Minutes for April 2020

Meeting minutes for Wednesday, 15 April 2020
In attendance: Jeff, Barbara, Bob, Tilo, Struan, Bill, Kara, Marsha, Arielle (new regional organizer)

NOTE: April meeting conducted via Zoom, March meeting canceled because of pandemic

Welcome and Introductions

Victories

• "Russian Jehovah's Witness Released" (Belarus): UA 47.20
• "Journalist Given Suspended Sentence" (Niger): UA 32.20
• "Musician Released on Probation" (Egypt): UA 27.19

Reports

• Minutes (Marsha): No minutes for March 2020 because the meeting was a canceled; all minutes are now up to date
• Treasurer (Tilo): No change in our funds
• Social Media Director (Barb)
• No outreach recently because of uncertainty over meetings
• Maybe look at doing something with the AI video connecting human rights with COVID-19
• Group Coordinator (Jeff): Will meet with Arielle and Barbara on April 17
• Fundraising Committee (Jeff): Maybe disband committee; member who was especially interested in leading this effort is no longer active with the group. 

Old Business

• Discussion about looking for a new meeting place.
• Want to be able to do video calls, watch movies, and host speakers.
• After February meeting, Marsha sent Jeff a list of four locations to consider. However, each has some shortcoming: Chester County library allows room reservations only three months ahead, Hankin Library and Marsh Creek Church may be too far for most members, Abraham Fetters-White House does not have wifi
• Tilo will look into the Unitarian church in West Chester
• For next month: everyone asked to find info on other possible locations
• We may be meeting virtually for a while
• Arielle has set up a Zoom room for us to use whenever we want
• Struan and Tilo can also host virtual meetings if needed
• Tilo asked about some sort of "Robert's Rules of Order" for online meetings; Arielle says AI has a guide and will send it to us

Actions

• Domoina Ranabosoa Temporarily Released (Madagascar): UA 41.20
• Prisoners' Release Law Must not Discriminate (Turkey): UA 43.20
• Detained Rights Defender Must Be Released (Russian Federation): UA 150.19

New Business

• Struan asked about using Slack for communication within the group.
• Arielle will send us the AI guide for using communication tools

Upcoming Events

• Next group meeting: Wednesday, 20 May 2020, 7:30 p.m., location TBD (likely to be Zoom, but might be Wegmans cafe in Malvern)