Minutes for August 2020

 Meeting minutes for Wednesday, 19 August 2020

In attendance: Jeff, Tilo, Brendan, Frank, Struan, April, Marsha

NOTE:  Meeting conducted online via Zoom 

No fixed agenda. Instead, we had a discussion about race issues in the USA today and what Amnesty International should focus on.

AIUSA has usually focused on issues in other countries. Is it time to turn the lens on ourselves?

Struan recently participated in focus group (with Edwin Gur) of members. Lots of people joined AI because of U2, but together there aren't big-name celebrity endorsements (not like U2's in the past). Older AI members in focus group were reminiscing about "old days" when AI focused on prisoners of conscience and death penalty.

Should AI broaden its issues?

• April thinks AI as a whole isn't dealing with its diversity problem—our group could become more diverse (including age) if we worked on more USA stuff.
• Brendan says he has to look elsewhere (AI Australia, other organizations) to find actions/letters; AI struggling to cover core stuff.
• Tilo thinks AI has lost its historical focus and is spread out too thin.
• April thinks AI should focus on civil and political human rights—focus on prisoners and death penalty, but include the USA.

Next meeting (online): Wednesday, 16 September 2020, 7:30 p.m.