Minutes from the October 2012 meeting

Meeting minutes for 17 October 2012

In attendance: Jeff Singleton, Gina Buckman, Bill Schomp, Barbara Quintiliano, April Zappaterrini, Marsha Brofka-Berends

I. Reports

Minutes

The minutes from the September 2012 meeting are posted here.

Treasurer’s report

The treasurer was not present.

Group 342 coordinator's report

Jeff Singleton unsuccessfully attempted to find a faculty advisor for an Amnesty International chapter at Downingtown West High School. He considered advising the group himself but is unable to do so because of his teaching schedule. Plans for him to help start an AI chapter at Downingtown West are currently on hold. In the meantime the STEM Academy staff have shown renewed interest in beginning a chapter at their school. Jeff will communicate with them further about this. April mentioned that AIUSA will provide starter kits to school groups and will also defer the $50 chapter fee for the first year.

Area coordinator's report

The regional event on immigrant rights was held on Saturday, 6 October 2012, and was quite successful. The panel consisted of two Amnesty International staff members, one DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act activist, and one faculty member at a local university. People were very impressed with the youth who presented at this event. There will be a regional conference on Saturday, 10 November 2012, in Washington DC. [Information is available here.] April Zappaterrini will be attending. Anyone interested in carpooling is welcome to contact April. AIUSA would like to all student chapters to register with AIUSA. It is believed that there may be many that are unregistered. We discussed sending a letter to all of the schools to ask if they have chapters and to offer that to cover the $50 registration for one and provide assistance. Marsha Brofka-Berends agreed to draft a letter.

II. Actions

To Representative Jim Gerlach and Senator Patrick Toomey (both of Pennsylvania) in support of the DREAM Act. (S.952 and H.R1842)

III. Updates

Case file updates

No updates were provided on our case files, Siti Zainab Binti Duhri Rupa of Saudi Arabia and Mohammad Sadiq Kabuduad of Iran.

NRCAT update

Nothing new to report.

IV. Presentations

None.

V. New business

Marsha Brofka-Berends is working to schedule our annual December card-writing event at Ten Thousand Villages in Exton; this year's event will be held on Saturday, 8 December 2012. Last year the store staff mentioned a fundraising program that would give us a percentage of that day's; Marsha is also looking into this.

VI. Other items

Our usual meeting date (third Wednesday of the month) falls on Thanksgiving eve next month. We decided to move the November meeting to one week earlier to avoid a holiday-related conflict.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, 14 November 2012, at 7:30 p.m. at Wegman’s in Malvern.