Board Meeting, Minutes - January 8th, 2017

MINUTES

Meeting of the CVCLU Board

Residence of Mildred Larson

January 8, 2017

Present: Ann Heywood (chair), Lyndsey Brandrup, Myron Buchholz, Mildred Larson, Anna Leffel, Teresa O’Halloran, David Shih, Paul Wagner, John Wiltrout (guest), Mildred Wiltrout (guest)

1. Chair Heywood called the meeting to order at 6:35 pm.

2. The minutes of the CVCLU Board meeting of December 4, 2016 were approved.

3. Treasurer Buchholz reported a balance of $807.08.

• Paul Wagner made a motion, seconded by another Board member, to allocate $75 for a Senior American Day booth for the CVCLU. Because the deadline for registration is January 13, Paul will pay for the registration himself and will be reimbursed from the CVCLU treasury. The event will be held on June 6. Mildred offered to assist that day. The motion carried.

• The Board requested that the Treasurer’s Report be amended to reflect that the $100 donation from John Wiltrout was not intended for the Dr. Taman memorial and was intended as a donation to the CVCLU in general.

• The Board asked Treasurer Buchholz for clarification on the origin of the first of two $150 donations for the Dr. Taman memorial. Myron said that he will follow up with David Rice.

4. The Board discussed member progress on finding a new Board member or members.

• Anna Leffel reported that a North High School student may be interested. She will get the student’s phone number and forward it to Ann Heywood.

• Teresa O’Halloran mentioned two possible candidates. She will follow up.

• John Wiltrout suggested a candidate.

• Myron Buchholz reported that he is still seeking to recruit a member.

• Ann Heywood said that if the Board adds another student member, she would like to have an additional (non-student) member. She requested that recruitment be settled by the next Board meeting.

5. Ann Heywood reported that she has received the CVCLU stationery. Paul Wagner said that he would work on the brochure this month.

6. Ann Heywood reported that there is no space on the state ACLU website to indicate CVCLU membership when signing up for membership. She requested that if Board members know of local people signing up for ACLU membership, they should inform her so that she can follow up personally with state ACLU. She reported that there were no ACLU rebates for the CVCLU this year.

7. Ann Heywood reported that there is no app from state ACLU for filming police. David Shih said that the app is called “Mobile Justice” and that the ACLU of Minnesota has an app.

8. Lindsey Brandrup reported on her successful effort to get the Eau Claire Area School District to change its sick leave policy to allow women on maternity leave to access their sick leave bank. After a year-long process, she was awarded 19 sick leave days. The ECASD will now review requests on a case-by-case basis rather than follow a blanket no extended sick leave policy for women on maternity leave. Lindsey will write a blog on this experience for the ACLU’s National Women’s Rights Project. She said that Conner Ahearn from ACLU national contacted ECASD after seeing a post about her experience on Reddit.

9. The Board discussed the City of Eau Claire’s Camera Policy. It decided not to take any action because the policy did not appear to violate any civil liberties.

10. The Board discussed the letter Ann Heywood sent to the Menomonie Police Department regarding the investigation of Hussain Saeed Alnahdi’s murder. John Wiltrout provided the initial draft of the letter. Ann Heywood was then contacted by “Linda” at the Menomonie PD who said that the investigation has been move to the D.A.’s office. Linda said that she will call again when they get more info from the D.A. Ann Heywood also emailed the letter to CVCLU Board members.

11. Ann Heywood distributed more Know Your Rights cards to the Board.

12. Ann Heywood updated the Board on the report from the State Board. She said that the state ACLU reported a disappointingly small return on the recent state Board elections.

13. The Board discussed how to recruit more members to the CVCLU and the need for a membership recruitment committee.

• John Wiltrout said that the best way to recruit is to interact with prospective members personally.

• The Board discussed different venues for placing an ad for the CVCLU following the March on Washington. Venues included the Leader-Telegram, Volume One, and Queen of the Castle.

• It was moved and seconded that the Board create a membership recruitment committee whose goals are to seek and welcome new members and to retain current members. John Wiltrout, Ann Heywood, and Myron Buchholz volunteered to serve on the committee.

• Lyndsey Brandrup suggested a social event for the CVCLU. Ann Heywood suggested that the Lazy Monk offers a private room with the condition that guests purchase $80 in beer in aggregate.

• Ann Heywood will write an email to state ACLU to distribute to chapter members regarding recruitment and activity. This message will also include a request to join the CVCLU Facebook group.

14. In light of how the membership recruitment committee might affect activism, Mildred Larson temporarily withdrew her motion for the creation of an activism committee.

15. Mildred Larson reported that Emilio DeTorre is willing to help the CVCLU with legal observer training. John Wiltrout said that the new membership recruitment committee should promote this training. Teresa O’Halloran asked where and when legal observers would be needed, and Ann Heywood responded that they are used mainly during protests and demonstrations.

16. CVCLU Facebook presence was already discussed.

17. David Shih reported that his talk on affirmative action to the Madison Common Council went well. He said that Mayor Paul Soglin was in attendance along with the city’s department heads. He said that the event was recorded on video but was not posted to the Common Council website.

18. Ann Heywood asked that the Board respond to a motion made at the CVCLU annual meeting to investigate the recent racial profiling incident of a faculty member at UW-Eau Claire. Teresa O’Halloran reported that there was a recent article in the campus newspaper The Spectator on racial profiling and the campus police. Ann Heywood asked David Shih and Teresa O’Halloran whether they would follow up on this motion. Teresa declined because of conflict of interest. David and the Board decided that it will begin to respond to the motion by reading the article and deciding whether it adequately responds to the motion.

19. The next meeting of the CVCLU is February 12, 2017 in the Little Niagara room in the Davies Center at UW-Eau Claire.

20. The meeting adjourned at 8:36 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

David Shih, Secretary