Elaine Jones, Chairperson
Present: Elaine Jones, Wendy Mizenko, Alan Olson, Will Lane, Lou Hammann, Clodius Willis, Bob Knight, Maggie Abbott-Fowler
Updates.
June Meetup Wrap-up. Alan Olson reported on the June 4th Iraq War vets program, noting that he made a video tape of the program (given to Elaine Jones). There were around 70 or more people in attendance made up primarily of DFA supporters, though there were a few new people (some requested information about the organization). A lengthy question and answer period followed the presentation. The response to the program seemed positive, and the participants were pleased with the arrangements.
Treasurer’s Report. Clodius Willis gave the financial report which shows a balance of $1,884. He paid $10 to get us back on the web; we will be billed about $45 for the following three months and on a quarterly basis thereafter (www.gettysburgareaDFA.org).
Will Lane wanted to know how many people followed up with the Rebate Check donation. About 60 or so envelopes addressed to IVAW were distributed to the audience, but there was no way to determine how many actually made a donation to the Iraq Veterans Against the War organization. An attempt will be made to get some feedback on this. Elaine expressed appreciation to all who worked so diligently on putting the program together, especially Alan Olson, Lou Hammann, and Sandra Mackie for program arrangements; Bob Knight and Lou Hammann for publicity; Wendy Mizenko for venue arrangements, and all who assisted, brought refreshments, etc. She also thanked Clodius for getting the website back up and thanked Will for editing and mailing the June Newsletter.
Website. Clodius said the website will include the following links: Welcome. Current Calendar. Past Meetings (meeting Minutes will be included here). Notice of the July Meetup cancellation will be on the website.
Newsletter. Will expressed a wish to publish two newsletters – one in August and one in late September – prior to the presidential election (if financially feasible). He suggested DFA participate in the election campaign by putting myth busting articles in the Newsletters; preparing informational handouts; producing information that could be emailed to friends, etc.
Chili Cook-off Request. Unitarian Event on July 12 seeks participants, sponsors; for details contact Gene Cimino 717-630-2626. Entry form at www.uugettysburg.org. Elaine mentioned that the Democratic Committee plans to participate.
Reports on DFA Issue Campaigns and Priorities.
Universal (Single Payer) Health Care. Lou Hammann reported that some members of the Task Force would be attending the June 19th rally on the steps of the Capitol in Harrisburg; car pooling to depart from the Village Outlets at 10:30 am. Lou said the group he and Pat are working with in Harrisburg include some very powerful and determined people.
Ending the War in Iraq; Support for IVAW. Alan Olson announced the DVD “War Made Easy” has just come out; he suggests we show this film at a Meetup. Elaine said the Democratic Committee is looking for a large screen TV so they can show films at the new headquarters. Wendy Mizenko will ask Sandra Mackie for more information on the vets that participated in the program and for a photo of the vets with the rebate envelopes. Bob Knight will do some follow-up publicity on the 6/4 Meetup program.
Stopping the Global Climate Crisis. Elaine noted the environmental group has not been meeting regularly. If DFA wants to pursue this goal, someone needs to step up to head a task force. Wendy is willing to use the worksheets to determine how we could conduct a campaign. Elaine would prefer to have a task force work on this as opposed to Steering Committee members. Maggie Abbott-Fowler said we need to get the ball rolling; we could invite Waste Management people who do recycling and Rescue Mission representatives to participate at regular meetings of a task force. For the next meeting, Wendy will work with the green sheets, and we will be open to suggestions for members of a task force.
Abuse of Power and Impeachment Activities. Elaine reported on a Common Cause panel she attended on this issue where this group’s “Recapture the Flag” campaign was discussed (can be viewed on You-Tube). The campaign has a legislative component … a statement of principles and a pledge for political candidates to sign.
There was discussion regarding DFA’s debate on the abuse of power issue earlier this year and the 27 to 3 vote in favor of the publication of an impeachment statement. It appears that miscommunication resulted in the lack of publication of the statement.
Will Lane suggested we should plan three programs: in August, September, and October to highlight at least three of our issues.
Election Updates.
Candidate Endorsements. Following discussion of the idea, Bob Knight moved, Al Olson seconded, that DFA should invite all candidates to the August meeting and that endorsements should subsequently be voted on. Motion passed unanimously.
Program Ideas.
Maggie feels we need to focus on the abuse of power issue earlier than September. Perhaps we should start a letter writing campaign to get more publicity on the issue. Elaine mentioned the issue of security, since myth busting might be too broad a category. Perhaps we could invite a speaker such as Susan Eisenhower to discuss the abuse of power issue. Bob Knight suggested we use more down to earth language and try to attract a wider audience than just DFA supporters. One meeting could be “Hard Talk on Patriotism” (changed to “Keep America Strong”) to which military people could be invited to debunk the fear mongering tactics. Program ideas are:
August Meetup - Candidate Night. Clodius Willis will help with organizing this; will get names and addresses. Elaine will draft an invitation letter.
September Meetup - Abuse of Power issue program. Invite someone from Common Cause to talk on their “Recapture the Flag” campaign.
October Meetup - “Keep America Strong” program. Maggie will help with this, but does not want to be chairperson because she wants to work on the Candidate Development task force. Discussion of this program will be continued (i.e., title, substance, whom to invite, etc.). The idea would be to focus on an issue in this country that might bring in the undecided Independents to the Blue column. Alan thinks Republicans will come down hard on the security issue in the election.
Roger Lund, Chair of the Democratic Committee will be informed of these proposed programs. The consensus was to publish two newsletters if possible.
If we can only afford one, it would have to be published in time to announce the Meetup programs for August, September, and October.
Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m.
Virginia Ciliotta, Recording Secretary