Minutes

MEETING MINUTES – February 18, 2012

1. Vice president Phil Houle opened the meeting with a moment of silence at 10:03 AM.

2. The group was informed that President Tim Keenan will be in Mexico until the month of March. Vice president Phil Houle will be filling in for him. The membership wishes president Keenan a peaceful and rejuvenating winter, free of drug cartels, gun smugglers, and bad rum, and bid him a speedy and safe return.

3. Phil reminded the group of our upcoming fundraiser event and urged members to collect items for the silent auction.

4. The next agenda meeting will be held on Monday, March 5, 2012 at noon. The location will be the Grand Traverse Pie Community.

5. The next organizational meeting will be Saturday, March 17, 2012 at 1030 hrs. in the basement of Horizon Books.

6. OPEN ISSUES

a. Bylaw report: There is no bylaw report. Tom Emmott was unavailable for this meeting.

b. Occupalooza: Phil Houle speaks tonight at this event and extends invitation to all members.

c. Participation in the Alpenfest parade will be revisited in June.

d. The International Day Of Peace Committee met on February 17, 2012. Chairman Penny Concannon reported active participation by all members. There was a diversity of ideas such as: petitioning the city commission to designate September 21, as a dedicated day of peace; plant a "Peace Pole"; revisit the issue of declaring Traverse City a Peace City. Pete Moller asked each member to come up with their own definition of what peace is to share with the group. Phil Houle stated that Penny's enthusiasm and passion is rubbing off on all committee members.

e. John Lewis spoke to the owner of the Grand Traverse Pie Community concerning grant criteria. Profit grants for the first year are earmarked for child advocacy purposes. Grants for other causes will be addressed in the future.

f. Military recruitment in local high schools - A report by Tom Emmott was given by Lydia Hatton. Members met with TCAPS Superintendent Cousins. He stated that he does not support recruiting high school teens into the military however, he is hamstrung by federal guidelines that put funding in jeopardy if he does not allow recruiters to the school. He suggested that V F P put together an articulate presentation for their HR department so that we may also gain access to students. A proposal is needed and this issue will be carried forward to the next meeting.

g. Dave Lannen – War On Drugs. Last meeting, Dave announced that the National Office requested the various chapters send in worthy issues to adopt. Dave pointed out that the War On Drugs is the nation's deadliest war and has been a total failure. Dave volunteered to draft a position paper and presented that draft to the group. Dave made a motion for a vote of approval which was seconded by John Iler. John emphasized that he is personally opposed to the use and distribution of addictive and mind altering drugs however he feels that our nation's approach is wrong. Bill Hoff agreed and shared his reasons from the perspective of a retired law enforcement officer. Mandatory prison sentences for possession and other drug-related offenses contributes to high prison populations with their subsequence costs and abuse of confiscation authority sometimes envelops the innocent. For these and other reasons Bill felt that this approach has been a failure in terms of money spent and results achieved. Dave noted that today we face a lot of the same problems that were associated with prohibition in the 1930s. He also noted that some of these drugs were legal up until the 1930s but did not know why their classifications were changed. Rob Burnett gave the group some background on Harry Anslinger former head of the Bureau of Narcotics who waged a campaign against reefer madness and the perils of marijuana in order to have it made illegal and give his federal agents something to do after prohibition was repealed. A vote was taken and approved by the membership and the position paper will be forwarded to the national office. Dave said he purposely wrote the paper to be nonspecific to have it serve as an opening for dialogue. Arno vonWalthausen stated that he thought it was a step in the right direction.

h. Jim Kulczyk will research the possibility of placing a gold star or some other symbol on the bio of the soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan that were from Northwestern Michigan when the chapter next displays its Memorial. This is to aid friends and relatives from the area in finding their loved ones easier.

i. Dave Lannen has agreed to continue as Webmaster for another year.

7. New Business

a. Committee reports

1. Treasurer – Lydia Hatton reports that the chapter has $1280 in the checking account and $3828 in the scholarship account.

2. Librarian – Tom Slater informed the group of the acquisition of a new DVD titled, “Read Road”, a story of healing. NMC pamphlet, "Normalization of Surveillance" is also available.

3. Scholarship – Bill Hoff reports that John Ort has declined the chairmanship of the committee. He also notified members that we have three applications for our scholarship for next semester. They should be available in our PO Box however president Keenan has absconded with the keys to Mexico and is dutifully making other arrangements for mail pickup. Phil will arrange interviews for the candidates and asked if anyone was willing to participate in the interview process. Jim Kulczyk volunteered and will join Rob Burnett and Bill.

4. Fundraising – Penny Concannon has been in communication with representatives of the Dennos Museum. They are hosting an exhibition by photographer Benjamin Busch and would be interested in the chapter piggybacking a fundraising event to the exhibit. Penny will continue to work on this venue as it seems a good match and may attract a crowd more willing to contribute to a cause such as ours. Phil Houle suggested that members think of a name for our fundraising fête. We will dust off our thinking caps.

5. Public relations – there is nothing to report from the public relations committee.

8. General Comments

a. Dave Lannen reminded the group that all 18-year-old males must still register for the draft with rather severe penalties for not doing so. He thought another issue to bring before the National Office would be ending Selective Service registration. Jim Kulczyk shared some information gleaned from 10 years experience in the Selective Service System as chairman of the local draft board in Gratiot County, Michigan. The membership was in agreement and Dave volunteered to draft another position paper on ending registration.

9. The meeting was adjourned at 1157 hrs.

1200 hrs. Members Participated in the Monthly Silent March for Peace.

Respectfully Submitted,

Jim Kulczyk

Recording Sec.