Coordinating Committee Notes
April 1st, 2003
Elizabeth Hansen, Terry Rumsey, Robin Lasersohn, Marj Fulmer, Sue Edwards

Fundraising
Terry is working on a grant for up to $10,000 from the Allen Hillis fund. The money is being given for Peace in Iraq proposals. The Peace Development fund accepted our first round Peace on the Streets application. We raised $445 at the Interfaith Forum on Iraq which will offset its cost.

Working Groups
Political and Legislative Action
The Walk for Peace and Democracy across Weldon’s district will take place from Friday, May 30th to Saturday, May 31st. It will be a 21-mile walk that stops for an overnight a church (which church is yet to be determined). The Chester County Peace Movement has endorsed the walk. We are looking to recruit high school students to participate from Strath Haven, Springfield, and Upper Darby high schools. Medea Benjamin from Global Exchange may be a keynote speaker. We are hoping for 25 walkers and 200 people at the rally.
Marj will talk with the WILPF folks about getting involved en route during the walk.
The working group will use the petition to stop the war from AFSC and Peace Action.

Community Education
In all, the Interfaith Forum on Iraq was a good event. It attracted about 125 people and formed a new connection with the Main Line Unitarian Church.
The next event will probably involve bringing Bob Edgar to the area in the fall. There will be plenty of time to do more outreach to local pastors.
Pat Hardy is stepping down as the chair of this working group. We would like to replace her with Amy Dwyer.

Peace in the Streets Peace on Earth Coalition
April 9th is the lobbying day for Chester citizens.
Planning is still underway for the Sunday, May 17th tribute to the victims of violence in Chester. The focus has widened from young victims to everyone who is touched by street violence. In the long term, the coalition is encouraging some Chester residents to train as AVP trainers and bring the workshop into their communities.

We agreed to put most of our organizational energy into planning the Walk for Peace in May.

Discussion: How does the war change our organizing strategy? What are the opportunities and challenges?

We need to get beyond just being visible, which is what we have been doing and what we are good at. We need to focus more on electoral politics and resistance. We also need to cultivate ways of remaining confident and focused, trying not to get overwhelmed, and to help our members do the same. We need to build and mobilize our base.

Organizational Issues
The list of Iraq forum participants needs to be put into the database. Most of the entries are missing phone numbers.

We want to send a copy of Halliday’s speech to the entire list. Marj will post it on the website.

We will pay for extra space for our website so we can put up more digital photos.

Marj will replace Elizabeth as the DCWPJ intern staff person in June. She will be paid $250 per month.

The treasurer position will rotate to Terry.

We will look for new CC members. Elizabeth Lutz and Marshall Muhammad are possibilities.

We will table a discussion about the retreat until next month.

Elizabeth and Terry will talk about collecting our records into a binder and on the web.

We will not send a bus to the April 12 ANSWER rally.

The Bread and Roses tribute photo will be taken before the general meeting on Friday, April 4th at 6:45pm. Terry will call them about the tickets.

At the next meeting we will discuss how the war changes our organizing. We will possibly do a candle-lighting activity, and maybe sing a song.

A few of us will meet with PRAWN members outside of the PRAWN meeting to discuss a structure and steering proposal for the network.