Board Meeting, Minutes - February 10th, 2013

Chippewa Valley Civil Liberties Union

Board Meeting Minutes for February 10, 2013

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

Present: Sara Adams, Myron Buchholz, Ann Heywood, Anna Lane, Mildred Larson, Alida Markgraf, David Rice, Stephanie Turner (presiding), Paul Wagner

Absent: Shu Cheng, Collin Hawkins, Chris Jorgenson, Nicholas Passell, Beverly Wickstrom

1. Stephanie called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. (The meeting had been rescheduled for this date because of inclement weather.)

2. David distributed the treasurer’s report. Our balance since the last report has increased with one

cent interest. Current checking is $1177.05 and savings $5.01. Motion to approve carried.

3. Ann noted that the November minutes are incomplete and asked for information in #9. Stephanie will email that information, and Ann will add to the minutes and distribute the corrected version. The minutes were accepted, pending the corrections.

4. We held election of officers. All current officers were re-elected to another one year term: Stephanie Turner, president; Myron Buchholz, vice-president; David Rice, treasurer; Ann Heywood, secretary.

5. Ann reported on her recent experience at Memorial High School. She was invited to be interviewed, along with representatives from other community non-profits, by sophomore English students preparing for persuasive speeches. Ten to fifteen students stopped by Ann’s table; nine signed up for action alerts; all admitted they knew nothing about the ACLU; several left the table quite enthusiastic and expressed some interest in forming an ACLU Student Alliance. Ann gave each visitor a sheet with basic information about the purpose of the ACLU, website addresses, and contact information.

Board members suggested Ann find out more about the state’s “youth and social justice workshops” and also the newly developed Students Bill of Rights, either of which might be helpful in organizing a high school group or useful to the new GSA.

6. Ann expanded on points recently emailed in her state board report from February 2.

7. A) With the adoption of a new Social Media Handbook and Volunteer Policy, it is important that we local volunteers remain mindful of not giving unauthorized comments to media that may misrepresent actual ACLU positions. When asked for comments, it is easy to check first with the ACLU Communications Director, Sarah Karon. The Social Media Handbook is a handy resource for how to reach out.

8. B) The ACLU-WI will begin using a very much expanded email contact list, and it should be much easier for us and state to advertise local events or encourage civil liberties action from our members.

9. C) We may want to invite an ACLU-WI developed “youth and civil liberties workshop” to come to Eau Claire.

10. D) Interest and action to pass an anti-drone ordinance in Madison is gaining steam.

11. E) The ACLU-WI encourages you to respond to national appeals to the Foundation rather than wait for state solicitations to the annual campaign.

12. F) Stacy Harbaugh has resigned as Communications Director. Sarah Karon is the new hire.

7. Alida reported on the successful startup of a Gay/Straight Alliance at Memorial. She and Anna advertised, found an advisor, and held the first meeting recently. About 30 students attended. Students discussed attending the upcoming Fireball at UW-EC together and probably having a Day of Silence.

8. The board brainstormed ideas for action in 2013.

Likely we will continue to table at the Free Food/Free Speech Day at UW-EC in the spring. Stephanie will consider ways to influence the organizers of the event into something more educational.

Mildred urged the board to try to develop at least one spring educational event as well as our fall program.

Mildred and Ann, with Paul’s technical help, will be making a presentation on the ACLU to the Chippewa Valley Learning in Retirement on April 15.

We may want to table again at the Gay Pride event. However, attendance has been low the last two years, and we wonder why it isn’t in the early summer when the national events are scheduled.

We explored the idea of holding one or more members-and-friends coffee/discussions. We could do a mailing to our members as well as send notice by email, ask for questions or pick some topics we think are important. Hold the event(s) at the library. Call it “ACLU: Let’s Talk.” A committee of Stephanie, Mildred, Sara, Myron, and Paul will meet to develop the plans before the next regular board meeting.

We will probably want to table again at Fighting Bobfest North in the fall.

We should always be mindful of our mission to increase membership and have membership envelopes at the ready. Ask prospective members to let you know if they intend to join online so we can notify state of our effort and capture the one-time rebate for our chapter.

8. Sara reported developments on the drone ordinance campaign. She said Katherine Emmanuel and Andrew Werthman reported that the City Council had received many contacts after our commitment to make them at the last board meeting. Currently only Councilman Werthman has agreed to sponsor the ordinance. Sara suggests that we now work on City Council candidates, especially at the candidate forum to be held March 7, 7:15 p.m. at CVTC. If several of us ask questions about drones, these candidates will have to notice local interest. There are five open seats and 11 candidates. Stephanie will write a letter to the candidates after the forum to show CVCLU support for a drone ordinance.

9. Old business: Members reported what has happened in regard to our “To do” list at the last meeting.

10. A) The alleged racial profiling driving incident was settled without our help and charges were dropped. The person did hire an attorney.

11. B) Anna and Alida have started a GSA at Memorial.

12. C) The incident at the Red Robin has been settled satisfactorily after our intervention. Mildred corresponded with the concerned contact and Stephanie spoke with the manager, Chris. He reported that the incident should not have happened, that it was handled inappropriately by the employee, that he has apologized to the family involved, and that the 70 member staff has had sensitivity training with guidance on how to handle any such incident in the future. The family concerned is satisfied with the results.

13. D) We have not heard from Chris Jorgenson yet about current activities at the Women’s and LGBT Resource Center or any meeting he might have had with ARC-W about Q2.

14. E) Ann reported that the state ACLU website does now have a link to our chapter’s website and that all of the logos on the site are up to date. Other information will be updated soon now that we have had our election of board leadership.

10. The next meeting was set for April 7, at 6:30 p.m. at David’s office.

11. The meeting adjourned at 7:20 p.m.