Chippewa Valley Civil Liberties Union                                                

Board Meeting Minutes for March 21, 2010

David Rice office, Eau Claire

Present: Shu Cheng, Ann Heywood, Nicholas Passell, Dan Perkins, David Rice, Stephanie Turner.

Absent:  Myron Buchholz, Mildred Larson, Eleanor Wolf.       

David called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m.

The minutes were accepted as previously emailed.

Nick distributed the treasurer’s report with a balance of $955.67 at RCU.  The recent deposit was earned from three membership rebates.  Our current balance is the highest we have had in memory.

Ann reported that she has gone through the old CVCLU records received from John Hibbard as well as records in her CVCLU box of records.  She has compiled, as far as possible a list of previous board members and a list of programs the CVCLU has sponsored going back to around 1969.  (First bylaws were adopted in 1967.)  She has recently talked to Sylvia and Mort Sipress about looking for the very earliest papers since Sylvia was the first president.  Board members present requested a copy of those two lists, so Ann will send them out to all.  When recording and compiling work is finished, Ann will deliver minutes, newsletters, programs, and board of director lists to the UW-EC archivist, Colleen McFarland, and they will be kept at the university library.

Ann reported that she will not be able to attend the state board meeting on March 27.  David may be able to go this meeting.

We have no update on the Zunker Memorial case since there is no ruling yet from the Supreme Court in Salazar v. Buono.

Stephanie reported on ACLU activity at the university.  She has met with Collin Hawkins, former leader of the Student Alliance following contact Hawkins made with Mildred when the SA received a janitorial bill for distributing flyers on tables at the university.  The Student Senate has objected to the billing policy and administration has not yet changed policy.  The Student Alliance is currently officially inactive.  But Stephanie plans to work with Hawkins to pass on the SA to younger students next year; she is willing to be adviser. 

Myron reported to David that Pam Gardow and Kaia Simon-Power have agreed to do a NWEA presentation on censorship October 10 or 11.  Shu pointed out that we are hoping to have a couple more panel members from other school districts to widen the appeal and perspective.  David will ask Myron whether Pam and Kaia have made any more specific plans and how they and we will proceed to develop the program.  A specific proposal is due to NWEA in May.  David will follow up with Myron and appoint a coordinator as necessary.

David called for ideas for our annual meeting.  Since this is an election year, we may want to do something related to an election issue such as health care access, abortion, campaign financing, etc., but it is still too early to see where these issues will be in the fall, and too early to set a date or find speakers.

New agenda item:  goals for this year.  We discussed five activities.  First we want to continue having a fall fundraiser/dinner.  Second, we will continue efforts to recruit new members.  Third, we will foster the revival of the university Student Alliance.  Fourth, we will update our membership information, trying to get phone numbers and email addresses.  Dan suggested that with phone numbers, we could call members to get email addresses and also to ask, especially our members in Dunn and Chippewa Counties, about their interest in working on the Board of Directors.  Ann reported that currently we have an email list with perhaps only about a fourth of our members, and while that is better than nothing, it would be good to have a more complete list for times when we want to quickly contact our members.  Ann will ask state about getting a more complete membership list.  Fifth, we will participate in a Banned Books Week effort.  If a book reading happens, we may suggest a theme, such as children’s books.  We may want a speaker on historical trends in book challenges.  Ann suggested a good addition for book readings would be a short explanation about what was the original objection to the book selected by the reader.  David will contact Bess Arneson at the library about this year’s plans for the celebration and how we might contribute to its success. Stephanie and Ann volunteered to be involved as necessary.

The next meeting we set for 6:30 p.m., May 16 at David’s office.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m.

To Do:

All members:

Review minutes and report suggestions or approval to Ann.

David:

Facilitate development of the NWEA plan and ensure a suitable proposal is submitted in May.

Contact Bess Arneson at the library about plans for Banned Books Week.

Ann:

Email lists of the past CVCLU boards of directors and past CVCLU programs.

Obtain from state the most complete membership list we can get.

Stephanie:

Meet with Collin Hawkins to facilitate the activity of the ACLU Student Alliance next year under new leadership.

Respectfully submitted,

Ann Heywood, secretary