Facilitators: Gunnel Clark and John Bito Timekeeper: Kiwi Bob Note taker: Diana Forman
Ten organizations and neighborhood groups were represented; fourteen people attended the meeting.
We began with introductions around the circle and proceeded to the most pressing agenda items.
To advertise the event groups have been bannering on I-5 at 130th Ave NE. and at East Roanoke, as well as at the Fauntleroy overpass in West Seattle. The North Seattle group has displayed banners for the past four Sundays on Aurora at 102nd Street, and Martha Jackson's Ballard group has also bannered mornings in their area.
Fifty peacekeepers are needed to work the event, and it appears that only twelve have signed up. Peacekeepers should be experienced, Jody Haug is the contact person, and volunteers can use the March 19 website to sign up.
To form the "bucket brigade" which will collect donations during the rally and later at a "tollboot" set up downtown just ahead of the march's arrival, forty volunteers are needed. Brenda Collier will contact volunteers ahead of time, and they will meet behind and above the stage area at Seattle Center at 10:30 on the morning of the l9th.
Marcia Mullins will reserve a table for SNOW under the stage area, and Gunnel Clark and Diana Forman will set everything up there, including peace shirts. Steve Ludwig has begun work on an up-dated SNOW flyer to hand out at the event, and Diana will contact him so that she and Gunnel can complete the design and produce the flyers to have at the table.
A phone bank will operate at the Labor Temple on Tuesday evening from 5:30 until 8:00 to place another 1,000 calls to follow the 1,000 made on Sunday night.
SNOW is a co-sponsor of the Eyes Wide Open exhibit intended to dramatize the human cost of the Iraq war. It includes an exhibition of boots to represent slain American soldiers and a Wall of Remembrance to memorialize the Iraqis killed in the war; posters advertising the event were handed out. Seattle dates are April 9 and 10 at Fisher Pavilion, with most of the exhibit inside, possibly spilling out onto the lawn. Volunteers are needed to set up, take down, distribute flyers, and do peacekeeping. They can sign up at ewoseattle@yahoo.com.
Iraq Working Group - Gunnel reported that 25 Faces of Iraq posters are now out in the community. She also displayed a new poster that is a handsome laminated copy of the original version, which required time-consuming arrangement of individual photos and pieces of text on posterboard for each one by hand.
Military Counter-Recruiting - Gunnel reported for Steve Ludwig that even though Garfield High School's principal prevented his group doing a theater piece at the school, the group has organized another event at the school within the last month. Abe Oshoroff and others from the North Seattle neighborhood group will set up tables with counter-recruiting information at Ingraham and hope to eventually gain access to the school's PTA.
In the same vein Louise Lansberry from Lake City's SNOW group announced that she has taped the Frontline program called "Soldier's Heart" which deals with the emotional and psychological effects of serving in Iraq. She can make it available to anyone interested. She also mentioned that a feature-length film called "Voices in Wartime," which intertwines poetry and war across recorded history, will be in theatres in mid-April; however, a short introduction to the film with additional commentary called "Voices in Wartime and Beyond" is now available on DVD along with discussion guides at www.voicesinwartime.org
Nonviolence Study Group - Louise announced that the group still meets once a month and wants to help "A Force More Powerful" be seen more broadly. The group feels that KCTS should show the series again and bring in someone to introduce each segment. Group members hope that 1,000 of us will e-mail the station to encourage them in this direction and would also like to locate teachers to share the series with their classes this year.
Web Committee - John Bito commented that the committee will be meeting soon and that Eric is continuing to restructure the website.
Peace Education Lobbying - John Repp reported that five members of their group were in Olympia last Wednesday for two hours with their banner and leaflets that explain how much Washington State citizens have paid for the Iraq War so far. Their information also describes the resulting budget shortfall for our state.
Sunday night, March 20th, Ben Sherman, a conscientious objector in the Vietnam era. will speak following a 5:00 potluck.
There will be a presentation at Temple Beth Am at 7:00PM, March 23rd, on Darfur.
Global Connections and Jubilee Northwest will sponsor a presentation on forgiveness of third-world debt in April.
Brenda reminded everyone that SNOW is looking for a new treasurer for the group and added that she will help train the individual.
There was a general reminder to us all that radio stations need three to four weeks of lead time before they can produce public service announcements.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40. The next general meeting will be held on April 11; the coordinating committee will meet next on March 28.
Minutes by Diana Forman