Board Meeting, Minutes - January 17th, 2010
Chippewa Valley Civil Liberties Union
Board Meeting Minutes for Jan. 17, 2010
David Rice office, Eau Claire
Present: Myron Buchholz, Shu Cheng, Ann Heywood, Nicholas Passell, David Rice, Stephanie Turner, Eleanor Wolf.
Absent: Mildred Larson, Dan Perkins.
David called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
The minutes were accepted as previously emailed.
Nick distributed the treasurer’s report with a balance of $865.67 at RCU. Angie (state staff) has indicated that we will be receiving another $90 rebate check for membership recruitment. Rebates of $330 have been deposited since our 11/15/09 meeting. Our annual meeting dinner and donations grossed $600 and the dinner cost was $275.66.
Eleanor reminded us of the contact information she emailed earlier about the leader of the UW-EC ACLU Student Alliance, Sarah Adams. Stephanie will check into the status of the alliance at the university. Ann will notify Sarah about our desire to keep contact with the group.
Eleanor and Stephanie reported on their appearance at the January 7 meeting of the Chippewa County Building and Grounds Committee concerning the Zunker Memorial on the courthouse grounds. Mildred Larson also attended the meeting. Four members of the Committee were present. The three were asked if they were attorneys and whether they had a copy of the policy in hand. Mildred had asked for a copy in advance, but had not received one. They were asked if they were from Chippewa County. Eleanor was asked what she wanted; her response was “Take the offensive language off the memorial.” The Committee said that they are waiting for the Supreme Court ruling on a related case (Salazar v. Buono) to clarify the law. Eleanor infers from the discussion that the original intent of the memorial was to have one to which names could be added in the future. No one else at the meeting addressed the memorial issue. Eleanor will contact Americans United for the Separation of Church and State about the developments. Ann reported much interest in the case at the last state board meeting, and that state board member James Hall is a member of the board of the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. The CVCLU board noted approval of the letter Mildred Larson wrote on our behalf to the Building and Grounds Committee, which included information about our local membership numbers and about the high improbability of a diversity of religious messages to emerge on the courthouse grounds in the future. The Leader Telegramreported about the committee meeting in the January 8 edition in the City/Region section, page 1.
Ann reported that Glen Eastman has not pursued work on the CVCLU history. She talked to him after the last board meeting, but his purpose and ours seem not so perfectly suited. She has heard from the university archivist who seems to be interested in receiving the records.
Myron reported on the in-school holiday concert at Memorial High School. He estimated a 50-50 split of religious and secular music, including some in foreign language. The program seemed possibly less, not more, Christian in content than in years past.
Shu reported that her concerns about outsider proselytizing in the university dorms continue. Shu’s supervisor at the university has called the woman involved to prevent this, but she seems to have access to the dorms and has entered to invite students to outside events.
We discussed the job descriptions for the CVCLU board. The president may serve as the state representative or designate another board member to do that job. Ann could involve a service learning student in regular updating of the website. We discussed archiving CVCLU material. Shu volunteered to be the one to collect newspaper clippings, save copies of letters, and arrange for photos of our local events. Other board members should be alert to items for collecting too. Ann has a box of minutes, newsletters, programs, and other miscellaneous materials collected over the last two decades or so. That box should be updated and passed on when a different board member takes on secretarial duties. David also keeps records to pass on at the appropriate time.
We discussed arranging a program for the NWEA Convention. Myron will contact Kaia Simon Power and Pam Gardow about doing a presentation on censorship (as they had agreed last year when it was too late to schedule for 2009). Other presenters might include a teacher from another school district and a representative from ACLU-WI staff.
The next meeting is set for March 21, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at David’s office.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
To Do:
All members:
Review minutes and report suggestions or approval to Ann.
Ann:
Notify Sarah Adams of our interest in continuing contact with the UWEC student alliance.
Stephanie:
Find out about the UWEC ACLU Student Alliance—whether it is a registered student organization and who the adviser is.
Eleanor:
Contact the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State about the Zunker memorial.
Shu:
Begin archiving CVCLU materials.
Respectfully submitted,
Ann Heywood, secretary