AIUSA Group 342 meeting
15 October 2025 (hybrid)In attendance: Barbara, Bob, Marsha, Dorothee, Alex, Jennifer Estrada (from AIUSA)
GREETINGS AND CHECK-IN
- Jennifer is the community program manager for AIUSA. In her role, she supports groups like ours. She's based in upstate New York and been with AIUSA for six years.
- Dorothee has been waiting (for six months) for our new prisoner of conscience case file. She would also like to do more urgent actions with our group.
- Paul O'Brien is stepping down as executive director of AIUSA. Barb wonders what will happen next. Jennifer says Nadia Daar has been named as his replacement. (She has been AIUSA's chief strategy and impact officer for the last three years.)
- Alex came to tell us about a screening of the film State Organs at the Chester County Library in Exton on Saturday, November 1, at 1 p.m. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion.
GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (Bob)
- Local level
- Camden, NJ
- No homicides during summer 2025; only 8 so far this year, which is down 45% from 2024
- In 2013 the city dismantled the city police department and since then has used a regional police force (Camden County)
- Philadelphia
- By mid-October 2025, a 15% decreased in homicides over the past year
- By mid July 2025, the number of shootings was the lowest it has been since 2015
- Factors: increased funding to community groups, increased greening of vacant lots (which leaves to decreased violence)
- State level
- PA legislature is working on commonsense gun laws
- ban: ghost guns, switches that turns semiautomatic weapons into full automatic, extreme risk protection orders, universal background checks
- Democrats have introduced these bills; only universal background checks has passed the house but it likely to fail in the Republican-controlled senate
- Illinois: RIFL Act requires gun manufacturers to pay into a victim compensation fund
- National level
- Trump's executive orders are pro-gun and protect suppliers of crime guns
- See the Everytown website for a timeline of Trump's actions
URGENT ACTIONS
PENNSYLVANIANS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY
- "New Survey Shows Pennsylvanians Prefer Preservation of Life Over the Death Penalty" (link)
- PA residents overwhelmingly prefer life sentences over the death penalty for people convicted of murder
- The last execution in PA was in 1999. Since then all governors (Democrats and Republicans) have refused to sign off on executions.
CASE FILE
- Dorothee has done work on prisoners of conscience for 54 years. She has been waiting for six months to get a new case file from Ken Myer.
- Jennifer says there seems to be some miscommunication. Ken is a country specialist (focused on North Africa) and is not the person who handles case files. She suggests that Dorothee go back to Cynthia Gabriel-Walsh, who is the person who assigns those files.
INCREASING OUR GROUP MEMBERSHIP
- Jennifer
- What's the goal of having more people involved in our chapter? To get more people who turn out and do things?
- Maybe 5-10 people at a meeting is enough to plan events—then try to get more people to those. (For example, the Philly group has only 4-5 people at planning meetings.)
- The best way to get more people at meetings is to be visible in the community.
- People are often less inclined to come to meeting but more inclined to come to an event/action
- Possibilities for tabling: farmers' markets, local concerts, community fairs
- Will send us information on recruitment strategies; maybe we can have a follow-up conversation about this later.
Next Meeting: Wednesday, 17 December, 7:30 p.m. @ United Way in Exton (or via Zoom)
No comments:
Post a Comment