Indiana Peace and Justice Network - Minutes of the IPJN teleconference of 29 November 2005

1. Acceptance of the Agenda
Some additions were put forth and the agenda was accepted as documented in the notes below.

2. Structure Proposal
The structure proposal distributed by Frank and Sheila was unanimously approved with some discussion on the issue of consensus vs. voting, and on the question of individual members.

On the issue of consensus, it was raised that consensus had been working, and some didn't see a reason to fix what wasn't broken. Others countered that voting was a good way of breaking the log-jams that occur in consensus, and that voting allows people who can't participate on the call to particpate in the decision making. In the end, the decision was to try to use consensus in general with voting as the final decisive form of taking a decision where consensus was not working or taking too long.

On the issue of individual members, it was specifically said that this was viewed as a way to include specific people that would be valuable to have on the board, but that the goal was not to be an organization with individual members but a coalition of organizations.

Eric to draft a simple mission statement to kick off discussion, to be provided prior to the next teleconference.

People are to be informed that they have to pay their dues of $25/year in January. Per the new structure, a waiver is available where requested where there is a lack of funds, at the descretion of the IPJN board.

3. Midwest Peace Summit
An organizing committee for the Midwest Peace Summit is coming together with Jack's excellent leadership. Ten people have been invited to particpate on a core organizing committee, and nine of the ten have agreed. A teleconference is planned for next Monday evening. At that time subcommittees will be formed to divide up responsibilities and work to ensure this is a statewide effort. The Summit will be primarily in the same building as the 2005 Summit, except that there will be a larger room available for the keynote speaker. There was some discussion on the need for a budget, and the role that some of the participant organizations in the host city could play. There is a definite desire to share the decision making and the responsibility, and to reach out early to potential new participants so that people feel involved in the decision making. There was some discussion of charging to attend. There won't be any cost to attend.

It was proposed that there be joint facilitator/coordinators for the sessions to avoid a situation that happened at the last Summit where a facilitator/coordinator could not be present and the session didn't happen despite people traveling long distances to particpate. This was taken as a good suggestion.

There was some discussion regarding whether the geographic focus of the Summit organizing effort. Some folks felt the organizing should focus on Indiana. Others felt it was important to try to outreach to other areas like Louisville to include as many people as possible in the conversation about the struggle for peace and to get the benefit of the experiences elsewhere, as well as to share our experiences. Some felt, too, that it was important for the long-term growth of the Summit to establish this regional goal.

It was raised that there needs to be outreach to the African-American community early to ensure this community's involvement. Jane to approach Tony H. and Thomas Brown. Question of the NAACP was raised.

There was a question of assigning someone from the IPJN to liason with the Summit organizing committee. I don't have this issue's resolution in my notes.

All told, there was a lot of support for the Summit and commitment in IPJN to work to help it to be even more successful than it was last year.

4. Eyes Wide Open Exhibit
The IPJN is going to facilitate getting the Eyes Wide Open Exhibit as prepared by the American Friends Service Committee to tour Indiana. Highland has had an exhibit already. One is planned for Lafayette.

5. IPJN will look into bringing Anne Wright to Indiana as a speaker.
IPJN/Sheila and Frank/ to get more background on Anne, and make a decision on this.

6. A Louisville peace activists put together an effective and dramatic peace exhibit where they had a t-shirt with the name of each soldier that died up to the point where the 2000th soldier was killed. The put the t-shirts up along the highway and the exhibit stretched for more than a mile. They are offering this exhibit to other areas. Sheila was contacted by Sam Avery regarding this and will follow up.

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