Minutes for April 2023 meeting

 

AIUSA Group 342 meeting
19 April 2023 (via Zoom)
In attendance: Barbara, Bob, Heather, Emily, Marsha

GREETINGS AND MEMBER CHECK-INS

UPDATES

• Emily: AI is putting together a digital activist toolkit for Sri Lanka9
• Gun violence prevention (Bob): Advocacy Day at the PA capitol on March 23
• Cosponsored by Ceasefire PA and March for Our Lives. 
• Bob's own representative and senator were unavailable, so he met with Chris Pielli of West Chester
• The rally had about 400 attendees (more people and more TV cameras than last year!)
• Signs included MOMS (Mothers of Murdered Sons) and EMIR (Every Murder Is Real) 
• House Judiciary meeting on gun violence for the first time in ten years (none while GOP controlled the house)
• More on gun violence in the USA
• Wikipedia article: "Gun laws in the United States by state"
• Washington Post interactive feature from March 2023: "THE BLAST EFFECT: This is how bullets from an AR-15 blow the body apart"
• Emily attended a protest rally in early April; will let us know the next time her organization has one

MISC TOPICS

• Future meeting format
• Discussion of possibly holding hybrid meetings at Wegmans in Malvern
• Barbara will also check on using the United Way building in Exton as a meeting space
• No meeting in May; next meeting will be in June (we can discuss via e-mail list whether to do this in person) 
• Case file discussion
• Emily asked about doing a case file or choosing an area/issue/person for our chapter to focus on
• Barbara will reach out to someone at AIUSA about this
• Emily suggests seeing if Amnesty has a toolkit available for an issue/country we're interested in covering
• Guantánamo postcard action
• Marsha has received 200 "Close Guantánamo"postcards (addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken)
• Group 342 members can mail them to Blinken, also leave them in random places (e.g., churches, bulletin boards, train stations) to increase public awareness

AIUSA NEWS

• Amnesty International Annual Report 2022/23 now available online

ACTIONS

• URGENT ACTION: "Tortured Son of Opposition Figured Held Incommunicado" (Egypt: UA 29.23)   
• URGENT ACTION: "Human Rights Activists Must Be Released" (Democratic Republic of Congo: UA 31.23)    

NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, June 21, 7:30 p.m (TBD whether in person or via Zoom)