris Civic Fountain. This program will air on Friday, September 19, at 7pm. They only have 2 minutes apiece, so we encouraged Sarah to push the vigil at the beginning and end of her time.
e. Moral Mondays Indy Trip: The NAACP and CFED have filled one bus and are working on a second to transport folk to Indianapolis on Saturday, September 20, for a March and Rally. The cost is $25 to be sent to South Bend NAACP, 914 Lincolnway West, 46616 by Wednesday. Call 574-334-3387 for more information. Moral Mondays is a multi-issue, multiracial movement anchored in five critical issues: Education, Economic Development, Health, Voter's Rights, and Criminal Justice. The movement began in North Carolina and the NAACP is trying to bring it to Indiana.
f. Jobs with Justice Dues: We decided to pay our dues again this year. Glenda Rae will talk to Joe Carbone to see if they have a reduced fee.
3. Treasurer's Report: Our bank total is $70.67 with $5.11 in petty cash. We paid $10.57 as our share for new checks for the Peace Education Fund.
New Business
1. What do we (can we) do next? We incorporated this topic into other discussion
2. Topic of the Month: We postponed coming up with a new topic until the next meeting due to time constraints.
3. Other Topics and Issues: On October 5 at 6:30pm, Prince of Peace church at Cleveland and Ironwood will sponsor comedian Ted Schwartz telling the story of how he coped with the suicide of a friend. The $10 fee will help pay for his travel and fee.
4. Next meeting: Monday, November 10th, at 3pm at Peter and Ellyn's.