SNOW General Meeting 10/1/02 MINUTES NEXT MEETING:  Tues Oct 8, 7 p.m., at Seattle Labor Temple, 2800 1st Ave in Belltown;  planning meeting for SNOW, Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War, a new explicitly Nonviolent Coalition to Prevent a U.S. War on Iraq;  organizations and individuals interested in working with others who commit to nonviolence in our actions, including respectful language to all, invited to work together; with 12 member organizations and growing, includes Seattle Chapter Fellowship of Reconciliation;  Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility;  People for Peace, Justice and Healing (Tacoma);  American Friends Service Committee Pacific Northwest;  Church Council of Greater Seattle;  and others, request Points of Agreement from Jean bb369@scn.org or 206-860-9649, info F.O.R. 206-789-5565 (thanks to Howard Gale for arranging the location) Jean Buskin, facilitating, Shannon Turner-Covell notetaker WELCOME We were welcomed by Weldon Nisly (pastor of Seattle Mennonite Church where our meeting was being held). INTRODUCTIONS We introduced ourselves and included what neighborhood or area we lived in. POINTS OF AGREEMENT We then recapped SNOW’s POINTS OF AGREEMENT, reminding ourselves to be respectful of all during the meeting. LOGISTICAL ANNOUNCEMENTS Written Announcements: Jean explained a new, more efficient, way to share our many announcements. She hung a large paper in front and invited everyone to write their event announcements on it. At the end of the meeting everyone could puruse thru them and take notes as they wished. This will give us more meeting time for other important activities. (The announcements will be included in minutes) (all events announced have already been sent out to the SNOW list, but are included below for completeness) A Carpool sign-up sheet was also hung in front to encourage Carpooling to meetings. A sign in-sheet for this meeting was passed around. BRIEF reports Listserv manager: Tom Shea said that he appreciated every ones patience while the wrinkles in the listserv were being worked out. Phone tree manager: Nan McMurry said everything was fine with phone tree and people could see her if they wanted to add their name. Creative action group: Linda Elston and Ellen Finklestein reported.  The DIE-IN didn’t come off as well as they hoped. (Another group, PRAXIS, was to have given them more leadership).  They had a successful time decorating cars with antiwar messages. Direct action group: Mike reported on the successful and cordial sit-in at Senator Cantwell’s and Murry’s offices in the Federal bldg. in Seattle on Wed. 9/25. Twelve SNOW members were arrested, cited and released.   BREAKOUT into SMALL GROUPS by INTEREST  We then broke into small groups,(Direct Action, Creative Action, Outreach and Media) to develop, discuss, and decide on activities, logistics etc. The outcomes are listed below by date with the announcements. SONG : Mike lead us all in singing an South African peace song. REPORT BACK to whole group We came back together, shared what we had decided, and thanked Weldon for having us at the church. Among our decisions:  SNOW giraffes for people who “Stick their necks out and stand tall for peace” to be given to Scott Ritter and Rep. Jim Mcdermott.  Encourage all to attend Scott Ritter event with leaflets.  Contingent at Oct 6 demonstration with SNOW armbands (made by Linda Elsworth) and a banner (made by Ruth Yarrow).  A variety of activities Monday Oct 7 (banners at 8 a.m., presense at fed. bldg, car top sign caravan, see below.  Participate in procession to be planned by Church Council. [notes added later:  SNOW giraffes were awarded as planned, by Jean Buskin to Scott Ritter at the reception before his talk;  by Carl Meyer and Karissa Lowen to Jim McDermott at his community meeting, Scott Ritter event was packed with hundreds turned away, Jim McD got lots of applause and standing ovations, NION demonstration had 10,000 or so people (Jean’s guess)] ------------------ ANNOUNCEMENTS (these were already sent out and include the announcements made at the meeting as well as some others) ONGOING URGENT, while there is still a chance to prevent a massacre, tell SENATORS AND REPS AND OTHERS TO SAY NO TO WAR ON IRAQ;  do this soon and do this often, phone, fax, email, mail, and visit, thank Jim McDermott for his stand against a war, Send a letter to your Congressional folks via web site http://www.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=2174&ms=irqpea ce, you can send the sample letter as is or with whatever changes you like or write your own message "I pledge to never vote again for any Democratic candidate for public office who has voted in favor of George Bush's war in Iraq." ---Sign the petition at http://www.michaelmoore.com/petitions/peacepledge/index.php Send a letter to all the Congressional leadership via web site http://www.progressiveportal.org/letters/global/iraq/ Sign an online petition by the Move On organization http://www.moveon.org/nowar/ Nationwide statement of the academic community opposed to a US invasion of Iraq. Faculty, students, and staff are invited to read and add their names to this petition at http://www.noiraqattack.org/ Phone and fax and email Senator Patty Murray, DC: 202-224- 2621; Fax: 202-224-0238; Seattle: 206-553-5545; Fax: 206- 553-0891; email: senator_murray@murray.senate.gov and Senator Maria Cantwell, DC: 202-224-3441; Fax: 202-228- 0514; Seattle: 206-220-6400; Fax: 206-220-6404 Call US Representative Offices:  Dist 1 Rep Inslee - 202-225-6311, 425-640-0233  Dist 2 Rep Larsen - 202-225-2605, 425-252-3188 or 1-800- 562-1385  Dist 3 Rep Baird - 202-225-3536, 360-695-6292  Dist 4 Rep Hastings - 202-225-5816, 509-543-9396  Dist 5 Rep Nethercutt - 202-225-2006, 509-353-2374  Dist 6 Rep Dicks - 202-225-5916, 253-593-6536 or  1-800- 947-NORM  Dist 7 Rep McDermott - 202-225-3106, 206-553-7170  Dist 8 Rep Dunn - 202-225-7761, 206-275-3438  Dist 9 Rep Smith - 202-225-8901, 253-593-6600 or 1-888- Smith09 Toll-Free number to call your senators and representatives 1-888-832-4246 Use a free, temporary Capitol Hill switchboard at 1-800- 839-5276 to say no to war If you don't know who your Rep is, or live outside WA, contact 2 senators and one rep via the Congressional Switchboard is 202-224-3121, anyone can get the local and federal addresses and fax numbers of their reps by simply typing in their ZIP code at http://capwiz.com/wa/dbq/officials/ Contact United Nations Security Council Permanent members, see contact information on other handout