PRESENT
Marilyn, Mike (TruthMerchant or TM), Neal, Vince, Woody, Susan.
Marilyn facilitated the meeting, and Alan took notes.
PIERCE COUNTY TRANSIT
Vince recounted a project to save Pierce County Transit bus service that some members of his church are involved in. There was much discussion about Occupy Tacoma participating. Susan and Vince will investigate who was involved in the campaign to raise funds to restore bus service. It was thought that if organizations and individual supporters could meet, perhaps with representatives of the transit workers and their union, we might be able to get some positive results.
TENT CITY
Neal presented a model contract, describing the agreement between Tent City organizers and sponsoring organization (such as a church). All members agreed it was very well thought out, and there was much enthusiastic discussion. Vince and Marilyn will set up a meeting with Associated Ministries to facilitate setting this up.
LEONARD PELTIER FOLLOWUP
Marilyn reported on the very successful meeting in support of Leonard Peltier. Several OT members participated, and comments were quite favorable. The speeches were well received. Marilyn stated she especially liked the speech IWW activist Arthur Miller gave.
CITIZENS UNITED CAMPAIGN
TM and others reported on the status of the campaign to overturn the Citizens United decision. The UFPPC (United for Peace of Pierce County) are involved in a letter-writing campaign to get public officials to support overturning Citizens United. Susan reports she spoke with several city council members, and she feels confident that they will approve a statement supporting the reversal of Citizens United. The city attorney will be reviewing a resolution to be presented to the City Council.
BANK ACCOUNT
We agreed to ask Debra to give control of the bank account to Marilyn, who will act as our treasurer. Travis may have signing privileges as well as paperwork. We agreed that Marilyn should have signing privileges. Marilyn will see about transferring the funds to another credit union.
WEBSITE/STRATEGY
TM talked about his feelings concerning the role of the editor. He asked that Alan not edit his economic articles, and Alan said he did not want to edit TM’s economic articles. There had been email exchanges among some of the members about editing. There was vigorous discussion
Alan followed up on suggestions made in some of those emails. Alan suggested that a new tab called Issues be placed on the navigation bar of our site with several subheadings. Here are some suggested subheadings:
- US Economy
- Spirituality
- Op-Ed Pieces
- Social Justice
- Environmental Justice
TM agreed that the front page of our blog should have articles that are edited and well formatted, reflecting our activities. At the same time, he feels articles under the Issues tag should be far more free form, although in general keeping with our mission.
Respectfully submitted: Alan OldStudent
