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Notes from meeting 11/7/04:

Attending:

Vicky, Becky, Jason, Diana, Tina, Catherine, Elaine, Tom, Eric, Charles, Rhonda, Brent, Brenda, Abe, Gunnel, Jane, Vicki

Next meeting: Our next potluck and meeting will be Saturday, Jan. 8, 4-7 at Charles' house, 11523 Palatine N.

New group structure:

North Seattle Neighbors for Peace & Justice has formalized its structure a bit. We now have a Coordinating Committee with 5 members who are accountable for keeping the group running on a day-to-day basis. The CC includes a Facilitator, Secretary, Treasurer, and two at-large members. They will be elected to yearly terms.

We have also instituted an annual membership donation ($10 and up, on a sliding scale). We will be putting together a membership packet to send folks when they pay the donation.

Anyone can join our e-mail list or attend our meetings, and will still be a member of the group. However, for major decisions, only members who have attended three meetings and paid their membership fee will be able to vote.

The current Coordinating Committee is:
Facilitator: Gunnel Clark
Secretary: Eric Maia
Treasurer: Janet Siebal
Members-at-large: Kay Groves, Charles Cressey

For more details, please see the information posted on our Web site.

Report on programs chosen last meeting:

Media Accountability: no-one present went to the media discussion last month in Wallingford. However, we did have an e-mail report from Bert Sacks' group Citizens Committee for Responsible Journalism. They currently have several hundred members, and are having a "revitalizing meeting" on Dec. 12. at 3-5 pm at 5107 Phinney (across from the SW corner of the zoo). We encourage any NSNPJ who are interested in media issues to sign up on the CCRJ list to add our strength to their efforts.

Oil Conservation: A number of us watched the movie "End of Suburbia" about the coming oil peak and subsequent changes. Energy will continue to grow more scarce and expensive and we will see more and more conflict over it. There is a lot of interest in acting on this, and a small group will work on a proposal. There was interest in house weatherizing to conserve energy.

SNOW has a "simplicity" group which is working on related issues ("Changing our lives to change the world") and a number of us will take part in that. Their next meeting is Tues, 12/14. Gunnel, Eric, and Brenda plan to attend. FOR and a couple of other groups are also getting together to plan a possible conference on this issue next year - there will be a meeting at the FOR/SNOW office on 12/18 at 10:30.

The Oil Subcommittee (Elaine, Brenda, Catherine, Eric, Gunnel, Jane) will meet at Elaine's on January 5, 7 pm (520 N 120th St).

Counter-recruiting/Draft resistance: Recruiters are currently working our High Schools, and many of us are convinced that the draft will be reinstated soon as the military is running out of soldiers. A committee will get together to plan two related actions: 1) talk to the high school administrations to share our concerns with them; 2) conduct direct counter-recruiting by addressing kids in the schools or showing up with our message when the military recruiters are visiting the schools.

The Counter-Recruiting Subcommittee will be Abe, Charles, Jane, and Rhonda.

Iraq: Gunnel was concerned that neither our group nor Big SNOW had any active committees working directly on the Iraq issue anymore (e.g. Fallujah), so she has started a group. Their first meeting will be at Gunnel's (2100 N 128th St) on Tues. 12 / 7.

Someone on Vashon has an excellent and moving exhibit with a pair of empty boots for each soldier killed in Iraq. Gunnel will try to get ahold of this exhibit and see if it can tour around the neighborhoods. Another proposal is for large posters with photos of Iraqis injured in the bombing, showing the "human face of war." Another display shows one dot for each Iraqi killed in the war (an estimate, since no one knows the true number).

A related issue is that of injured soldiers who have returned home. This is a sensitive issue, since many of them and their families may not want to talk about their situation, but there was interest in trying to find families with family members in Iraq or who have returned home injured and offer any assistance we can.

Tom, Brenda, and Rhonda are also interested in helping with this effort.

New Reading and Discussion Group

Brent has contacted the Broadview Library to set up a new book club there sponsored by North Seattle Neighbors for Peace and Justice. The group will be open to the public and will meet every month to discuss progressive books. The first book to be read and discussed will be Lakoff's "Don't Think of an Elephant." If we keep the group going on a regular basis, the library may co-sponsor it and help provide books. Brent will try to schedule the first meeting for the 3rd Weds. in January - January 19, 6:30 pm.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Rally and March

We will be participating along with many other SNOW groups in the rally and march on MLK Day, Monday, January 17. There are workshops in the morning, with a rally at 11 and the march at noon. A number of us were in last year's march; we'd like to encourage you all to come and join us!

March 19 - 2nd Anniversary of the outbreak of war

There will be some sort of an event (probably march and rally) on Saturday, March 19 to mark two years of war. Save the date!