July Meeting Minutes 2009

Minutes submitted by Megan Karth

People for Peace Meeting, 7/9/09, at the Chez

Present: Sandy Testin, Jane Haasch, Megan Karth, Marci Reynolds, Steve Gajewski, Bonni Miller, (who did I miss?).

(Please read to the bottom as the potluck idea sounds really good and I don’t want anyone to miss it)!

Peace Day: The lower shelter was reserved and Tom Pease committed BUT, not enough help and energy. It was decided to cancel Peace Day again. Hopefully next year it can be coordinated with the Japanese exchange program and we plan farther ahead to try to get more folks involved. This year the Japanese students are not coming to the US. We also discussed maybe having a Peace Day Homecoming, inviting as many scholarship winners as we could locate. Anyone who has enjoyed Peace Day in the past may want to volunteer early to make sure we can pull it off next year. We also discussed having our scholarship winner show up each year at Peace Day to receive their check.

Art on the Square: August 15

PFP will have a booth. We will sell Palestinian olive oil and dry pancake mix (left from the Peace breakfast at MREA). We will put out any tee shirts and other items we have around. We need volunteers for 2 hr shifts. So far Megan will take 8-10 am, Sandy will take 2-4 in afternoon. We need someone 10-12 and 12-2. Please call Jane if you can help. Marci will order olive oil, Sandy will store it. Sandy will provide change box, Jane will make sure there is change.

Friday night concerts at the Waupaca band shell. (Music and Memories).

We are not sure if PFP is signed up for any more nights. The city is having different groups have booths on the square. Cham Nusz. Are we committed to having a booth any more Friday nights? Let us know.

Peace Studies potluck

We talked about wanting to spend more time brainstorming and talking about what we are about in PFP. We have done a lot of activities over the years. Some of the most satisfying were sending kids to Peace Camp and holding high\ school peace studies groups and sending kids to the UN and Washington DC after they did lots of study about an issue. We are intriqued by a teacher from Eagle River who is teaching Peace Studies in a very conservative HS. We would like to invite her to a potluck to talk to us about how she is managing to do what she does, what does it take, etc. Cham and Megan got to hear her earlier this year at the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice annual meeting. Megan will contact Cham about getting in touch with this teacher and will report back to the group.

Peace Vigils

We were holding small peace vigils on the 3^rd Friday of each month at 5 pm to coincide with Iraq Moratorium day. We have not met this summer, partly not to conflict with Strawberry Fest and now with the Music and Memories. There are many communities in the state holding vigils monthly or more often. Anyone interested? This is not a partisan activity but one to make folks think, including ourselves. Anyone interested, talk to Megan.