Minutes of the SNOW Coordinating Committee

Date: Monday, November 8, 2004

Present: Gunnel Clark, John Repp, Elizabeth Brant, Steve Ludwig, Linda York, Brenda Collier, Ellen Finkelstein, John Stolzfuss, Ruth Yarrow, Shannon Turner-Covell, Marcia Mullins, Diana Forman, Peggy Hotes, Jody Hoag, Bill Loewen (and graduate student whose name I didn't get)

Elizabeth Brant facilitating. Marcia taking notes.

Brief Reports

• There has been steady grown in interest in getting connected (or reconnected) with SNOW following the election.
• Nonviolent Working Group is moving ahead with the MAP function in West Seattle and will move on from there to continuing the work outlined.
• We have approximately $3700 in our bank account with $500 owing to Rick Power for holiday cards. Shannon will be looking into moving our account to a credit union or other institution which may serve us better. More on that at the next CC meeting.
• Shannon suggests that someone take leadership for holiday cards, tracking events at which they might be sold as well as who has taken them out and keeping track of income. Diana Forman takes on this task.

Rolling Thunder

Ellen will attend a Thunder meeting designed to see what relationship we might want to have with them. This is, primarily, an information gathering moment. She will report back.

Action re: Falluja

After some brainstorming (including a mock hospital attack, a press conference and an action at City Hall), we agreed that we were looking for an action which both attracted attention to the U.S. assault there as well as something that gave SNOW folks (and others) an opportunity to do "something." (Silence is betrayal.) It was noted that it would be good if we could get the City of Seattle to take a position (pacific) on the state of affairs in Falluja. It was agreed that Steve would move forward with some sort of press conference to be held at City Hall in the shortest possible timeframe. Press releases would go out and there would be an effort to get representatives of other peace and justice organizations to stand with us. Others agreed to be support for Steve.

Leaflets

9 of them have been developed with 5000 distributed thus far...a laudatory effort. It is hoped that some sort of "effectiveness" assessment would be done prior to printing more at SNOW expense. It was also suggested that neighborhood groups buy copies for distribution or make copies for their own use.

Website

Elizabeth reported that she had received lots of feedback - not all consistent and that she has given Nancy the feedback. The next step is for Nancy to say what changes she suggests and what she would charge. Some discussion ensued regarding our lack of progress on this issue since we originally met with Nancy several months ago. It was agreed that the critical need is for the front page to be redone, taking off the blue side panel so that folks would go to the "SNOW EVENTS" link where Marcia can update upcoming events. After this is done, the next most pressing need is for the front page to direct visitors to how they can subscribe to the SNOW Announce Bulletin. Finally, getting the minutes posted as well as links to things like the leaflets would be wonderful. Elizabeth agreed to express to Nancy the critical nature of getting the front page arranged such that folks will go to "Events" where they can find current information. Elizabeth will report back.

Listserves

Ellen will delete SNOW groups. Brenda will help Ellen moderate email for the other email groups.

SNOW Contact List

Tom can't be reached to get information about how to access the details for this list and Nancy reports that she isn't able to do that. Since current contact information is critical, Marcia will send out a note to the list asking for responses regarding who is on and who isn't. Once this information is gathered, we'll move to the next steps of insuring that we have a solid contact list created for disseminating information quickly. Marcia will report to the CC on this prior to the next meeting.

Draft Statement on Israel/Palestine

Peggy, Steve, Carla Curio and John created a draft of a statement which SNOW could add to the website regarding Israel/Palestine. It was agreed that Peggy would send this to the CC by email such that folks could read it and be ready to respond to it at the next meeting.

IRV

Jody asked that SNOW endorse I-318. It was agreed that we would do so and that an announcement of this would go into the next "Announce." We will ask individuals and neighborhood groups to take copies of the Initiative in order to collect signatures. Jody will attend the next general meeting of SNOW to promote this. Copies of the petition will be kept in the office.

Endorse/Sponsor/Announce

Elizabeth, Shannon, Ellen, Gunnel and Peggy will meet to develop a proposal to bring to the next meeting regarding policies for SNOW on endorsements, etc. Others are to send thoughts to them.

Next General Meeting

Elizabeth and Marcia will co-facilitate, Diana will take minutes, John will read POA's. Agenda items will include:

• Election and what it means to SNOW
• Steve's template for looking at SNOW campaigns (he'll use military recruitment as the model)
• Falluja
• Report from working groups and time for them to meet
• I-318
• What Next?

IDEAS/ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Peggy suggested the idea of an "inaugural Ball" on or about 1/20 to energize & celebrate our own efforts. Cabaret?
• Shannon reported that she and David now have equipment for projecting videos and DVDs