Executive Committee Minutes

January 9, 2005

Dan Leahy, a professor at Evergreen and Peace Activist, came to the meeting to ask for input as well as the endorsement from our Chapter for an event that he is trying to organize for the month of February.  The theme of the event and the entire week leading up to the event would be “Support the Truth”. He has reserved the Capitol Theatre downtown for February 18, 2005. This facility has a capacity of 850 people, and the plan would be to fill the seats. In part this would be accomplished by bringing in a well-known individual as a featured speaker. Also during the week there would be with the approval  of  the Olympia Film Society documentaries and films shown that speak to “Supporting the Truth” with the objective why we must “Stop the War!”. Dan will be meeting with the OFS, attempting to get them to schedule the showing of these documentaries. In addition he’ll be meeting with other Peace groups in the area. After hearing Dan’s plan the Executive Committee agreed to bring this before our membership for endorsement once we have more specific information regarding the event.

As mentioned in the previous announcement to all members regarding the scheduled Executive Committee meeting, we discussed the balancing of privacy concerns with open communications. As a result of communications between certain members, it was something that we needed to address immediately. The result was that an apology was made and accepted for inappropriate comments made. It was stressed and affirmed by all present that as stated in the VFP Statement of Purpose that as “…members of VFP we pledge to use non-violent means and maintain an organization this is both democratic and open with the understanding that all members are trusted to act in the best interests of the group for the larger purpose of world peace.”  We concluded that members do have the right to ask that their name not be shown on the web page or e-mail address not included in our listserve database; however, it is up the individual to convey that to the webmaster. Also it was concluded that as an open and democratic organization, our ‘Action Teams’ will have posted their Goals/Objectives as well as a contact person. 

We then discussed what needed to be included on the agenda for our January 16^th meeting. The facilitator, Laurel Vredenburg, agreed to put out a tentative agenda to membership for their review and for any possible additions. We plan to have a special guest speak as well, Tim Goodrich, one of the founders of the Iraq Veterans Against the War who is also a member of VFP. Plans were made for publicizing that he’ll speak at our Chapter meeting.

Submitted by,

Ken Schwilk, Sec/Treasurer