Meeting Minutes for March 2017

Meeting minutes for Wednesday, 22 March 2017

In attendance: Barbara, Bob, Jeff, Ovette, Brendan, Struan, John, Laurie, Kara, Marsha

Welcome and Introductions

Reports

• Minutes (Marsha): no minutes for February 2017 night (social get-together with no business conducted)
• Treasurer's Report (Tilo)
• Tilo not present for report. 
• Marsha: Ten Thousand Villages store in Exton (site of our annual fundraiser) is closing at the end of March. Explore other fundraising options? Marsha to contact Ten Thousand Villages store in Media to see if we could do a Community Shopping Event there in December.
• Social Media Director's Report (Barbara): Barb passed out a survey on social media goals for our group. She also distributed a list of media outlets (newspapers, online events guides, and social media) that she's using to try to publicize our group meetings.
• Group 342 Coordinator's Report (Jeff): No report. 
• Outreach (Barb): A new AI chapter at Penn State Brandywine invited us to give them a presentation about AI. Barb attended their "AmnesTea" meeting on 13 March and delivered her PowerPoint presentation about AI.
• Jeff: Maybe we can takes turns attending their meetings? And invite them to attend hours? Any opportunities to do something together for Earth Day? (Not enough time to plan this for this year—just one month away.)
• Laurie and John: Phoenixville Progresssives have a table at Phoenixville First Fridays—maybe we could do that too?

Actions

• "Pastors Face Imprisonment For Trumped Up Charges" (Myanmar: UA 13/17)
• 2017 Nowruz Action
  
• 5-Minute University presentation on Nowruz (Jeff)
• How to pronounce "Iran," "Iranians," "Iraq," and "Iraqis" correctly
• Description of Nowruz: Forioozeh Dumas, "An Iranian Holiday That’s Perfect for Americans," The New York Times, 18 March 2017.
• Marsha distributed descriptions of each case (available here), and Barbara supplied notecards and stamps. Chapter members wrote Nowruz greetings to the prisoners of conscience (one of whom is Mohammed Sadiq Kabudvand, our chapter's case file) highlighted in this year's action. We wrote about 35 cards.

New Business

• AI Group 342 Dress Code (Marsha): Last year we discussed getting AIUSA t-shirts for our group. Marsha agreed to look into this. AIUSA has completely shut down its online shop and did not respond to Marsha's request for image files so we could print our own shirts. Marsha was able to find AI products in other countries, but they are country-specific and mostly available only in limited sizes. She is going to mock up our own design and find out about getting it printed.
• Correspondence with Nick at the AIUSA Office (Marsha): In January, Marsha received an e-mail from AIUSA that included contact info for someone in that office, so she sent him a long e-mail detailed some of her (and our chapter's) frustrations about the lack of support and communication from the main office. Nick responded in detail. Marsha shared this correspondence with the group tonight and asked for feedback on what we (as a chapter) want to convey to Nick. 
• We need an EIN for banking. (We have asked Kathleen Lucas for this but have received no response from her.)
• We want help contacting local AIUSA members. (Jeff has talked to Kathleen Lucas about this. She asked him to send her a list of zip codes; he did so but has received no response from her.)
• John submitted an application to attend AI training in Chicago last summer but received no response.
• Barbara sent an e-mail to Savannah Fox in September 2016 asking (for the third time) why the check we sent to AIUSA in January 2016 had not yet been cashed. Savannah promised to call Barbara back in 48 hours. Barbara has still received no response.
• We would like to purchase AIUSA t-shirts or have the high-res image files of the logo so we can create our own.
• Tickling Giants screening (Marsha)
• Sara Taksler, a senior producer for The Daily Show, sent a letter to our chapter e-mail address in January asking if we would be interested in hosting a screening of her documentary Tickling Giants, which is about "Bassem Youssef, the 'Egyptian Jon Stewart,' and his fight to bring satire to the Middle East. Tickling Giants is a very funny film about free speech and what happens to a country when power is abused."
• They are offering free screenings to 200 organizations (the usual fee is $350). Let's approach the Colonial Theater to see if they would be interested in this. Jeff knows someone on the board there and will talk to that person first.

Items for Next Month's Meeting

• 5-Minute University (Struan)
• Proposal for new approach to tabling events (Jeff)

Upcoming Events

• April meeting: Wednesday, 19 April, 7:30 p.m, Wegmans in Malvern, PA