Monroe County Green Party Meeting - April 3, 2001 Place: Environmental Center 116 1/2 S College Avenue Bloomington, IN Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Attendance: Heather Drake, Peter Drake, Chris Stafford, Steps to Freedom (Sean Bagley), Isabel Piedmont, Julie Roberts Facilitator: Chris Stafford Secretary: Heather Drake The meeting began at 7:10pm. The agenda was approved and the minutes of the 20 March meeting were approved. * Technology Coordinator Report Peter reminded everyone that the redesigned web pages are up. The main page includes a friendlier calendar of events. Unfortunately, members cannot add events themselves. If you have something to add to the calendar, contact Peter. Also, if you want to make suggestions for the Resources page, contact Peter. Chris suggested that it would be good to submit our pages to some search engines to make them easier for people to find. * Treasurer Report Isabel reported that we have $78. She has also mailed in the tax ID form, but has not received anything back yet. She also plans to open a bank account for us at Monroe County Bank. They have the best deal in town for groups and will also allow us to open an account before the tax ID arrives. * Adopt-A-Road The signs for our stretch of road are still crediting another group. Isabel promised to call them again and complain, especially as the time for our second clean-up of the year is approaching (May). * Water Privatization Isabel, Peter, and Heather reported on what happened at the public meeting about the proposed contract management for the waste water treatment plants. Mike Phillips, the director, gave a short presentation on what has happened up to this point and then the floor was opened up for questions and comments. Most members of the audience were critical of the proposal. They worried that a contract manager would represent a loss of local control and accountability. Many agreed with Andy Ruff's assessment that the proposal seemed like a solution in search of a problem. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, April 9. * TV-Turnoff Week Peter reported that publicity for our events was proceeding. Heather will assemble and send out press kits to local media and groups by early next week. She hopes to include the general flyer produced by Peter, flyers for each event produced by Isabel, a forum program, and press release in the kits. Peter also agreed to write a guest editorial to submit to the H-T for publication either shortly before or at the beginning of the week. People have also started to distribute flyers around town. Julie and Steps volunteered to cover Kirkwood and the downtown area. Chris volunteered to cover 7th and 10th streets around campus and the dorms. Isabel volunteered to cover central campus. * Earth Day Julie gave a report on the events for Bloomington's Earth Day celebration being organized by Katie Wolf. On Friday, April 20, there will be a dinner and variety show at the Waldron. On Saturday, there will be a Recycled Art Fair during which kids can make projects out of recycled materials. It will be held at the Waldron from 10am to 4pm. In the evening, there will be a musical comedy satire performance on the history of the Monroe County environment. Sunday, there will be a coffee early in the morning. Booths will be set up on 4th street from 10am - 5:30pm with music in the afternoon. A parade will be held at noon. The group decided to ask Julie to put in our names to reserve booth space and a place in the parade. Several suggestions for parade theater were discussed, including handing out sunflowers or pinwheels or having puppets. Julie had also brought two large silk sunflowers that we can use as table dressings for our booth and Saturday Market tabling. We will also be sharing a booth at the SEAC Earth Day celebration on Sunday, April 28 from 11am - 7pm. At the next meeting, we will have a sign-up sheet for table shifts and also firm up our plans for producing signs and literature, selling our t-shirts and stickers, and other tabling essentials. * Farmer's Market Brochure series Heather suggested that we produce a series of flyers, each taking as its theme one of the key values, to hand out at the Farmer's Market. The idea is to have something fresh for people every week that gives them a reason to stop by our table. She suggested that many people could get involved by preparing copy. Peter volunteered to coordinate layout so they would all have a unified design. Julie suggested that we investigate whether GPUSA or ASGP had some materials already prepared that we could use. It would be less work to produce them that way and also presumably have a consistent tone. Heather volunteered to do some research and begin organizing the production on the discussion list. * Nuclear Free Great Lakes Action Campaign Chris brought up an email he had received from Bill Mills. His group will be traveling around Indiana giving a presentation on the nuclear waste dump on the Goshute reservation in Utah. They were hoping the IU Greens might be willing to sponsor the event in Bloomington on April 16. They need someone to provide a location and help publicize the event. The group was interested in the possibility, but wanted more information. Chris volunteered to get in touch with him, find out more information, and send details to the discussion list. * Announcements Julie mentioned the Miss Gay IU pageant that will be held this Friday evening, April 6, at the IU Auditorium. Admission is $5. Steps mentioned that the Yellowwood Tree Sit is in need of ground support. He shared a printed flyer with directions on reaching the tree sit. Chris mentioned the presentation on the Mumia Abu Jamal case on Thursday evening that is being sponsored by the Muslim Student Union and other groups (including IU Greens). Chris reminded everyone about the canvassing workshop this Saturday, April 7, from noon to 3pm in Ballantine 138. After a review of commitments, the meeting adjourned at 8:36pm. ********************************************************************* The next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Tuesday, April 17, at the Environmental Center (116 1/2 S College - above the dance studio). Steps volunteered to serve as facilitator. He will send a tentative agenda to the discussion list several days prior to the meeting date and post an announcement of the meeting at the Monroe County Public Library bulletin board. *********************************************************************