Monroe County Green Party 3011 Leonard Springs Road #78 Bloomington, IN Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Attendance: Heather Drake, Peter Drake, Chris Stafford, Ann Becker, Isabel Piedmont, Milton Fisk, Jeff Melton, Ken Rogers, Marge Steiner, Kevin Sowders, Sean Bagley Facilitator: Jeff Melton Secretary: Heather Drake The meeting began at 7:12pm. The agenda was approved with additions and the minutes of the 2 January meeting were approved. * Media Report No activity to report. * Email/Web Report Peter reported that we have 58 members on btowningreens and 24 members on btowningreens-discuss. Peter has also started updating the group web page (www.freespeech.org/mcgreens). One of the pages is specifically for links to other web sites. He asked people to email him the URLs for web sites they would like to suggest. He is particularly interested in sites that are rich in information as well as sites for other local groups working on issues of interest to Greens. * Treasury Report No activity to report. * Campus Report Chris and Ann reported that the IU Greens are resuming activities after the semester break. Their regular meetings will be held at 8pm on alternate Tuesdays. They also have a firm schedule for tabling in Ballantine Hall for 8-9 hours every week. They asked that any MCGP members who have materials that would make good table literature feel free to contribute them to this effort. The membership on the campus email lists is about 130 on the announcement list and 30 on the discussion list. * Nike Action Milton brought to the group's attention an anti-Nike action planned for 1:00pm on Wednesday, January 17, between Ballantine and Woodburn halls on campus. The demonstration will be in support of striking factory workers in Mexico who want to form their own union. * Forum Report Jeff, Paul Hager, Maynard Thompson, and Leroy Rieselbach spoke to an audience of about 20-30 people at the Election Reform forum on Saturday, January 14, at the MCPL Auditorium. Attendees thought the event went well, especially considering the haste in which it was pulled together. The group agreed that future events must be planned farther ahead so more members can have input and so that wider and more descriptive publicity is possible. It was also suggested that we may be able to get CATS to tape and broadcast future library events. * Inauguration Day Protests Jeff announced that he had arranged a sign-making party at Secret Sailor for Thursday, January 18, at 7:30pm. People should bring their own cardboard, markers, and art supplies. He also reported that a group of about 15 people from the Bloomington area are carpooling to Washington DC to join the inaugural protests there. They will leave town on Friday morning. People interested in more details about the planned protest there can check go to dc.indymedia.org. The protest planned for Indianapolis will be held at noon at the Federal Building (575 N Pennsylvania). The theme of the protest will be that ours is a sham democracy. People interested in carpooling will meet at the NW entrance of the Monroe County Public Library at 10:30am Saturday morning. * Paper Recycling Campaign In response to a complaint that our forum flyers were printed on virgin paper, Jeff was inspired to suggest that we undertake a campaign to get IU and Bloomington city government to use recycled rather than virgin paper. It was also suggested that we add the Monroe County government to our list of potential targets. Jeff, Isabel, and Heather agreed to serve on a committee to undertake this project. The first step will be contacting the organizations to see what their current policies and practices are. We also need to contact other area environmental groups who may have done previous research and work in this area. It was also pointed out that we need to keep in mind the difference between "pre-consumer" and "post-consumer" recycled products. * Adopt-A-Road Isabel received information from the Adopt-A-Road program. They will post signs on our section (Walnut between 1st and 10th) after we complete our first clean-up. Before we can do our first clean-up, participants must watch a safety video and sign a waiver. Isabel will get more information on the logistics of watching the video (whether we can borrow it to view at a future meeting or if we have to watch it on their site) and reported back to the group. We discussed the possibility of completing the safety training in early February and organizing our first clean-up sometime in mid- to late February. * State Meeting The Indiana Green Party met in Indianapolis on January 13 from noon to 4pm. In addition to the Charter committee that had already been formed, the group also formed Outreach and Funding committees. They also began discussion on a Media Relations committee. They have plans for a state convention in June 2001 that include submission of a charter draft. The next state meeting will be held on February 17. They are also planning a panel discussion on the state of the black vote for the same date from 5:30pm - 7:30pm at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. More details will follow as plans are firmed up. * TV Turn-Off Week The national TV Turn-Off Week campaign will be held from April 23-29 this year. Heather suggested that we organize a week of activities in conjunction with this effort. Ideas for activities include a panel forum on the topic of television, board and card game night, nature hike, self-produced radio show, poetry reading, some kind of arts & crafts project, and many others. Many people expressed interest in assisting with planning. Heather volunteered to reserve the MCPL auditorium on a date early in the week as a venue for the forum and to contact CATS about taping and broadcasting it. A meeting for all those interested will be held in the near future (sometime after the January 20 protests). * Workers Rights Board Milton reported that Jobs with Justice was helping organize a Workers Rights Board for Bloomington. It will be a broadly-based citizens group to discuss employee/worker problems and issues as they arise in the community. It will work with unions and Jobs with Justice, but will also maintain autonomy from those organizations. It will serve as a place for workers to air grievances so they don't have to face an employer alone and to publicize grievances to the wider community. The organizational meeting will be held on January 29 and several people present expressed interest in possibly serving on the board. Interested people can contact Milton for more information. * Charter As time was running short, the charter was not discussed. It was agreed that the next meeting will be devoted mainly to discussion of the charter. The meeting concluded at 8:56pm. *********************************************************************** The next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Tuesday, February 6, at the Monroe County Public Library Meeting Room 1-B. Peter volunteered to serve as facilitator. He will send a tentative agenda to the discussion list several days prior to the meeting date. ***********************************************************************