Minutes of the January 2014 meeting

Meeting minutes for Wednesday, 15 January 2014

In attendance: Barbara, Bob, Brendan, Nancy, Jeff, Marsha

Announcements

• The Philadelphia Area Amnesty International USA Conference will be held on Saturday, 15 March, at the Ethical Society (1906 Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia PA). 
• The conference will have two themes: death penalty abolition (a topic with a US focus), and LGBT rights (a topic with an international focus).
• Details are still being worked out, but planners are hoping to make this an all-day event. 
• Barb is in contact with the organizers and will share planning info with us as it becomes available.
• Our Global Write for Rights event at Ten Thousand Villages last month was a huge success!
• Since the last meeting we received a check for $469.45 from the company as our portion of the sales that were made during our event (which was also a Ten Thousand Villages Community Fundraiser event).
• Barb brought thank-you cards for us to sign to send both to the staff of the Exton store and to the corporate office.
• If you weren't at today's meeting and would like to send your own note of thanks, here are the addresses:
• Ten Thousand Villages, Attn: Paul Hayward (manager), 271 Main Street, Exton PA 19341
• Ten Thousand Villages, 704 Main Street, PO Box 306, Akron PA 17501

Actions and Updates 

• (Marsha) Letter on behalf of Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand, our case file in Iran. (Amnesty hasn't sent an update about him since August 2012, shortly after he ended his hunger strike. We assume he is still in Evin Prison and in poor health.)
• (Marsha) Letter on behalf of Maryam Shafi' Pour, an Iranian student who was arrested in July 2013 for the peaceful exercise of her rights.
• (Bob) Letter on behalf of Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma, and Mohamed Adel in Egypt.
• (Barb) Letter opposing proposed changes to the Afghan Penal Code.

New Business

• Barb attended the Close Guantanamo events in Washington DC on January 10 and 11. 
• She is planning to write up a summary of her experience there (which will be posted on this blog).

Upcoming Events

• Meetings on 19 February and 19 March.
• Barbara to speak about AIUSA to the Rotary Club in Frazer (5 March, 7–8:30 a.m.)