Meeting Minutes

9/18/01 7:00pm
Bloomington Environmental Center
116 ½ S. College Ave.

Facilitated by: Jeff Melton
Scribe: Chris Stafford

The meeting was called to order at 7:02pm

Attendance (18 people):

Chris Stafford, Isabel Piedmont, Marge Steiner, Rebecca Riall, Lauren Whitley, Chris Sapp, Jeff Melton, Heather Drake, Peter Drake, Eric White, Craig Harvey, Brian Hendrickson, Steps to Freedom (Sean Bagley), Nick Hansen, Larry Meehan, Maha Noureldin, Dan Hussey, Michael Englert.

The agenda, in modified form, was unanimously approved

The minutes from 9-4-01 were approved.

Announcements:

  1. Lauren Whitley, from the Alaska Coalition of Indiana, announced that she wanted to make the MCGP aware of her group and its efforts. She passed around a sign-up sheet, intended to be used in the future for call-ins or other contact information. She also passed around sample letters to Evan Bayh, asking for him to support ANWR.
  2. The Bloomington Peace Action Coalition was formed, largely from the Disorientation group, with 25-30 people attending their first meeting. The group's immediate efforts will be focused around preventing the imminent war against terrorism. They will be sponsoring a march from Dunn Meadow to the County Courthouse, on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 4:30pm. From 5-6 there will be various speakers at the Courthouse. The event will be followed by a Bloomington United rally at the same location, beginning at 7:00pm.
  3. Jeff recorded a "Speak Your Mind" segment for this Friday's show, consisting of a condensed version of the BPAC's Press Release regarding the use of violence against perceived enemies.
  4. The Demonstration against the IMF/World Bank has been modified into a peace and anti-Racist Rally. It will be in Washington D.C. on Sept. 29-30. Jeff Melton is the local contact, jmelton@indiana.edu
  5. Peter announced that this Thursday (Sept. 20) is also National Car-Free day. Nick said that adbusters.org had a good poster in honor of the event.
  6. Steps is organizing a Peace Action Forum to be tentatively held on Sept. 29 or October 6; he is focusing on bringing community and church leaders together.
  7. Brian Hendrickson said that WFHB will be presenting the city's GPP on its "Interchange" show, which will be structured as a forum. It will be on October 3rd. He offered a public commentary section to the MCGP Ecological Wisdom working group, who has been concentrating on the GPP, especially on issues of Urban Sprawl.
  8. Jeff says that lots of BPAC fliers are available.

Coordinators' Reports:

  1. Media Report: Jeff had nothing to report.
  2. Technology Report: Larry reported that the Urban Sprawl flier is available on the web.
  3. Green Liaison: Steps had nothing to report.
  4. Campus Liaison: Chris Sapp reported that the call-out meeting will be held tomorrow night (Wednesday, Sept. 19) at 8:00pm in Ballantine Hall #005. Chris Sapp and Chris Stafford spent Sunday evening chalking and flyering on campus. An article in Wednesday's IDS will focus on terrorism statements from campus political organizations, including that of IUB Greens. 
  5. Canvassing: Chris Stafford, as a proxy for Julie Roberts, reported that canvassing efforts last week were mildly successful. The next canvassing session will be Wednesday, Sept. 19, 5:30pm at his house. His address is 708 S. Washington, in Bloomington.
  6. Treasurer: Craig reported that the current balance is $970.
  7. Secretary: Chris Stafford reported 43 Full Members and 384 Supporting Members. 

Working Group Reports:

  1. Shadow Government:
    1. Isabel reported that she had a copy of the recently-approved city budget if anybody was interested. The budget is also available on the city's website. The funding for the Shooting Range had been denied, but funding for the Buskirk-Chumley and the BEDC was approved. Several people at the Sept. 5 City Council meeting reported police harassment. Jeff Willsey, and Andy Ruff introduced a resolution that the BEDC should broaden its membership, and despite the timidity of the resolution, it failed.
    2. Steps reported that there was an opening on the Human Rights Commission, and that he would apply, although he technically lives just outside of the city limits. 
    3. Eric reported that he knows somebody who would like Greens to be on the County boards, and passed around a list to see who was interested on being on a county board or commission.
    4. Eric also reported that he is interested in getting involved with the plans for the next Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday. Specifically, he's interested in conducting some nonviolence workshops. The group agreed that this was a good idea.
    5. Eric will be attending the County Planning Commission meetings.
    6. Nick reported that at the Transportation meeting, plans were described to introduce bike lanes on 10th street without widening the road at all. The resulting road-width would be too narrow for the Bloomington Transit buses. 
  2. Ecological Wisdom: Isabel reported that the Urban Sprawl forum will be Tuesday, Sept. 25, 7:00pm, in the Monroe County Public Library auditorium. The group will prepare a presentation both for MCGP and WFHB.
  3. Newsletter: Several people reported that they had not received the newsletter via snail mail, and Chris Stafford got their addresses to double-check the database.
  4. Nonviolence: Nothing to report.
  5. Social Justice: Heather reported that in light of recent events, perhaps the Nonviolence forum should precede Social Justice, and the group agreed. 
  6. Grassroots Democracy: Peter reported that a bill was being drafted to repeal SB329 in the State Legislature.
  7. Elections Committee: Craig called an Elections Committee meeting for Sept. 24, 7:00pm, at his house. Contact him if you're interested: harveyrc@bloomington.in.us

Old Business:

  1. Anne Feeney Concert: Jeff reported that the concert would be in the
    Waldron on Sunday, Oct. 14th, at 7pm. Kevin had some suggestions for a
    sound system. Isabel volunteered to help with the flyer design. Jeff
    also said that it would be very appropriate for MCGP to table at the
    event.

New Business:

  1. Website, Mailing Lists:
    1. Larry said that the delay in the discuss-list was probably due to extremely high traffic, and the problems should disappear on their own. If they persist, he'll pursue the matter further.
    2. Larry also reported that he would change the announce list so that replies to posted announcements would be sent only to the sender and not the entire list, as this is usually the intent. This will help cut down on the announce-list traffic. He asked whether the group would be interested in setting the announce-list up for default Daily Digest for all recipients. After some discussion, it was decided that he would not pursue this course.
    3. Larry also reported that freespeech.org, our current host, would no longer provide the service for free. Larry volunteered to use his own personal domain (monroegreens.org) and the group decided that this was a good idea. Peter pointed out that we should continue on freespeech.org for a couple of months since we have so much current literature with that URL listed. In a few months, we'll turn over exclusively to monroegreens.org.
    4. Finally, Larry reported that he was aware of a computer science class that was looking for a project. Larry suggested to them working on the Indiana Green Party website.
  2. International Youth Declaration: Eric said that he would bring this before IUB Greens as that venue would probably be more appropriate.
  3. Joining BPAC: The Group consented to join the Bloomington Peace and Action Coalition.
  4. Statement on Attacks: A considerable amount of time was spent discussing methods of issuing (or even whether we should issue) a statement on the recent terrorist attacks. This discussion will be summarized:
    Peter:
    we should set guidelines for the committee before they begin working on it
    Isabel:
    the statement should be linked to specific Green values in order that it be a discrete "Green Party" statement.
    Eric:
    We should work with area citizens of Middle Eastern descent and keep a local emphasis.
    Heather:
    We should not use the tragedy of the situation to "grind a political axe."
    Rebecca:
    Womens' Rights groups have been targeting the injustices of the Middle East for some time.
    Kevin:
    If we're not "grinding an axe," we shouldn't issue a statement at all; people already know where the Green Party stands, vis a vis our Ten Values.
    Peter:
    Proposed skeleton for the statement:
    1. Consolation for the victims
    2. Address Foreign Policy in terms of:
      1. Social Justice - starving people
      2. Ecological Wisdom - energy policy, environmental cost of war
      3. sake of international security
    3. Call for Peace, relying on the principles of Nonviolence and Grassroots Democracy
    Craig:
    Agreed with Kevin in that a statement was not really needed, especially since we don't even know who is responsible yet.
    Peter:
    Reconsidering position on issuing statement.
    Maha:
    The evidence at this point is very sketchy, and the American government seems to be jumping to conclusions.
    Larry:
    Although any statement we issue will not make much effect in changing minds, it is still important to have it on record.
    Chris Stafford:
    Our Ten Key Values in and of themselves are vague and need to be tied directly to local, regional, and national issues. Therefore, the statement is needed to clarify these relationships.
    Mike:
    Many people die each day as a direct result of American foreign policy, and although he grieves for the victims of the recent attack, he grieves equally for all victims. He urges people to write Letters-to-the Editor, and to sign themselves as members of the Monroe County Green Party.
    Heather:
    Supports signing the BPAC statement. Any Letters-to-the-Editor should be copied to the City Government. We should not let the media determine the course of discussion.
    Chris Sapp:
    Not sure we need our own statement; we don't even know the enemy; we should acknowledge that by not even mentioning foreign policy.
    Rebecca:
    The absence of a statement can be a statement of its own, and in this case we need to make one.
    Kevin:
    Foreign policy is a national issue and this is a local group, so we should focus more on local issues.
    Steps:
    We should make a statement, and our grief should be extended to all people of the world and not just Americans. In a sense, now we know first-hand the pain that the rest of the world experiences on a daily basis. The FBI can not be trusted.
    Craig:
    again, no statement is needed.
    Jeff:
    The fact that the Congress nearly unanimously passed the resolution to build up our military signifies a major difference between the Green Party and the Democrats, just in case anybody didn't already see it.

After this discussion, Peter made two motions, the first to endorse the BPAC statement, and the second to draft our own statement. Before voting on the first motion, Isabel read the BPAC statement, at which the group consented to endorse it.

Chris Stafford reiterated the second motion, specifically to form a committee to draft the statement, bring it before the group at the next meeting for approval, and determine how best to distribute it. After some discussion and clarification, this vote was called, and resulted as follows:

Favor 11
Oppose 4
Abstain 2

Based on the number of non-abstentions (15), the supermajority (2/3) was met, and the motion passed. Rebecca Riall volunteered to chair the newly-formed committee, and met with interested people after the meeting.

Eric White agreed to facilitate the next meeting.

Reviews of commitments were skipped because of the lateness of the time.

Farmers' Market:
9/22 Craig Harvey, Peter Drake
9/29 Craig Harvey, Kevin Sowders
The meeting was adjourned at 9:37.