July 2003 Meeting Mennonite Church July 6, 2003 BNCPJ Acknowledgments Susan Burt again offered to hand out the Friends Council for National Legislation voting record report, which contains the records for our senators and representatives. Ralph Dring provided a list of films for the video library list that we are compiling. John Wilson provided a set of video tapes of speeches of prominent politicians and political thinkers for BNCPJ to lend out to interested members. Upcoming BNCPJ Activities July July 23 at 6 p.m.-Potluck and viewing of "The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" at Susan Burt's house. Please bring a dish to pass, which will be shared before the film. Take yourself and your dish to 602 Normal Avenue in Normal. August Next monthly meeting: Sunday, August 3, 2003. 4:00-5:30 p.m. at the Mennonite Church. BNCPJ Table at Culture Fest-August 16-17 This will be a great opportunity for us to expand our local circle/network. Susan Burt is still waiting to hear back from organizers of the Fest to find out whether BNCPJ will have a table there. Festival ISU is Thursday, August 21-BNCPJ members may be needed to help staff the table of the student anti-war group. John Wilson will bring that information to the August information so interested members may lend their time/support. September/October BNCPJ's monthly meetings will move to the Campus Religious Center in Normal starting in September. More information to come in next month's letter about the new meeting place. We want 100 people to march as a BNCPJ contingent in the B/N Labor Day Parade (Sept. 1). PLEASE PLAN TO PARTICIPATE AND BRING ALONG 3 FRIENDS. Contact Jim Nelson for more information. We will hold a Future Search kind of event, with the goal being to fully articulate BNCPJ's vision and strategy through 2004. Built into this discussion will be plans for helping us maintain ourselves as an organization. BNCPJ will host Doug Rokke, international expert on Depleted Uranium, to speak here in B/N. We will coordinate an event which targets strategy for electoral politics into 2004. Local Democratic/Green candidates and party leaders are on our invite list. Contact Julie Hile for more information. John Wilson is open to suggestions for movies/discussion leaders for the political film series he's hoping to organize with the ISU Cinema Society this fall, Mon/Tues/Wed nights at 7 p.m. in Stevenson 101. We have an amazing line up of people who agree with us coming to B/N: Wesleyan will host both Michael Moore and Molly Ivins! Molly No word on the Moore dates, but Ivins will be here on September 24, with a 2 p.m. open forum at Milner Library and a 7 p.m. speech at IWU's Westbrook Auditorium. ISU will host Noam Chomsky Tuesday, October 7 at the Bone Student Center, 7 p.m.. Prior to that talk, there will be a conference on "Propaganda Wars: Manufacturing Consent and Creating Dissent" with Robert McChesney and others. Opportunities to Participate New opportunities The following opportunities were discussed at our July meeting: BNCPJ would like to become active in persuading our City Councils to opt out of the Patriot Act. An organizing committee will be needed to research how other communities across the country have succeeded in this effort. Interested members, please step forward! Join the effort to oppose nuclear power. A no-nukes group has resurfaced in our area, and BNCPJ members in the process of learning more about that group. Help get out the vote for the upcoming elections. Discussion has begun about how best to channel our energy into productive vote-getting in our community. Our inclination now is to partner with organizations who are experienced in "get out the vote" activities, such as the League of Women Voters. We are also interested in finding out how to cooperate with other progressive groups, such as the folks who are getting ready for the Iowa Caucus. If you are interested, please bring ideas to the next meeting. John Wilson is looking for people to help co-sponsor to fund the Chomsky event and related conference. Ongoing opportunities: The following bullets appeared in last month's minutes, but they are still relevant: Get the BNCPJ word out! We keep learning from people that they're only just hearing about us for the first time. Please keep a steady supply of BNCPJ brochures on hand and pass them along to people whom you think would be interested in our efforts. Also, invite people to join you for our monthly meetings and other activities. Contact Jan Cox for brochures. We need help getting BNCPJ activities announcements into Community Calendars and announcements from local media. Is there someone out there who would be willing to make the monthly contacts to get our message out? Contact Julie Hile.