Peace and Justice Agenda, March 24 2013
In attendance: Helen Dickinson, Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard, Bob Southworth.
1. Letter to the Editor
For many months a goal of the committee has been to write two letters to the editor. The first is a letter asking for more transparency in the media about Guantanomo Bay. The second is a letter about gun control, rights and responsibilities, and Quaker testimonies. For multiple reasons these have yet to be written.
Kelly agreed to have the first letter continue to be one of the items on her to-do-list.
Bob agreed to write a blurb in the OPFM newsletter asking if anyone will write a letter to the editor regarding gun control and Quaker testimonies for the committee to season.
“The Peace and Justice Committee is looking for someone who would be interested in composing a letter on the topic of gun control from a Quaker perspective. If you are interested, please contact Kelly Maynard at kellythelinguist@hotmail.com.”
2. FCNL Letter Writing
Write a letter to your (new) representatives in Congress listing your
personal top 3 priorities.
3. FCNL Seeks to Revise Policy Statement
Kelly distributed the packet from FCNL asking for feedback from Friends Meetings on what if anything they would like to see revised in the FCNL Policy Statement. The current statement reads:
We seek a world free of war and the threat of war.
We seek a society with equity and justice for all.
We seek a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled.
We seek an earth restored.
After discussion we discerned that one of our concerns was the laws forcing corporations to make decisions that prioritize short term profit for shareholders at the expense of general well –being. From there we discerned the following policy statement. Judy agreed to type it up and submit to FCNL as per their instructions by April 1st.
“We seek a corporate structure that balances profit with community health and sustainability. Context: This policy statement comes out of our concern about legislation and court rulings requiring corporations to put short term profits to shareholders above all other considerations.”
.4. Local Gun Violence Action Request from MCGM
In early February, the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago sent out a letter and petition calling on faith communities to join them in an action asking for gun control laws, specifically to support House Bill 5831. While Friends in general think gun control laws are good, we decided not to sign this petition at this point because we were unclear about the exact content of the above bill, the status of the vote in the House, and where we were supposed to send the petition.
Bob agreed to research answers to the questions and if we think it is a good bill not yet voted on we might decide to sign it and recommend to Bus Mtg to do so also.
5. Local Upcoming Action
There are several local actions concerning Guantanomo Bay this coming week.
Tuesday 8 am Vigil with the 8th Day Center for Peace and Justice at Lasalle/Jackson. Friday noon Walk for Justice at Congree and Michigan.
Saturday noon Rally noon at Federal Bldg.
Contact Chris at cknest11@gmail.com or 216-798-8177 for more details.
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Peace and Justice Committee Meeting, August 26, 2012
In attendance: Helen Dickinson, Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard, Bob Southworth
1. A Day in the Village Supplies
Kelly reported she had heard back from Wil that all Day in the Village supplies were stored in Helen's garage with her permission. Judy announced she has added a link to the Meeting’s webpage titled Information about Supplies. If anyone is storing Meeting supplies please send her an email and she’ll put the information under this password-protected link.
2. We received the following Email from Joe Scarry
I note that your congregation is very active in social justice issues, e.g. as a member of NRCAT.
I have organized protests against drones here in Chicago, together with Protest Chaplains of Chicago.
See: http://nodronesillinois.blogspot.com/2012/08/taking-no-drones-message-to-masses-at.html
Is this an area of interest for you? Thank you for everything you are doing,
Joe Scarry
We decided Kelly will send him a non-committal reply, and agreed that during the next month we would visit the above webpage and learn a little more about his work before we make any real decision.
3. We sent emails to the following friends re: ILYM’s Peacemakers Archive Project
Wil Rutt (who took the lead on establishing an Oak Park 10,000 Villages)
Burke Shipley (who worked with West Suburban Coalition against the Death Penalty)
Adrian Fisher (who worked with Triton on stewardship of the land)
Judy Erickson (for her efforts to connect our Meeting with other Oak Park groups)
Kelly Maynard (for her work teaching Peace Studies at MU in Columbia MO)
Judy and Kelly replied yes, two of the others replied they’d think about it, and one non-response. We agreed Kelly should send the other 3 a follow up email
4. Will we lead a discussion of one of the below listed Peace Testimony articles?
"Peace Be with You: A Study of the Spiritual Basis …" by Sandra Cronk
“Love Has Replaced Hatred: A Visit to (Burundi) Prison” by Adrien Niyongabo
“Frozen in Time: Escaping the Victim-Abuser-Rescuer Triangle” by Laura Shipler Chico.
Kelly and Judy had read the last two, and Judy had started the first. She found two hard copies of it in our Meeting’s Library.
After some discussion we decided Judy will ask Adult RE (includes Kelly so done) if she can lead a discussion of Frozen in Time the first Sunday of January. Provided the answer is yes, we will encourage people in Meeting to read the 5 ½ page article ahead of time. To facilitate this, Kelly will send an email with the pdf file to Sarah Shirk to send out via the OPFM calendar. Judy will put a hyperlink to the pdf file on the webpage, and Kelly will make five hardcopies to be distributed on Sundays at Meeting.
5. Petition for Shakir Hamoodi
Friends in the Columbia Friends Meeting and ILYM have endorsed a petition, in the form of a letter to President Obama, asking him to commute the sentence of Shakir Hamoodi. Shakir is an Iraqi who has been living in the Midwest for about two decades. Between 1998-2003 he committed civil disobedience and sent money and living supplies to his extended family in Iraq who were suffering under the US imposed sanctions. He was arrested, charged, and pled guilty. However the evidence is very clear that the money sent went only toward humanitarian use by his family or friends’ families, and the US prosecution is only for breaking the sanction law. Many Friends in ILYM committed the same act of civil disobedience (recall the FOR/AFSC water filter project circa 1999).
The petition can be found online at this link:
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-barack-obama-commute-the-36-month-sentence-of-dr-shakir-hamoodi
We agreed that Kelly will send Sarah an email with the letter from David Finke (CFM) and tell her that peace and justice supports this petition and ask her to send it out via the OPFM calendar.
6. FCNL Rep
Bob will put a blurb in the newsletter to the effect that Yearly Meeting needs to appoint a new FCNL rep. FCNL Reps would attend the FCNL annual meeting on Nov. 25-18. If anyone has a suggestion for the IYM nominating committee. They meet next on Oct 27.
7. Charitable Donations
Business Meeting has asked that we make our recommendations for the Meeting’s annual charitable contributions. Here are past three years: (Please see paper copy because this website cannot accommodate data tables or spreadsheets.)
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Peace and Justice Minutes, July 22, 2012
In attendance: Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (convener, recording clerk)
0. Day in the Village Supplies
We had a wonderful DITV in May, but there were a few hiccups concerning supplies. In order to make the day smoother in the future, Wil sent an email suggesting we put the DITV supplies together. DITV supplies include: Banner, Tent, OPFM business cards, and OPFM leaflets.
To achieve this goal we need to find out where all the supplies are, what is the storage box, and whether all the business card were put into the closet. Kelly will ask Wil.
1. Discussion of ILYM Peacemakers Archive project.
A recently launched project by the peace resources committee of ILYM (http://peaceresources.wordpress.com/peacemakers/) aims to record the peacemaking stories of Yearly Meeting members. The committee is asking member Meetings to nominate Friends in their Meeting, and the committee will work with that peacemaker to create a profile.
Judy and Kelly came up with a list of people in Meeting who they would like to nominate to be archived. This includes Wil Rutt (who established the Oak Park 10,000 Villages), Burke Shipley (who worked with ICADP), Adrian Fisher (who gathered disparate Triton College groups to come together in stewardship of the land), Judy Erickson (for her steadfast support and efforts to connect our Meeting with other Oak Park groups), Kelly Maynard (for her work teaching Peace Studies at MU in Columbia MO).
Kelly will craft an email to each of the people on the list explaining the project and asking for their permission to nominate them.
2. Discussion of possible Adult RE presentation on Peace testimony Article
IYM has a travelling Peace Testimony workshop. The articles they want Friends to have read prior to holding a workshop are listed on their webpage. We read and presented one article last year. Kelly suggest choosing one of the following three to discuss this year: "Peace Be with You: A Study of the Spiritual Basis of the Friends Peace Testimony" by Sandra Cronk; “Love Has Replaced Hatred: A Visit to Gitega (Burundi) Prison” by Adrien Niyongabo, and “Frozen in Time: Escaping the Victim-Abuser-Rescuer Triangle” by Laura Shipler Chico. (see downloadable files below)
We decided we would read these before August 26 (next P&J meeting) and decide which if any to discuss. Kelly will send Judy pdf files of all articles. Judy will put hyperlinks to all of them on the P&J minutes section of the OPFM webpage.
3. Discussion on joining the Illinois Coalition for Justice, Peace, and the Environment
The ICJPE is a network for Peace and Justice groups in Illinois. It requires timely responses to join and/or endorse multiple actions. Therefore because of its structure we decided it is not compatible with our way of doing business. However it is an excellent resource and we decided to encourage Friends to habitually check their website for updates on local Peace and Justice events. http://icjpe.org/
4. FCNL Letter Writing
The July/August issue urges support of Representative Moran’s resolution on acknowledgement of climate change.
Kelly will forward the email to Judy.
5. Two actions Friends can take to end fracking in Illinois
Stop The Frack Attack On IL Rally
Monday, July 30th, 11:30am-1:30pm
The Thompson Center-State of IL Building,
100 W. Randolph, at Randolph and Clark.
(please bring Ban Fracking signs)
Please call Gov. Quinn today and encourage him to find a way to
Stop The Frack Attack On IL at 312-814-2121 or 217 782-0244
6. QEW and Kabarak Call
We shared our experience with QEW. Then read the Kabarak call. We agreed it is wonderfully worded.
Judy will put the Kabarak call on our webpage. (see below and on main P&J page) Kelly will send it to Bob for the newsletter and we will ask Friends to read and consider it. We will announce to Friends the plans for the upcoming QEW meeting in Chicago this fall.
In attendance: Helen Dickinson, Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard, Bob Southworth.
1. Letter to the Editor
For many months a goal of the committee has been to write two letters to the editor. The first is a letter asking for more transparency in the media about Guantanomo Bay. The second is a letter about gun control, rights and responsibilities, and Quaker testimonies. For multiple reasons these have yet to be written.
Kelly agreed to have the first letter continue to be one of the items on her to-do-list.
Bob agreed to write a blurb in the OPFM newsletter asking if anyone will write a letter to the editor regarding gun control and Quaker testimonies for the committee to season.
“The Peace and Justice Committee is looking for someone who would be interested in composing a letter on the topic of gun control from a Quaker perspective. If you are interested, please contact Kelly Maynard at kellythelinguist@hotmail.com.”
2. FCNL Letter Writing
Write a letter to your (new) representatives in Congress listing your
personal top 3 priorities.
3. FCNL Seeks to Revise Policy Statement
Kelly distributed the packet from FCNL asking for feedback from Friends Meetings on what if anything they would like to see revised in the FCNL Policy Statement. The current statement reads:
We seek a world free of war and the threat of war.
We seek a society with equity and justice for all.
We seek a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled.
We seek an earth restored.
After discussion we discerned that one of our concerns was the laws forcing corporations to make decisions that prioritize short term profit for shareholders at the expense of general well –being. From there we discerned the following policy statement. Judy agreed to type it up and submit to FCNL as per their instructions by April 1st.
“We seek a corporate structure that balances profit with community health and sustainability. Context: This policy statement comes out of our concern about legislation and court rulings requiring corporations to put short term profits to shareholders above all other considerations.”
.4. Local Gun Violence Action Request from MCGM
In early February, the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago sent out a letter and petition calling on faith communities to join them in an action asking for gun control laws, specifically to support House Bill 5831. While Friends in general think gun control laws are good, we decided not to sign this petition at this point because we were unclear about the exact content of the above bill, the status of the vote in the House, and where we were supposed to send the petition.
Bob agreed to research answers to the questions and if we think it is a good bill not yet voted on we might decide to sign it and recommend to Bus Mtg to do so also.
5. Local Upcoming Action
There are several local actions concerning Guantanomo Bay this coming week.
Tuesday 8 am Vigil with the 8th Day Center for Peace and Justice at Lasalle/Jackson. Friday noon Walk for Justice at Congree and Michigan.
Saturday noon Rally noon at Federal Bldg.
Contact Chris at cknest11@gmail.com or 216-798-8177 for more details.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peace and Justice Committee Meeting, August 26, 2012
In attendance: Helen Dickinson, Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard, Bob Southworth
1. A Day in the Village Supplies
Kelly reported she had heard back from Wil that all Day in the Village supplies were stored in Helen's garage with her permission. Judy announced she has added a link to the Meeting’s webpage titled Information about Supplies. If anyone is storing Meeting supplies please send her an email and she’ll put the information under this password-protected link.
2. We received the following Email from Joe Scarry
I note that your congregation is very active in social justice issues, e.g. as a member of NRCAT.
I have organized protests against drones here in Chicago, together with Protest Chaplains of Chicago.
See: http://nodronesillinois.blogspot.com/2012/08/taking-no-drones-message-to-masses-at.html
Is this an area of interest for you? Thank you for everything you are doing,
Joe Scarry
We decided Kelly will send him a non-committal reply, and agreed that during the next month we would visit the above webpage and learn a little more about his work before we make any real decision.
3. We sent emails to the following friends re: ILYM’s Peacemakers Archive Project
Wil Rutt (who took the lead on establishing an Oak Park 10,000 Villages)
Burke Shipley (who worked with West Suburban Coalition against the Death Penalty)
Adrian Fisher (who worked with Triton on stewardship of the land)
Judy Erickson (for her efforts to connect our Meeting with other Oak Park groups)
Kelly Maynard (for her work teaching Peace Studies at MU in Columbia MO)
Judy and Kelly replied yes, two of the others replied they’d think about it, and one non-response. We agreed Kelly should send the other 3 a follow up email
4. Will we lead a discussion of one of the below listed Peace Testimony articles?
"Peace Be with You: A Study of the Spiritual Basis …" by Sandra Cronk
“Love Has Replaced Hatred: A Visit to (Burundi) Prison” by Adrien Niyongabo
“Frozen in Time: Escaping the Victim-Abuser-Rescuer Triangle” by Laura Shipler Chico.
Kelly and Judy had read the last two, and Judy had started the first. She found two hard copies of it in our Meeting’s Library.
After some discussion we decided Judy will ask Adult RE (includes Kelly so done) if she can lead a discussion of Frozen in Time the first Sunday of January. Provided the answer is yes, we will encourage people in Meeting to read the 5 ½ page article ahead of time. To facilitate this, Kelly will send an email with the pdf file to Sarah Shirk to send out via the OPFM calendar. Judy will put a hyperlink to the pdf file on the webpage, and Kelly will make five hardcopies to be distributed on Sundays at Meeting.
5. Petition for Shakir Hamoodi
Friends in the Columbia Friends Meeting and ILYM have endorsed a petition, in the form of a letter to President Obama, asking him to commute the sentence of Shakir Hamoodi. Shakir is an Iraqi who has been living in the Midwest for about two decades. Between 1998-2003 he committed civil disobedience and sent money and living supplies to his extended family in Iraq who were suffering under the US imposed sanctions. He was arrested, charged, and pled guilty. However the evidence is very clear that the money sent went only toward humanitarian use by his family or friends’ families, and the US prosecution is only for breaking the sanction law. Many Friends in ILYM committed the same act of civil disobedience (recall the FOR/AFSC water filter project circa 1999).
The petition can be found online at this link:
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-barack-obama-commute-the-36-month-sentence-of-dr-shakir-hamoodi
We agreed that Kelly will send Sarah an email with the letter from David Finke (CFM) and tell her that peace and justice supports this petition and ask her to send it out via the OPFM calendar.
6. FCNL Rep
Bob will put a blurb in the newsletter to the effect that Yearly Meeting needs to appoint a new FCNL rep. FCNL Reps would attend the FCNL annual meeting on Nov. 25-18. If anyone has a suggestion for the IYM nominating committee. They meet next on Oct 27.
7. Charitable Donations
Business Meeting has asked that we make our recommendations for the Meeting’s annual charitable contributions. Here are past three years: (Please see paper copy because this website cannot accommodate data tables or spreadsheets.)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Peace and Justice Minutes, July 22, 2012
In attendance: Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (convener, recording clerk)
0. Day in the Village Supplies
We had a wonderful DITV in May, but there were a few hiccups concerning supplies. In order to make the day smoother in the future, Wil sent an email suggesting we put the DITV supplies together. DITV supplies include: Banner, Tent, OPFM business cards, and OPFM leaflets.
To achieve this goal we need to find out where all the supplies are, what is the storage box, and whether all the business card were put into the closet. Kelly will ask Wil.
1. Discussion of ILYM Peacemakers Archive project.
A recently launched project by the peace resources committee of ILYM (http://peaceresources.wordpress.com/peacemakers/) aims to record the peacemaking stories of Yearly Meeting members. The committee is asking member Meetings to nominate Friends in their Meeting, and the committee will work with that peacemaker to create a profile.
Judy and Kelly came up with a list of people in Meeting who they would like to nominate to be archived. This includes Wil Rutt (who established the Oak Park 10,000 Villages), Burke Shipley (who worked with ICADP), Adrian Fisher (who gathered disparate Triton College groups to come together in stewardship of the land), Judy Erickson (for her steadfast support and efforts to connect our Meeting with other Oak Park groups), Kelly Maynard (for her work teaching Peace Studies at MU in Columbia MO).
Kelly will craft an email to each of the people on the list explaining the project and asking for their permission to nominate them.
2. Discussion of possible Adult RE presentation on Peace testimony Article
IYM has a travelling Peace Testimony workshop. The articles they want Friends to have read prior to holding a workshop are listed on their webpage. We read and presented one article last year. Kelly suggest choosing one of the following three to discuss this year: "Peace Be with You: A Study of the Spiritual Basis of the Friends Peace Testimony" by Sandra Cronk; “Love Has Replaced Hatred: A Visit to Gitega (Burundi) Prison” by Adrien Niyongabo, and “Frozen in Time: Escaping the Victim-Abuser-Rescuer Triangle” by Laura Shipler Chico. (see downloadable files below)
We decided we would read these before August 26 (next P&J meeting) and decide which if any to discuss. Kelly will send Judy pdf files of all articles. Judy will put hyperlinks to all of them on the P&J minutes section of the OPFM webpage.
3. Discussion on joining the Illinois Coalition for Justice, Peace, and the Environment
The ICJPE is a network for Peace and Justice groups in Illinois. It requires timely responses to join and/or endorse multiple actions. Therefore because of its structure we decided it is not compatible with our way of doing business. However it is an excellent resource and we decided to encourage Friends to habitually check their website for updates on local Peace and Justice events. http://icjpe.org/
4. FCNL Letter Writing
The July/August issue urges support of Representative Moran’s resolution on acknowledgement of climate change.
Kelly will forward the email to Judy.
5. Two actions Friends can take to end fracking in Illinois
Stop The Frack Attack On IL Rally
Monday, July 30th, 11:30am-1:30pm
The Thompson Center-State of IL Building,
100 W. Randolph, at Randolph and Clark.
(please bring Ban Fracking signs)
Please call Gov. Quinn today and encourage him to find a way to
Stop The Frack Attack On IL at 312-814-2121 or 217 782-0244
6. QEW and Kabarak Call
We shared our experience with QEW. Then read the Kabarak call. We agreed it is wonderfully worded.
Judy will put the Kabarak call on our webpage. (see below and on main P&J page) Kelly will send it to Bob for the newsletter and we will ask Friends to read and consider it. We will announce to Friends the plans for the upcoming QEW meeting in Chicago this fall.
| kabarak_call_for_peace__ecojustice.pdf |
| agli_niyongabo_gitegaprisonvisit.pdf |
| agli_chico_frozenintime.pdf |
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Peace and Justice Minutes, May 27, 2012
In attendance: Sue Beckman, Helen Dickinson, Kelly Maynard (convener, recorder), Patrick Moriarty, Wil Rutt.
1. A Day in the Village Event
Wil will send out an email sign-up sheet. Wil and Jim will put up and take down. Children’s Religious Education will prepare colored paper with Quaker testimonies so kids can make colorful paper chains. Wil will put out a variety of AFSC and FCNL handouts, and also OPFM cards and brochures.
We discussed Wil’s minute, and his explanatory poster. The minute asks Senators not to change the current law which mandates cuts to the Pentagon budget of 500 Billion Dollars over the next ten years. We agreed to type the minute as a petition and ok’d the wording of the poster.
Wil agreed to make NRCAT torture postcards which people can take.
2. NRCAT and ACLU Video/ Reading day
Nrcat is asking its members to stage a one day event where various people read statement from Gitmo prisoners and famous peace workers about torture. They say it can be formal or informal and provide a script. Then they want us to photograph/film the event and submit this to them to be included in national video against torture.
We discussed whether we have the inclination to do this, but no one was particularly led to work on it so we decided not to do it, but we will put the related postcards out on our day in the village table.
Helen asked what the current issue about torture is, and Kelly agreed to look into it. [NOTE-the issue NRCAT is working on right now is prolonged solitary confinement. Many prisoners, in US prisons around the country as well as political prisoners, are kept in tiny cells with no windows or human companionship for months on end, and they suffer serious mental problems because of this. NRCAT and the ACLU want to stop this inhumane treatment of people]
3. FCNL letter writing
Kelly brought the April information. They want people to write their Senators and Representatives encouraging them to vote to cut the Pentagon budget by $1 trillion over the next ten years. Pentagon spending is out of control and there is no oversight.
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Peace and Justice Cmte. Minutes, April 22, 2012
In attendance: Judy Erickson, Paz, Kelly Maynard (convener, recorder), Wil Rutt.
1. Business Meeting approved our recommendations from last month.
Kelly submitted the FCNL priorities.
Emma will give a media presentation.
Kelly sent in an application and registration fee for ADITV.
2. We decided to make a sign-up sheet for ADITV, and pass it around at rise of Worship.
3. We decided to reschedule Emma’s presentation to a Tuesday night,
at 7 pm, at Judy’s house.
4. Judy clarified where things about P and J were on the webpage.
5. FCNL Letter Writing
Please write your senators and rep asking them to support cuts to the Pentagon budget of $1 trillion over the next 10 years and speak out against waste, fraud and abuse in Pentagon spending.
6. We discussed ways of making the OPFM calendar more clear.
7. Several Upcoming events were announced.
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Peace and Justice Committee, March 25, 2012
In Attendance: Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Friend from Northside Meeting (Sharon Post?), Wil Rutt, Pam Timme.
A Day in Our Village
A Day in our Village Festival is scheduled for Sunday, June 3, 2012, from 11 am to 6 pm. The deadline for returning applications and the 39 dollar participation fee is May 4th, 2012.
After some discussion we decided to recommend to the next Business Meeting that we have a booth, that Religious Ed choose a fun kid’s activity with a focus on alternative energy sources, and that Wil will contact Jim to see if he is willing to help set up the booth (post note- he is!).
FCNL March Letter Writing
Kelly distributed sample letters from FCNL. This month’s action concerns HR 3974 or the SANE (Sensible Approach to Nuclear Expenditures) Act. If passed, this bill would be an opportunity to save more than $100 billion dollars over 10 years by eliminating out-dated and unnecessary nuclear weapons programs.
FCNL Lobby Training Lessons
12 people attended the March 10th Lobby training workshop with David Culp. According to him, visiting a legislator or his staff in person, writing an individualized letter via email to the legislator, and writing a letter to the editor naming the piece of legislation and the legislator are three high impact lobbying strategies. David also taught us that it’s important to stay focused on one issue per visit/letter.
Many people from OPFM who attended the training session were also at the cmte meeting so we talked about our reaction to the presentation. On the one hand we all felt the number was perfect for small group work, and we personally got much out of it. On the other hand we wish more non-Friends had attended the meeting. We agreed that next time we plan an event we should identify and seek co-sponsors. We also think we need to learn better media/marketing skills (e.g. none of us in attendance from OPFM use twitter) therefore we decided to make a recommendation to Business Meeting that we arrange for someone with savvy advertising skills to give us a presentation on a 5th Sunday (note-next 5th Sunday is April 29th).
Thank You to David Culp
Kelly passed around a thank you card for David Culp, and those of us who attended the workshop signed it. Kelly will mail it to him next week (post note-done!).
Identify five priorities for the lobbying work of FCNL
Every two years the FCNL request feedback from Friends in the form of suggested legislative issue priorities. We discussed this at some length and came up with the following five priorities to submit to BM for their approval.
1. Work on passing laws that would refocus our infrastructure from reliance on fossil fuels to sustainable industries.
2. Work on passing laws that ameliorate living conditions for Native Americans in an attempt to redress past wrongs, (such as breaking treaties, forceful removal from lands).
3. Work on treaties, laws, budget lines that will reduce the number of arms maintained by the military, in particular nuclear arms reduction.
4. Work on laws affecting voting issues. In particular strengthen laws which ban direct and indirect contributions to political campaigns from corporations, unions, and other pacs, and force corporations to disclose their campaign contributions. Also, pass laws that require any computerized touch-screen voting machine to be written using publicly disclosed open code and create a legible paper ballot for every voter. Finally, continue to work to ensure that all adult U.S. citizens not currently incarcerated have the right to vote in Federal elections.
5. Pass legislation banning the use of paramilitary and mercenary contractors by the U.S. government and open up the Pentagon to external auditing.
Chicago Spring
Judy will put a link on the webpage and send an announcement to the OPFM calendar with the webpage for chicagospring.org which is a list of upcoming events related to Occupy Chicago.
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Peace and Justice Committee, February 26, 2012
In attendance: Pat Anderson, Helen Dickinson, Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Wil Rutt, Bob Southworth
1. Planning next week’s (March 4) Adult RE Session on the Peace Testimony
We discussed the first reading of the ILYM Peace Resources workshop, The Peace Testimony of the Religious Society of Friends. We agreed it was a very academic paper, and decided a useful way to present it on March 4th, 2012 would be to offer a more general explanation of what Friends mean when we refer to the Peace testimony. Importantly it is not a set doctrine or creed, but rather an ever evolving body of personal, sometimes corporate, witness. Judy and Kelly will prepare a one-page handout for next week with some of the more well-known quotes. They will begin the meeting with a summary of important milestones in the peace testimony, and then ask Friends to participate in worship sharing around the queries in Faith and Practice.
2. Updates on our March 10th FCNL Lobby Training
David Culp from FCNL will hold a 3-hour lobby session, 9:30 -12:30, on Saturday March 10th at the Oak Park Library. Wil, Kelly, and Judy will arrive at 9 am to set up. Wil will provide food. Judy will check about coffee and tea pots and bring coffee and creamer. Kelly will bring fair trade tea and sugar. Kelly will also bring name tags. David will bring the learning materials.
3. Report on February 23 Meeting with Sen. Durbin
Several Friends were scheduled to meet with one of Senator Durbin’s Legislative Assistants to encourage the senator to support the Budget Control Act which is cutting 1 trillion dollars from the Pentagon’s budget over the next ten years. We met with an aide instead, but he gave us 30 minutes to present our ideas.
4. FCNL Letter writing
Letters this week are to our Representatives in the U.S House urging them to limit the expansion of remote controlled drone warfare.
5a. Ideas about initiating a commons area in Chicago?
Janice gave usable input about other movements in the US that are working on the disappearance of commons. She said most of the groups are working at a legislative level, and introducing bills that designate some areas as commons at the state and municipality level. She suggested looking at good governance groups like Womens League of Voters or Common Cause.
5b. Hospitality action
Related to this is the fact that tens of thousands of protestors are coming to Chicago in May for the NATO/G8 Summits May 18-21. We discussed the possibility of encouraging Friends to provide hospitality to visitors. Things to think about when offering hospitality are: do guests need transportation and or parking? A bed or just crash space? meals? Also, we need someone who can vouch for these people-Wil has a relative who is coming from Toledo and can get names from him. We decided to bring an action item to the March Meeting for Business.
**Peace and Justice recommends that Friends consider giving hospitality to visitors to Chicago for the NATO/G8 summits from May 17-22 who may find it difficult to find room and board. To this end we recommend passing around a sign–up sheet at upcoming rise of meetings.
6. The February Business Meeting approved the following recommendations:
Peace and Justice recommends that with the exception of the Oak Park Food Pantry, OPFM should send the remainder of the previously recommended and approved charitable contributions. And, we recommend the money designated for the OPRF food pantry be given in April since they have an annual doubling challenge that month.
Peace and Justice recommends that OPFM contribute $50 to the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) World Conference Travel Fund. Money sent to this fund covers the cost of Friends from developing countries to travel to Kenya this April for a major international gathering of Friends.
Peace and Justice recommends that we put a small notice on the contact us section of our homepage directing Friends on how to make a donation to OPFM. For example: Whom to make the check to, where to send the check, and what if anything should be put in the memo line. In addition the note should say if said contribution is tax deductible (non-profit).
Peace and Justice recommends that OPFM consider drafting a letter to send to people on our mailing list, who do not regularly attend Meeting advising them that one way they can support the meeting and its work is to give a financial donation. This letter should be constructed as a don’t forget you can give to us rather than a direct solicitation letter.
7. FCNL priorities
On March 25th we will decide our FCNL priorities. We can prepare for this meeting by reviewing the information at http://fcnl.org/about/govern/priorities/113documents/ .
We decided that we will make a recommendation to Business Meeting that we hold a special Peace and Justice Meeting on March 25th devoted to seasoning ideas.
**Peace and Justice recommends our Meeting hold a special FCNL priorities session concurrent with the regularly scheduled Peace and Justice Committee Meeting on March 25th.
8. We have no update on a possible Renny Golden Visit
Announcements: On March 24th from noon to 3:30 pm the ILYM Ministry and Advancement Cmte is holding a workshop on conflict in meetings and difficult people in meetings in the home of Chip and Bridget Rorem in Kankakee. Contact Judy from more info.
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Peace and Justice Committee, January 22nd, 2012
In Attendance: Helen Dickinson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Wil Rutt, Bob Southworth.
1. Renny Golden’s Visit
For the past few months we have been working on arranging Renny Golden to come speak to OPFM. At a previous Peace and Justice meeting, Amanda reported she had contacted Renny who said she is interested, but the dates have not been worked out.
Amanda called her again and left a message, but we are still waiting to hear. In the meantime we urge Friends to read Renny’s book, War on the Family, which we have in the OPFM library.
2. Adult RE Session on the Peace Testimony
In November, we decided that we will run a one-hour session on the first reading of the ILYM Peace Resources workshop on Sunday March 4th, 2012. The required reading is available from the Peace Resources page on the ILYM webpage:
http://www.ilym.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=28
Bob will put a correction about the date in the next newsletter.
Please read the article.
3. FCNL Lobby Training
Jim Cason, from FCNL, is willing to hold a one time 2-hour lobby session with us and other faith based social concerns people in the Chicago area. Wil arranged a room at the main Oak Park Library. Wil sent an advertisement has gone out to the Community of Congregations. Kelly will send out a similar blurb to the Oak Park Leaves/Wednesday journal.
Title: Lobbying Legislators
Purpose: To train persons in faith traditions how to effectively communicate
their concerns to legislators
Date: Sat. March 10, 2011 9-1 Small meeting room, Oak Park Public Library
4. Guantanamo Bay Anniversary NRCAT Action Month
January 11, 2012 was the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners at Guantanamo. Kelly made 20 copies of a postcard designed by NRCAT, brought them to Meeting Jan 8th, and 8 Friends signed them. These have been mailed. Kelly also attended a rally on Jan 11th in Federal Plaza, about 100 people were there about 1/3 in orange jumpsuits, however, there was no media coverage.
Kelly has not yet written her letter to the editor on the topic.
5. Divestment from For-profit Health Insurance Agencies
Due to info from Ida, we discussed the issue of for-profit healthcare services. Wil sent an email to the ILYM reps to AFSC and FCNL about the divestment movement and asked them to consider looking into it. He had a response from one person who said they thought they already had.
6. February Meeting with Sen. Kirk
Senators will be home the week of Feb 20-24th. Wil is arranging a meeting with Sen. Kirk for Chicago area FCNL reps. We decided to also plan a visit with Sen. Durbin. [note Sen. Kirk had a severe stroke over the weekend so our plans have been canceled. Wil sent a condolence note. We will still try and meet with Sen. Durbin.]
7. Rahm Emmanuel and proposed changes to protest laws
Judy has expressed concern about Rahm Emmanuel’s drive to make protest in Chicago more difficult and illegal. We updated each other on the issue.
During the discussion we talked about the fact that unlike many places Chicago does not have a public or common plot of land anywhere that is open 24/7. Perhaps residents of Chicago should contact their alderman and suggest a peace park of sorts that is one truly free and open place in Chicago. Does anyone know of an English document requiring common land?
8. FCNL Letter writing
Wil will be transferring to the EFM. Kelly agreed to take over his once a month duty of bringing social concern letter writing material to Meeting.
9. Re-Consider our recommended charitable contributions
In fall we recommended charitable contributions and B.M. agreed with our proposal. We recommended paying a total of $1900 for the 11-12 fiscal year with 700 of that being paid immediately and the other 1200 being sent later after we had a better sense of our income. The 700 has been sent. Now we have to make a recommendation to the B.M.
Peace and Justice recommends that with the exception of the Oak Park Food Pantry, OPFM should send the remainder of the previously recommended and approved charitable contributions. And, we recommend the money designated for the OPRF food pantry be given in April since they have an annual doubling challenge that month.
Peace and Justice recommends that OPFM contribute $50 to the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) World Conference Travel Fund. Money sent to this fund covers the cost of Friends from developing countries to travel to Kenya this April for a major international gathering of Friends.
Peace and Justice recommends that we put a small notice on the contact us section of our homepage directing Friends on how to make a donation to OPFM. For example: Whom to make the check to, where to send the check, and what if anything should be put in the memo line. In addition the note should say if said contribution is tax deductible (non-profit).
Peace and Justice recommends that OPFM consider drafting a letter to send to people on our mailing list, who do not regularly attend Meeting advising them that one way they can support the meeting and its work is to give a financial donation. This letter should be constructed as a don’t forget you can give to us rather than a direct solicitation letter.
Bob will put a note in the newsletter informing Friends how to give a financial contribution.
Bob will put a short notice in the newsletter asking Friends to consider giving individual contributions to help Friends travel to the April FWCC Conference.
IYLM reps and International reps are raising funds. To help a fellow IYLM Friend attend the conference checks can be sent to IYLM care of Val Lester with “World Conference Travel” in the memo line. Any extra donations will be put into the travel fund for International Friends. To help International Friends send your contributions to: Friends World Committee, 1506 Race Street, Philadelphia PA 19102 with “World Conference Travel Fund” in the memo line.
We received a request from a law student at the University of Chicago asking us to support a girl from the south side of Chicago to attend Scattergood Friends School. We decided we would not give a donation to her at this time. Helen will send her a reply. However, we want to consider a contribution to the Chicago Friends School/Scattergood next fall when we prepare our list of recommend charitable contributions.
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Peace and Justice Committee Minutes, November 27, 2011
In Attendance: Helen Dickinson, Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Wil Rutt, Bob Southworth.
0. Publishing Agenda Ahead of Time.
Approximately two years ago we established a protocol for Peace and Justice regarding agendas and minutes. This included sending the agenda out on the OPFM calendar a few days before the meeting as well as putting the minutes on the webpage. The agenda has not been sent out with the calendar the last few months. Kelly will email Sarah S. and explain that in addition to putting notice of the meeting on the calendar we want her to attach the agenda to the calendar. The reason is so everyone in meeting has a chance to add to the agenda or voice an opinion about an item.
1. Renny Golden’s Visit
For the past few months we have been working on arranging Renny Golden to come speak to OPFM. At the last Peace and Justice meeting, Amanda reported she contacted Renny who said she is interested but the dates have not been worked out.
Kelly will email Amanda and see if we have a date yet.
Kelly asked Judy to ask OPTJC if they want to co-sponsor. Judy is willing to ask, but they run a monthly movie planned several months ahead of time so it might not be the best project to ask for sponsorship. On the other hand perhaps there is a relevant movie related to the topic Renny will address.
Kelly agreed to ask Amanda to ask Renny.
2. Education Session on the Peace Testimony
We examined the material Judy had printed out from the ILYM website about a 7-hour workshop the members of the Peace Resources Committee offers. It requires bringing in someone from another area of IL and about 320 pages of required reading on the part of participants. We discussed whether we wanted to arrange said workshop.
We decided that we could run a one-hour session on the first reading during an adult RE time, Sunday March 4th, 2012. We will evaluate and revisit the question of a workshop after this session. The required readings are almost all available as downloadable pdf files from the Peace Resources page on the ILYM webpage. Kelly will send the website with the readings to Bob for publication in the Newsletter.
http://www.ilym.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=28
3. FCNL Lobby Training
Jim Cason, from FCNL, is willing to hold a one time 2-hour lobby session with us and other Friends in the Chicago area. Wil would like us to do this because the local ILYM reps agreed to it earlier this year, but haven’t organized it yet.
We agreed this is a good idea, and some of us want to attend. Wil will contact Jim and find a date he will be in town, then he will arrange a room at the main Oak Park Library.
NOTE: Within 24 hours this was accomplished:
Title: Lobbying Legislators
Purpose: To train persons in faith traditions how to effectively communicate
their concerns to legislators
Date: Sat. March 10, 2011 9-1 Small meeting room, Oak Park Public Library
4. Recent Contact to and from Senators
Kelly received a letter from Sen. Kirk in response to her phone call asking him to end the war in Afghanistan. Wil received a similar reply.
We decided Kelly will scan her letter and Bob will put it in the Newsletter.
Wil, his husband Dean, and Earl Smith recently attended FCNL Lobby week. They lobbied our Senators in DC on the Complex Crisis Fund and signing a letter to Obama thanking him for establishing an Atrocities Prevention Board.
Sen. Kirk did sign the letter, Durbin didn’t but only because of a glitch. The Complex Crisis Fund is something we as Friends should really promote. It establishes an independent emergency fund for civilian and diplomats to respond to political emergencies (like a revolution). Until recently no fund existed and all State Department response had to be approved by the Pentagon.
5. Guantanamo Bay Anniversary NRCAT Action Month
January 11, 2012 – 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners at Guantanamo.
January 22, 2012 – 3rd anniversary of the executive order calling for Guantanamo’s closure.
We discuss ideas from NRCAT on how best to commemorate this. We decided that making postcards for our members and attenders to sign was best. Kelly agreed to take the two sided print out to a photocopy place and make 20 cards in time for Dec 18th potluck. Wil will make more if we need them and we will set the extra out at Meeting for a few weeks and encourage people to sign them and mail them.
In addition, since this is an issue Kelly feels very strongly about, she will write a letter to the editor. She will send it in her name since it may take too long to go through Business Meeting, but Friends agreed to scan it and provide any necessary critique.
6. Divestment from the For profit Health Insurance Agencies
Last month, Ida forwarded us a letter about a movement to divest from for profit healthcare services. We confirmed with Amanda that we do not provide healthcare. We decided since we don’t use for profit healthcare we won’t pursue this issue.
Ida responded and told us, “The divestment campaign is about asking the national policy making body of Quakers (if there is one....the FCNL?) to divest its endowment from for-profit private insurers, not about changing the insurance of its employees.”
We discussed the nature of for-profit budgets, e.g. Medicaid spends only 6 % on overhead and the rest on paying bills while for-profits spend around 70% on overhead and only 30%paying bills, the reasoning behind this action, and the fact that new laws go in effect in January 2012 requiring for-profits to reduce their overhead to only 20%. We decided we did not have the knowledge to know if this issue had the urgency it may have once had nor the personal energy to do much with the issue. Judy reminded us we had ILYM reps to AFSC and FCNL. We decided to inform the ILYM reps to AFSC and FCNL about this movement and ask them to consider looking into it, and leave it at that. Wil agreed to do the contacting.
7. We will not hold a meeting December 25th.
In lieu of meeting on Sunday December 25th, Kelly will send out an email update around that time.
We closed with silence.
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Peace and Justice Committee, October 23, 2011
In Attendance: Helen Dickinson, Sibel Kusimbe, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Sarah Shirk, Amanda Sneed, Pam Timme.
1. Business Meeting approved our suggested contributions. Business Meeting also approved our $100 annual dues to Chicago Fair trade CFT. Kelly sent Nancy Jones an email to that effect.
2. Val replied to our inquiry about telling the community of congregations about CFT. She told us the board meets each month (3rd Wed), and she will bring any proposal to the board we want me to submit or CFT can come make a 10 minute presentation.
Kelly emailed Nancy to see if she is interested in talking to them, but no response. Kelly will send a second email. Kelly will also send Amanda the survey from CFT.
3. Kelly reported that movie night was held at Wil’s September 22, 2011. We watched The Freedom Riders. Kelly said she learned a lot from the movie and highly recommends it.
4. Wil purchased a copy of Renny Golden’s War on the Family: Mothers in Prison and the Families They Leave Behind for the OPFM library. Kelly checked it out and read a few chapters. It is good. The book is available for others to read.
Amanda reported she contacted Renny and Renny said she is interested but the dates have not been worked out. Amanda will see if Jan 29th 2012 or Feb 5th 2012 will work.
Kelly will ask Judy to ask OPTJC if they want to co-sponsor.
5. CAPOW is about water issues. Kelly reported she hasn’t done anything more with it. However two important points were made. 1) Chicago passed an ordinance and from now on any repairs they make to alleys will be made with permeable materials so there will be less water run off. 2) There are programs which subsidize rain barrels to Chicagoans. Here are the City of Chicago 2011 Sustainable Backyard Rebates
TREES (up to $100 back)
NATIVE PLANTS (up to $60 back)
COMPOST BINS (up to $50 back)
RAIN BARRELS (up to $40 back)
For more information see http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/doe/provdrs/nat_res/svcs/how_can_i_get_a_rainbarrelorcompostbinrebateform.htm
6. Business Meeting approved our Afghanistan anniversary idea. Kelly sent this blurb to the newsletter.
Afghanistan, the longest war
The U.S. led War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001 and the tenth anniversary of the U.S. led invasion is soon. Peace and Justice recommended, and the September Business Meeting approved, the following Action:
We are asking all Friends to call, email, or send a letter to Sens. Kirk and Durbin between Friday September 30 and Thursday Oct 6th stating our opposition to the war in Afghanistan, noting that the ten-year anniversary is upon us, and requesting they act to discontinue the war immediately.
Sen. Dick Durbin Sen. Mark Kirk
230 S Dearborn St. 230 South Dearborn
Suite 3892 Suite 3900
Chicago, IL 60604 Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 353-4952 312-886-3506
http://durbin.senate.gov/public/ http://kirk.senate.gov/?p=contact
Kelly reported she called both senators. Sen. Durbin’s people asked for her zip code, but Sen. Kirk’s took her full contact info.
7. Kelly met Francisco Perez the national director of Ceasefire at the Oak Park screening of the documentary movie The Interrupters. In response to her inquiry he told her they need people not from the neighborhoods in support roles. How do we want to follow up on this?
We discussed whether there is anyone in Meeting who wants to volunteer time for this right now, and Kelly is the only one who feels she has time for this. Amanda suggested she ask about tutoring opportunities with Ceasefire. Kelly thought this was a good idea. We also discussed tutoring possibilities at St. Leonard’s
8. Divestment from the for profit insurance agencies
Ida forwarded us a letter about a movement to divest from for profit healthcare services. We confirmed with Amanda that we do not provide healthcare. We decided since we don’t use for profit healthcare we won’t pursue this issue.
It being 12:45 we decided to hold over the two agenda items below.
9. Judy has proposed that a session on the Peace testimony should be held during one of the Adult RE periods. How should we facilitate this?
10. FCNL/ Meet with Sen. Kirk/November Lobby training
Do we want to meet with Kirk while he is home to discuss budget
Should we send out email to list serve?
Are we having an fnl lobby training 3 hour workshop?
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Peace & Justice Committee, September 2011: Meeting was cancelled.
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Peace and Justice Minutes, May 27, 2012
In attendance: Sue Beckman, Helen Dickinson, Kelly Maynard (convener, recorder), Patrick Moriarty, Wil Rutt.
1. A Day in the Village Event
Wil will send out an email sign-up sheet. Wil and Jim will put up and take down. Children’s Religious Education will prepare colored paper with Quaker testimonies so kids can make colorful paper chains. Wil will put out a variety of AFSC and FCNL handouts, and also OPFM cards and brochures.
We discussed Wil’s minute, and his explanatory poster. The minute asks Senators not to change the current law which mandates cuts to the Pentagon budget of 500 Billion Dollars over the next ten years. We agreed to type the minute as a petition and ok’d the wording of the poster.
Wil agreed to make NRCAT torture postcards which people can take.
2. NRCAT and ACLU Video/ Reading day
Nrcat is asking its members to stage a one day event where various people read statement from Gitmo prisoners and famous peace workers about torture. They say it can be formal or informal and provide a script. Then they want us to photograph/film the event and submit this to them to be included in national video against torture.
We discussed whether we have the inclination to do this, but no one was particularly led to work on it so we decided not to do it, but we will put the related postcards out on our day in the village table.
Helen asked what the current issue about torture is, and Kelly agreed to look into it. [NOTE-the issue NRCAT is working on right now is prolonged solitary confinement. Many prisoners, in US prisons around the country as well as political prisoners, are kept in tiny cells with no windows or human companionship for months on end, and they suffer serious mental problems because of this. NRCAT and the ACLU want to stop this inhumane treatment of people]
3. FCNL letter writing
Kelly brought the April information. They want people to write their Senators and Representatives encouraging them to vote to cut the Pentagon budget by $1 trillion over the next ten years. Pentagon spending is out of control and there is no oversight.
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Peace and Justice Cmte. Minutes, April 22, 2012
In attendance: Judy Erickson, Paz, Kelly Maynard (convener, recorder), Wil Rutt.
1. Business Meeting approved our recommendations from last month.
Kelly submitted the FCNL priorities.
Emma will give a media presentation.
Kelly sent in an application and registration fee for ADITV.
2. We decided to make a sign-up sheet for ADITV, and pass it around at rise of Worship.
3. We decided to reschedule Emma’s presentation to a Tuesday night,
at 7 pm, at Judy’s house.
4. Judy clarified where things about P and J were on the webpage.
5. FCNL Letter Writing
Please write your senators and rep asking them to support cuts to the Pentagon budget of $1 trillion over the next 10 years and speak out against waste, fraud and abuse in Pentagon spending.
6. We discussed ways of making the OPFM calendar more clear.
7. Several Upcoming events were announced.
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Peace and Justice Committee, March 25, 2012
In Attendance: Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Friend from Northside Meeting (Sharon Post?), Wil Rutt, Pam Timme.
A Day in Our Village
A Day in our Village Festival is scheduled for Sunday, June 3, 2012, from 11 am to 6 pm. The deadline for returning applications and the 39 dollar participation fee is May 4th, 2012.
After some discussion we decided to recommend to the next Business Meeting that we have a booth, that Religious Ed choose a fun kid’s activity with a focus on alternative energy sources, and that Wil will contact Jim to see if he is willing to help set up the booth (post note- he is!).
FCNL March Letter Writing
Kelly distributed sample letters from FCNL. This month’s action concerns HR 3974 or the SANE (Sensible Approach to Nuclear Expenditures) Act. If passed, this bill would be an opportunity to save more than $100 billion dollars over 10 years by eliminating out-dated and unnecessary nuclear weapons programs.
FCNL Lobby Training Lessons
12 people attended the March 10th Lobby training workshop with David Culp. According to him, visiting a legislator or his staff in person, writing an individualized letter via email to the legislator, and writing a letter to the editor naming the piece of legislation and the legislator are three high impact lobbying strategies. David also taught us that it’s important to stay focused on one issue per visit/letter.
Many people from OPFM who attended the training session were also at the cmte meeting so we talked about our reaction to the presentation. On the one hand we all felt the number was perfect for small group work, and we personally got much out of it. On the other hand we wish more non-Friends had attended the meeting. We agreed that next time we plan an event we should identify and seek co-sponsors. We also think we need to learn better media/marketing skills (e.g. none of us in attendance from OPFM use twitter) therefore we decided to make a recommendation to Business Meeting that we arrange for someone with savvy advertising skills to give us a presentation on a 5th Sunday (note-next 5th Sunday is April 29th).
Thank You to David Culp
Kelly passed around a thank you card for David Culp, and those of us who attended the workshop signed it. Kelly will mail it to him next week (post note-done!).
Identify five priorities for the lobbying work of FCNL
Every two years the FCNL request feedback from Friends in the form of suggested legislative issue priorities. We discussed this at some length and came up with the following five priorities to submit to BM for their approval.
1. Work on passing laws that would refocus our infrastructure from reliance on fossil fuels to sustainable industries.
2. Work on passing laws that ameliorate living conditions for Native Americans in an attempt to redress past wrongs, (such as breaking treaties, forceful removal from lands).
3. Work on treaties, laws, budget lines that will reduce the number of arms maintained by the military, in particular nuclear arms reduction.
4. Work on laws affecting voting issues. In particular strengthen laws which ban direct and indirect contributions to political campaigns from corporations, unions, and other pacs, and force corporations to disclose their campaign contributions. Also, pass laws that require any computerized touch-screen voting machine to be written using publicly disclosed open code and create a legible paper ballot for every voter. Finally, continue to work to ensure that all adult U.S. citizens not currently incarcerated have the right to vote in Federal elections.
5. Pass legislation banning the use of paramilitary and mercenary contractors by the U.S. government and open up the Pentagon to external auditing.
Chicago Spring
Judy will put a link on the webpage and send an announcement to the OPFM calendar with the webpage for chicagospring.org which is a list of upcoming events related to Occupy Chicago.
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Peace and Justice Committee, February 26, 2012
In attendance: Pat Anderson, Helen Dickinson, Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Wil Rutt, Bob Southworth
1. Planning next week’s (March 4) Adult RE Session on the Peace Testimony
We discussed the first reading of the ILYM Peace Resources workshop, The Peace Testimony of the Religious Society of Friends. We agreed it was a very academic paper, and decided a useful way to present it on March 4th, 2012 would be to offer a more general explanation of what Friends mean when we refer to the Peace testimony. Importantly it is not a set doctrine or creed, but rather an ever evolving body of personal, sometimes corporate, witness. Judy and Kelly will prepare a one-page handout for next week with some of the more well-known quotes. They will begin the meeting with a summary of important milestones in the peace testimony, and then ask Friends to participate in worship sharing around the queries in Faith and Practice.
2. Updates on our March 10th FCNL Lobby Training
David Culp from FCNL will hold a 3-hour lobby session, 9:30 -12:30, on Saturday March 10th at the Oak Park Library. Wil, Kelly, and Judy will arrive at 9 am to set up. Wil will provide food. Judy will check about coffee and tea pots and bring coffee and creamer. Kelly will bring fair trade tea and sugar. Kelly will also bring name tags. David will bring the learning materials.
3. Report on February 23 Meeting with Sen. Durbin
Several Friends were scheduled to meet with one of Senator Durbin’s Legislative Assistants to encourage the senator to support the Budget Control Act which is cutting 1 trillion dollars from the Pentagon’s budget over the next ten years. We met with an aide instead, but he gave us 30 minutes to present our ideas.
4. FCNL Letter writing
Letters this week are to our Representatives in the U.S House urging them to limit the expansion of remote controlled drone warfare.
5a. Ideas about initiating a commons area in Chicago?
Janice gave usable input about other movements in the US that are working on the disappearance of commons. She said most of the groups are working at a legislative level, and introducing bills that designate some areas as commons at the state and municipality level. She suggested looking at good governance groups like Womens League of Voters or Common Cause.
5b. Hospitality action
Related to this is the fact that tens of thousands of protestors are coming to Chicago in May for the NATO/G8 Summits May 18-21. We discussed the possibility of encouraging Friends to provide hospitality to visitors. Things to think about when offering hospitality are: do guests need transportation and or parking? A bed or just crash space? meals? Also, we need someone who can vouch for these people-Wil has a relative who is coming from Toledo and can get names from him. We decided to bring an action item to the March Meeting for Business.
**Peace and Justice recommends that Friends consider giving hospitality to visitors to Chicago for the NATO/G8 summits from May 17-22 who may find it difficult to find room and board. To this end we recommend passing around a sign–up sheet at upcoming rise of meetings.
6. The February Business Meeting approved the following recommendations:
Peace and Justice recommends that with the exception of the Oak Park Food Pantry, OPFM should send the remainder of the previously recommended and approved charitable contributions. And, we recommend the money designated for the OPRF food pantry be given in April since they have an annual doubling challenge that month.
Peace and Justice recommends that OPFM contribute $50 to the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) World Conference Travel Fund. Money sent to this fund covers the cost of Friends from developing countries to travel to Kenya this April for a major international gathering of Friends.
Peace and Justice recommends that we put a small notice on the contact us section of our homepage directing Friends on how to make a donation to OPFM. For example: Whom to make the check to, where to send the check, and what if anything should be put in the memo line. In addition the note should say if said contribution is tax deductible (non-profit).
Peace and Justice recommends that OPFM consider drafting a letter to send to people on our mailing list, who do not regularly attend Meeting advising them that one way they can support the meeting and its work is to give a financial donation. This letter should be constructed as a don’t forget you can give to us rather than a direct solicitation letter.
7. FCNL priorities
On March 25th we will decide our FCNL priorities. We can prepare for this meeting by reviewing the information at http://fcnl.org/about/govern/priorities/113documents/ .
We decided that we will make a recommendation to Business Meeting that we hold a special Peace and Justice Meeting on March 25th devoted to seasoning ideas.
**Peace and Justice recommends our Meeting hold a special FCNL priorities session concurrent with the regularly scheduled Peace and Justice Committee Meeting on March 25th.
8. We have no update on a possible Renny Golden Visit
Announcements: On March 24th from noon to 3:30 pm the ILYM Ministry and Advancement Cmte is holding a workshop on conflict in meetings and difficult people in meetings in the home of Chip and Bridget Rorem in Kankakee. Contact Judy from more info.
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Peace and Justice Committee, January 22nd, 2012
In Attendance: Helen Dickinson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Wil Rutt, Bob Southworth.
1. Renny Golden’s Visit
For the past few months we have been working on arranging Renny Golden to come speak to OPFM. At a previous Peace and Justice meeting, Amanda reported she had contacted Renny who said she is interested, but the dates have not been worked out.
Amanda called her again and left a message, but we are still waiting to hear. In the meantime we urge Friends to read Renny’s book, War on the Family, which we have in the OPFM library.
2. Adult RE Session on the Peace Testimony
In November, we decided that we will run a one-hour session on the first reading of the ILYM Peace Resources workshop on Sunday March 4th, 2012. The required reading is available from the Peace Resources page on the ILYM webpage:
http://www.ilym.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=28
Bob will put a correction about the date in the next newsletter.
Please read the article.
3. FCNL Lobby Training
Jim Cason, from FCNL, is willing to hold a one time 2-hour lobby session with us and other faith based social concerns people in the Chicago area. Wil arranged a room at the main Oak Park Library. Wil sent an advertisement has gone out to the Community of Congregations. Kelly will send out a similar blurb to the Oak Park Leaves/Wednesday journal.
Title: Lobbying Legislators
Purpose: To train persons in faith traditions how to effectively communicate
their concerns to legislators
Date: Sat. March 10, 2011 9-1 Small meeting room, Oak Park Public Library
4. Guantanamo Bay Anniversary NRCAT Action Month
January 11, 2012 was the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners at Guantanamo. Kelly made 20 copies of a postcard designed by NRCAT, brought them to Meeting Jan 8th, and 8 Friends signed them. These have been mailed. Kelly also attended a rally on Jan 11th in Federal Plaza, about 100 people were there about 1/3 in orange jumpsuits, however, there was no media coverage.
Kelly has not yet written her letter to the editor on the topic.
5. Divestment from For-profit Health Insurance Agencies
Due to info from Ida, we discussed the issue of for-profit healthcare services. Wil sent an email to the ILYM reps to AFSC and FCNL about the divestment movement and asked them to consider looking into it. He had a response from one person who said they thought they already had.
6. February Meeting with Sen. Kirk
Senators will be home the week of Feb 20-24th. Wil is arranging a meeting with Sen. Kirk for Chicago area FCNL reps. We decided to also plan a visit with Sen. Durbin. [note Sen. Kirk had a severe stroke over the weekend so our plans have been canceled. Wil sent a condolence note. We will still try and meet with Sen. Durbin.]
7. Rahm Emmanuel and proposed changes to protest laws
Judy has expressed concern about Rahm Emmanuel’s drive to make protest in Chicago more difficult and illegal. We updated each other on the issue.
During the discussion we talked about the fact that unlike many places Chicago does not have a public or common plot of land anywhere that is open 24/7. Perhaps residents of Chicago should contact their alderman and suggest a peace park of sorts that is one truly free and open place in Chicago. Does anyone know of an English document requiring common land?
8. FCNL Letter writing
Wil will be transferring to the EFM. Kelly agreed to take over his once a month duty of bringing social concern letter writing material to Meeting.
9. Re-Consider our recommended charitable contributions
In fall we recommended charitable contributions and B.M. agreed with our proposal. We recommended paying a total of $1900 for the 11-12 fiscal year with 700 of that being paid immediately and the other 1200 being sent later after we had a better sense of our income. The 700 has been sent. Now we have to make a recommendation to the B.M.
Peace and Justice recommends that with the exception of the Oak Park Food Pantry, OPFM should send the remainder of the previously recommended and approved charitable contributions. And, we recommend the money designated for the OPRF food pantry be given in April since they have an annual doubling challenge that month.
Peace and Justice recommends that OPFM contribute $50 to the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) World Conference Travel Fund. Money sent to this fund covers the cost of Friends from developing countries to travel to Kenya this April for a major international gathering of Friends.
Peace and Justice recommends that we put a small notice on the contact us section of our homepage directing Friends on how to make a donation to OPFM. For example: Whom to make the check to, where to send the check, and what if anything should be put in the memo line. In addition the note should say if said contribution is tax deductible (non-profit).
Peace and Justice recommends that OPFM consider drafting a letter to send to people on our mailing list, who do not regularly attend Meeting advising them that one way they can support the meeting and its work is to give a financial donation. This letter should be constructed as a don’t forget you can give to us rather than a direct solicitation letter.
Bob will put a note in the newsletter informing Friends how to give a financial contribution.
Bob will put a short notice in the newsletter asking Friends to consider giving individual contributions to help Friends travel to the April FWCC Conference.
IYLM reps and International reps are raising funds. To help a fellow IYLM Friend attend the conference checks can be sent to IYLM care of Val Lester with “World Conference Travel” in the memo line. Any extra donations will be put into the travel fund for International Friends. To help International Friends send your contributions to: Friends World Committee, 1506 Race Street, Philadelphia PA 19102 with “World Conference Travel Fund” in the memo line.
We received a request from a law student at the University of Chicago asking us to support a girl from the south side of Chicago to attend Scattergood Friends School. We decided we would not give a donation to her at this time. Helen will send her a reply. However, we want to consider a contribution to the Chicago Friends School/Scattergood next fall when we prepare our list of recommend charitable contributions.
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Peace and Justice Committee Minutes, November 27, 2011
In Attendance: Helen Dickinson, Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Wil Rutt, Bob Southworth.
0. Publishing Agenda Ahead of Time.
Approximately two years ago we established a protocol for Peace and Justice regarding agendas and minutes. This included sending the agenda out on the OPFM calendar a few days before the meeting as well as putting the minutes on the webpage. The agenda has not been sent out with the calendar the last few months. Kelly will email Sarah S. and explain that in addition to putting notice of the meeting on the calendar we want her to attach the agenda to the calendar. The reason is so everyone in meeting has a chance to add to the agenda or voice an opinion about an item.
1. Renny Golden’s Visit
For the past few months we have been working on arranging Renny Golden to come speak to OPFM. At the last Peace and Justice meeting, Amanda reported she contacted Renny who said she is interested but the dates have not been worked out.
Kelly will email Amanda and see if we have a date yet.
Kelly asked Judy to ask OPTJC if they want to co-sponsor. Judy is willing to ask, but they run a monthly movie planned several months ahead of time so it might not be the best project to ask for sponsorship. On the other hand perhaps there is a relevant movie related to the topic Renny will address.
Kelly agreed to ask Amanda to ask Renny.
2. Education Session on the Peace Testimony
We examined the material Judy had printed out from the ILYM website about a 7-hour workshop the members of the Peace Resources Committee offers. It requires bringing in someone from another area of IL and about 320 pages of required reading on the part of participants. We discussed whether we wanted to arrange said workshop.
We decided that we could run a one-hour session on the first reading during an adult RE time, Sunday March 4th, 2012. We will evaluate and revisit the question of a workshop after this session. The required readings are almost all available as downloadable pdf files from the Peace Resources page on the ILYM webpage. Kelly will send the website with the readings to Bob for publication in the Newsletter.
http://www.ilym.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=28
3. FCNL Lobby Training
Jim Cason, from FCNL, is willing to hold a one time 2-hour lobby session with us and other Friends in the Chicago area. Wil would like us to do this because the local ILYM reps agreed to it earlier this year, but haven’t organized it yet.
We agreed this is a good idea, and some of us want to attend. Wil will contact Jim and find a date he will be in town, then he will arrange a room at the main Oak Park Library.
NOTE: Within 24 hours this was accomplished:
Title: Lobbying Legislators
Purpose: To train persons in faith traditions how to effectively communicate
their concerns to legislators
Date: Sat. March 10, 2011 9-1 Small meeting room, Oak Park Public Library
4. Recent Contact to and from Senators
Kelly received a letter from Sen. Kirk in response to her phone call asking him to end the war in Afghanistan. Wil received a similar reply.
We decided Kelly will scan her letter and Bob will put it in the Newsletter.
Wil, his husband Dean, and Earl Smith recently attended FCNL Lobby week. They lobbied our Senators in DC on the Complex Crisis Fund and signing a letter to Obama thanking him for establishing an Atrocities Prevention Board.
Sen. Kirk did sign the letter, Durbin didn’t but only because of a glitch. The Complex Crisis Fund is something we as Friends should really promote. It establishes an independent emergency fund for civilian and diplomats to respond to political emergencies (like a revolution). Until recently no fund existed and all State Department response had to be approved by the Pentagon.
5. Guantanamo Bay Anniversary NRCAT Action Month
January 11, 2012 – 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners at Guantanamo.
January 22, 2012 – 3rd anniversary of the executive order calling for Guantanamo’s closure.
We discuss ideas from NRCAT on how best to commemorate this. We decided that making postcards for our members and attenders to sign was best. Kelly agreed to take the two sided print out to a photocopy place and make 20 cards in time for Dec 18th potluck. Wil will make more if we need them and we will set the extra out at Meeting for a few weeks and encourage people to sign them and mail them.
In addition, since this is an issue Kelly feels very strongly about, she will write a letter to the editor. She will send it in her name since it may take too long to go through Business Meeting, but Friends agreed to scan it and provide any necessary critique.
6. Divestment from the For profit Health Insurance Agencies
Last month, Ida forwarded us a letter about a movement to divest from for profit healthcare services. We confirmed with Amanda that we do not provide healthcare. We decided since we don’t use for profit healthcare we won’t pursue this issue.
Ida responded and told us, “The divestment campaign is about asking the national policy making body of Quakers (if there is one....the FCNL?) to divest its endowment from for-profit private insurers, not about changing the insurance of its employees.”
We discussed the nature of for-profit budgets, e.g. Medicaid spends only 6 % on overhead and the rest on paying bills while for-profits spend around 70% on overhead and only 30%paying bills, the reasoning behind this action, and the fact that new laws go in effect in January 2012 requiring for-profits to reduce their overhead to only 20%. We decided we did not have the knowledge to know if this issue had the urgency it may have once had nor the personal energy to do much with the issue. Judy reminded us we had ILYM reps to AFSC and FCNL. We decided to inform the ILYM reps to AFSC and FCNL about this movement and ask them to consider looking into it, and leave it at that. Wil agreed to do the contacting.
7. We will not hold a meeting December 25th.
In lieu of meeting on Sunday December 25th, Kelly will send out an email update around that time.
We closed with silence.
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Peace and Justice Committee, October 23, 2011
In Attendance: Helen Dickinson, Sibel Kusimbe, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Sarah Shirk, Amanda Sneed, Pam Timme.
1. Business Meeting approved our suggested contributions. Business Meeting also approved our $100 annual dues to Chicago Fair trade CFT. Kelly sent Nancy Jones an email to that effect.
2. Val replied to our inquiry about telling the community of congregations about CFT. She told us the board meets each month (3rd Wed), and she will bring any proposal to the board we want me to submit or CFT can come make a 10 minute presentation.
Kelly emailed Nancy to see if she is interested in talking to them, but no response. Kelly will send a second email. Kelly will also send Amanda the survey from CFT.
3. Kelly reported that movie night was held at Wil’s September 22, 2011. We watched The Freedom Riders. Kelly said she learned a lot from the movie and highly recommends it.
4. Wil purchased a copy of Renny Golden’s War on the Family: Mothers in Prison and the Families They Leave Behind for the OPFM library. Kelly checked it out and read a few chapters. It is good. The book is available for others to read.
Amanda reported she contacted Renny and Renny said she is interested but the dates have not been worked out. Amanda will see if Jan 29th 2012 or Feb 5th 2012 will work.
Kelly will ask Judy to ask OPTJC if they want to co-sponsor.
5. CAPOW is about water issues. Kelly reported she hasn’t done anything more with it. However two important points were made. 1) Chicago passed an ordinance and from now on any repairs they make to alleys will be made with permeable materials so there will be less water run off. 2) There are programs which subsidize rain barrels to Chicagoans. Here are the City of Chicago 2011 Sustainable Backyard Rebates
TREES (up to $100 back)
NATIVE PLANTS (up to $60 back)
COMPOST BINS (up to $50 back)
RAIN BARRELS (up to $40 back)
For more information see http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/doe/provdrs/nat_res/svcs/how_can_i_get_a_rainbarrelorcompostbinrebateform.htm
6. Business Meeting approved our Afghanistan anniversary idea. Kelly sent this blurb to the newsletter.
Afghanistan, the longest war
The U.S. led War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001 and the tenth anniversary of the U.S. led invasion is soon. Peace and Justice recommended, and the September Business Meeting approved, the following Action:
We are asking all Friends to call, email, or send a letter to Sens. Kirk and Durbin between Friday September 30 and Thursday Oct 6th stating our opposition to the war in Afghanistan, noting that the ten-year anniversary is upon us, and requesting they act to discontinue the war immediately.
Sen. Dick Durbin Sen. Mark Kirk
230 S Dearborn St. 230 South Dearborn
Suite 3892 Suite 3900
Chicago, IL 60604 Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 353-4952 312-886-3506
http://durbin.senate.gov/public/ http://kirk.senate.gov/?p=contact
Kelly reported she called both senators. Sen. Durbin’s people asked for her zip code, but Sen. Kirk’s took her full contact info.
7. Kelly met Francisco Perez the national director of Ceasefire at the Oak Park screening of the documentary movie The Interrupters. In response to her inquiry he told her they need people not from the neighborhoods in support roles. How do we want to follow up on this?
We discussed whether there is anyone in Meeting who wants to volunteer time for this right now, and Kelly is the only one who feels she has time for this. Amanda suggested she ask about tutoring opportunities with Ceasefire. Kelly thought this was a good idea. We also discussed tutoring possibilities at St. Leonard’s
8. Divestment from the for profit insurance agencies
Ida forwarded us a letter about a movement to divest from for profit healthcare services. We confirmed with Amanda that we do not provide healthcare. We decided since we don’t use for profit healthcare we won’t pursue this issue.
It being 12:45 we decided to hold over the two agenda items below.
9. Judy has proposed that a session on the Peace testimony should be held during one of the Adult RE periods. How should we facilitate this?
10. FCNL/ Meet with Sen. Kirk/November Lobby training
Do we want to meet with Kirk while he is home to discuss budget
Should we send out email to list serve?
Are we having an fnl lobby training 3 hour workshop?
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Peace & Justice Committee, September 2011: Meeting was cancelled.
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