Board Meeting, Minutes - November 18th, 2012

Chippewa Valley Civil Liberties Union

Board Meeting Minutes for November 18, 2012

Herrick and Hart Law Office, Grand Ave., Eau Claire

Present: Sara Adams, Myron Buchholz, Ann Heywood, Chris Jorgenson, Anna Lane, Mildred Larson, David Rice, Stephanie Turner (presiding), Nicholas Passell

Absent: Shu Cheng, Collin Hawkins, Alida Markgraf, Paul Wagner, Beverly Wickstrom

1. New members Anna, Chris, and Sara were introduced and welcomed to the board.

2. Stephanie called the meeting to order at 6:40 p.m.

3. Minutes of the annual meeting, September 20, 2012, were approved as emailed. Minutes will be posted at www.cvclu.org.

4. David distributed a detailed Treasurer’s Report, including income during September and October of $924 and expenses of $743.45. The current balance in checking is $1177.04 and $5.01 in savings.

Receipts for 25 dinners at Houligans and donations were $924; expenses were 517.70; net was 406.30. Other expenses covered were newsletter printing and postage, and hotel for annual meeting speaker Chris Soghoian. Receipts in this time period also cover three new member rebates from state.

Mildred moved (Ann seconded) acceptance of the report.

5. Stephanie reported on some of the details connected with Chris Soghoian’s visit for the annual meeting. She did a lot of work writing grants and getting involvement from university staff. The grants made it possible to pay Soghoian $1500. At the university he was able to make several welcome suggestions to improve student online security. He met with about five professors to discuss security aspects in their respective fields.

Steph apologized for not making sure the speaking venue was better prepared (since we found the room in Fine Arts needed last minute adaptations in order for Soghoian to present on September 20). Mildred suggested next time we use a university venue that we pay for technical staff to set up and be present in case of unexpected problems. She also asked that we have more time to do a better job of advertising in the community. As it was, Ann estimated we had about 70 people in the audience.

Mildred reported that Paul Wagner used details from the Soghoian presentation in his own presentation on cyber security at a class of the Chippewa Valley Learning in Retirement. Paul referenced Soghoian and the ACLU.

6. Ann reported that the social media workshop at her house with Stacy Harbaugh the day before the annual meeting had only three board members attending—Ann, Mildred, and Paul Wagner. Stacy answered many questions and covered many details about Facebook, Twitter, emailing, and the all new ACLU-WI website. Ann will follow up with Stacy about connecting our website to state’s.

7. Ann reported on the recent screening and following discussion of “Out in the Silence” at the Eau Claire library, which was led by Laura Goetz, state staff from PFLAG. After the meeting, she told Laura that we (CVCLU) had advertised this meeting on our email list and that we would be happy to do so for future events. Laura emailed her appreciation for the offer and for the postings by Ann and Paul Wagner on our Facebook page following the event. Ann noted that the discussion revealed support groups for LGBT people seem to have fallen off in the last 10-15 years. There apparently is no Gay-Straight Alliance at our public high schools. PFLAG has dissolved. The Christ Church Cathedral meeting room no longer is rented. Eau Claire does have the Aids Resource Center Wisconsin (ARC-W). Chris Jorgenson then explained his work as staff for the Women’s and LGBT Resource Center at UW-EC. He has many activities going and feels ideally the two functions (women’s and LGBT) should be separately funded and staffed. Chris will email to the board information about events he is planning. He will meet with ARC-W to talk about Q2 efforts in the area.

Anna Lane volunteered to begin work organizing a Gay Straight Alliance at Memorial High School.

8. Sara brought us up to date on her efforts to have the City Council adopt an ordinance limiting the use of drones in Eau Claire. She said she has had a lawyer review the draft ordinance. The lawyer was eager to have a model ordinance that other cities might follow. Sara explained the civil liberties protections that are built into the ordinance. She feels that current council members need nudging to have a hearing and pass an ordinance. The board agreed to help by sending an individual email to each council member before the end of November. Sara will help us by sending out informational points to use as well as the ordinance draft. We will individualize our emails to the council members.

9. The board discussed several local incidents that seem to show racial profiling. The first involved a woman stopped in a traffic incident and asked if she was using peyote. She passed the onsite breathalyzer test as well as a blood test taken after her handcuffed arrest and detention at the jail. The woman is well known by several board members who are confident her behavior did not warrant the suspicious police response. She expects the charges to be dropped next week. Stephanie will talk further with this woman. The board agreed that several representatives from the CVCLU should talk to the police chief to register our concern.

A second incident occurred at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers on Golf Road. Allegedly, a Muslim family was asked to leave the restaurant after a white customer complained of excessive noise. Mildred will get more information about the situation, and we (CVCLU) will meet with Red Robin management if the situation warrants.

A third incident involved DNA collection. Stephanie received a call from a young man who wanted to know how to expunge his DNA from the state’s collection of DNA samples taken during police investigations. The young man reported that he was asked by Eau Claire police to contribute a DNA sample in their investigation of a string of automobile break-ins on the street where he lived. His car had been among those broken into. After complying with the police and submitting the sample, the young man had second thoughts and contacted the CVCLU to find out whether he could have that sample removed. Apparently he was concerned about privacy issues and being asked to provide evidence for a crime in which he was a victim, not the perpetrator. Stephanie was able to provide him with the information he needed to initiate this request.

10. Mildred proposed that we have a procedure in place to handle incidents that come up between board meetings when necessary. The four board officers will serve as a quasi-executive committee if necessary. Ann suggested that the whole board should be notified of such meetings and involved if they have special knowledge or concerns about the case.

11. Election of the 2013 officers was postponed to the January meeting since the item was not on the agenda.

12. Stephanie proposed a more social style meeting for January. We agreed to have a potluck, like last year’s, at the UUC. David will make arrangements for January 20 or 27 at 6 p.m. (The 27^thwas scheduled.)

13. The meeting adjourned about 8:20 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Ann Heywood

To do:

All board members: Contact all the City Council members by the end of November about holding a hearing and vote on the proposed drone ordinance.

Sara: Email to board information about the drone ordinance.

Steph: Discuss the alleged racial profiling incident with the woman involved and recommend suitable follow-up.

Chris: Report to board on activities planned at the Women’s and LGBT Resource Center. Meet with ARC-W about Q2.

Anna: Work to establish a Gay-Straight Alliance at Memorial High School.

Mildred: Get more information about the incident at Red Robin and advise about our follow-up.

Ann: Discuss with Stacy Harbaugh how our website should be updated and connected to the ACLU-WI website.