Veterans for Peace #109 Rachel Corrie Chapter

Olympia, WA

Meeting Minutes August 15, 2004

 

Attendance: 15

Regular members: Christi McGinley, John Cusick, Don Broadwell, Jim James, Molly Gibbs, Julia Moore, Laurel Vredenburg, Ken Schwilk, Dennis Mills, Patricia Hoppa, Jody Tiller, Dawn Marcelle

Guests:  Dennis Kyne, Jessica _____ ( lawyer)

The meeting was held at Wonderwood Park, Lacey, WA.

Announcements:

  1. Dawn Marcelle asked for time to tell about her concerns for her life, due to her past employment with an engineering firm that may have been acting as a front for clandestine governmental activities.  Since her situation is complicated, and meeting time is limited, it was decided that she would cut her story short and put up an article on the VFP website. 
  2. VFP National Convention: Wes Hamilton will give a report the next time he attends.
  3. Turner Joy event: Five members attended the VFP demonstration in Bremerton.
  4. Dennis Kyne on Depleted Uranium Programs:  Dennis was introduced. He will speaking this evening at the United Churches in Olympia and at Traditions Fair Traditions Café tomorrow.  He will also be showing a film related to the DU problem. The hat was passed to collect donations for Dennis’ tour/travel expenses.
  5. Web Page and list serve: Christi has set up the Listserv and Dennis maintains the webpage.

Old Business from July

  1. Arlington NW Exhibit:  short discussion on this event to be held in Olympia Individuals may participate as desired.
  2. N.W. Veterans for Peace in Portland will be holding a rally (date?) Suggestion to car pool to the event to give our support.
  3. Jim James reported on feasibility of setting up a separate VFP # 109 phone number. It would cost about $27.00 a month, so we decided not to incur this expense.
  4. September Meeting in Pt. Townsend
  5. Fundraising ideas: will be discussed in a future meeting.
  6. Ken Schwilk and Julia Moore will man an information table at “Palestine Is Still the Issue” talk on August 25th. Christi McGinley passed out flyers.
  7. Counter recruitment project in Eatonville was reviewed and a presentation was made by lawyer/activist, Jessica.  She gave a history of the problem and actions taken so far by the Eatonville School Board and parents. She described the likely course of a lawsuit against the school board, emphasizing it could be lengthy and costly. She asked us to think carefully about our decision to get involved in this. She does think that the issue is tailor made for our group, and could be a powerful precedent setting case, if we take it on. She also thinks she is the right lawyer, given her background in activism and peace issues.* She will work for us for $80.00/hr + $40.00/hr. for paralegal services + court fees.  She outlined the 3 test areas she wants to work on first.  If these fail, she will file a lawsuit in Federal Court on behalf of Eatonville school parents and VFP #109.

·        VFP #109 should write a letter to Eatonville School District requesting access to speak to students, under the new school policy, so she can challenge the constitutionality of their decision if they deny access.

·        The Eatonville student/parent newsletter contained an advertisement for a War Games event.  Jessica suggests that VFP #109 should request to advertise too—see if we get accepted or rejected.

·        Controversial speakers policy at Eatonville School. Challenge this.

The VFP team members Jody, Laurel, Dawn, Don B., Dennis, Wes and Molly, need to review Jessica’s information and make a report to the group, so a decision can be made soon.

   8.   Chapter flyer modification. No action taken.

  1. New officers were elected:  President: Dennis W. Mills, Secretary/Treasurer:  Julia Moore. Ken Schwilk was elected as the quarterly spokesperson and Facilitator for the final quarter of 2004.

New Business

  1. Julia Moore gave a report about the Timberland Regional Libraries WWII oral history project. Anyone with names of Veterans can contact her for details. She will contact ElizabethTriffit.
  2. MFSO Liaison  (?)
  3. David Antoon’s status as honorary member was discussed.  It was decided that since he is already a member of another chapter, we can’t make him a member of our chapter, but to honor him, we will be paying his regular membership fee of $25.00.  $ 7.00 was contributed, leaving $18.00 still to be collected. Give money to Julia Moore to send in when ready.
  4. Christi McGinley passed around samples of various designs for our chapter logo. She will put them on the website for further voting. Also Don Broadwell introduced another logo possibility—the Chinese characters for Gung Ho. This will be included in the website choices.

Announcements

We will bring snacks for the Dennis Kyne speech tonight.

Respectfully submitted, Julia Moore, Secretary/Treasurer

* “Our constitution is a living, breathing document-- it should be reflecting who we are today.”  ---Jessica