Meeting minutes for January 2016

Meeting minutes for Wednesday, 20 January 2016

In attendance: Barbara, Colin, Ken, Carlyle, Kara, Struan, Marsha, Brendan

Welcome and Introductions

Reports

• Two new people were present, so Barbara explained the Write for Rights and Amnesty International's general mission.
• We received $473.17 from Ten Thousand Villages for our fundraising event there in December 2015. 
• Barbara asked if we wanted to send any to AIUSA, noting that Savannah Fox has promised to make sure that our contribution is properly credited if we send it via her.
• Marsha thinks we shouldn't have to rely on Savannah being our intermediary in order to get responses from the main office (both to our queries and to our donations). She also pointed out that with our new banking arrangement (which requires us to maintain a certain minimum balance), we may wish not to send money to AIUSA in order to keep that balance as well as have sufficient funds to cover postage.
• We agreed to table this issue until a later meeting when Tilo is present and can discuss our budget and expenses.
• We received a reply to UA 253/15 (sent in November 2015) from the South Korean government. It basically says, "We got your letter. We will let you know what happens."

New Business

• Barbara is in talks with the AI Philadelphia Center City group to have a joint meeting (at their usual meeting place/time; see below) to discuss the AI Policy on the Human Rights of Sex Workers (adopted 29 October 2015), which supports full decriminalization of all aspects of consensual sex work involving adults. Phoebe Jones of Global Women's Strike will be the guest speaker (in support of the policy).
• The ARC (Activity Resource Community) is an online repository at arc.amnestyusa.org of official AI documents that dues-paying AI members can access. (A current membership number must be provided to create an account.)

Actions

• Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand (our case file from Iran) (this month we are sending copies of our letter to all ten possible recipients!)
• Urgent Action 8/16—China: Disclose the Whereabouts of Peter Dahlin and Pan Jingling
• Urgent Action 236/13—Iran: Free Hossein Ronaghi Maleki
• Urgent Action 13/16—Argentina: Release Milagro Sala
• Urgent Action 31/15—Florida, USA: Halt Michael Lambrix's Execution [Note: We wrote these letters individually, by hand.]

Upcoming Events

February meeting will be either our usual time/place (Wednesday, 17 February 2016, 7:30 p.m. at the cafe in Wegmans, Malvern, PA) or a joint meeting with the AI Philadelphia Center City group at their usual time/place (Thursday, 25 February 2016, Ethical Society, Philadelphia)

Note: We will meet only ONE of those two dates—mostly like the joint meeting in Center City. Barbara will lock in one or the other soon (depending on speaker availability) and will post announcements about it.