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Meeting 3/24/02
Agenda: > Fundraiser > Take Back the Night/Pride Parade/Earth Day > Taco Bell/Aramark "Boot the Bell" > Radical Cheerleading > _________________________________________________________ > This meeting was attended by Robin, Michelle and Steve. > > Fundraising > > We discussed possible means of raising money for WAC. Ideas we had included: > 1.Bake sales on campus :Robin mentioned this has always been easy money for > WAC and stated we could most likely set up a table for 1 week and make about > $50 a day selling cookies, pastries, ect) > > 2.Making patches, t-shirts, reusable pads and selling them at Earth Day: I > reminded everyone we can get a free booth as a political organization. I > noticed last year how radical/political/sloganistic shirts were big sellers > at the event.We could easily thrift shirts and screen them at our sewing > circle, sell em for a couple bucks. Offered to donate my own ink, and design > the screens. > > 3.Jewelry: also selling at Earth day. Robin is the expert here. > > 4.WAC Zines @ Earth day. > > 5. Website: Michelle wanted to ask Terry to set up a Paypal account with the > WAC account so we could have a donation option on our webpage. > > Michelle also brought up the Pride Parade as a possible WAC booth/radical > cheerleading float. > > > Take Back the Night/Pride Parade/Earth Day > > Take back the Night is this Friday, April 5th @ Memphis Sexualt Assalut > Resource Center. We thought it would be awesome to do some cheers to pep up > the runners and crowd. > > Pride Parade is this summer. Michelle is registering us as participants. > Queer cheers, and wac-tivism! > > Earth Day is the weekend of April 22nd at the Shell in Overton park. We need > to discuss who can work the table what days. See above for what we plan to > offer at table. > > Taco Bell/Aramark "Boot the Bell" > > Steve brought up the "Boot the Bell" campaign which puts pressure on Taco > Bell distributors to stop ordering from them. He was going to set up at > meeting with Aramark,the U of M's food distro, to discuss the Immokalee > farmworker situation.He plans to send out an email when he knows more. > > Radical Cheerleading > > We want to meet regularly and plan out the next few months in actions. Any > radical cheerleaders interested in joining the national list serve can do so > thru our website, http://radicalcheeres.org. >
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Meeting 2/24/02
At the meeting last Sunday on Feb. 24, Robin, Michelle, April, Andrea, and Terry met. The last Radical Cheerleading practice didn't happen so a new date and time was worked out. That will be tonight, Thursday, February 28. For details of when and where, contact Robin and Michelle . It turns out we will be doing only one cheer for VDay, and we want it to be the one we choose. Michelle volunteered to call Darian with several questions and to get some material to pass out this Friday morning, March 1, at the University of Memphis at our safe sex action, but Darian has not returned Michelle's calls. Robin has already got a box of condoms for the safe sex action. If you want to help us pass out condoms and information about safe sex, meet us in front of the Univ. of Memphis Student Center at 9:30 AM. Michelle brought in the finished Zine and it looks GREAT!! Andrea will get it copied so we should have it in our hands soon, and be able to have it on the our information table for VDay. We also discussed our action in April against phony so-called "crisis pregnancy centers." Terry reported that she was gathering ideas for the skit. There is a web site with the names of women who've died because they can't get, or afford, legal abortions. If anyone knows the URL for that site, please send it to tmoon@igc.org We also talked of using hangers in part of the skit. Andrea reported that she, Shawna, and others put up Stop Rape signs and did some spray painting in the Nutbush neighborhood where a high number of rapes have happened in the last few weeks. We then hammered out what our next meeting would be and Robin suggested we combine it with the News & Letters International Women's Day meeting and have it on the evening of March 10 after most of the VDay activities are over. A draft of the flyer for that meeting is attached, and for those who can't open attachments, the text follows this message. This meeting will be a celebration! So bring some food to share, etc. We also had a good time talking about future meetings. Some ideas: Politics of sex work Sexism in the movement Sewing circle--we would teach each other quilting, knitting, crocheting, etc. Violence Against Women Radical Menstruation/Radical Menopause And we also talked about having a give-away-party where people bring stuff they no longer want and we trade it around with each other. As usual, we need more women to come to the meetings and to help WAC thrive. Hope to see you on March 10. |
Sunday April 8, 2001
Moderator and notes-transcribing Goddess: Cassie
Sunday's meeting of the Women's Action Coalition began with discussion on a possible protest. Memphis is hoping to build a new coliseum for the incoming NBA team. University of Memphis Sociology professor Rose Peratori shared some statistics on poverty in Memphis and expressed concerns that the proposed 250 million dollar budget for the arena could be used to fight the problem of poverty. All attending members agreed that WAC would sponsor and participate in a protest against the arena. April agreed to check into the necessary paper work. An organizational meeting for the protest is scheduled for 4-10-01 at 2:20pm in room 137 of Clement Hall on the U of M campus.
We then discussed the FTAA protest in Quebec and possible solidarity actions. It was decided that this would be addressed at a later date.
Michelle volunteered to research our possible participation in Pride events in the month of January. Partnership with the U of M organization BGAYLA was discussed. This topic will also remain on the agenda for the next meeting.
A speaker from a local clinic will be speaking on 4-29-01 at 7:00pm at Prescott Baptist. We discussed questions we might want to ask and agreed that a pamphlet should be constructed for distribution at the phony abortion clinics in the area.
A zine construction meeting is scheduled for 4-22-01. Everyone is encouraged to contribute art, poetry, facts, or anything related to women.
Robin expressed interest in organizing a session for dialogue about sex. This would be an opportunity for people of all sexualities and gender identities to have open discussion about our sexual practices. This is still in the planning stages. A date and time will come in the future.
Plans for a Radical Summer Camp are in the works. A retreat for WAC members is being discussed. Everyone should be thinking of places they would like to go and ideas on financing the trip. Well, that sums it up. WAC will next meet on 4-22-01 at Prescott Baptist Church near the U of M campus.
-Mammacass
March 25, 2001.
ANNOUNCEMENTS -
*WEDNESDAYS - feminist study group meets at 7:00 pm at the decleyre
co-op
(787 ellsworth st.) contact cassy (458-9907) for the week's reading
which
will be "Defining Black Feminist Thought" by Patricia Hill Collins.
*APR. 1 - Public Issues Forum: "Do We Want Vouchers? Do We Want
Religion
Taught in the Public Schools? Bible in Public Schools and Faith-Based
Government???" at the Fogelman Business Center at the Univ. of Memphis,
corner of Patterson and Central Ave., at 4:00 pm.
*APR. 4 - ramona africa tentatively scheduled to speak at the decleyre
co-op (787 ellsworth st.). time tba
*APR. 5 - leslie feinberg (author of TRANSGENDER WARRIORS) will be
speaking somewhere on the u of m campus at 7:00 pm.
*APR. 7 - affairs of race in america forum at the rose theatre on the
u of
m campus at 10:00 am - speakers to include julia jefferson and shay
banks
(two descendents of thomas jefferson, one white, one black).
*APR. 22 - national NOW march for womyn's lives in washington, dc.
*AUG. 24-25 - promise keepers to meet in nashville. possible protest
by
wac? adele is going to find out if any groups in nashville are planning
to
protest.
AGENDA
*RADICAL CHEERLEADING -
ocean is going to talk to robin and email michelle about getting
anti-sanctions cheers. april is going to look for cheers on the
internet. we
are meeting monday, march 26 at 6:00 pm at ocean's and robin's apartment
and
saturday, march 31 at 6:00 pm at an unspecified location to practice
cheers
to be done at the anti-sanctions rally on april 7th.
*TAKE BACK THE NIGHT -
it has been about a week since terry mailed the letter to the sexual
assault center expressing concern about nike's sponsorship of take back
the
night, which occurs on april 6. casey is going to call the folks at the
sexual assault center to elicit a response to our letter. there was some
discussion as to whether we should protest/hand out literature at the
event.
we decided to wait until after we get a response.
*PLANS FOR NEXT MEETING -
the next meeting (april 8) will focus on the zine. everything for the
zine should be done and brought to the meeting. terry, adele, andrea,
and
cassy definitely have pieces or plans to write pieces. also, a draft of
an
anti-phony abortion clinic leaflet (contradicting the lies phony
abortion
clinics support) should be made and brought to this meeting.
*JAMIE FROM XXXX-
we thought jamie was going to come talk about the abortion clinic at
this
meeting, but she was out of town. we are going to try to get her to come
to
the meeting on april 22 instead. we will need to publicize this event.
*SELF-DEFENSE CLASSES -
we are still waiting for information from robin concerning the
self-defense classes to be taught by mark aiken.
i think that's it for this meeting. sorry if i have omitted something.
april
March 11,2001
as transcribed by Robin:
1. Michelle spoke about potentially having a future meeting about
abortion
rights, and everyone agreed that it was a good idea. She will ask Jamie(who is an expert on such matters) to help out, and
we'll try to make it for the next meeting. Andrea volunteered to find
out
about procuring a key for the TV so we can watch videos. Andrea also
told
about her undercover experience at one of the fake clinics in town.
Terry
talked about making pamphlets to pass out in front of their "clinic" so
women going in would know that it's not a real abortion clinic. Adele
showed
us a packet that she recently received from NARAL about exposing fake
clinics. We agreed to work on that. Ocean, and Robin will get some
pamphlets from the clinic protestors and Terry volunteered to help them
write a response that refutes all the supposed medical fact in their
pamphlet,
and then will give copies to all who volunteer to escort so that they
can
pass
them out to patients.
Speaking of--- we made a more clear schedule for escorting at the clinic. Robin told about her talks with Planned
Parenthood--that they don't need escorts, but do occasionally need
volunteers for other programs. We also discussed escorting at other clinics. From now on, the people at De Cleyre are
responsible
for Tuesdays, Jules is responsible for Wednesdays, and the Michelle,
Robin,
and Ocean house is in charge of Saturdays. If other people on this list
want
to
help, email Robin at suzukibeane@hotmail.com
2. We talked a bit about the future Omran Bus weekend in April. Radical
Cheerleaders will participate in performing. Michelle took
responsibility
for finding the anti-sanctions cheers from the IMF protest last year in
DC.
We also discussed WAC being over used by other groups' on-campus
activities (because we're the only official campus group in our
community),
and decided that WAC should not sponsor the somewhat scheduled on-campus
vigil action for Humanitarian Action Coalition. For more information
about the Omran Bus Weekend, email ceymooney@hotmail.com .
3. We talked about gathering a carpool for the upcoming third annual
(!!!)
Southern Girls Convention in Auburn, AL. Robin, Ocean, Michelle, and
April
are all definitely going- get in touch with one of them if you need a
ride!!!
4. April showed us the new WAC constitution that she worked so hard on.
It
has already been turned in at U of M. Yay for April!!!
5. April, Andrea, Ocean, and Robin all gave a rundown of their
experiences
at the safe sex action that was held last Thursday in honor of
International
Women's Day. They agreed that the event was overall a success, minus one
asshole's interrogation of and threats against Andrea.
6. Terry talked about the letter that she, Ocean, and Robin wrote to the
Sexual Assault Resource Center concerning their Take Back The Night 5K
Run
that's sponsored by Nike. The letter was written because Nike exploits
workers (especially female and child workers) in sweatshops in
developing
nations. No response has been received yet. We agree that if we still
haven't heard anything by the next meeting, we'll try to contact them
again
but may choose a more direct form of contact, like phoning them or
talking
to them in person.
7. Robin told about a listing she saw in the Memphis Flyer for National
Women's History Month- every week at Rhodes College a different women's
film
will be shown. This week it's "Nine To Five" on either Tuesday or
Wednesday
night. Michelle volunteered to make copies of WAC flyers, and Robin
volunteered to pass them out. We will also try to find some members of
the
Rhodes on-campus women's group and talk to them about working together
on
future actions.
8. Michelle brought up the subject of the website, and volunteered to
maintain it again. (sidebar- i just checked the URL and it either has
expired or i have the wrong URL. could anyone help me with that?)
9. We talked about the zine, which will be put together during the
meetings
in April. Andrea and Caledonia will write the introduction together.
There
is no specific topic planned. Anyone who wants to submit something can
get
in touch with any WAC member.
10. We talked about self defense classes- Michelle and Robin promised to
get
in touch with Mark Akin, who used to teach the class. We collected a
signup
sheet of people who are interested. Anyone who wants to find out more
about
these potential classes can get in touch with Robin at
suzukibeane@hotmail.com .
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